Tag Archives: Topic: Colleges

Greg Baylor at Townhall: The State of Florida is punishing students who choose Florida Christian College (FCC), simply because the school is religious. Through the Florida Resident Access Grant (FRAG) program, the state provides over $2,000 in annual tuition assistance to qualifying students who attend private colleges and universities in the state. In order to participate, a student must attend a college that has “a secular purpose.

ADF Attorney Greg Baylor on 99.5 FM WRNO with Denny Schaffer Show to discuss the suites (Geneva College) and (Louisiana College) | MP3 audio 6:30 mins

ADF Attorney Matt Sharp on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss this: UNC-Greensboro: Christian club isn’t religious. | MP3 audio 5:30 mins

ADF Attorney Travis Barham on on The Bottom Line with Roger Marsh & Dave Householder to discuss this: UNC-Greensboro: Christian club isn’t religious. | MP3 audio 23:45 mins

News & Record: Attorney Jeremy Tedesco of the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed the lawsuit Feb. 29 on behalf of student Bryn Carmichael, said UNCG overstepped its bounds in trying to tell an organization whether or not it is religious.

Legal Insurrection: Baer spoke at length about how, in their rush to ensure that they’re not promoting religious values, state-run and other “non-sectarian” schools actually end up promoting a dangerous brand of secular humanism that effectively acts as a religion in which one worships one’s self.

he decision of Florida education officials to exclude students at Florida Christian College in Kissimmee from a state grant program open to other religious and non-religious schools prompted Alliance Defense Fund attorneys to file a federal lawsuit Thursday.

Washington Post: Since November, at least eight lawsuits have been filed in federal district courts across the country challenging the constitutionality of the rule, which requires employers, including church-affiliated organizations that object to contraception on religious grounds, to cover birth control in workers’ health plans with no out-of-pocket charges.

AnnArbor.com: Ward sued EMU in 2009, but lost in the lower courts. Ward and her attorneys, the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal organization that works to uphold the rights of religious college students and faculty, appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District.

Nathan Harden at the National Review: In today’s feature story at The College Fix, Meredith College freshman Julia Dent reports the latest on the UNC-Greensboro case . . . Alliance Defense Fund attorney Jeremy Tedesco filed a federal lawsuit on the club’s behalf on February 29 . . . “Saying that a Christian club isn’t religious is flatly absurd,” Jeremy Tedesco said, “especially when the university has granted its belief-based exception to numerous other clubs . . . Click here to read the rest of the story.

The Spectrum: The UB Students for Life club, which advocates a pro-life stance on abortion, became a temporary club last year after being ignored by the SA and disrespected by those of high office at UB. Once the club received temporary status, it saw its presentations destroyed and faced animosity from students and other clubs on campus.

The Observer: This is the first installment in a three-part series about the experience of LGBTQ students at Notre Dame in light of recent requests that the University grant club status to a gay-straight alliance.

Washington Post: So in addition to igniting a highly personal national debate about mandated coverage of contraceptives, Fluke’s testimony has also prompted discussions about the range of rules governing students at religious colleges.

The State Hornet: Los Angeles City College art student Jonathan Lopez’s public speaking professor called him a “fascist bastard” in 2008 during Lopez’s speech on faith and marriage (Alliance Defense Fund, 2009).

Wasington Post: Student loan debt stands at $870 billion nationally, surpassing the nation’s outstanding balance on auto loans ($730 billion) and credit cards ($693 billion) . . .

One News Now: “Despite all the clear evidence that the group clearly has a religious mission … purpose, and goals and is a religious group, [the school says] Well, you’re not religious. You don’t get the benefits of recognition and the benefit everybody else has on campus, which is to restrict their members and leaders to students who agree with their beliefs,” he details.

The New American: ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco said that the university appeared to be giving itself the sole authority to determine which student groups are religious and which are not. “Saying that a Christian club isn’t religious is flatly absurd,” he said, “especially when the university has granted its belief-based exception to numerous other clubs.”

Christian Newswire: Ave Maria School of Law (AMSL) announced today that the inaugural issue of the International Law Journal has been published.

LA Times: A report Monday adds to the alarm bells. In it, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says it’s likely that as many as one out of four borrowers are carrying a past-due student loan balance.

NY Magazine: Whereas, many legal degrees are no longer worth the paper they’re printed on; and whereas, the institutes issuing those J.D.’s might be inflating their job-placement rates; and whereas, a lot of unemployed graduates feel cheated out of the lives they thought they’d been promised; now, therefore, be it resolved: They had no choice but to sue.

One News Now: Under mounting pressure from pro-”gay” activists, the student government at a university in Boston voted down a proposal to bring a Chick-fil-A franchise on campus.

Patrick J. Reilly at the Washington Times: What has the liberal media all flustered is Mr. Santorum’s frank criticism of America’s colleges and their frequent hostility toward traditional religious values. What goes on today at most colleges is offensive and destructive from a moral perspective.

Christian Post: In an interview with The Christian Post, Tedesco explained that as with other cases, members of the club came to the ADF, which concluded that the situation “warranted legal action.” “The folks on the ground know of us,” said Tedesco, “we evaluated it and decided that it warranted legal action.”

NCPA Policy Digest: Columbia University looked at federal aid data from 1996 to 2008 and found that, on average, colleges raised tuition $17 in response to every $100 of Pell Grant aid.

The Rainbow Times(Student government vote bars Chick-fil-A eatery at local Mass. university) : For more than two weeks, critics, including students, faculty, staff, and alumni, denounced Chick-fil-A, citing the company’s substantial financial contributions to a host of anti-gay organizations as good reason to deny the chicken-chain a franchise at the school’s student center.

Findlaw: BigLaw is pretentious. BigLaw is tierest. BigLaw will only take BigNames. You’ve heard it all, but you’ve probably wondered if it’s true. Well, the National Law Journal is here to prove you (mostly) right

The University of North Carolina-Greensboro is saying a Christian student club isn’t religious and therefore must allow students of other religions and belief systems to become leaders and members as a condition to being a recognized group.

ABA Journal: A review by George Mason University law professor Ross Davies shows paid circulation numbers continue to tank, TaxProf Blog reports. | Contrast: Legal Blog Page Views Statistics at TaxProf Blog

Human Events: ObamaCare’s requirement that every American buy government-mandated coverage will ensure that no religious person or institution will go untrampled in the President’s rush to line Planned Parenthood’s pockets and eliminate all consequences of irresponsible sexual behavior.

James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal: Over the past few weeks, this column has on more than one occasion expressed agreement with Rick Santorum’s view that advances in birth control have had deleterious social consequences, most notably in contributing to the breakdown of the family. To our surprise, a not-insignificant number of our readers have pushed back against this idea, which some find counterintuitive and others downright unthinkable. So we’d like to go through the argument step by step.

Student Press Law Center: University of Cincinnati students filed suit Wednesday, claiming the school violated their First Amendment rights by requiring them to collect petition signatures only within the confines of a “free speech area” on campus.

Appellate Daily: The U.S. Supreme Court may soon have the chance to review conflicting decisions about students who have been expelled from state university counseling programs for requesting not to counsel gay clients or wanting to “convert” them.

JD Journal: Many have placed blame on student debt for bad home sales in the United States.

AP: Harvard students and faculty are planning a rally to urge administrators to award posthumous degrees to seven students expelled from the Ivy League school in 1920 because they were gay or perceived to be gay.

One News Now: The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration on behalf of Geneva College in Pennsylvania, as attorney Gregory Baylor explains that the school is concerned about being forced to pay for drugs that may take the lives of unborn children. “The administration has been hearing about this for a year and a half, and they decided to go ahead and subordinate religious freedom to this invented, fake right to have contraceptives and abortifacients paid for by someone else, to be gotten for free,” he comments.

AP: Stanford University started the first Supreme Court clinic for students in 2004 and is still involved in the most cases. But schools with clinics now include . . .

Washington Post: Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum’s claim that U.S. colleges drive young Christians out of church is facing scrutiny from Protestant and Catholic experts.

WorldNewsServices on Crosswalk: On Feb. 20, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) announced suits filed on behalf of two other schools — Louisiana College, which falls within the 5th Circuit, and Geneva College, in the 3rd Circuit. Kevin Theriot, senior counsel with the ADF, said the spread of the organization’s cases is not part of a grand strategy but acknowledged that its lawyers hope to end up with clients in every district. “If we win in the 5th Circuit, that doesn’t directly affect a school in Washington,” he said. “You can really only solve the problem for a school if you get the circuit where they are to rule in their favor.”

(Reuters) EmpowHER: The existence of such waivers “undermines the government’s claim that it has an incredibly important interest in providing contraception for free,” said Gregory Baylor, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund who represents several other colleges considering legal action.

Heritage Foundation (includes video): Just this week, the Alliance Defense Fund filed two lawsuits against the Obama Administration on behalf of Geneva College, a small Pennsylvania school affiliated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and Louisiana College, a Southern Baptist school.

The Boston Pilot: “Insurers are often run by people with religious faith, who should not have to choose between their belief and their participation in our society,” Bowman noted, explaining the importance of Catholic Mutual Group’s involvement in the suit.

The Times and Democrat: Dozens of colleges have scrutinized how on-campus Christian groups operate after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed a law school to deny funding to a Christian group that would not admit gays. The 2010 ruling touched on gay and religious rights on campus, and the tension is now at the center of a handful of disputes at colleges.

WCN247.com: The Alliance Defense Fund filed the lawsuit on behalf of Geneva College, which was founded by the Reformed Presbyterian Church . . . The Alliance Defense Fund filed a similar lawsuit in Louisiana . . .

Christian Post: Lynn said he believes the “all-comers” policy is a great idea. “If you have a Christian club, the truth is you will be able to have and you will be required to permit [students] of any religious background or no religious background to come to your club, even run for the presidency of your club,” he told the NRB audience . . . Lynn argued that Christian groups must “get over” themselves and open up their leadership positions to all people regardless of their beliefs.

ADF Attorney Greg Baylor appeared on 1020 KDKA CBS Pittsburgh with Robert Mangino. | MP3 audio 15:10 mins

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman appeared on radio to discuss the Obama Mandate and the college suits . | KFUO Radio, MP3 audio 25:11 mins | The Janet Mefferd Show, MP3 audio 13:46 mins | WRKF Baton Rouge with Jim Enster, MP3 audio 51:02 mins (Matt fields a lot of questions in this broadcast)

Fox News: The Alliance Defense Fund filed suit Tuesday on behalf of Geneva College, a Christian-affiliated school in Pennsylvania. The ADF also filed suit over the weekend on behalf of Louisiana College, a private Baptist institution. Separately, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed suit on behalf of four groups . . .

The Duqesne Duke: The Alliance Defense Fund and Geneva College presented a lawsuit during a press conference Tuesday against President Barack Obama’s provision to the federal healthcare reform bill that would require all religious employers to provide contraception to employees …

KPCLTV: The Alliance Defense Fund filed the suit in US District Court in Pittsburgh on behalf of Geneva College.

Huffington Post: “The state shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor said in a statement. “Every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this — and worse — to everyone.”

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at the Christian Post (also on the ADF Blog) “What is ‘offensive’ is the double standard here,” says ADF Litigation Counsel Matt Sharp. “Public school officials cannot pick and choose what messages they are going to allow based on which viewpoints they prefer. ADF has litigated numerous cases similar to this one, and the law and the Constitution are clearly on the side of our client here as well.”

WWLP.com (includes video): The Alliance Defense Fund filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on behalf of Geneva College.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Alliance Defense Fund, using attorneys based in Washington D.C., Georgia and Kansas, is helping Geneva pursue the case.

The Hill: The Alliance Defense Fund and Geneva College have filed a lawsuit against the health law’s birth-control coverage mandate.

Philadelphia Inquirer: The Alliance Defense Fund filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Geneva College. The school in Beaver Falls is associated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. “At Geneva College, we only have one Lord, and he does not live in Washington, D.C.,” college

Chronicle of Higher Education: The Alliance Defense Fund filed suits on behalf of Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, Pa., which is affiliated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and Louisiana College, a Southern Baptist institution in Pineville, La. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed a suit on behalf of Ave Maria University, a conservative Catholic institution near Naples, Fla.

CBS Pittsburgh: Most of the cost of the lawsuit will be taken on by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian civil rights group in Washington DC.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “People of faith cannot be punished for following that faith and that is what this mandate does,” said Alliance Defense Fund attorney Greg Baylor.

National Right to Life News: The state shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” said Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which filed the lawsuit. “Every American should know that …

News-Press.com: On the heels of Ave Maria’s filing, another lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of Geneva College by the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys defending religious freedom. The college, in Beaver Falls, Pa., was founded in the tradition of the Reformed Presbyterian faith.

Newsworks: On these points, ADF senior counsel Greg Baylor compares his client’s moral and financial dilemmas with what he sees as meddlesome government intrusion. “What is the state’s interest in this? Is it really necessary to provide that sort of burden on [Geneva's College's] conscience in order to save some one from spending 55 dollars on a box of Ella?” said Baylor. “The burden on conscience is not justified by the government’s alleged interest in having party ‘A’ pay for party ‘B’s’ abortion-causing drugs.”

Heritage Foundation: “People of faith shouldn’t be punished by the state for following that faith in making decisions for themselves or their organizations,” said Greg Baylor, senior counsel at ADF. “Every American should know that a government with the power …

TimesOnline (video): Geneva College already provides some contraceptive health coverage for its employees, but it is opposed to being mandated to cover birth-control methods that include embryo-killing drugs, officials at the Beaver Falls school said Tuesday. In announcing it had joined with the Alliance Defense Fund, a national coalition of about 2,000 Christian attorneys, in filing a federal lawsuit against the new national health care plan’s provisions on “preventive services,” Geneva officials said it was not about the contraceptives for them, it was about what they called “abortion-causing drugs.”

WTAE.com (includes video): “The state shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” said Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for the ADF, which filed the lawsuit. “Every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this — and worse — to everyone.”

Washington Times: Harvard University is going to be hosting a conference entitled “One State Conference: Israel/Palestine and the One State Solution,” scheduled to take place March 3-4.

Federal lawsuit challenges Obama administration’s latest attack on religious freedom

AP: Yale University is objecting to the monitoring of Muslim student association websites by the New York Police Department . . .

TimesOnline: Matt Bowman, an ADF spokesman, predicted many more lawsuits will be filed by those “being forced to violate their core religious beliefs.” “At Geneva College, we have only one Lord, and he does not live in Washington, D.C.,” Geneva President Ken Smith said in a statement. “The First Amendment protects Americans from mandates that require us to act against our own convictions. We find the mandate to provide our faculty, staff and students with insurance that provides pills to abort babies is totally abhorrent and unacceptable.”

WorldMag: “The Obama administration has attempted to negate exiting real protections for religious freedom and it has no authority to do that,” Matt Bowman, an ADF lawyer, told me.

News from The Associated Press: The Supreme Court will once again confront the issue of race in university admissions in a case brought by a white student denied a spot at the flagship campus of the University of Texas.

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor will join Geneva College President Ken Smith Tuesday at a press conference to announce a new federal lawsuit against the Obama administration’s unconstitutional mandate that religious employers provide abortifacients, sterilization, and contraception to employees regardless of religious or moral objections.

Religion Clause: In McGlone v. Cheek, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18820 (ED TN, Feb. 15, 2012), a Tennessee federal district court upheld rules at the University of Tennessee that permit outside speakers on campus only if they are sponsored by a student organization

Catholic Sentinel: “Pro-life students shouldn’t have to get a permission slip to share their beliefs on campus,” says David Hacker, legal counsel of Alliance Defense Fund. “Making free speech the exception rather than the norm and then corralling it to a limited area is unconstitutional and contrary to the marketplace of ideas that a university is supposed to be.”

Cardinal Newman Society: Villanova University, a Roman Catholic Augustinian University outside Philadelphia, has invited a militant gay rights performance artist to be an artist in residence this April and lead workshops for students, according to an email shared with The Cardinal Newman Society.