Tag Archives: State: Georgia

WSBTV.com: “We are guaranteed a freedom of religion, not a freedom from religion. And as far as I’m concerned, this is very intolerant,” Atlanta Tea Party chairman Julianne Thompson said.

Freedom from Religion Foundation: The Freedom From Religion Foundation today contacted Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, protesting his decision to override the Department of Natural Resources and return bibles to all lodge rooms and cabins in Georgia state parks. The DNR, appropriately, had removed the bibles after a guest complained.

Fox News Radio: A Georgia school district will no longer allow prayers or songs with religious references at graduation ceremonies after a Wisconsin group threatened to file a lawsuit and suggested that forcing non-Christian students to listen to religious music was a form of bullying.

Atlanta J. Constitution: Even as automatic budget cuts force various federal agencies to cut spending, a group of federal judges from the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit went ahead with their 2013 Judicial Conference last week, spending several days – and maybe several hundred thousand dollars – at a golf resort and spa in Savannah, Georgia.

Atlanta J. Constitution: Justice Hugh Thompson will be the Georgia Supreme Court’s next chief justice beginning Aug. 15, the court announced Thursday.

Religion Clause Blog: Lumpkin County Schools Superintendent Dewey Moye says that the students were within their right, but that from now on there will be no prayers during school hours.

American Federation for Children: The American Federation for Children – the nation’s voice for educational choice – today applauded the efforts of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and the Georgia legislature for passing legislation to raise the cap and add additional accountability and transparency measures to the Georgia Scholarship Tax Credit Program, ensuring more money reaches disadvantaged children throughout the state.

Atlanta J. Constitution: For weeks, the anti-abortion activists in the Legislature have been quiet, biding their time. This afternoon, with the session nearly down to its last 48 hours, they struck, approving a ban on abortion coverage in insurance plans offered to state employees

Education News: Lindsey’s legislation, House Bill 123, had already passed the state House of Representatives and seemed to be on a glide path to passage in the Senate. But the bill — which would force school boards to consider a petition from parents or teachers to change a traditional public school into a charter school — ran into problems in the Senate’s Education and Youth Committee.

Carly Pildis at Policymic: The bill was inspired by the case of Julea Ward, who was expelled from Eastern Michigan University for refusing to counsel LGBT students. She sued the university with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, with EMU agreeing to a settlement of $75,000.

Steve Williams at Care2.com: However, neither Deberry or Hohenwald authored the bill. Conservative David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, drafted both versions of the bill with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom, formally the Alliance Defense Fund, whose anti-gay agenda is well established. The ADF represented a Michigan student named Julea Ward who was expelled from a master’s degree program at Eastern Michigan University for refusing to counsel gay clients or clients who were sexually involved with someone but weren’t married. Ward received a $75,000 settlement last year. Another student, self-avowed devoted Christian Jennifer Keeton . . .

WRCBTV.com: Lakeview Middle School is the latest to be targeted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which claims a sixth grade science teacher crossed a line, by witnessing to students through music.

CBN: The decision comes after the Cave Spring City attorney Zach Burkhalter advised council members the law restricts what prayers can be said at council meetings, but it doesn’t prohibit all prayers from being spoken.

Rome-News Tribune: Members of the Cave Spring City Council have tentatively agreed to forgo saying the Lord’s Prayer at their meetings, a turnabout from their previous vote.

ChristianNews.net: A middle school baseball coach in Georgia recently resigned after a parent complained to the principal that he had a Bible verse citation embroidered on the team ball caps.

Christian Newswire: Georgia Right to Life today called on Georgia’s General Assembly to give voters the opportunity to grant personhood status to all innocent human life from the earliest stages of development until natural death.

Christian Newswire: HB 481, The Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act, is designed to help bring biotechnological companies to Georgia by removing uncertainty for venture capitalists and companies. The measure has five co-sponsors.

WRCBtv.com: Their complaint alleges a sixth grade teacher is “witnessing” to students by singing Christian songs to the class during instructional time.

One News Now: According to David Cortman of Alliance Defending Freedom, the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) is going after Christian schools, claiming they have “draconian anti-gay policies and practices.” “This specific attack, I think, is pretty egregious, basically because they want to exclude these Christian schools just because they don’t share the same sexual agenda as this far-left activist group does,” he says.

David Cortman at Townhall: As a federal court recently declared, “Tolerance is a two-way street.” And this is a lesson the Atlanta-based Southern Education Fund needs to learn after its recent call for private, Christian schools in Georgia to be kicked-out of participating in the state’s tax credit scholarship program.

World Magazine: The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a letter to Georgia lawmakers and to Christian schools this week defending the scholarship program and highlighting SEF “mischaracterizations.” ADF senior counsel David Cortman said, “No one should be ostracized because they don’t share the same sexual agenda as an activist group that opposes school choice. The Constitution protects the right of private, Christian schools to teach and follow biblical principles. Any efforts to prevent these schools from participating in the state’s tax credit scholarship program would violate the First Amendment freedoms of these schools and the students who attend them.”

World Net Daily: “No one should be ostracized because they don’t share the same sexual agenda as an activist group that opposes school choice,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “The Constitution protects the right of private, Christian schools to teach and follow biblical principles. Any efforts to prevent these schools from participating in the state’s tax credit scholarship program would violate the First Amendment freedoms of these schools and the students who attend them,” Cortman added.

Alliance Defending Freedom has distributed a letter to Georgia legislators and Christian schools across the state in response to an activist group’s false allegation that Georgia’s school choice scholarship program supports religious schools with “anti-gay” policies simply because the schools adhere to Christian ethics.

AP: Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss said Friday he will not seek a third term next year, expressing deep frustration with Washington gridlock that he doesn’t see changing in a divided government.

Florida Times-Union: James Cyrus Gilbert maintains in the lawsuit that state officials rejected his application for the tags 4GAYLIB, GAYPWR and GAYGUY.

Religion Clause Blog: The New York Times reported yesterday that the state of Georgia’s popular tax credit program for contributions to private school scholarship programs has become controversial because more than 115 religiously sponsored schools that benefit from the program have explicit bans on attendance by gay, lesbian and bisexual students.

Kansas City Star: Another big showdown over abortion brewing in the federal courts could have meaning for Kansas. Two years ago, Kansas was among just a handful of states to ban abortion starting at 22 weeks — with some limited exceptions — regardless of whether the fetus was able to survive outside the womb.

WSFA (includes video): The new restriction were to take effect on the first of the New Year but Fulton County judge Doris Downs has temporarily blocked the law after a union group challenged it.

MyFoxAtlanta: A judge is considering whether to block Georgia’s new law that bans abortions after 20 weeks pending the outcome of a legal challenge.

National Review: The senator, he says, hasn’t become a liberal; he merely has talked about tax reform. “I don’t make much of all that chatter,” Perdue says.

Midtown Patch: During the same Monday meeting in which it controversially voted to give itself a more than 50 percent pay raise, the Atlanta City Council tackled another hot topic by approving a resolution to support marriage equality.

LifeSiteNews: But Dana Cody of Life Legal Defense Foundation told LifeSiteNews.com she was less certain about the law’s potential national implications. “Abortion proponents act like any sort of protection measure is going to overturn Roe,” she said.

Atlanta J. Constitution: The Georgia branch of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Friday to block the state’s stricter abortion law from taking effect Jan. 1.
The law prohibits abortions after 20 weeks with exceptions for specific threats to the mother’s health.

Midtown.patch.com: The lawsuit alleges that the preamble and the question on the Nov. 6 ballot is biased in favor of approval of the measure.

Deseret News: “Colleges are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, not centers of censorship,” said Travis Barham, a Georgia-based attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom. The First Amendment, he said, allows like-minded students to gather and to express their ideas, including religious students and religious ideas.

Religion Clause Blog: The Macon (GA) Telegraph reports on a lawsuit filed in a Georgia federal district court on Oct. 3 by a woman who claims religious and gender discrimination in her termination as nursery school coordinator at Friendship Baptist Church in Warner Robins, Georgia.

In the wake of a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, DeKalb County has agreed to allow a church to continue to rent one of its recreational facilities.

Macon.com: A Thomaston preacher wants the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that he has the legal right to pack his pistol when he’s in the pulpit.

Religion Clause Blog: The complaint (full text) in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta v. Sebelius, (ND GA, filed 10/5/2012) alleges that the mandate violates the 1st Amendment, RFRA, the Administrative Procedure Act and amounts to an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.

Life News: The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta has instructed its staff, schools and affiliated groups to stop funding the Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity because it sends funds to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Atlanta J. Constitution: Proponents of the November charter school amendment have protested state School Superintendent John Barge’s public stand against the amendment on the DOE web site, which led the state Department of Education to take down a 29-point position paper highlighting the reasons. A link to that paper was on the Georgia Department of Education’s home page.
Today, Attorney General Sam Olens notified Barge to alert local school boards that they “do not have the legal authority to expend funds or other resources to advocate or oppose the ratification of a constitutional amendment by the voters.

GodDiscussion.com: Now, a proposed tax increase has some pastors howling about Satan’s dark intentions. In trying to fill a $1 million budget hole created in part by a statewide tax break for local manufacturers, the Mayor Pro Tem first suggested slashing church exemptions as a way to make up for less funding from the state.

WTSP: For the first time since the prayers began all those years ago, the loud speaker was silenced. In their first home game against Bowdon things were a lot different. The changes came after a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation was sent to Haralson County Schools Superintendent Brett Stanton.

Douglas County Sentinel: At last Friday’s Haralson County Rebels football game, thousands of residents came out to show their support for the team; however, many were reportedly there to show their support for team prayer.

TimesFreePress: The Freedom From Religion Foundation still wants to know whether Ridgeland coach Mark Mariakis uses the Bible as a motivational tool at the Walker County school, whether athletes will continue to be fed at church before games and whether athletes are allowed not to participate in student-led prayer.

The New American: For the past 50 years or so the Friday night football games at Haralson County High School in Tallapoosa, Georgia have started the same way, with prayer, most recently offered by the team’s chaplain, a local minister. But September 7 the tradition of reverence and faith came to a screeching halt as the school district’s superintendent, Brett Stanton, caved in to the intimidation of the Freedom From Religion Foundation . . .

TimesFreePress: Walker County, Ga., school officials said Ridgeland High School isn’t violating athletes’ First Amendment rights and the football team will continue to have student-led prayers and church-held meals before games.

Liberty Counsel: Today, Liberty Counsel offered free counsel and legal defense to Georgia’s Walker County Public School Board in response to the recent threats from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). In its letter to the school superintendent, FFRF makes a number of assertions, leading off with the most ridiculous: “Taking public school football teams to church, even for a meal, is unconstitutional.”

WRCBTV: The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state-church watchdog group has written another letter to a Georgia school over complaints it has received about Ridgeland High School football coach Mark Mariakis.

LifeSiteNews: In 1994, the Georgia State Planning Agency notified the architect designing Atlanta Women’s Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia, that plans for its two-story late-term abortion clinic needed to include an elevator.

The Augusta Chronicle: The city of Augusta is limiting employee involvement in Mayor Deke Copenhaver’s monthly prayer breakfasts in response to threats of litigation from a Wisconsin-based group that champions the separation of church and state.

Georgia Right to Life on the Standard Newswire: Tuesday’s non-binding GOP primary results showed that a super majority (66% of voters) expressed support for amending the state constitution to grant the “paramount right to life” to all innocent human beings from their earliest biological beginning until natural death. The Amendment question won in 158 of 159 counties, garnering 593,250 votes of the 902,512 cast statewide. In most counties the “YES” vote was between 71% to 78%.

Christian Post: Earlier this year, the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit against Rockdale on behalf of New Generation over the county’s zoning laws, which forbid churches from meeting on property smaller than three acres. “Government officials should not use zoning restrictions to close down religious services of small, start-up churches, so we commend the county for agreeing to a court order that allows this church to meet while the case moves forward,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley in a statement. “It’s unconstitutional and a violation of federal law to target churches with these kinds of zoning restrictions. Small ministries like this one shouldn’t be forced underground simply because they can’t afford a property of more than three acres.”

One News Now: Erik Stanley, an ADF attorney, explains why the county ordinance needs to be addressed. “Under the city’s rules, only non-religious groups and large, wealthy churches can find an adequate place to meet — and that just doesn’t make sense,” he says. “This is exactly why federal law protects churches from such arbitrary and subjective zoning decisions. We hope the city will change its zoning regulations and eliminate the need to continue this case.”

Sacramento Bee: The Daily Report ( http://bit.ly/P0AL7t) says Deal chose Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge William “Billy” Ray Jr. and lawyer Elizabeth “Lisa” Branch for the appeals court openings.

Rockdale County agreed to a federal court injunction issued Friday that allows a church to temporarily reconvene in a building where the county previously denied access because the property was less than three acres in size.

Erik Stanley on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the situation. | MP3 audio 14:35 mins

Atlanta J. Constitution: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Georgia’s law that bans guns in places of worship. | Georgiacarry.org v. Georgia

The August Chronicle: The fort released a statement Wednesday saying, “The issue raised by the Freedom From Religion Foundation results from a misunderstanding. “Soldiers taking part in community service projects while attending the Regimental Non-Commissioned Officers Academy may choose the project in which they participate from a list provided by the Academy. Catholic Social Services is on that list because they have periodically requested assistance from Fort Gordon Soldiers. However, because CSS is a private organization, all Soldier assistance to it must be provided on a voluntary basis.

Freedom from Religion Foundation: FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel drafted and sent a letter on July 5 on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and also signed by American Atheists, objecting to using U.S. soldiers to support Catholic Social Services of Augusta.

The Telegraph: Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national organization working to protect the separation of church and state, sent another letter to Houston County schools Friday outlining additional complaints received from multiple families. The organization first contacted the school district in June, issuing complaints about prayers and other religious happenings at several high school graduations.

The August Chronicle: Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver bows his head as the Rev. Gregory Young prays during the November 2006 prayer breakfast at Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church. The Freedom from Reli­gion Foundation recently filed a request under the Geor­gia Open Records Act to inspect all city financial records and correspondence pertaining to the monthly breakfasts held this year.

Plaintiffs operated an alcohol-selling nightclub in Spalding County, Georgia. Defendant Spalding County’s ordinances prohibit nude dancing where alcohol is sold. Plaintiffs sued, challenging the constitutionality of the ordinances and asserting claims for malicious arrest and malicious prosecution.

Religion Clause Blog: In Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley, (SD GA, June 22, 2012), a Georgia federal district court, in a lengthy opinion, dismissed claims by a former graduate student in Augusta State University’s graduate counselor education program that her constitutional rights were infringed when she was dismissed for refusing to complete a required remediation plan.

National Review Bench Memos: Congratulations to Keith Blackwell on his appointment to the Georgia Supreme Court. Blackwell, currently a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals, graduated summa cum laude from Franklin College, served as senior editor of the law review at the University of Georgia School of Law, and clerked for Judge Edmondson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Alan E. Sears at the ADF Blog: If you ever had to read George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm back in high school days, you may remember the famous quote from that book: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” That seems to be how they read the law down in Rockdale County, Georgia, too, where the zoning laws apply equally to everybody, as long as everybody doesn’t include small local churches.

One News Now: “Government officials shouldn’t use zoning restrictions to close down religious services of small, start-up churches,” argues ADF attorney Erik Stanley. “Not only is it irresponsible to target small ministries dedicated to serving the community, it’s unconstitutional and violates federal law.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit against Rockdale County Thursday for refusing a small church access to several different properties for its worship services because the properties are less than three acres.

AP: The average cost of attending a four-year public university increased by 15 percent over a two-year period.

Macon Telegraph: Don’t expect to see Warner Robins Mayor Chuck Shaheen change his ways as a result of a complaint by a group that advocates separation of church and state. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent Shaheen a letter Friday that said an ad he ran in The Telegraph was unconstitutional because of religious references.

The Telegraph: Additional reports of prayers and religious musical performances at recent Houston County graduations prompted a second letter of complaint sent Tuesday to Houston County school Superintendent Robin Hines. | Freedom from Religion Foundation press release and letters

Atlanta J. Constitution: A sometimes emotional George Carley on Tuesday was sworn in as the Georgia Supreme Court’s 29th chief justice, a position he will hold until he retires from the court in mid-July.

FFRF: The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a warning letter May 24 to Columbus, Ga., Mayor Teresa Tomlinson to head off endorsement by the City Council of a proposed statewide referendum to allow organized prayer and bible study in public schools.

Personhood USA: Georgia Right to Life President Dan Becker today announced that Republican voters in all 159 GA counties will have the opportunity to approve granting “personhood” status to all human beings from their earliest biological beginning. The ballot question will appear on the July 31st Republican primary ballot.

Stephanie Saul at NY Times: Public Money Finds Back Door to Private Schools
Public school officials view the tax credits as poorly disguised state subsidies, part of an expanding agenda to shift tax dollars away from traditional public schools. “Our position is that this is a shell game,” said Chris Thomas, general counsel for the Arizona School Boards Association.