Tag Archives: State: West Virginia

Daily Mail: Jeremiah Dys, president and general counsel of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, an anti-abortion religious organization, called for greater regulation last week in announcing a lawsuit against one of the two Charleston clinics. Dys and the Alliance Defending Freedom, another conservative Christian group, are representing Itai Gravely in her lawsuit against Dr. Rodney Lee Stephens and the Women’s Health Center.

P.O. Box 566  w  Charleston, WV 25322  w  (304) 553-7616 w  www.familypolicywv.com   NEWS Release   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 15, 2013 CONTACT:  Jeremiah G. Dys, Esq. Phone: (304) 553-7616 E-mail:  info@familypolicywv.com FPCWV calls for immediate safety stand-down of abortion industry in WV   Urges lawmakers to reject a …

The Journal: More than 15 Musselman Middle School students were given in-school suspension this week due to alleged dress code violations, according to parents and students.

WV Record: Three church trustees of Apostolic Life Cathedral are suing the City of Huntington after they claim its municipal land use regulations will cause irreparable harm if they are forced to destroy a structure on their land instead of rehabilitating it.

Intelligencer Wheeling News-Register: They see the court also as a court that only reluctantly makes new law, whereas in the past I think they viewed it as a court that looked for opportunities to legislate.

WDTV.com: On Friday, the state Senate is scheduled to vote on a bill that would make a marriage voidable if either party without the other’s knowledge has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in jail.

World Net Daily: They’re targeting 12 key states: Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Alaska, Arkansas, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia. The strategy was profiled Monday by David Brody of CBN News. Brody said the groups – led by the American Renewal Project – are planning briefings for evangelical pastors, voter-registration drives and other events in an attempt “to restore American to its Judeo-Christian heritage.”

— The Family Policy Council of West Virginia, which is hosting the 2nd annual Gubernatorial Prayer Breakfast on the National Day of Prayer, announced Monday that famed WVU football coach Don Nehlen will present the May 2 event’s keynote address on the importance that prayer plays in life on or off the field.

LifeSiteNews: Planned Parenthood is not only facing an uphill battle in state legislatures seeking to deprive the organization of taxpayer dollars, it is also receiving a distinctly chilly welcome at some university campuses.

The Hill: Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) has a strong lead over possible Democratic contenders in the race to succeed Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), according to a new poll.

AP: The fissures within the Republican Party that some say cost the GOP control of the Senate have resurfaced just three weeks after the election. This time conservatives are targeting a popular veteran congresswoman from a storied West Virginia political family making a bid for Democrat Jay Rockefeller’s Senate seat in 2014.

Jeremy Dys at Engage Family Minute: This morning, I was invited to provide testimony before Subcommittee C of the Joint Committee on Education. The members wished to discuss the potential First Amendment ramifications concerning the state’s new rules related to harassment and bullying at school.

Religion Clause Blog: West Virginia is one of two states that have no religious exemption from requirements that students obtain immunizations before they can attend school.  AP reports that on Thursday, a West Virginia trial court continued a previously issued injunction requiring the Randolph County Board of Education to provide home instruction to high school senior Olivia Hudok who refuses immunizations for religious reasons.

WDTV.com: “Christian students have the right to peacefully express their faith at school. They do not shed their constitutional freedoms at the schoolhouse gate or in the stadium parking lot,” said Jeremy Dys, president and general counsel of the FPCWV. “Misinformed public school officials should not cater to pressure from activists who demand that religious students be silenced; rather, they should understand that the Constitution permits students to pray—and pray publicly—before football games.” . . . “Our government and courts have already spoken: students have a constitutionally protected right to participate in peaceful, public expressions of prayer and worship. Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Policy Council of West Virginia stand with students across West Virginia as they exercise their religious liberty,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Matt Sharp.

Attorneys with the Family Policy Council of West Virginia and Alliance Defending Freedom submitted a legal memoto Kanawha County Schools Wednesday in response to an atheist group’s recent demand that the district prevent public invocations before high school football games.

Business Week: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld West Virginia’s congressional voting boundaries, saying the population among districts can vary to protect incumbents and keep counties and cities intact. In an unsigned opinion with no dissents . . . | SCOTUS Blog report and link to the opinion.

Standard.net: Sissonville High School has stopped offering a prayer before football games after a national organization told school officials the practice is unconstitutional.

Carrie Severino at National Review: Last Friday the West Virginia Supreme Court stopped Allan Loughry, a candidate for the West Virginia supreme court, from receiving additional public funding — funding that was triggered after the campaign expenditures of Mr. Loughrey’s opponent, Justice Robin Davis, crossed a certain threshold. The court found, in part, that because Mr. Laughrey’s additional public funding could neutralize Justice Davis’s campaign expenditures, the funds would violate Justice Davis’s political speech rights.

AP: The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit claiming a Wood County middle school’s single-gender classes violate federal law.

VaccineNewsDaily: Six families in the state of West Virginia are suing the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources, claiming the agency cannot force new vaccine requirements upon schoolchildren.

Engage Family Minute: Here is how you can help.  Below is a petition we have started asking WVU to protect religious liberty.  Would you sign it?

Christian Concern: However, an attorney from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), David Cortman, said that a restaurant cannot be blocked from opening because of the owner’s beliefs. “It absolutely is not constitutional,” Cortman told the Baptist Press. “And I think the irony here is that they are claiming this is an issue of freedom and civil rights, but they’re actually the ones who would be violating the civil rights of Chick-fil-A not to allow them to open up their business simply because of their views.” Cortman said that the issue effected any business or organisation in America whose owners held views different from that of the government.

Newsmax: Both the Family Policy Council of West Virginia and Alliance Defending Freedom came to the defense of the restaurant chain on Friday after gay advocacy group Fairness WV urged university president James Clements to boot the restaurant, MetroNews reports.”The First Amendment protects Chick-fil-A’s right to express its opinion on marriage and other political and social issues and that any retaliation against Chick-fil-A based on its speech is a violation of federal law,” the Alliance’s senior counsel, David Cortman, wrote. In a separate but similar defense letter, Jeremiah Dys, president of the state’s Family Policy Council noted, “Were your office to approve the disassociation with a company who serves your students by selling chicken, you would undermine the very important lessons of free speech and tolerance that the university seeks to teach to its student body.”

Engage Family Minute: Following reports that West Virginia University (WVU) was considering agreeing to the demands of activists by retaliating against Chick-fil-A and removing them from campus, the president and general counsel of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia warned against the potential violation of Federal law . . . Copies of both letters are available at FamilyPolicyWV.com/action.

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 . . .

Charleston Gazette: Stephanie Dawn Thacker donned her vestment Tuesday afternoon as the first West Virginian woman to sit as a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph: Whether a high school’s choice of graduation venue was an issue of separation between church and state led to an emergency meeting of the Mercer County Board of Education Thursday.

LifeNews: The pro-life community in West Virginia had an excellent night during its primary election last night as 88 percent of the candidates the main statewide pro-life group endorsed made it past their primary and on to the general election.

P.O. Box 566 w  Charleston, WV 25322  w  (304) 881-5196  w www.familypolicywv.com NEWS Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 18, 2012 CONTACT: Jeremiah G. Dys, Esq.  Phone: (304) 881-5196 E-mail:  jeremydys@familypolicywv.com Family Policy Council of West Virginia Announces 2012 Gubernatorial Prayer Breakfast Hundreds expected to gather in …

West Virginia Record: West Virginia attorney Stephanie Thacker has been confirmed to a federal appeals court. The U.S. Senate voted 91-3 in favor of Thacker to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Monday evening.

Engage Family Blog of the WVFPC: On this week’s edition of Engaging the Issues, Austin Nimocks, Senior Legal Counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, discusses whether nondiscrimination laws can peacefully coexist with religious freedom. (Audio link)

Engage Family Minute: Evidently, the Kanawha County Commission voted in February to add, “sexual orientation” to their equal opportunity. Had we been aware, we could have at least countered the talking points that were clearly fed to them by activists for the “tolerance” agenda.
What is quite interesting to me, however, is some of the quotes from the county commissioners.

Engage Family Blog: On the final day of the 2012 Legislative Session, the West Virginia State Legislature approved H.B. 4605 a bill creating a premarital education option to applicants for marriage licenses in the state. The measure is aimed at strengthening the more than 13,000 marriages and reducing the more than 9,000 divorces that take place every year in West Virginia.

Engage Family Blog: Judy Sloane is the executive director of Labor of Love Ministries, a pregnancy care center in Morgantown, WV. For most of her adult life, Judy has been counseling young women to choose life over abortion, caring for them during their pregnancy, and loving their children once born.
But there is more to it than that . . .

The first part of the interview is available here. Part two can be accessed here.

News from The Associated Press: The Supreme Court has passed up a pair of cases for the online age – whether schools may censor students who are at home when they create online attacks against school officials and other students.

State Journal: Three West Virginia delegates are introducing a bill that would limit the activities of “sexually oriented businesses” in West Virginia.

State of the Family Address at (includes audio): My Fellow West Virginians, Tradition, as well as our state constitution, requires that the Governor of the State of West Virginia give an address at the commencement of the regular session of the legislature, “of the condition of the state.”

Tyler Star News: Dustin Turner, a St. Marys High School teacher and pastor of Middlebourne United Christian Fellowship, spoke at Monday night’s regularly scheduled Tyler County Board of Education meeting to request the board consider instituting spoken prayer as part of the their regular agenda. Members of his congregation also attended in support of the proposal but did not speak to the board.

LifeNews.com: The West Virginia state legislature has chosen a pro-life advocate to lead the state Senate as West Virginians for Life continues working with lawmakers to pass measures designed to protect unborn children.

“When you single out who is and who is not protected from bullies, that misses the point,” Dys said on Tuesday’s MetroNews Talkline. “Laws and school rules like this should govern objective action and not subjective characteristics of the victim.”

News from The Associated Press: The state Department of Education is taking public comments until 4 p.m. Tuesday about the 75-page student conduct and disciplinary policy that the Board of Education will consider Dec. 14.

HSLDA: t also does not appear that the state legislature has authorized the state board to promulgate rules or regulations regarding homeschooling in West Virginia. In fact, if there is any change needed, it in the area of deregulation—not increased regulation.

The Charleston Gazette: Fairness West Virginia, a statewide advocacy group that promotes civil rights and fair treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents, has launched a new campaign with the goal of creating effective anti-bullying policies in West Virginia.

West Virginia Record: harleston attorney Stephanie Thacker is President Obama’s pick to fill an opening on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A federal district court has struck down unconstitutional definitions of express advocacy and electioneering communications in West Virginia.

Engage Family Blog: What the outcome will be for West Virginia is not dependent upon what happened in New York, but there are lessons to be learned. One lesson ought to be painfully clear: what we have said from the beginning, what we have continued to predict would be the case has come true. Now is not the time for West Virginia’s lawmakers to ignore the issue. It is the duty of every lawmaker in West Virginia to secure the right of all West Virginians to vote on the definition of marriage.

LifeNews: Senator Joe Manchin, in a new interview, is defending the vote he cast earlier this year against legislation that would yank taxpayer funding from the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Religion Clause Blog: In Ruiz-Diaz v. United States, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50433 (WD WA, May 10, 2011), a Washington federal district court rejected a challenge to immigration rules that treat religious workers applying to adjust their immigration status to become permanent residents differently from those in various other employment-based preference categories.

WVMetroNews (includes video interview with Jeremiah Dys of the Family Policy Council of WV): “Our desire and our mission is to help people live lives that are congruent with their faith,” Exodus International Senior Director of Church Equipping and Student Ministries Jeff Buchanan said. | See also Engage Family Blog: Is the Gazette Right? Aren’t We All Defective?

W. Virginia Gazette: Exodus International plans a May 10 event at CMA Church in Morgantown to teach religious leaders how to minister to people who don’t want to be attracted to members of the same sex. The Family Policy Council of West Virginia invited Exodus to hold the seminar, the first of its kind that the Orlando-based group has held in the state.

LifeNews: The statewide pro-life group in West Virginia says that each of the Republican candidates for governor is pro-life as is Democratic primary election candidate Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.

WVGazette.com: Now 23, Milam is the first full-time staffer for Fairness West Virginia, a group founded in 2009 that advocates for gays and lesbians. One of his biggest challenges as program director, he said, is to show state leaders that rural communities have a stake in gay-rights issues.

LifeNews: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is earning strong criticism from a pro-life group who says the self-declared pro-life senator who is working overtime to cover up his support for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Charleston Daily Mail: But an anti-abortion group that has consistently endorsed Manchin in elections, West Virginians for Life, scorned his proposal as “irrelevant” and “a cover,” saying the former governor isn’t really interested in stopping taxpayer-funded abortions.

Family Policy Council of West Virginia: The Family Policy Council of West Virginia is pleased to announce that it is seeking applications for the position of Director of Development. Qualifications for this position are described as . . .

Religion Clause Blog: In Workman v. Mingo County Board of Education, (4th Cir., March 22, 2011), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld West Virginia’s statute requiring vaccination for various diseases as a condition of attending school.

WV Gazette: “West Virginia will not add sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination laws, at least not this year. Lawmakers didn’t act in time on a pair of bills (SB226, HB2045) . . . ”

WVRecord.com: “The push for an intermediate appellate court is now headed to the House of Delegates. The state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to create a three-judge panel to hear appeals . . . he proposed legislation, Senate Bill 307 . . . ”

Jeremy Dys writes at the Engage Family Blog: “Downtown, 134 lawmakers took the time to affirm the life-saving, women’s health-loving, family-supporting work of the thousands of staff and volunteers who support their local PCC (maybe you call them Crisis Pregnancy Centers). Uptown, supporters of an unfettered abortion industry dodged the rain and the use of the word “abortion” except to point out how mean “anti-abortion” people were and how Planned Parenthood – who performed more than 330,000 abortions in 2009 – does not use Federal Funding to perform abortions (note how they never deny doing them, just not using your tax dollars to do it). I feel sorry for PP, what with all the scandal and proposed cuts in funding! So, I’m offering them some advice to help them tighten their budgetary belts and, while I’m at it, put a few fallacies to rest. So, here’s what I might tell Planned Parenthood if I were their budget analyst . . . ”

WV Gazette: “Sam Hall, the gay miner who sued a Massey subsidiary in December, will be at the Statehouse on Monday. He’s scheduled to appear at a 9 a.m. press conference organized by the group Fairness West Virginia to push for a pair of bills (SB226 and HB2045) that would add age and sexual orientation to the state’s Human Rights Act.”

WHSV.com: “No regular health insurance policy, public or private, could cover abortion services in West Virginia under legislation advancing in the House of Delegates.”

Engage Family Blog: “In a joint letter sent on Monday to each candidate running in the special election for governor, leaders from West Virginians for Life and the Family Policy Council of West Virginia (FPCWV) challenge lawmakers to sign the, “Vote for Life” Pledge. The letter, signed by Karen Cross and Jeremiah Dys, also urges the pro-life community in West Virginia to commit to voting only for a candidate who refuses the millions of dollars the abortion industry offers to many candidates today.”

Family Policy Council of West Virginia: Eleven members of the West Virginia House of Delegates introduced the West Virginia Grieving Parents Act (HB3043), or “Bobby’s Law,” on Monday, February 7, 2011. The proposed legislation would close a legal loophole that has prevented parents of the legal means they need in order to bury, and properly grieve for, their stillborn or miscarried child.

Jeremiah G. Dys, president and general counsel of The Family Policy Council of West Virginia, writing in the Charleston Gazette: “Faced with an agonizing loss, Cassandra and her family began making plans for mourning little Bobby James. But, because of a loophole in West Virginia’s law, they were not allowed to do so. Because Bobby did not weigh enough, the law did not allow for the hospital to issue a birth certificate. Because they could not get a birth certificate, they were unable to get a death certificate. And without a death certificate, Cassandra and Jason would not be able to bury their son.” | The Family Policy Council of West Virginia press release.

OneNewsNow: “‘The university is the entity that decided to let the students choose, and then once the students chose overwhelmingly to include prayers in the ceremony, the university decided that . . . it would not allow that to happen,’ reports Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney [Travis Barham].”

ADF President and CEO Alan Sears writing at Inside the Issues: “The fight goes on, to protect the vital freedom of health care professionals to honor their conscience and religious convictions, particularly with regard to abortion. Please pray that Christian medical professionals across the country will continue to stand for that freedom, and that ADF will continue to be blessed to successfully defend those stands.”

West Virginia Public Broadcasting: “‘The issue here now is no longer prayer, the issue is can students advance their perspective as to whether prayer should be included or not without being retaliated against and that is where the university has crossed a clear constitutional line,’ said [ADF attorney Travis Barham].”

Charisma Magazine: “Will West Virginia University-Parkersburg officials reverse their decision to eliminate all student speakers from its nursing program’s pinning ceremony on account of a prayer request? Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys have sent a second letter strongly urging the school to do just that . . . ‘Christian students shouldn’t be censored for expressing their beliefs. Retaliating against students who simply asked to exercise their freedoms at a public graduation ceremony by removing all student speakers is simply unacceptable,’ says ADF Litigation Counsel Travis Barham.”

The Engage Family Blog: “In September of 2010, Cassandra experienced complications with her pregnancy. Rushed to the hospital, the doctors did all they could to save the pregnancy. But, at only 20-weeks into the pregnancy, little Bobby James was born. Too weak to survive, Bobby died within minutes . . . Because of a shortcoming in West Virginia law, the hospital could not issue a birth certificate. Without a birth certificate, Cassandra and Jason could not get a death certificate.” | Jeremy Dys discusses the issue on “The Catholic Connection,” a production of the Ave Maria Radio Network.

ADF sends second letter to university after officials retaliate with ban of student speakers from nursing program’s pinning ceremony

ADF attorney Travis Barham writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “For years, students graduating from the West Virginia University, Parkersburg nursing program had regularly included prayers in their pinning (i.e., graduation) ceremonies. And in mid-November, University officials told students that they needed to vote on three issues regarding their ceremony and that the majority vote would carry the day. One issue was whether to include an invocation and benediction, and the students voted overwhelmingly (40-to-4) to include them . . . But the University responded differently. Suddenly saying that a 100% vote was required, it banned all prayer from the ceremony.”

Engage Family Blog: “The Family Policy Council of West Virginia (FPCVW) announced Monday that it is asking West Virginia lawmakers to support proposed legislation, the ‘Grieving Parents Act,’ which will close a legal loophole that has prevented parents of the legal means they need in order to bury, and properly grieve for, their stillborn or miscarried child.”

The Engage Family Blog: “In a prepared statement Tuesday, West Virginia Family Foundation spokesman Kevin McCoy discussed a marriage amendment set to appear in the West Virginia legislature. He called the amendment an effort of bi-partisan lawmakers and spoke frankly on what the amendment would accomplish.”

West Virginia Family Policy Council / The Engage Family blog: “A servant organization that advocates for policies that embrace the sanctity of human life, enrich marriage, and safeguard religious freedom released its 2011 Legislative Agenda. Among its legislative priorities for 2011, the Family Policy Council of West Virginia (FPCWV) will encourage lawmakers to strengthen marriage, support grieving parents, protect students, and honor the culture of life.”