Tag Archives: State: Oregon

Religion Clause Blog: “In Hendricks v. Marist Catholic High School, (D OR, March 16, 2011), an Oregon federal district court refused to apply the ministerial exception to prevent a Catholic high school teacher from bringing an age discrimination claim after his teaching contract was terminated.”

OregonFaithReport.com: “At the February 22, 2011, Damascus City council meeting, officials took public comment on whether to include an invocation at the beginning of each meeting. About 20 residents offered opinions from both sides of the issue . . . ”

Oregon Live: “Only one, House Bill 3512, has been scheduled for committee action. It would make abortions illegal in Oregon after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in medical emergencies.”

KGW.com: “Oregon lawmakers are considering a bill that would keep picketers a certain distance away from funerals . . . In Oregon, HB 3241 would create 300-foot and one-hour buffer zones between picketers and memorial services.”

Beaverton Valley Times: “A pair of resolutions introduced to the Oregon Legislature would alter the state constitution to allow local governments to more easily regulate where adult entertainment businesses can locate. Oregon’s Constitution includes a strong protection for freedom of expression — stronger than the federal First Amendment protections — language that has been repeatedly interpreted to protect the rights of adult businesses in zoning fights with cities and counties.”

Seattle PI: “The Supreme Court has refused to toss out a defamation award to a fired pastor, despite claims by the church that dismissed him that its actions are protected by the Constitution’s religious freedom guarantees.”

Christian Post: “State Rep. Carolyn Tomei (D-Milwaukie) introduced House Bill 2721 to remove spiritual treatment as a defense for all homicide charge.”

Wall Street Journal: “News of the case spread through this state capital, sparking outrage. Yet one subset of the community sprang to the Kozlovs’ defense, holding demonstrations, filling the gallery at court hearings and flooding state officials with letters. Many of these supporters, Russian-born Christians like the Kozlovs themselves, believed the parents were disciplining their children according to Biblical law. In their view, the government was out to ‘destroy the family because of their faith,’ says Tatyana I. Bondarchuk, a counselor who helped brief authorities about the group.”

Religion Clause: “In McGuire v. Clackamas County Counsel, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5521 (D OR, Jan. 19, 2011), an Oregon federal district court adopted a magistrate’s recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140026, Nov. 10, 2010), and dismissed a free exercise challenge to the zoning laws of Clackamas County, Oregon.”

Statesman-Journal: “Protesters from both sides of the abortion debate are rallying today in Salem to mark the upcoming anniversary of Roe v. Wade.”

KBND: “More than one hundred Prineville residents showed up at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting to let them know they don’t want the City’s nativity scene to go away.”

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, Dawson produced circumstantial evidence of retaliatory discharge and sexual orientation hostile work environment, such that resolution of this action by summary judgment was error. We reverse and remand.

The Oregonian: “Oregon Attorney General John Kroger announced today that he will draft legislation that will make it illegal under state law to look at child pornography on the Internet . . . [the] announcement comes one day after the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that state law doesn’t make it a crime to look at child pornography while surfing the Internet if the viewer doesn’t purposefully download the images, print them out or pay for them.”

The Columbian: “Catholic Community Services of Lane County will stop accepting money from United Way because the organization gives money to Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon.”

Mail Tribune: “Ashland public schools can display a decorated pine tree if it is surrounded by symbols from other religious holidays, but in order to remain religiously neutral they should not display a Christmas tree alone, Superintendent Juli Di Chiro told the School Board Monday.”

KPTV: “The state labor commissioner and the state school superintendent have teamed up to create a model policy for religious clothing in Oregon schools.” | OR Dept. of Ed. Press Release and Model Policy

Associated Press: “Patrols around mosques and other Islamic sites in Portland have been stepped up as Muslim leaders expressed fears of retribution, days after a Somali-American man was accused of trying to blow up a van full of explosives during the city’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony.”

The Douglas County News-Review: “A federal jury is scheduled to decide in the spring whether a Douglas County clerk was wrongly fired after she objected on religious grounds to registering same-sex couples as domestic partners. Kathy Slater, who worked for the county for more than a decade before she was dismissed in February 2008, is seeking unspecified damages and attorney fees.”

Statesman-Journal: “An Eastern Oregon congregation that left the United Methodist Church has been sued over its finances. The Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church lawsuit alleges that members of the independent Ontario Community Church took property, funds and documents held in trust for the Methodist mission and ministry.”

The ABA Journal: “A jury agreed and awarded Tubra $355,000 in damages after it found officials falsely accused him of stealing from the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Vernonia, Ore.The judge differed with the jurors, though, and threw out the award. Following overwhelming precedent, he ruled that the First Amendment deprived the court of jurisdiction over the church and Tubra’s defamation claim against it.” John Elwood comments at the Volokh Conspiracy on Cook v. Tubra.

Religion Clause: “On Friday, a petition for certiorari (full text) to the U.S. Supreme Court was filed in Cooke v. Tubra. In the case, an Oregon state appellate court held that jurisdiction over an interim pastor’s defamation claim against his former church and two of its officers is not necessarily barred by the First Amendment.”

The Oregonian: “The Beaverton School District and Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education leaders announced this afternoon that they jointly agreed to return Stambaugh to his original student teaching placement in Beaverton starting late next week, according to a press release from both schools . . . In September, Stambaugh told a fourth-grader who asked whether he was married that he was not. When the student asked why, Stambaugh replied it was not legal for him to get married because he would choose a man.” | Related: Student-teacher ousted over same-sex “marriage” discussion with 4th grader

ADF Attorney David Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “On Tuesday, two national legal organizations filed amicus briefs in the Ninth Circuit supporting The Liberty’s case against Oregon State University. The Student Press Law Center and the National Legal Foundation both filed amicus briefs arguing that a federal district court should not have dismissed The Liberty’s case.”

Student Press Law Center: “The Student Press Law Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief October 19 urging a federal appeals court to reinstate the First Amendment challenge brought by the editors of an independent campus newspaper at Oregon State University whose newsracks were confiscated by the university . . . The SPLC brief supports the OSU Students Alliance brief previously filed by the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit legal-services organization representing the students. The brief was prepared with the assistance of SPLC Legal Fellows Laura Napoli and Adam Schulman.”

KGW.com: “Some homeowners in the West Slope area of Beaverton have become increasingly upset over a growing number of adult entertainment businesses opening in their community.”

KGW: “Seth Stambaugh, a student teacher at Sexton Mountain elementary school, was apparently dismissed after answering a fourth grader’s question about his marital status by saying it would be illegal for him to marry because he would choose to marry a man.”

“So holds Slater v. Douglas County (D. Or. Sept. 24, 2010).

LifeNews: “The city of Stayton, Oregon has reched a settlment with a pro-life advocate who said it violated his right to display pro-life signs featuring pictures of unborn children killed in abortions . . . Pearson was represented by Beaverton-based attorney Kelly Ford, who is a member of the Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life legal gorup. ADF attorneys argued that requiring Pearson to obtain a permit was a violation of his constitutional rights to free speech.”

Statesman Journal: “A settlement has been reached in the case of Frederick Pearson v. the city of Stayton regarding a civil-rights violation. Pearson of Oregon filed the lawsuit . . . for violating his right to display anti-abortion signs featuring images of aborted fetuses. It was Stayton’s first civil-rights lawsuit at the federal level . . . Pearson was represented by Beaverton-based attorney Kelly Ford, who is a member of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Tennessee-based organization of Christian attorneys advocating for religious freedom.”

Powell’s Books v. Kroger, No. 09-35153 (9th Cir. Sept. 20, 2010) Before: Ferdinand F. Fernandez, M. Margaret McKeown, and Richard A. Paez, Circuit Judges. Excerpts from the opinion follow McKEOWN, Circuit Judge: We consider here the constitutionality of a pair of …

Associated Press: “A jury will have to determine whether a man’s failure to disclose $150,000 on federal tax forms was an effort to smuggle money to Muslim fighters in Chechnya or just an oversight by an accountant.”

One News Now: “After intervention from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), an Oregon pro-lifer has won the right to display his signs on a public street corner.”

“Alliance Defense Fund attorneys secured a consent order Friday from a district court that requires the city of Stayton to allow a man to display pro-life signs on a public street corner.”

OregonLive: “Except this entrepreneur was a 7-year-old named Julie Murphy. Her business was a lemonade stand at the Last Thursday monthly art fair in Northeast Portland. The government regulation she violated? Failing to get a $120 temporary restaurant license. . . . Except this entrepreneur was a 7-year-old named Julie Murphy. Her business was a lemonade stand at the Last Thursday monthly art fair in Northeast Portland. The government regulation she violated? Failing to get a $120 temporary restaurant license.”

KATU: “KATU News has confirmed that an Oregon City couple, who are members of the Followers of Christ Church, will be indicted on a charge of criminal child mistreatment. A grand jury has indicted the couple and Clackamas County Prosecutors tell KATU the indictment should be filed by sometime next week.”

ADF attorney Jonathan Scruggs appeared on KFUO with Roland Lettner to discuss the case of a pro-life protester arrested for offensive signs in Oregon. | MP3 22:55 mins

ADF attorney Nate Kellum appeared on the Georgene Rice Show to discuss Pearson v. City of Stayton. | MP3 10:20 mins | ADF Media information on the case

Vatican Radio interviews Jeffrey Lena, the California-based attorney currently representing the Holy See in the Oregon case of Holy See vs John Doe: “What the Supreme Court did was decide that it wasn’t going to address a question which we had wished to bring before it. That was a question that on the substantive law I think we were right. The United States agreed with us, but the Supreme Court simply determined that at this time, it was not interested in hearing the case. The fact that it wasn’t interested in hearing the case, as I say, did not deny immunity and was no comment on the merits of our position.”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit over a ban against a pro-life effort in Stayton, Oregon. … ‘He went to the police station and had a long conversation with some police officials there,’ [Jonathan Scruggs] accounts. ‘The police officials basically said, “We don’t allow any signs that are offensive, and your signs with the images of aborted fetuses are offensive. Therefore, we’re going to prevent them from being displayed, and we’re going to prevent your speech.”‘” | ADF News Release

Statesman Journal: “An Oregon man has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Stayton for allegedly violating his right to display anti-abortion signs featuring images of aborted fetuses. … ‘Pro-life advocates shouldn’t be kept from expressing their beliefs simply because city officials or others may oppose their viewpoint or find it offensive,’ ADF Senior Counsel [Nate Kellum] said in a statement.” | ADF News Release

Catholic News Service: “The U.S. Supreme Court has left standing a lower court ruling that will allow an Oregon man to try to hold the Vatican financially responsible for his sexual abuse by a priest, if he can persuade the court that the priest was an employee of the Vatican. By declining to take Holy See v. John Doe, the court June 28 left intact the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said because of the way Oregon law defines employment, the Vatican is not protected under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act from potential liability for the actions of a priest who Doe, the unidentified plaintiff, said sexually abused him in the 1960s.” | Related: Charles J. Chaput: Suing the Church

Statesman Journal: “An Oregon man has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Stayton for allegedly violating his right to display anti-abortion signs featuring images of aborted fetuses. … ‘Pro-life advocates shouldn’t be kept from expressing their beliefs simply because city officials or others may oppose their viewpoint or find it offensive,’ ADF Senior Counsel [Nate Kellum] said in a statement.” | ADF News Release

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city of Stayton on behalf of a man who was approached by police officers and told he could not display his pro-life signs on a street corner.

AP: “The Oregon Medical Board has suspended the license of the Portland psychiatrist who plans a ‘death with dignity house’ for assisted suicides.”

Oregonian: “A Northwest Portland psychiatrist who the state has reprimanded for wrongly prescribing drugs says he plans to open a facility in the city and charge fees to help patients end their lives under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act.” | More from Wesley J. Smith at First Things.

ADF Attorney Heather Gebelin Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “Earlier this year, I posted about a new case we filed against Oregon State University officials because of their censorship of an independent student newspaper on campus. . . . The good news is that after being sued, the university finally relented, changed their policy, and allowed The Liberty to replace their distribution bins on campus, giving them access equal to the other student newspaper on campus. The bad news is that despite the fact that the paper’s distribution bins were banned from most areas of campus for nearly an entire year pursuant to OSU’s policy, the judge found that the students had suffered no constitutional harm and dismissed the case.”

South County Spotlight: “The Oregon Department of Education is asking the St. Helens School District to alter its proposed middle school sex education curriculum because the state agency says it violates state law by not adequately teaching about contraceptives.”

KTVZ: “A federal judge has upheld the new Oregon workplace meetings law prohibiting employers from firing workers who refuse to attend meetings to discuss politics, religious matters or union organizing.”

Associated Oregon Industries v. Avakian, No. 09-1494-MO (D. Ore. May 6, 2010)

ORS 659.785

The Daily Barometer: “The conservative-based OSU Students Alliance publication, The Liberty lost their fight in court against OSU . . . The controversy began over a year ago when OSU facility services removed several distribution bins around campus that belonged to The Liberty and put them in a nearby dumping ground . . . After months of unproductive talks between the publication and administration to have the bins put back, Rogers decided to take legal action, seeking the help of the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization that offers legal services.”

The Oregonian: “With supporters of religious freedom looking on, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed a bill this morning that will end Oregon’s ban on teachers wearing head scarves and other religious attire. The ban won’t lift until after the 2010-11 school year. The rationale for the delay is to give leaders of the state’s labor and education agencies plenty of time to write detailed regulations for carrying out the new law.” | For more information on the ban see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/wordpress/tag/state-oregon+category-religious-freedom/

Student Press Law Center: “Lawyers for The Liberty, an independent publication at Oregon State University, filed a motion for reconsideration after a judge ruled in favor of the university in a lawsuit filed by the paper . . . Though lawyers for the Liberty filed a motion for immediate relief, which would have required the university to allow the newspaper to again be distributed on campus, it was withdrawn after the university amended its fixed bin policy and allowed the paper to distribute again, said [Heather Gebelin Hacker], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund representing the Liberty.”

The Oregonian: “Now, state Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, wants to see that they don’t get milder material such as Playboy magazine. ‘Prisoners should be focused on rehabilitation rather than on personal gratification,’ said Smith.”

BallotPedia has issued this update with links to various ballot initatives.”

What’s the Cost of Living in Oregon These Days? A Fresh Look at the Need for Judicial Protections in the Death With Dignity Act
Andrew R. Page, 22 Regent U. L. Rev. 233 (2010)

“With the rise of the largest senior citizen population in our nation’s history on the horizon, as well as the increased cost of health care for both state and private industries, a judicial review process to oversee the Death with Dignity Act is essential to protect senior citizens against its potential abuses. In order to show the purpose and process of adjudicating Death with Dignity Act procedures, this Note unfolds in four parts. Part I explains the circumstances, both present and future, creating the potential for improper use of the Death with Dignity Act. Part II explains why the Death with Dignity Act, as presently written, does not provide adequate safeguards to protect citizens in light of those circumstances. Part III proposes an adjudicative procedure that a state may enact in order to provide sufficient protection for its citizens. Finally, Part IV provides the method for adjudicating Death with Dignity Act cases by using the example of the judicial bypass procedure for minors seeking an abortion. With a process of judicial review as a check on the procedures of the Death with Dignity Act, a state can confidently ensure the protection of patients, as well as the integrity of health care providers.”

Oregonian: Clackamas County Circuit Court Judge Steven Maurer sentenced Jeffrey and Marci Beagley to 16 months in prison this afternoon, calling the couple’s decision to not seek medical care for their 16-year-old son, Neil Beagley, a “crime that was a product of an unwillingness to respect the boundaries of freedom of religious expression.”

Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: . . . Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) reports that, “According to the Oregonian, yesterday by a vote of 21–9 Oregon’s state Senate approved House Bill 3686 repealing an 87-year old ban on teachers wearing religious dress in the classroom…. The state House of Representatives has already passed the bill, but it now goes back to the House because of two changes in wording made by the Senate.” . . .

MailTribune: “Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon plans to offer medication-induced abortions at its clinics in Ashland and Eugene beginning sometime in March.”

Tung Yin writes in the Oregonian: “Should public schoolteachers be allowed to wear religious garbs such as head scarves and turbans while teaching? Right now, Oregon law says no, but the Legislature is considering House Bill 3686, which would repeal that prohibition . . . Yet, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon is on record as opposing House Bill 3686, which has passed the House and is pending in the Senate . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “The Catholic Diocese of Baker, Oregon announced yesterday that it has severed ties with St. Charles Medical Center, in Bend, because the hospital has adopted practices that violate Catholic teaching and will not back down on them . . . the hospital has insisted on . . . performing tubal ligations, which is a form of sterilization for women and is thus in violation of Church teaching against such procedures.”

LifeSiteNews: “That trend, says the pro-life group, is evident in data collected in the past two months since Operation Rescue released a report that showed that over two-thirds of the nation’s abortion clinics have closed in the past 18 years . . . When Project Daniel 5:25 was released last December listing every abortion clinic in the United States, records showed 713 locations. Since then five abortion facilities have closed, although two more have opened, bringing the number down to 710 . . . ”

LifeNews: “The new abortion business will serve as the headquarters of the Planned Parenthood affiliate Planned Parenthood Columbia-Willamette and was built in the heart of an African-American community.”

Catholic News Agency: “Religious freedom advocates have asked the Oregon legislature for an immediate repeal of a decades-old law that bars Oregon teachers from wearing religious dress in public schools. The law, originally an anti-Catholic measure, was implemented with the support of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.”

Becket Fund: “Today, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and a coalition of interfaith, civil rights, and bar association organizations are advocating for the religious liberty of public school teachers in Oregon. In a letter to state legislative leaders, the coalition urged the immediate repeal of an Oregon law that forbids Oregon teachers from wearing religious dress in public schools.”

Religion Clause Blog: “According to KGW News8 Portland, yesterday in Oregon City, Oregon, a state court jury by a 10-2 vote convicted Jeff and Marci Beagley of criminally negligent homicide in the death of their 16-year old son.”

Wall Street Journal: “. . . Measure 66 increases Oregon’s personal-income-tax rate by two percentage points for households earning over $250,000 a year. Measure 67 calls for an increase in the state’s minimum corporate income tax, currently $10 a year, and imposes a tax on gross revenues for corporations that do not report a profit . . . ”

Death With Dignity’s Emerging Conceit: Could Vacco v. Quill Be Losing Its Appeal?
Arthur G. Svenson, 31 U. La Verne L. Rev. 45 (2009)

“The holding of one Montana judge, who discovered a fundamental right to PAD within enumerated state rights to privacy and dignity, is unlikely to have a parroting effect upon non-Montanan state judges reviewing the constitutional implications of death with dignity issues. After all, Montana’s is only one of five state constitutions that contain substantive enumerations of privacy rights, and for three of those that do, California, Florida, and Alaska, judges have already considered and denied pleadings that state privacy rights shield actions of patients and willing physicians from criminal prosecution for actions amounting to assisted suicide. For the Justices of the Supreme Court, the absence of a ‘careful description of [an] asserted fundamental liberty interest’ in the Bill of Rights that even remotely resembled PAD proved pivotal in convincing them to decline Glucksberg’s invitation to create such a right on their own. Given that reasoning, then, one could quite plausibly imagine that most judges in most states confronting similar state challenges on cognate state constitutional grounds would unhesitatingly follow the High Court’s lead and choose to defer to the prevailing forces at play in the political arena.”

KATU: “Teachers wearing turbans, head scarves or any kind of religious dress are currently banned from teaching in Oregon public schools . . . Sava Ahmed, who is Muslim, was one of several people to testify before state lawmakers urging them to repeal the law. Ahmed compared the ban against religious dress to employers requesting teachers to change the color of their skin.”

Mail Tribune: “‘We have to wait and see’ how the city enforces the ban, said Ralph Temple, a board member of the Southern Oregon chapter of the ACLU. ‘We will watch it closely.’”

Mail Tribune: “An Ashland City Council majority voted Tuesday night to adopt a citywide ban on nudity despite an American Civil Liberties Union threat to sue over the ban.”

The Oregonian: “A Coquille Indian Tribe law allowing same-sex marriage took effect this week, and two women plan to marry Sunday on the tribe’s Coos Bay reservation. Tribal member Kitzen Branting, 26, and her partner, Jeni Branting, 28, who now live in Edmonds, Wash., will become the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Oregon, though their marriage will be recognized only by the tribe.”

Hood River News: “A nativity scene set up at the southern end of the Bridge of the Gods has been challenged by the Freedom from Religion Foundation.”

Oregonian: “Owners of Cindy’s Bookstore, torn down in 2008 after repeated inspections, originally filed sued last month seeking $1 million from the city, Commissioner Randy Leonard, PGE, the city fire commissioner and others.”

Ashland Daily Tidings: “The Jackson County district attorney’s office says four southern Oregon teens won’t face felony charges in a ‘sexting’ case. Prosecutors have determined that the sexually explicit photos of minors the teens are accused of sending by text message don’t constitute child sex abuse.”

Liberty Counsel: “Principal Michelle Zundel of Bellview Elementary School in Ashland, Oregon, has banned Christmas trees and Santa Claus from her school.”

Daily Vanguard: “The Students Alliance and The Liberty are seeking equal rights to speak on campus according to their attorney, Heather Gebelin Hacker of the Alliance Defense Fund . . . ‘The defendants have been served and their answer to the complaint is due on Nov. 30,’ said Katie Blechacz, media relations manager of the Alliance Defense Fund.”