Tag Archives: State: Kentucky

The Interior Journal: A dust-up over prayer at Lincoln County High School’s upcoming graduation ceremony has ruffled feathers and garnered national headlines, but some involved say the real issues at hand seem to be getting lost in a sea of misinformation.

Fox News: WYMT-TV reports the move came after the schools received a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The group’s letter says the displays have been up for years. | FFRF press release and letter

Cadiz Record: The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky is alleging that school districts in Kentucky are allowing organizations to hand out religious literature to students in elementary schools during school hours.

Christian Post: The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky sent a letter Thursday to 174 public school superintendents citing the possibility of a lawsuit in the 2013-2014 academic school year if they continue to allow The Gideons International to distribute Bibles, the New Testament and religious literature to students on public school campuses. In the letter accompanying the Open Records Act request . . .

WFPL.org: The ACLU of Kentucky is calling on school districts to disclose their practices for letting groups distribute literature to students during school hours.

Kentucky.com: The prospective brides of two Kentucky inmates are suing a clerk of court after he cancelled their marriage licenses because their fiancés couldn’t appear in person to acquire the license.

Business Insider: The legislation protects “sincerely held religious beliefs” from infringement unless there is “a compelling governmental interest.” The courts will still consider and rule on each matter.

Baptist Press: Reaction to Gov. Steve Beshear’s veto of the Kentucky legislature’s religious freedom bill came swift and strong from state Baptist leaders. “When did the cherished constitutional right of religious freedom become such a danger to our society?” asked Paul Chitwood, executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, after Beshear’s March 22 veto.

WPSDLocal6.com: Gov. Steve Beshear will have to decide Friday whether to veto a bill intended to protect religious freedom in Kentucky.

Religion Clause Blog: Publicly funded child-care agencies and foster homes across the state also will be barred from placing religious items in children’s rooms without their consent, and religious materials will be given only to children who request them.

Courier Journal: The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to Kentucky laws giving official credit to Almighty God for its security.

Religion Clause Blog: In the case, a Kentucky state appeals court, in a 2-1 decision, rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to legislative findings enacted as part of Kentucky’s 2002 Antiterrorism Act.

Reuters: In Kentucky, a Bible Belt state where voters have passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the movement to promote gay rights has two factions. One seeks to overturn discrimination through a legislative path, admitting it faces long odds. The other wants to break down barriers to gay marriage with demonstrations and civil disobedience.

WSAZ.com: A new law that would allow people to ignore laws that conflict with their religious beliefs has passed in the Kentucky House and Senate.

Religion Clause Blog: In a Tennessee trial court last Monday, James Coots, pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to illegally possessing poisonous snakes.

Kentucky.com: A House panel defeated several bills Thursday that would put restrictions on abortions, including one bill that would require a woman to view an ultrasound and another that would require a face-to-face consultation before receiving an abortion.

Boston Globe: The last two of 16 Amish found guilty in beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio have appealed their convictions.

Courier Journal: Senate Republicans are again supporting bills that would require women to have an ultrasound and a face-to-face medical consultation before having an abortion .

ACLU Blog: A small town in eastern Kentucky is making some big news. Vicco, Kentucky adopted a fairness ordinance, meaning one that prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations based upon a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Why is this a big deal? Vicco is now the FIRST town in Kentucky’s Appalachians to pass Fairness protections. Vicco is the FIRST Kentucky city in 10 years to approve an LGBT Fairness law. Vicco is also the FIRST rural Kentucky community to pass LGBT Fairness protections.

Cincinnati.com: A combination of new Republicans in the Kentucky House of Representatives and conservative Democrats might get long-stalled anti-abortion legislation passed in 2013, Republican lawmakers said.

USA Today: In a scene that has been playing out in small cities throughout Kentucky in recent weeks, local citizens working with the statewide Fairness Coalition — which includes groups such as the Louisville, Ky.-based Fairness Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky — are seeking local anti-bias protections for gay and transgender people.

Lexington Herald-Leader: The company is being represented in the case by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group of Christian attorneys dedicated to “transforming the legal system and advocating for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family,” according to the organization’s website. Americans in the marketplace should not be subject to legal attacks simply for abiding by their beliefs,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jim Campbell said in a statement. “The Constitution prohibits the government from forcing business owners to promote messages they disagree with.”

Religion Clause Blog: A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed last week with the U.S. Supreme Court in American Atheists, Inc. v. Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, (cert. filed 11/13/2012).

USA Today: The reason, Mooney said, is that Devers is incarcerated at Kentucky State Reformatory, and state law has been interpreted to require the future husband and wife to both appear in person at the clerk’s office to apply for a marriage license.

Kentucky.com: The testimony provided more evidence that the eastern parts of our commonwealth are suffering. Perhaps more important than any other ailment that affects the rough underside of the “holler shack” or the “sagging modular home” are the dysfunctional families who live in them.

CBSNews: Members of a Christians-only health insurance plan will lose their coverage on Thursday under a judge’s order to cease operations. Franklin County Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate found that Medi-Share doesn’t comply with Department of Insurance regulations and won’t be allowed to operate in Kentucky.

Religion Clause Blog: Yesterday the Kentucky Supreme Court, in a 4-1-2 decision, aligned its interpretation of the free exercise provisions of the Kentucky Constitution (Sec. 1 and 5) with the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the federal free exercise clause.  In Gingerich v. Commonwealth of Kentucky . . .

How Appealing links to a news report and the ruling in Walker v. Blair.

The Republic: A Christians-only health care ministry must cease operations in Kentucky unless it can get regulatory approval from the state Department of Insurance, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Kentucky Post: A Lexington lawmaker has drafted legislation that would prevent insurance plans made available to Kentuckians under federal health care reforms from paying for abortions.

Federal Judge Hits the Brakes on Another FACE Case Life Legal Defense Foundation Ensures Pro-Life Advocate’s Due Process (September 24, 2012 – Louisville, KY) Last week, a federal judge hit the brakes in what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had …

San Francisco Chronicle: A judge will consider whether a Christians-only health care plan should be held in contempt of court more than a year after the Kentucky Supreme Court subjected it to stricter regulations that could have meant its demise in the state

Courier-Journal Editorial: U of L officials timidly said they will meet with angry students and review the contract with food vendors, presumably to see if it includes language allowing U of L to eject restaurants whose owners don’t like gay marriage . . . U of L instead should point out the obvious: It is an institution of higher learning which is based on free exchange of ideas under the First Amendment.

AP: It’s a common tactic for pornography producers trying to protect their product from online piracy: They sue unknown “John Does” who illegally download movies, then go to Internet providers to learn their true identities and collect.

Religion Clause Blog: In Lexington, Kentucky on Friday, a lawsuit was filed in state circuit court by Emmanuel Apostolic Church and the Catholic Action Center challenging the city Board of Adjustment’s vote last month to revoke their conditional use permit under which they are operating the Community Inn as a homeless shelter. The city wants to move the shelter after reports of loitering, panhandling and residents urinating in public . . .

Religion Clause Blog: The court held that the allegations in the amended complaint that the hiring practices and employment policy of KBHC are “evidence of” an Establishment Clause violation are permissible even though the district and appeals court previously held that the firing of plaintiff because she is a lesbian was not itself an Establishment Clause violation.

AP: Here’s a look at the 10 states with the lowest funding percentages in 2010, according a new report from the Pew Center on the States . . .

Kentucky.com: In short, Spriggs evidently preaches a gospel that has true-life application. The gospel that Spriggs preaches is applied when it comes to how we are to act as Christians in our community. The gospel he preaches is to be applied when homes are ripped off of their foundations and families lose everything. The gospel he preaches is to be applied when you are called upon to love your neighbors. Yet, when it comes to the issue of marriage and politics, some people apparently expect the gospel that Spriggs preaches to quit having application.

Bluegrass Institute: A new report by the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank, holds legislators primarily responsible for the commonwealth’s public-pension crisis, noting that politicians of both parties have demonstrated “flat-out greed and disrespect for the public treasury” by adding benefits for political gain and enriching themselves at taxpayers’ expense.

One News Now: Attorney Erik Stanley of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says the complaints are “the same tiresome claims from a group that is intent on bullying churches and intimidating them into silence.” “What this pastor did in Kentucky was nothing more than to exercise his constitutional right to speak freely from his pulpit,” Stanley asserts. “No pastor anywhere should ever have to fear the IRS, or Americans United or any other group for that matter when they stand and they speak biblical truth in the pulpit. That’s all this pastor was doing.”

The Hill: Four in ten Democratic voters chose someone other than President Obama on Tuesday in primaries in Arkansas and Kentucky.

AU: Kentucky church violated federal law when its pastor demanded the ouster of President Barack Obama during church services, Americans United for Separation of Church and State told the Internal Revenue Service today. During a May 13 service, Pastor Ronnie Spriggs of Hager Hill Freewill Baptist Church in Hager Hill, Ky., demanded that Obama be voted out of office for supporting marriage equality for same-sex couples.

Examiner.com: Besides its own lawyers, Hands On Originals is also being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, whose website says they are, “… (A) servant organization that provides the resources that will keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel through the legal defense.” Their lawyers wrote in their filing that owners of the company, “(D)id not want to communicate the message of the requested shirt — that people should be ‘proud’ about engaging in homosexual behavior or same-sex relationships — nor did they want to promote the pride festival or the ideology conveyed at that advocacy event.”

One News Now: In a letter [PDF] to university officials, Travis Barham of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) complains that officials and the teacher of Elaina Smith, the art student who vandalized the crosses, were aware that this was going to occur, yet they did nothing to stop it. He points out that it is the duty of university officials to protect students’ First Amendment rights, not “passively allow them to be violated.” [more]

Tulsa Beacon: A spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund said Hands On Originals has a practice of not doing business with groups that don’t reflect its moral and Christian values. The homosexuals complained to the “human rights commission” and filed a formal charge. A commissioner said that a homosexual business owner could refuse to do work for a Christian but a Christian could not refuse a job for homosexuals. “Americans in the marketplace should not be subject to predatory legal attacks simply for abiding by their beliefs,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jim Campbell. “The Constitution prohibits the government from forcing business owners to promote messages they disagree with, so the commission should immediately dismiss this complaint. This kind of bullying may be practiced in a dictatorship, but violations of conscience have no place in the United States.”

Courier-Journal: The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services fired a gay employee for sending inappropriate emails, but allowed a heterosexual worker who did the same thing to go unpunished, a federal judge has found. | Stroder v. Commonwealth of Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Service, No. 3:09-CV-00947-H (W.D. Ky Apr. 24, 2012)

Religion Clause Blog: Thirteen-year old Jamie Mitchell was killed in an auto accident in which Coulter allowed the boy to drive after a campout that included ten members of the church youth group.

Travis Barham at the Speak Up University Blog: Though universities frequently wax eloquent about the critical importance of free speech, they often fail to protect vigorously the basic freedoms of pro-life students. And Western Kentucky University is the latest example of this gap between rhetoric and reality on campus.

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund sent the president of Western Kentucky University a letter Thursday on behalf of a pro-life student club after an art student desecrated its display of crosses by draping them with condoms and calling it an act of art and free expression. The letter explains that university officials, including the student’s teacher, were either aware that the vandalism was going to occur, did nothing to stop it, or even condoned the student’s actions.

Life News: This morning, our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund faxed a letter to WKU President Ransdell requesting that they respond to our four requests. (View the ADF letter here.)

Lexington Herald-Leader: His faith is central to the case, said company attorney Bryan Beauman of Paris. “The government can’t make people choose between their faith and their livelihood and also can’t make business owners because of their religious beliefs be penalized for abiding by their beliefs,” he said in an interview.

One News Now: But Adamson has Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys in his corner. “American small-business owners do not surrender their freedom at the marketplace gate,” says attorney Bryan Beaumon. “The government cannot make Americans choose between their faith and their livelihood just because activist groups make such demands.” “So the commission should immediately dismiss this complaint,” fellow attorney Jim Campbell continues. “This kind of bullying may be practiced in a dictatorship, but violations of conscience have no place in the United States.”

A Lexington T-shirt company cannot be forced to help promote a message it doesn’t agree with, according to a response filed by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys Thursday with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission.

Video Transcript at VIMEO.

AP: Amish people in Kentucky will no longer have to use a bright orange reflective triangle on their horse-drawn buggies.

Courier Press: Across the Ohio River 13 years later, a similar issue now sits before Vanderburgh County Commissioners who heard a multitude of testimonies and received dozens of letters of opposition, most of which are based on religious beliefs.

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: That’s the question brewing in Lexington, Kentucky. The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization has filed the following complaint with the Lexington Human Rights Commission (paragraph breaks added) . . .

Jim Campbell on the Rod Arquette Show. | MP3 audio 6:52 mins

LifeNews: The pro-life student group at Northern Kentucky University is a victim of pro-abortion activists vandalizing their display once again — after pro-abortion students and a professor were taken to court the first time.

South Sider Magazine: Parsing the potential legal arguments in the recent controversy involving Hands On Originals and the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) is no easy task. At odds in this case are two fundamental concepts of American liberty: freedom of speech and free exercise of religion as delineated in the First Amendment vs. freedom from discrimination. The tension arising from pitting First Amendment notions against other important American values fuels this controversy and reflects a burgeoning conflict in the modern political climate.

Bryron Babione at Townhall: Imagine a T-shirt print shop run by owners who openly practice homosexual behavior. Let’s call it “Tolerance 101.” They make T-shirts for community events, annual “gay pride” rallies, and sports teams around their city. Now, imagine that a major Christian ministry contacts the company to have them make T-shirts that will be worn at an event supporting marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Baptist Press: The attacks are out of line, said Jim Campbell, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, the organization representing Hands On Originals. “No business owner should be forced to violate his conscience simply because someone demands it,” he said. “The Constitution absolutely supports the rights of business owners to decline a request to support a message that conflicts with their deeply held convictions.”

Bluegrass Politics Blog: A nonprofit group that advocates for the separation of church and state raised questions Wednesday about the legislature’s plan to spend $2 million on road improvements near the proposed Ark Encounter theme park in Grant County.

ADF Attorney Bryan Beauman at Townhall: Something big is brewing in Lexington, Ky., and as difficult as it might be for some sports fans to believe, the implications are far greater than the University of Kentucky-Louisville Final Four match-up on March 31. At stake are fairness, tolerance, diversity, constitutionally protected rights, taxpayer dollars, and local jobs.

One News Now: A Kentucky businessman is facing the wrath of a pro-homosexual group after rejecting a business transaction because of his Christian beliefs.

Boston Globe (AP): Kentucky’s General Assembly gave final passage Tuesday to legislation that would exempt the Amish from a longstanding requirement that they affix bright orange safety triangles on their slow-moving buggies.

The Republic (AP): A gay and lesbian group in Lexington has filed a discrimination complaint against a T-shirt printer after the company refused to honor a bid to produce apparel for an event.

Courier-Journal: Kentucky’s Supreme Court justices didn’t dispute Thursday that a law requiring bright orange-red triangles on horse-drawn buggies imposes a burden on the consciences of those Amish who believe that using them would violate their religion.

ADF Attorney Bryan Beauman at Townhall: Kentucky has an anti-bullying law on the books. It’s been there since 2008, but the ACLU, Kentucky Fairness Campaign, and Democrat legislators decided it needed to be enhanced this year. Therefore, on March 13, Kentucky Rep. Mary Lou Marzian (D-Louisville) and her associates on the House Education Committee, pressed for new anti-bullying legislation to be passed out of committee for a vote on the House floor.

State-Journal: A bill to protect students from bullying by their classmates died Tuesday in the House Education Committee because some lawmakers worried it would give “special rights” to gay students. [report on the photo involving Hartman confrontation of Bryan Beauman and Andrew Walker]

Lexington Herald Leader Photo: Chris Hartman, left, director of the Fairness Campaign, which supported the bill, confronted Bryan Beauman, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, following Tuesday’s House Education Committee meeting at the Capitol in Frankfort. (also at Courier-Journal)

Family Foundation of Kentucky: Bullying Bill supporter harasses opponent in Capitol Annex hallway

Family Foundation of KY: The leading supporter of the so-called “Bullying Bill” became verbally and physically abusive in a Capitol Annex hallway with an opponent of the bill after the bill went down to defeat in a House committee, attracting the attention of State Police and other observers. The Family Foundation called on the Fairness Campaign to issue a public apology for the behavior of its director, Chris Hartman.

AP: Twelve defendants charged in beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio are challenging the constitutionality of the federal hate crimes law.

Courier Press: “We are winning in litigation,” said Bryan Beauman of the Alliance Defense Fund. He spoke at Holy Name to raise money for the 20th-annual Marsha’s Place Pregnancy Resource Center fundraising banquet. “We are winning in state legislatures, and … most importantly, we are winning in the court of public opinion.” . . . “Don’t tell me this is a social issue,” Beauman said. “It is as economic and political as it can be.”

Bluegrass Institute: Senate Bill 143 with a Senate Floor Amendment is on its way to the Kentucky House after winning approval in the Senate. This bill will allow parents to enroll their children, preschool through Grade 12, in another school district outside of the one where the family actually resides provided the parents transport the student to the gaining school.