Tag Archives: State: South Carolina

News from The Associated Press: South Carolina drivers can buy religious license plates that feature three crosses and a sunrise.

WBTV 3: Move over Cherokee Casino, the Catawba Indian Nation wants a piece of the action and plans to go to great lengths to do so.

NBC Politics: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who just a few days ago seemed poised to capitalize on his New Hampshire primary victory to win South Carolina, failed to appeal to conservative, lower-income, and evangelical Christian voters in the state, which led to Saturday’s victory for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Rasmussen Reports: The latest telephone survey of Likely GOP Primary Voters in the state finds Gingrich with 33% support to Romney’s 31%. Two days ago, before the last debate, it was Romney by 14 percentage points.

The Hill: Five board members of the Palmetto Family Council, a leading South Carolina group of social conservatives, plan to endorse Rick Santorum after a series of meetings looking to coalesce around a candidate, one of the leaders told The Hill Wednesday evening.

Politico Poll: Several polls released during the past few days show that Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is drawing close — or even surpassing — front-runner Mitt Romney in South Carolina, where the primary election is Saturday. Politico offered the latest evidence Thursday.

News from The Associated Press: The Greenville-Spartanburg area, home to many of South Carolina’s evangelical voters, should be prime political ground for Rick Santorum, a longtime anti-abortion crusader who was embraced by a group of Christian leaders meeting last weekend in Texas.

Reuters: South Carolina will sue the administration of President Barack Obama over its rejection of the state’s new requirement that voters provide a photo ID, Attorney General Alan Wilson said on Tuesday.

American Civil Liberties Union: The board of the Chesterfield County School District voted tonight to adopt a proposed settlement agreement that would put an end to the district’s pervasive practice of school-sponsored prayer, preaching and religious activities aimed at students.

Reuters: South Carolina cannot enforce several key areas of its new law aimed at curbing illegal immigration, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

The Hill: The National Labor Relations Board has dropped its controversial case against airline manufacturer Boeing, which had become a lightening rod for conservatives.

Charlotte Observer: Union sued in federal court Monday, claiming that public schools in Chesterfield County are unconstitutionally promoting Christianity. | Related ACLU press release

ADF Attorney Nate Kellum at Townhall: The bottom line: the HCC has Constitutional protection and a real opportunity here to bring joy into the lives of the patients at the cancer center, simply by lifting the ban on the “religious aspects” of Christmas.

Liberty Counsel: Liberty Counsel sent a letter to a cancer treatment center, demanding it extend its reversal of a decision to ban Santa Claus to now also allow Nativity scenes and other religious Christmas symbols. The Hollings Cancer Center, a state-funded institution in South Carolina, decided to ban all Christmas displays from its facilities. Two days later, they reversed the decision and let Santa Claus sneak in, but for now baby Jesus is still out in the cold.

Fox News: A South Carolina cancer center that gave Santa Claus the boot has reversed its decision, but said they will ban any Christmas decorations that are religious in nature – including the Nativity.

The Cheraw Chronicle: The Christian rock concert and rally at New Heights Middle School in Jefferson two months ago has the Chesterfield County School District answering to accusations of having violated constitutional principles separating church and state. David Huff, the lawyer representing the school district, had little to offer in the form of documentation in his official response to the demands of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).

Christian Post: The South Carolina Episcopal Church may break from the National Episcopal Church because of its acceptance of homosexuality, among other things, according to a statement from the diocese.

WYFF Greenville: The senior staff of Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue Division has been told they may no longer start their monthly meetings with a prayer.

Religion Clause: The Freedom from Religion Foundation announced yesterday two separate complaints to school officials about religious activities.

AP: Misty Umphries, a mother who waits at the stop with her children, says she had to explain to her 4-year-old the meaning of “topless.”

SeattlePI.com: A federal judge sided Monday with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in a dispute with organized labor, ruling that federal labor laws don’t prohibit “the expression of political animosity toward unions.”

Politico: As if his intentions weren’t clear already, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is planning to make sure America considers him a presidential candidate in remarks planned for Saturday in Sourth Carolina.

The Post and Courier: Graham said he “will not be intimidated” by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

FoxNews.com: Republicans are calling on the National Labor Relations Board to dismiss its complaint against Boeing and get out of the way of job creation, though Democrats argue Boeing is violating the law by retaliating against union employees.

ThinkProgress: January-February 2011: The Alliance Defense Fund, Family Security Matters, and other neoconservative/Christian-right groups e-mailed action alerts promoting the South Carolina bill.

WSPA.com: Some students in Laurens County School District 55 say they will still pray at graduation, despite the districts decision to keep school-endorsed prayer out of the commencement ceremony.

WSPA.com: In the past the district left it up to students to vote on whether they wanted to have a prayer. But this year a student says a school endorsed prayer is not legal and so he contacted the Freedom from Religion Foundation about it.

MidlandsConnect.com: South Carolina lawmakers are proposing a bill that would give the state another form of legal tender. Sen. David Thomas, a Republican from Greenville, wants to make gold and silver coins another option in the Palmetto State. Lawmakers are calling it the Sound Money Legislation.

Jim McNereny at the Wall Street Journal: Washington’s actions have assaulted the capitalist principles that have sustained America’s competitiveness since it became the world’s largest economy nearly 140 years ago.

Michael Reagan at Townhall: Restriction of movement — telling citizens or groups they cannot travel or relocate freely. We are now witnessing a shocking example of that dictatorial practice at the hands of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is insisting that a major U.S. employer may not move some of its operations from one state to another because to do so might somehow violate workers’ rights.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: A complaint that Boeing illegally retaliated against Washington workers by putting its second 787 Dreamlinerassembly line in South Carolina is not unusual, National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon said Monday.

AP: A federal judge says the U.S. Justice Department can join a lawsuit challenging a South Carolina jail’s policy barring inmates from any reading material other than the Bible.

LifeNews: A move to strip funding for rape and incest abortions from the state employees’ health insurance plan failed by one vote Wednesday in the Republican-controlled South Carolina Senate.

Baptist Press: Some University of South Carolina students say the school should not award an honorary doctorate to Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright because of his and the denominations’ stance against homosexuality and “gay marriage,” but Wright says he and the SBC are simply reflecting clear biblical teachings.

LifeSiteNews: n August of last year Jessica Council – a beautiful, 30-year-old mother of one – noticed that she had a sore throat. At around the same time, she also began to suspect that she was pregnant . . .

“A federal judge has ruled in favor of an Upstate school district in a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of giving high school credit for Bible courses taken off school grounds.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Florence, South Carolina yesterday, the Florence School District 1 board unanimously but reluctantly banned administrators from sending religious messages to school employees.”

Washington Post: South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters Wednesday that he will block votes on any nominations until he is assured that $40,000 will be devoted to a study related to deepening the Port of Charleston.

Freedom from Religion Foundation: The Freedom From Religion Foundation plans to appeal a district court decision out of South Carolina upholding a school policy that granted credit for religious release time into student grade point averages. The case would go before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

LifeNews: The South Carolina state House approved pro-life bills yesterday by wide margins, including legislation to keeps abortion out of government and private health insurance exchanges created under the new health care law.

Herald Online: “Members of the S.C. House’s budget-writing committee voted Wednesday night to give the schools, organized under the state’s charter school district, $25million in state money in the budget year that starts July 1.”

The State: “One, which the House has approved several times before, would expand the definition of a “person” and “child” in S.C. laws to include premature babies born, no matter what stage of development, and those who survive abortions.
The second bill would allow healthcare workers to refuse to perform work tasks that they object to on moral or religious grounds.”

Midlandsconnect.com: “Health insurance companies would only be able to offer coverage of abortions if people pay a separate premium in South Carolina under a proposal that critics say would effectively end all insurance for the procedures.”

CNN: “A baby boy is clinging to life at a South Carolina hospital, three days after being abandoned in an arena toilet after a circus show, police said.”

Human Events: “A legislative initiative aimed at preventing ‘a court or other enforcement authority’ from enforcing foreign law in the Palmetto State was introduced today in both the S.C. House and Senate by Rep. Wendy Nanney (who drafted the bill) and Sen. Mike Fair respectively, who say the bill will preempt violations of a person’s constitutional rights resulting from the application of foreign law.”

WNCT: “South Carolina senators are considering whether to legalize friendly games of poker.”

Columbia Free Times: “The 2011 legislative agenda for the Republican majority in South Carolina’s House of Representatives will include many bills the chamber has dealt with before, but one issue made it on the list this year that’s never gotten such high-profile early play.”

Miami Herald: “A pair of bills were pre-filed last month in the House and Senate, prohibiting minors ages 12-17 from electronically transmitting photographs depicting themselves or other teens ‘in a state of sexual activity or a state of sexually explicit nudity.’”

Keen News Service: “The ruling jeopardizes the legality of all other such ‘second-parent adoptions’ in the state . . . [Nancy Polikoff, Professor of Law at American University] noted that conservative groups like the Alliance Defense Fund ‘are willing to work on any case seeking to undo any parenting by a non-bio mom’ but does not believe the attack on second-parent adoptions in North Carolina heralds a trend.”

SCNow.com: “The Hartsville Planning Commission voted to send an ordinance to regulate adult businesses to Hartsville City Council with recommendation and also voted to recommend that council adopt a new ordinance on nuisances related to unkempt or overgrown lots.”

“The Supreme Court said parts of Greenville’s ordinance are ‘unconstitutionally vague because the words “humiliate,” “insult,” and “scare” are not sufficiently definite to give reasonable notice of the prohibited conduct.’”

The Sun News: “[A Charleston County mother] said her daughter was taken to the clinic by someone who worked for Carolina Empowerment Group, a nonprofit community organization whose goal is to increase awareness of and prevent teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and substance abuse. The group has an office at Burke High and access to students, but the school district doesn’t pay for its services.”

Walker Humphrey, Dennis the Menace?: An Analysis of Whether the Episcopal Church’s Dennis Canon Entitles the Church to an Exemption from Neutral Trust Law (September 27, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1683775

“In 1979, the Episcopal Church amended its canons to include a provision whereby all dioceses and local churches agreed to hold their property in trust for the national church. The Dennis Canon, as it is known, was a response to a schism within the church and an attempt by the church to preserve real property owned by local churches. Many courts construing the effect of the Dennis Canon have found it applies even when common law trust principles would provide otherwise. However, the Supreme Court of South Carolina recently refused to give effect to it, stating it has “no legal effect.” This paper discusses whether United States Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, specifically a hybrid rights analysis under Employment Division v. Smith, requires courts to give effect to the Dennis Canon and grant the Episcopal Church an exemption from neutral trust laws when necessary.”

Christian Science Monitor: “When he first spotted the strange graffiti, Mushtaq Hussain thought it was a juvenile prank: Somebody had used bacon strips on a sidewalk in front of a Florence, S.C., mosque to spell out the words ‘PIG’ and ‘CHUMP.’”

SCNOW: “Last week, the Hartsville Planning Commission postponed sending a recommendation to Hartsville City Council for an ordinance regulating sexually-oriented businesses in the city while one of its members reviews a model ordinance after the city attorney said certain provisions of the model appear to be unconstitutional.”

Associated Press: “A South Carolina jail was sued Wednesday over its policy barring inmates from having any reading material other than the Bible.”

LifeSiteNews: “A Tennessee abortionist was arrested, but released on $25,000 bail Saturday after brandishing a gun at pro-lifers peacefully witnessing outside a Charleston clinic.”

“The amicus brief sent Friday to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said that the Constitution does not require marriage to include same-sex couples. The 39-page brief also said that states, not federal courts, have final say in whether to allow same-sex marriages.”

Star-Tribune: “Wyoming and nine other states will file a legal brief today saying a federal court ‘exceeded its judicial authority’ when it ruled that the U.S. Constitution requires legal marriage to include same-sex couples. In the amicus brief, which will be filed late this afternoon in the case of Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, the states disagree with the court’s ruling that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right.”

Yesterday, a federal court ruled that South Carolina cannot force advocacy groups to become political committees simply because they spend more than $500 “to influence the outcome of an elective office.”

Miami Herald: “South Carolina voters who support abortion rights have no choice in November’s gubernatorial election. For the first time in recent history both the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor are anti-choice.”

Associated Press: “Attorney General Henry McMaster says the plate designed by a nonprofit group is legal. That opinion comes nine months after a federal judge barred the state from making legislatively approved plates with the religious message.”

South Carolina’s Sexual Conduct Laws After Lawrence v. Texas
Marghretta Adeline Hagood, 61 S.C. L. Rev. 799 (2010)

“In Lawrence, the Supreme Court found that a Texas law criminalizing consensual homosexual sodomy violated the right to privacy, which is a subset of substantive due process. This Note will show how, in the wake of the Lawrence decision, South Carolina’s criminal laws proscribing private consensual adult sexual activity are unconstitutional because they intrude into a constitutionally protected zone of individual liberty.”

Herald-Journal: “Gov. Mark Sanford this morning signed a bill making it mandatory that a 24-hour wait period be established before an abortion is administered in the state of South Carolina.”

WSPA: “Monday night, Spartanburg County Council voted 4 to 3 in favor of adopting a prayer policy . . . The new policy says an invocation will continue, however, ‘no person shall proselytize or advance any one faith or disparage any other faith.’”

Spartanburg Herald-Journal: “Spartanburg County Council will formalize its policy on invocations at public meetings Monday, as prayer in the public square continues to be under increased scrutiny . . . Local officials met with state Attorney General Henry McMaster and other attorneys — including those with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian organization — to formulate the new policy.”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund has helped three government entities in South Carolina with prayer policies . . . ‘They received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation demanding that they stop opening up with prayers,’ [ADF Attorney Brett Harvey] explains, ‘and asking that they either do a moment of silence or ban prayers altogether during the city council meetings.’”

CNSNews: “‘America’s founders opened public meetings with prayer, and public officials today should be able to do the same,’ Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) senior legal counsel Brett Harvey said in a statement on Friday. ‘We were happy to assist the city of Woodruff with a prayer policy that can be followed with confidence.’” | ADF News Release

Aiken Standard: “The Aiken City Municipal Building echoed with a united ‘amen’ from hundreds of residents Monday night during a prayer rally . . . Jay Thompson, an allied attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a national group that advocates religious freedom, said that he was not aware of any law passed by the U.S. Supreme Court that stated that one could not specify a public prayer to a single religion.”

The city of Woodruff adopted an invocations policy Tuesday recommended by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, which ensures local officials can continue their constitutionally protected practice of prayer before public meetings despite recent threats from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Spartanburg Herald-Journal: “City Council voted unanimously and without discussion Tuesday night to formalize a prayer policy that officials here say is consistent with state law and won’t exclude people who have different beliefs than the person offering the invocation at public meetings . . . Woodruff’s prayer policy was drafted by city officials, local attorneys and those with the Alliance Defense Fund — a Christian organization.”

Spartanburg Herald-Journal: “The Woodruff City Council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. today to discuss and take action on a prayer policy for council meetings . . . Woodruff’s prayer policy was drafted by city officials, local attorneys and those with the Alliance Defense Fund — a Christian organization.”

ADF’s Weekly Update is on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqx4oW9nYo0

Aiken Standard: “A local church is reacting to the recent questioning of Aiken City Council’s usage of prayer during public meetings by holding a rally. The Aiken Prayer Rally, sponsored by members of the Lakeside Baptist Church in Clearwater, will be held on the same day and in the same building as the next City Council meeting on Aug. 9.”

Christian Post: “Attorneys with a Christian legal firm have urged mayors in South Carolina and Florida not to give in to the demands of atheists by removing Christian invocations from their council meetings. ‘[W]e write to assure you that the Constitution clearly still protects the cherished practice of opening invocations,’ Brett Harvey, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, wrote in a letter to Mayor Gow Fields of Lakeland, Fla.” | ADF News Release