Tag Archives: Group: Becket Fund

Religion Clause Blog: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last week granted an application for direct appellate review of a trial court’s decision in Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, a case brought by an atheist-humanist family challenging the constitutionality of the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in Massachusetts school

Matt Bowman appeared on the Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio. An earlier report on the case appeared in National Review Online. | MP3 audio 10:26 mins

Jonathan Adler at National Review: During oral arguments in the Supreme Court challenge to the individual mandate, NFIB v. Sebelius, the plaintiff’s lawyer Paul Clement warned the justices not to make the same mistake they made in the 1970s with Buckley v. Valeo. In Buckley, the Court upheld portions of the post-Watergate campaign-finance reforms while invalidating others. The result was a muddled statute that Congress and the courts would repeatedly revisit for years to come. Repeating this approach with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Clement cautioned, could produce similar undesirable results. It’s too soon to know how quickly Congress will revisit the PPACA, but Clement’s warning already seems to be coming true in the courts.

LifeNews: The amicus brief was authored and filed Friday by attorneys of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which has worked closely with Catholic and other Christian colleges in defense of their constitutional rights. “Belmont Abbey is not alone. Every faithful Catholic college is already suffering the damage caused by this ruinous mandate, which demands that they violate their deeply held Catholic beliefs,” said Bob Laird, Director of Programs for The Cardinal Newman Society. “Additionally, Christian colleges, businesses, and other employers who fear the loss of their religious freedom are similarly affected by the mandate. This amicus brief represents a united front in opposition to the Obama administration’s outrageous violation of religious freedom.” Catholic colleges signing ADF the amicus brief are . . .

LifeNews: Today, East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) and Houston Baptist University (HBU) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, asking the court for relief from the Department of Health and Human Services’ “preventative services” mandate, which forces the Christian Universities to violate their deeply held religious beliefs or pay severe fines. “Baptists in America, by virtue of their history, are particularly sensitive to coercive government actions that infringe on religious liberty,” says Eric Rassbach, Deputy General Counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed suit this morning on behalf of the two universities.

Pottsmer.com: A federal judge has denied a civil rights group’s bid to join the government’s defense against a western Pennsylvania Christian college’s challenge to regulations requiring employers to offer birth control coverage

LifeSiteNews: The Obama administration is set to levy as much as a $1.3 million per day fine against a Christian retail business based on their religious objection to abortifacient drugs, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

LifeNews: The Diocese of Nashville and seven of the Catholic entities operating in Middle Tennessee have filed suit in Federal court to block the implementation of mandates by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

LifeNews: The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma and the business says it is opposing the Health and Human Services “preventive services” mandate, which it says forces the Christian-owned-and-operated business to provide, without co-pay, the “morning after pill” and “week after pill” in their health insurance plan, or face crippling fines up to 1.3 million dollars per day . . . Washington politicians cannot force families to abandon their faith just to earn a living,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is handling the lawsuit for Hobby Lobby.

Daily Herald: Wheaton College has appealed the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking an exemption from a health care reform mandate to provide coverage for emergency contraception. A federal judge last week dismissed the lawsuit, saying it was premature. College officials chose to appeal because they said the mandate infringes on the school’s religious liberty.

Alan Sears appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss various cases and issues including Newland v. Sebelius. | MP3 audio 7:12 mins

World Magazine audio segment. ADF mentioned.

LifeNews: “Every American should be free to live and do business according to their faith,” said Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “The government shouldn’t punish people of faith for following their beliefs when making decisions for themselves or their organizations. That’s why this lawsuit should not be casually dismissed as the Obama administration would like to see happen.” . . . “Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith. For the time being, Hercules Industries will be able to do just that,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman after the decision. Bowman added, “The cost of freedom for this family could be millions of dollars per year in fines that will cripple their business if the Obama administration ultimately has its way. This lawsuit seeks to ensure that Washington bureaucrats cannot force families to abandon their faith just to earn a living. Americans don’t want politicians and bureaucrats deciding what faith is, who the faithful are, and where and how that faith may be lived out.”

GoUpState.com: A petition for a federal court to reconsider an appeal regarding released time religious education in Spartanburg School District 7 was denied last week. Plaintiff-appellants, including two District 7 parents, a former District 7 student and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, must now decide if they will appeal the matter to the highest level — the U.S. Supreme Court.

National Review Online: Carrie Kolesar of Seneca Hardwood Lumber Co. in Cranberry, Pa., tells National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez in an interview. “No American should be faced with a decision like that,” she continues. Kolesar is a part owner of this family business established in 1961 . . . A few weeks after the mandate was finalized, I saw that Alliance Defending Freedom was taking a case for a private business and I contacted them for advice regarding our situation. The HHS mandate has put us in a situation where we can’t provide insurance for ourselves and our employees without violating our moral obligations and freedom of conscience. My parents, my siblings, and I believe that the public and our government need to be more aware of the problems caused when we don’t protect freedom of conscience.

Hugh Hewitt at the National Catholic Register: With the help of the superb lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), the Newlands sought relief from President Barack Obama’s mandate, citing both the protections of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the 1993 U.S. Constitution . . . The Newlands have shown the way and are to be thanked for their courage. Lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom or other groups like the Becket Fund (which is representing the Register’s parent company, EWTN) will evaluate any case that any private employer may want to press to free themselves from Obamacare’s imposition on their genuine religious beliefs.

Ruth Institute Blog: The law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, represent the Newland family, who were the victors in today’s court ruling. Twenty lawsuits against the HHS mandate remain, and we will continue to keep you up-to-date on their progress!

CBN (includes video): The Denver company is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund)

NC Register: However, that line of thinking threatens religious freedom by trying to separate the right to worship from the right to order one’s life according to one’s conscience and religious convictions, said Matt Bowman, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a coalition of Christian attorneys representing the Newland family. Alliance Defending Freedom was formerly called the Alliance Defense Fund.
“We think, under the law, the federal government is not allowed to force families to abandon their faith just to earn a living, that religious freedom in the First Amendment, as Congress has protected it, is not just for Sundays and soup kitchens. It’s for you to live your daily life, including in business, according to your faith,” Bowman told the Register. In Newland v. Sebelius . . .

Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review: “I think it’s a fairly pervasive attitude in our culture that people with religious convictions should really get along with the program, whatever the program is — in this case, the HHS mandate,” Ryken observes. He worries that the principle that “even if you disagree with a point of view it’s very important to defend the right of someone else to have that point of view” is “not as widely valued as it needs to be for us to have a flourishing democracy” in the United States today.

LifeNews: A federal judge has dismissed another lawsuit filed against the Obama HHS mandate that forces religious groups to pay for or refer women for abortion-causing drugs and birth control. This comes after another federal judge tossed another lawsuit earlier this week.

AP: A federal judge ordered a Tennessee county on Wednesday to move ahead with opening a Muslim congregation’s newly built mosque after a two-year fight from opponents.

Kyle Duncan of the Becket Fund at National Review: Today’s decision by a federal district court in Nebraska to dismiss one of the many pending lawsuits against the HHS abortion-drug, contraception and sterilization mandate is unfortunate (and in one respect, seriously mistaken). But the decision turns on technicalities and doesn’t decide the merits of the dispute.

AP: A federal judge on Wednesday will consider whether to force a Tennessee county to allow a Muslim congregation to begin worshipping in its newly built mosque . . .

Kevin J. Hassan at the Heritage Foundation: And then there’s the best reason, and that is: The nature of this fight is unlike any other fight in the history of the Western tradition. This is not hyperbole. The way that religious fights have played out over the centuries has been in terms of Christians against Muslims, Muslims against Christians, Catholics against Orthodox, Orthodox against Catholics, Protestants against Protestants, Protestants against Catholics. But never before have we had a situation where the fight is not between principled people fighting over their principles. The fight is now between people who believe in something and people who believe in precisely nothing. They are nihilists, and this is a threat that is simply unprecedented.

LifeNews: “The court’s opinion did not decide the issues in our cases,” said Hannah Smith, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “We are challenging the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate on religious liberty grounds which are …

Becket Fund: The Becket Fund’s co-counsel on the brief is Michael McConnell, director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center and one of the leading constitutional law scholars in the country. The Bronx Household of Faith is represented by Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund.

One News Now (includes audio reports): The Becket Fund and the Alliance Defense Fund are representing clients in many of the 23 lawsuits filed to challenge the mandates. Those are all set to go forward.

Deseret News: When the U.S. Supreme Court banned state-sponsored prayer in public schools 50 years ago, it didn’t put to rest the issue of religion in schools. Instead, it ignited a culture war that continues today over the role of religion in public education.

Religion Clause Blog: As reported by Eurasia Review, the Becket Fund last week launched the HHS Mandate Information Central, an online resource for reporters and the public on the 23 separate lawsuit . . .

Market Watch: It’s a war memorial that has commemorated the valor and sacrifice of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division for more than 50 years. And yesterday, one day after Americans solemnly observed Memorial Day, the Knights of Columbus — represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — asked to intervene in a pending lawsuit to defend the memorial’s right to exist on public land in Montana.

NonProfit Quarterly: With little fanfare, the [I]New York Times[/I] hosted an online debate among five thoughtful people (actually six, but two wrote as a team) addressing the question, “Should churches get tax breaks?” That is, in part, should institutions of religious worship continue to be eligible for charitable tax-exempt status? In summary, here are the perspectives of the participants . . .

Religion Clause Blog: Becket Fund announced this week that a settlement has been reached in the RLUIPA lawsuit brought by Elijah Group (a church) against the city of Leon Valley, Texas.

One News Now: Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Greg Baylor says the Justice Department is out of line in contending that the lawsuit filed by western Pennsylvania’s Geneva College was premature. The college is seeking to have controversial parts of the Affordable Health Care Act struck down. “This mandate applies to them, and it’s going to apply to them in the near future. So they were not too early in asking a court to intervene and step in and protect their important fundamental right,” Baylor argues.

Beaver County Times: The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian civil rights group, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh in February . . . Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for ADF in Washington, D.C., said during a February appearance on the Geneva campus that the compromise is not officially part of the legislation and doesn’t legally have to be honored. And if the compromise was honored, the organizations still would be paying for things they find objectionable through their health insurance premiums, he said.

WPXI.com: The U.S. Justice Department has asked a federal judge in Pittsburgh to dismiss a Christian college’s lawsuit challenging proposed regulations requiring employers to offer birth control coverage . . . The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian civil rights group, filed the lawsuit . . .

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Gregory Baylor, an attorney for the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance Defense Fund, which is spearheading Geneva’s legal challenge, said the college “can’t rely upon promises” of future protection from enforcement. Federal attorneys “don’t want courts to address this on the merits because I believe they are nervous about their prospects,” Mr. Baylor said. “It’s going to be difficult for them to convince the courts that this doesn’t violate the right of conscience.” [more . . . ]

WoonsocketCall.com: Buoyed by offers of free legal assistance and an outpouring of public support, the City Council will decide tonight whether to establish a defense fund to keep the monument at Place Jolicoeur, in the parking lot of Fire Station No. 2, with the Latin cross intact . . . The Liberty Counsel, the Alliance Defense Fund and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which supported Cranston’s fight to save a prayer banner, are among the national organizations offering free legal help.

Heritage Insider Online: Kevin “Seamus” Hasson, founder of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, is the 2012 winner of Salvatori Prize for American citizenship. Edwin Meese III and Matthew Spalding of The Heritage Foundation presented Hasson with the award Thursday in Colorado Springs at the annual Resource Bank meeting of conservative and free market leaders and activists.

LifeNews: The Coalition to Stop the HHS Mandate, which is being coordinated by the Illinois-based Pro-Life Action League and includes multiple pro-life, social conservative, and religious groups, including Human Life International, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Alliance Defense Fund, and Priests for Life; have organized the “Stand Up For Religious Freedom” rallies “in defense of religious freedom and STAND UP against the Obama administration’s HHS mandate at federal building in cities across the country.”

CNSNews: “Bishop Jenky isn’t ‘intervening’ in a political campaign any more than Dad is when he talks politics over the dinner table,” Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told CNSNews.com. “Bishop Jenky has an absolute right to teach and preach to his flock, as the Supreme Court recently affirmed unanimously in the Hosanna-Tabor case,” he continued.

By William Armstrong, Ken Smith, And Joe Aguillard at the Wall Street Journal: So we, the presidents of Colorado Christian University, Geneva College, and Louisiana College, through our respective attorneys with The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the Alliance Defense Fund, are taking a stand. When the state oversteps its First Amendment bounds by forcing religious institutions and believers to violate their religious convictions, we must call the state to account, or else we risk being responsible for facilitating evils such as abortion.

WorldMag.com: Priests for Life, a Catholic organization that provides pro-life resources and mobilizes Catholic laity, organized this protest in 140 cities across the country along with the Alliance Defense Fund and the Becket Fund. The protests all took place Friday at noon EST and drew a multi-faith crowd.

Christianity Today: Lawyers from the Becket Fund and the Alliance Defense Fund plan to speak at some of today’s rallies, organized by the Pro-Life Action League and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.

Newsbusters: The Coalition to Stop the HHS Mandate, which is being coordinated by the Illinois-based Pro-Life Action League; and includes multiple pro-life, social conservative, and religious groups, including Human Life International, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Alliance Defense Fund, and Priests for Life; have organized the “Stand Up For Religious Freedom” rallies “in defense of religious freedom and STAND UP against the Obama administration’s HHS mandate at federal building in cities across the country.”

Becket Fund: On March 23 at noon thousands of Americans from all faiths will gather to rally in support of religious freedom.

Oregon Faith Report: Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) allied attorneys with the Seattle law firm Ellis, Li & McKinstry, PLLC, represented pharmacists in the lawsuit, Stormans v. Selecky. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is co-counsel together with ADF, which has provided financial and legal support for the case. Americans should be able to rely on health care providers who have a conscience,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven Aden. “The court’s decision is a ringing affirmation that conscience and good health care are not only compatible, but inseparable. Allowing pharmacists to exercise their consciences in this way serves both the patients and the pharmacists. It’s a win-win situation.”

Huffington Post: “I think that the positions that the Becket Fund has taken in general are not at all dissimilar to the ones taken by the American Center for Law and Justice or the Alliance Defense Fund,” said Barry Lynn, …

Laura MacCleery of the Center for Reproductive Rights at the Hill: Moreover, the lawsuits brought by the Becket Fund and the Alliance Defense Fund are premature, and will very likely be dismissed until a new rule is completed.

ADF Attorney Steve Aden appeared on the Victoria Taft Show to discuss the ruling in Stormans v. Selecky. | MP3 audio 7:19 mins

WorldNewsServices on Crosswalk: On Feb. 20, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) announced suits filed on behalf of two other schools — Louisiana College, which falls within the 5th Circuit, and Geneva College, in the 3rd Circuit. Kevin Theriot, senior counsel with the ADF, said the spread of the organization’s cases is not part of a grand strategy but acknowledged that its lawyers hope to end up with clients in every district. “If we win in the 5th Circuit, that doesn’t directly affect a school in Washington,” he said. “You can really only solve the problem for a school if you get the circuit where they are to rule in their favor.”

Baptist Press: The Becket Fund and the Alliance Defense Fund represented a pharmacy and two pharmacists in the lawsuit against the state of Washington.

Fox News: The Alliance Defense Fund filed suit Tuesday on behalf of Geneva College, a Christian-affiliated school in Pennsylvania. The ADF also filed suit over the weekend on behalf of Louisiana College, a private Baptist institution. Separately, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed suit on behalf of four groups . . .

LifeSiteNews: ADF attorney Kirsten Waggoner said that because of the ruling, “Customers will receive prescribed drugs in the most efficient manner possible, while at the same time respecting the conscience rights of pharmacists, who should never be forced to participate in destroying human life just to be able to preserve their professional licenses.”

Huffington Post: “The state shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor said in a statement. “Every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this — and worse — to everyone.”

The Hill: “Today’s decision sends a very clear message: No individual can be forced out of her profession solely because of her religious beliefs,” said Luke Goodrich, deputy national litigation director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represent the plaintiffs. “If the state allows pharmacies to refer patients elsewhere for economic, business, and convenience reasons, it has to allow them to refer for reasons of conscience.”

A federal court in Washington state ruled Wednesday that the state board of pharmacy cannot force pharmacists to stock drugs that risk taking human life if the pharmacists have a religious, moral, or ethical objection.

Chronicle of Higher Education: The Alliance Defense Fund filed suits on behalf of Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, Pa., which is affiliated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and Louisiana College, a Southern Baptist institution in Pineville, La. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed a suit on behalf of Ave Maria University, a conservative Catholic institution near Naples, Fla.

National Right to Life News: The state shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” said Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which filed the lawsuit. “Every American should know that …

News-Press.com: On the heels of Ave Maria’s filing, another lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of Geneva College by the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys defending religious freedom. The college, in Beaver Falls, Pa., was founded in the tradition of the Reformed Presbyterian faith.

NCB-2.com: Ave Maria University is suing the federal government over the health care mandate that requires employers’ health insurance to cover contraception drugs.

SCOTUSblog: In the Obama Administration’s first formal response to constitutional challenges to the new birth control mandate, Justice Department lawyers have argued that the federal courts should stay on the sidelines of the dispute at least until a new attempt at compromise is finally worked out, more than a year from now

WorldNetDaily: “No one should be forced to violate their conscience by paying for abortions, but that’s precisely what Obamacare does,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden in a statement. “Obamacare requires that employees enrolled in certain health plans pay a separate insurance premium specifically to pay for other people’s elective abortions and offers no opt-out for religious or moral reasons. Such a mandate cannot survive constitutional scrutiny.”

The Chaplain Alliance joins with many churches and organizations, such as the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Military Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Alliance Defense Fund, and many others who have spoken their concerns on the administration’s recent action.

Becket Fund: Doesn’t solve anything–numerous religious organizations still forced to violate their conscience

NCRegister.com: The worldwide Catholic network asks the court to stop federal rule that requires it to pay for ‘immoral services.’ | Becket Fund press release and legal docs

Washington Blade – “America’s Leading Gay News Source”: Following McCoy was Maryland Baptist ministers Rev. Dr. John Lund, and Rev. Dr. Nate Thomas, as well as Presbyterian pastor Bob Borger, former mega-church pastor Joel Peebles — who recently lost a court battle over control over his Jericho City of Praise Ministry — as well as some Catholic voices such as Pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Father Eric Arnold, and Maryland Catholic Conference’s Mary Ellen Russell. The testimony was concluded by an attorney specializing in representing churches and ministers, Erika Cole, the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty’s Eric Baxter, and the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund’s Brian Raum.

David French at National Review Online: I argued the case at the trial-court level (and cough lost cough) when I was at the Alliance Defense Fund and was on the appellate briefs, but the credit and congratulations go to Julea Ward, my former ADF colleagues, and my friend ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco, who argued the case at the Sixth Circuit. Well done, Jeremy.

ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot on KFUO with Roland Lettner Show to discuss the case. | MP3 audio 24:40 mins

ADF Attorney Joel Oster appeared on the Charlie Langton Show to discuss the Hosanna-Tabor ruling. | MP3 audio 18:07 mins

ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot appeared on the Paul Edwards Show to discuss the ruling. | MP3 audio 11:35 mins

ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot at Speak Up Movement Church Blog: The Supreme Court just handed down a fantastic ruling affirming the right of churches to employ only those individuals that share their beliefs and live their lives according to the teaching of the church.

ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss yesterday’s ruling. | MP3 audio 8:33 mins

The Court says that the ministerial exception is not limited to the head of a church, but in fact does reach down to employees who qualify as “ministers” . . .

Religion Clause: The Becket Fund announced this week the filing of a lawsuit by Colorado Christian University (CCU) challenging on free exercise, free expression and other grounds regulations issued under the Affordable Care Act that require health care plans to cover all FDA-approved contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures.