Tag Archives: State: Oklahoma

ABC News: An Oklahoma bill that would ban the sale of food containing aborted human fetuses has some people wondering: What food currently contains aborted human fetuses?

Religion Clause: The National Center for Science Education reported last week that so far this year, six separate anti-evolution bills have been introduced . . .

KRGV.com: Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico.

NewsOK.com: A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s order blocking an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that would ban state courts from considering international or Islamic law when deciding cases. | Awad v. Ziriax, No. 10-6273

Tulsa World: The plaintiffs’ legal representation includes local counsel Richard D. White Jr. and attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund, which on its website describes itself as “a servant organization that provides the resources that will keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel through the legal defense of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family.” Matthew Sharp, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, said Wednesday that for the entire fall semester, Owasso Kids for Christ has been denied any opportunity to inform parents and students about its weekly before-school meetings . . . [more]

Tulsa World: A beleaguered process that repeatedly has failed to put Oklahomans in key federal positions reportedly has produced a potential nominee to fill a year-old vacancy on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Robert Bacharach, a federal magistrate in Oklahoma City, is being vetted for the post, according to sources familiar with the process.

Religion Clause: In Fields v. City of Tulsa, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136522 (ND OK, Nov. 28, 2011), an Oklahoma federal district court rejected an attempt by a Tulsa police officer to file a second amended complaint in his suit against the Tulsa Police Department.

Greeley Gazette: Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, told WND the move was alarming because “this would be the very first governmental and societal disapproval of a sincerely held religious belief, held by a majority of Americans, namely that homosexual behavior is immoral. “It’s the first time the federal government is writing into law a disapproval of that belief,” he said.

WorldNetDaily: For example, Blair participates in the annual Pulpit Freedom Day assembled by the Alliance Defense Fund that is intended to restore free speech to pastors who speak from their pulpits about the moral issues of the day. It is in opposition to an IRS rule that says pastors are not supposed to mention those issues in connection with political candidates.

NewsOK.com: The Oklahoma City Council added employment discrimination protection to gay and bisexual employees in city jobs by a 7-2 vote on Tuesday.

ADF Attorney Matt Sharp appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this. | MP3 audio 16:56 mins

Tulsa Beacon: “I respect the views of those who argue that no-fault divorce creates less havoc than the alternatives, but I question that orthodoxy,” McCullough said. “There is very little in the divorce process that is even remotely connected to the interest of the children.”

Tulsa Beacon: Alliance Defense Fund attorneys representing a community-led Christian club for students filed suit against the Owasso School District after it revoked the club’s ability to publicize its events as other community groups are allowed to do and discouraged the club from promoting itself anywhere in the community, including through the media.

Religion headlines in the media around the country | Deseret News (AP): The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Tulsa by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Owasso Kids for Christ. It alleges the school unconstitutionally prohibits the group from distributing religious flyers, from taking part in an open house and from using the school’s public address system.

Religion Clause: Insofar as teacher Martha Braun claimed she was dismissed because she was an Episcopalian, the court concluded that the school is protected by the exemption in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (42 USCS § 2000e-1) that permits religious educational institutions to hire and fire on the basis of religion.

The New American: “A Christian organization should not be targeted for discrimination when it is simply seeking to publicize its voluntary meetings just like other community groups do,” said ADF attorney Matt Sharp. “The district would have people believe that the Constitution requires a religious organization to be singled out in this manner when, in reality, the Constitution strictly prohibits this type of discrimination. The courts have repeatedly upheld this.”

ADF Attorney Matt Sharp at the Washington Examiner: In what has increasingly become a troubling sign of the times, an Oklahoma public schools district has barred a community-led Christian club for students from publicizing its before-school meetings on the Northeast Elementary campus.

Religion News In Brief | Fox News (AP): The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Tulsa by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Owasso Kids for Christ. It alleges the school unconstitutionally prohibits the group from distributing religious flyers, from taking part in an open house and from using the school’s public address system.

CBN.com: e lawsuit against Owasso Public Schools was filed in federal court this week by the Alliance Defense Fund.

Tulsa Beacon: “A Christian organization should not be targeted for discrimination when it is simply seeking to publicize its voluntary meetings just like other community groups do,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Matt Sharp. “The district would have people believe that the Constitution requires a religious organization to be singled out in this manner when, in reality, the Constitution strictly prohibits this type of discrimination. The courts have repeatedly upheld this.”

OneNewsNow.com: Matt Sharp, litigation staff counsel for Alliance Defense Fund . . . “All of the court cases on this have dealt with specifically this type of discrimination,” Sharp explains, “where all of the other community groups are allowed in, but a Christian religious group is specifically targeted and excluded because of its religious nature.” “Time and time again,” he adds, courts have held that under the First Amendment, such censorship is unconstitutional.

Huffington Post (embeds Fox 23 Video): “The school district cannot engage in that type of discriminatory behavior,” ADF attorney Matt Sharp told KOKI Fox 23. “The school has to remain neutral in all of this, it can’t pick and choose which group it likes or doesn’t like based on the religious content or viewpoint of their message.”

Religion News in Brief – The Washington Post (AP): The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Tulsa by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Owasso Kids for Christ. It alleges the school unconstitutionally prohibits the group from distributing religious flyers, from taking part in an open house and from using the school’s public address system.

KRMG.com: Owasso Kids for Christ is a before-school, Bible-based character building organization according to the Alliance Defense Fund’s Matt Sharp, the attorney handling the case.
“This is a straight-forward case of a school district singling out and discriminating against a Christian organization because of its religious identity,” he said.

The Republic (AP): The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Tulsa by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Owasso Kids for Christ.

Tulsa World: The complaint was filed Monday in Tulsa by local counsel Richard D. White Jr. and attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund, which on its website describes itself as “a servant organization that provides the resources that will keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel through the legal defense of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family.”

NewsOK.com: Matt Sharp of Georgia, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, said Tuesday the defense fund has filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the Kids for Christ Club of Owasso.

FOX23 News: The club used to send home flyers and permission slips with kids until the District told them they had to stop when it had its motto, “One Dream, One Vision, Reaching the World for Christ!” attached to the flyer. “The school district cannot engage in that type of discriminatory behavior,” says Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney, Matt Sharp. The ADF who represents the youth group is Christian legal team defending the right of people to live their faith. “That’s basically the Christian faith that’s showing love for Jesus to others, I don’t see how that is harmful to others,” says an Owasso mother.

Christian Post: “This is a pretty straight forward case of the school district impermissibly discriminating against a Christian community organization based on its religious message,” said Matt Sharp, an attorney representing OKC from the Alliance Defense Fund, in an interview with The Christian Post on Tuesday.

Bartlesville Radio: Attorney Matt Sharp of the Alliance Defense Fund claims the school district is targeting a Christian organization. Owasso Kids for Christ meets at Northeast Elementary School before school starts. It is open to students Kindergarten through Sixth Grade.

Religion Clause: Alliance Defense Fund announced Monday that it had filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of “Kids for Christ” against the Owasso, Oklahoma Public Schools challenging school policy that bars religious groups from distributing flyers in the schools, as well as posting signs and making announcement of their events

TruthDive: According to a Fox news report, Matt Sharp, an attorney representing the Kids for Christ, a community-led Christian group, is suing the Owasso Public Schools. Sharp, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, said the school district told the club it could no longer publicize its events, including discouraging organizers from spreading the word in the community and local media.

Fox News: “This is a simple matter of a school district targeting a Christian organization,” said Matt Sharp, an attorney representing the “Kids for Christ,” a community-led Christian group suing the Owasso Public Schools.

lliance Defense Fund attorneys representing a community-led Christian club for students filed suit Friday against an Oklahoma school district after it revoked the club’s ability to publicize its events as other community groups are allowed to do and discouraged the club from promoting itself anywhere in the community, including through the media.

“An Oklahoma judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked from taking effect a new law designed to reduce the number of abortions performed in the state by restricting the ways in which doctors can treat women with abortion-inducing drugs.”

Reproductive Services in Tulsa and the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice filed a legal challenge late Wednesday to a state law that restricts the use of abortion-inducing drugs.

KRMG.com: State lawmakers are looking into the possibility that the punishment for a crime may be too harsh.
A state prosecutor says sexting’ among teens is on the rise.

Tulsa Beacon: Gov. Mary Fallin, who campaigned on her genuine Christian values, has nominated an outspoken homosexual to a post on the important Oklahoma State Election Board.

Religion Clause: In Cleveland County, Oklahoma, a woman has filed suit is state court seeking a religious accommodation that would allow her to obtain a driver’s license with a low resolution photograph instead of the state-required high-resolution photo that captures biometric data. The complaint (full text) in Beach v. Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, (OK Dist. Ct., Sept. 21, 2011)

NYTimes.com: Master Sgt. Anthony Henry, a top Marine recruiting trainer for the southwestern United States, pulled up to Tulsa’s biggest gay community center on Tuesday morning and left his Chevy where he could make a fast getaway. “I have an exit strategy,” he said. “I know where my choke points are, I’ve strategically parked my car right on the curbside, I have an out.”

NewsOK.com: Judges who will decide whether Oklahoma can ban Islamic law from the state’s courts raised questions Monday about the effect of the ban and why it applies to only one religion.

NewsOK.com: The Democratic White House is struggling to find federal nominees that satisfy Oklahoma’s conservative senators.

Religion Clause Blog: In Adgeh v. Oklahoma, (10th Cir., Sept. 8, 2011), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in a brief opinion (after refusing to hear oral argument in the case) rejected as frivolous a claim that Oklahoma’s statute barring polygamy is unconstitutional.

The Washington Post: An amendment to Oklahoma’s constitution that bans state judges from considering Islamic law will face its next legal hurdle on Monday (Sept. 12) when a federal appeals court considers its constitutionality.

Religion Clause: Oklahoma School Districts Sue To Challenge Voucher Program: Yesterday’s Tulsa World reports that two Oklahoma school districts have filed suit in state court to challenge the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Act, as amended.

The Enid News and Eagle: This week Oklahoma learned it is No. 1 in yet another significant category. The Sooner State, it seems, is No. 1 in divorce

Tulsa World: We now have a president, and I don’t mean this disrespectfully, who is destroying these very institutions that made America great,” Inhofe, R-Okla., said.

OneNewsNow.com: Pro-lifers in Oklahoma have won a major court victory that will allow one organization to keep its records confidential to protect its supporters.

SandSpringsLeader.com: For as long as could be remembered, Sand Springs city councilors have been starting their meetings with a prayer. That custom is being challenged by a man who charges that the prayers violate the U.S. Constitution.

AP: Kansas is one of the five states – along with Alabama, Idaho, Indiana and Oklahoma – that enacted abortion bans this year modeled after the groundbreaking fetal-pain bill passed in Nebraska in 2010.

Religion Clause: : Earlier this month,in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., an Oklahoma federal district court held that Abercrombie & Fitch violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by refusing to hire a Muslim teenager because her religious belief requiring her to wear a headscarf violates the company’s “Look Policy” for sales models.

Newson6.com: Planned Parenthood and members of several other women’s rights groups rallied at the state Capitol Thursday afternoon to stop legislation the group says will hurt women in Oklahoma.

LifeNews: HB 1970 requires that abortion providers dispense abortion-inducing drugs only in the way tested and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and outlined in the drug’s label.

ACLU press release: The American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit late Monday, urging the court to uphold a ruling that blocked implementation of a discriminatory and unnecessary Oklahoma state constitutional amendment that prohibits courts from applying – or even considering – what is broadly described as Islamic “Sharia law” and “international law.” . . .

Religion Clause Blog: Last week, the Tulsa World reported that a number of Oklahoma parents of students with special needs have filed a federal lawsuit against Broken Arrow, Union, Jenks and Tulsa public school districts after those districts announced they would not comply with a 2010 state law setting up a voucher program for students with disabilities.

LifeSiteNews: Lawmakers in Oklahoma and neighboring Texas are taking steps to make sure that abortion providers stop ignoring Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines established for the abortion drug RU-486.

Religion Clause Blog: In what may be a stretch of the language in O.S. Sec. 43.7, the clerk’s office essentially accepted the Freedom from Religion Foundation as the equivalent of an ordaining religious organization that approved the applicants.

LifeNews: HB 1970 requires that abortion providers dispense abortion-inducing drugs only in the way tested and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and outlined in the drug’s label.

David Lapp at FamilyScholars.org: “I just received in the mail today a copy of Oklahoma’s 2001 baseline statewide survey on marriage and divorce. As many of you know, Oklahoma launched in 1999 the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative. One of the first things it did was to adminster this survey of Oklahoman’s marriage attitudes and behaviors. It has some interesting data. Here is some of the stuff that jumped out at me . . . | Hat tip: IMAPP

Reuters: Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin on Wednesday signed into law a prohibition on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, making it the fourth state to ban such late term abortions.

AP: epublicans have moved quickly to convert November election gains to legislative advances in the states. A look at some GOP successes, and setbacks, in the first months of the new order . . .

LifeNews: One bill, House Bill 1888, prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the scientific evidence showing unborn children have the capacity to feel intense pain. A second measure, Senate Bill 547, prohibits taxpayer funding of abortions via the state health insurance exchange created under the Obamacare law.

LifeNews: “The Oklahoma state Senate joined the state House in passing legislation that would make the state the next to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain. The Senate approved House Bill 1888, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act . . . ”

NewsOK.com: A bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks is unconstitutional, a group that has successfully challenged previous Oklahoma abortion laws claims.

“What’s different this year is not the raw number of anti-abortion bills, but the fact that many of the toughest, most substantive measures have a good chance of passage due to gains by conservative Republicans in last year’s legislative and gubernatorial elections.”

LifeNews: “The Oklahoma House has passed a bill that would prohibit human embryo destruction for experiments, by a vote of 86 votes in favor and 8 votes opposed.”

Tulsa World: An Ottawa County strip club remains open despite the arrest of its owner on several alcohol and nudity complaints.

Reuters: “The bill passed 94-2 without debate and will now go to the state Senate, said state Representative Pam Peterson, who sponsored the bill.”

Tulsa World: “The Senate passed a measure Tuesday that would require Senate confirmation of the appointments of judges across the state. Senate Bill 621 by Sen. Cliff Aldridge, R-Midwest City, passed by a vote of 30-14 and heads to the House.”

“As a handful of key pro-life bills are fighting their way to passage on Capitol Hill, pro-life legislators countrywide have mounted a a multi-faceted attack on the abortion industry with a surge of pro-life bills on the state level. Here is a roundup of the latest.”

LifeSiteNews: “Two important pro-life measures that which would restrict late-term abortions and opt the state out of coverage for elective abortions in the new national health care law have made their way out of committees in the Oklahoma legislature.”

Tulsa World: “Erik Stanley is senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, an alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations who defend people’s right to freely live out their faith. He said he is seeing an increasing number of cases of cities using zoning codes to restrict or outright prevent churches from building on their own land. Stanley said Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act in 2000 to prevent just that, but municipalities are ignoring the law or finding ways around it.”

Tulsa World: “Several bills that would restrict or possibly ban abortion have been introduced in the Oklahoma Legislature, causing many advocates for women’s reproductive rights to worry about the future of their services.”

Tulsa World: A handful of bills making it easier to fire public school teachers and expanding the use of charter schools across the state cleared a Senate panel on Monday, despite concerns from some Democrats that the proposals amount to an “assault” on public education.

A Senate committee has approved bills to expand the number of charter schools in Oklahoma and make it easier to fire public school teachers, despite concerns from some Democrats that the proposals amount to an “assault” on public education.