Tag Archives: Topic: Colleges

Family Research Council: Family Research Council (FRC) will host a panel on government regulation entitled, “The Federal Takeover of Higher Education.” This event will be held on Wednesday, May 11, at FRC’s D.C. headquarters at 801 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001.

One News Now: “The bill was really inspired by the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision in Christian Legal Society vs. Martinez, where a Christian student group was kicked off campus because of its religious membership restrictions, and the Supreme Court upheld that,” Tedesco explains. “So this bill addresses that; it provides…protection for religious student groups that select leaders and members based on shared religious values.” . . . [more]

Krell, Reid Reid, The Ivory Tower Under Siege: A Constitutional Basis for Academic Freedom (December 27, 2008). George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal (CRLJ), Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1321125

Inside Higher Ed: If courts are going to go the wrong way on these issues, it’s critical to start to enshrine these kinds of protections” for religious students, said Jeremy Tedesco, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which has backed religious students in many of these disputes. Tedesco said that the Arizona law is needed because the various court rulings have threatened the religious freedom and rights to free expression of religious students at public universities

AP: New Hampshire’s Senate has voted unanimously to reject changes to the state’s anti-bullying law, such as limiting school responsibility in dealing with off-campus incidents.

CBC.ca: Muslim students at Carleton University say they need a new place to pray, because their numbers have increased so much there is no longer enough space in the designated prayer room.

LifeNews: After a report from the Cardinal Newman Society confirmed numerous Catholic colleges and universities engaging in promotion of the Planned Parenthood abortion business and pro-abortion groups, 29 of the original 150 cases of abortion promotion have been corrected.

NY Times: Now, members of the men’s track team have taken an unusual step of their own: they have filed a complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights, which oversees Title IX, alleging that Delaware is discriminating against its male athletes.

ADF letter to Gov. Brewer debunked American Counseling Association’s claims about key component of bill

LifeNews: Budget cuts at the University of Texas have forced college officials to lay off Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who was the main attorney behind the infamous Roe v. Wade case that allowed virtually unlimited abortions.

Education News: Though universities know that such radical groups exist on campus, a fear of offending the community and discouraging future foreign students leads to inaction.

Thomas Messner of the Heritage Foundation write at The Moral Liberal: According to a complaint letter filed in this case,[5] conditions attached to federal funding that it receives require Vanderbilt not to discriminate against applicants who object to abortion, and after a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund became involved, the university clarified that its policy was that no health care provider would be required to assist with abortion if doing so would violate the individual’s religious beliefs or moral convictions

The King & Spalding skedaddle is a blow to the institutional integrity of our legal system. Intimidation is now the default tactic of same-sex marriage advocates.

Stamford Advocate: Trustees for North Idaho College have unanimously approved a policy that limits the time, place and manner in which picketing and other free speech activities may occur on campus.

Telegraph: Islamic fundamentalism is being allowed to flourish at universities, endangering national security, MPs and peers say.

AP: A lesbian cadet who resigned from West Point last year has been rejected for readmission to the academy even as the military moves toward repealing its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Education News: When the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched its investigation of Yale University based on a complaint of “a sexually hostile climate,” it also launched a national civility debate, the USA Today reports. Now, after a string of incidents at schools from Rutgers to UCLA, universities are launching efforts to bring common courtesy and professionalism back to college campuses.

Breitbart’s Big Goverment: This afternoon, Big Government will break additional exclusive video clearly demonstrating the anti-American, anti-Capitalist nature of a University of Missouri (UM) course on Labor and Politics . . . On page 394 of this pdf file, note the Governor of Missouri is requesting $400 million for UM this budget year . . .

Inside Higher Ed.: The Texas House of Representatives has passed a budget bill that would require any public college with a student center on “alternative” sexuality to provide equal funding to create new centers to promote “traditional values.”

William McGurn at the Wall Street Journal: Before we extend too much sympathy, however, it’s worth asking how much our colleges and universities have brought this upon themselves. In days past, the dean responsible for standards of student behavior was a figure of great sport (see “Animal House”). Of course, that was understood to be part of the job: the willingness to be the adult. Today deans have given way to lawyers.

ADF President Alan E. Sears writes at Townhall: It’s hard to understand what, exactly, public university officials across the country have against the Christians on their campus . . . Across America, an estimated 274 public universities currently have speech codes that can be used to shut down points of view that a student, professor, or administrator might find “offensive.” (At Penn State, officials even went so far as to say that “intolerance will not be tolerated.”) And nothing offends the academic Left faster than a Bible, a prayer, or a Christian with a conscience.

Christian Chronicle: A front-page New York Times news story last week headlined “Gay Rights at Christian Colleges Face Suppression” featured prominent mentions of two universities associated with Churches of Christ: At Abilene Christian University in Texas . . .

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.

The Moral Liberal: Regular Torch readers will likely remember Lopez’s shocking story: As a student in a Speech 101 class, Lopez delivered remarks referencing his religious views as part of a class assignment, including expressing his view of Biblical morality and his conception of the proper definition of marriage. Following the speech, Lopez was called a “fascist bastard” by his professor. When Lopez asked for a grade, the professor recommended that Lopez “Ask God what your grade is.” Additionally, Lopez was told by his professor that he had likely violated LACCD’s policies as a result of his speech. Lopez filed suit against LACCD in February 2009 with the assistance of the Alliance Defense Fund, alleging that his First Amendment rights had been violated and that the speech codes maintained by LACCD were unconstitutional.

ADF attorney David French appeared on KMJ with Chris Daniel. | MP3 audio 21:33

Walter E. Williams at Townhall: The magazine’s Winter 2010 edition contains an article by Dr. Candace de Russy, former member of the board of trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY), titled “Hate-America Sociology.” De Russy’s colleague sent her a copy of a student’s exam from an introductory sociology class found lying in a room at an East Coast public college. The professor had given it a perfect score of 100. Here are some of the questions asked and the student’s written response . . .

David Moshman at the Huffington Post: Adams appealed the summary judgment with the support of the Alliance Defense Fund, the American Association of University Professors, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. On April 6 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed with respect to Adams’ First Amendment claim, ruling that the First Amendment did apply to the speech in question and so the case must go to trial.

David Hacker at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: In other words, the federal appeals court that has jurisdiction over Sen. Lautenberg’s home state of New Jersey, has already ruled that much of the language in his bill violates the First Amendment. Universities have enough trouble writing harassment policies that comply with the First Amendment. The Tyler Clementi Act doesn’t help.

AnnArbor.com: Wa[r]d lost in the lower courts, but Ward and her attorneys, the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal organization that works to uphold the rights of religious college students and faculty, have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District to step in.

Religion Clause Blog: The agreement in Westphal v. Wagner, (CD CA, March 31, 2011), calls for an end to prayers at scholarship ceremonies and Chancellor’s Opening Session at the community colleges involved. However commencement ceremonies will continue to feature either a non-sectarian prayer or moment of silence . . .

Telegraph: “A university has elected a student with links to Muslim extremism as president of the student union, prompting fears that it has been infiltrated by radicals.”

Scotsman: A LEADING Italian academic is facing growing calls to resign after he blamed the collapse of the Roman Empire on homosexuality. Professor Roberto De Mattei, vice-president of Italy’s Centre for National Research and who is also a devout Catholic, has already faced criticism after claiming that the Japanese tsunami and earthquake disaster was “divine punishment”.

One News Now: “We had the students contact the Alliance Defense Fund. They wrote a letter to the university saying that they needed to provide written information [explaining] why they were violating the students’ freedom of speech,” Hawkins reports. “And the same day that the university received the letter, the group ironically just came up and got approved….”

SMU Daily Campus: Under the legislation, LGBT students would have the option to self-identify as LGBT through the Registrar’s office. Only those students who self-identify as LGBT could vote or run for the seat.

LifeNews (links to the Cardinal Newman Society Report): A Catholic educational watchdog group released a new report today detailing the more than 150 connections various Catholic colleges and universities have with the Planned Parenthood abortion business . . .”

Mike Adams at Townhall: Some told us we should just give up. Others told us we should simply accept the federal judge’s decision and resign ourselves to the fact that the First Amendment is now dead on our college campuses. But the Alliance Defense Fund took my case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in January. And, last week, they issued a landmark defense of First Amendment rights for faculty at public colleges and universities. For the first time in years, I’m getting love mail from liberals.

Christian Post: The ruling is a huge win for Adams and French. “The 4th Circuit’s decision is a ringing vindication of the academic freedom of public university professors,” French stated. “Disagreeing with an accomplished professor’s religious and political views is no grounds for refusing him promotion.”

Inside Higher Ed: David French, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, issued a statement calling Wednesday’s decision “a ringing vindication of the academic freedom of public university professors. Disagreeing with an accomplished professor’s religious and political views is no grounds for refusing him promotion. Opinion columns are among the purest examples of free speech protected by the First Amendment.”

One News Now: ADF senior counsel David French argued before the court on Adams’ behalf. “Christian professors should not be discriminated against because of their beliefs,” French states, “and this decision thoroughly upholds that principle.” French calls the circuit court’s decision “a ringing vindication” of the academic freedom of public university professors.

Warrne Moore at the American Culture: “In an interesting side note, Adams was represented by David French, of the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization dealing in religious liberty issues. French is also a pundit, and he happens to live in a portion of my ancestral domain.”

Decision against UNC-Wilmington sets significant precedent protecting professors who express their views on religious, political topics

Travis Barham at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: A University of North Carolina–Wilmington professor’s speeches and columns are fully protected by the First Amendment, according to a published decision handed down Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys contended that criminology professor Mike Adams was denied a promotion unconstitutionally because university officials were hostile to the religious and political views he espoused in his columns and speeches . . .

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: And the Fourth Circuit held that, when it comes to public university professor employment decisions, Garcetti doesn’t apply, and a professor speaking on matters of public concern can’t be discriminated against based in employment unless the speech is seen as unduly disruptive (under the Pickering test) . . . Now I’m not sure what the right First Amendment answer when it comes to university decisions that are based on evaluations of a candidate’s scholarly work . . .

At the Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr reports that the Harvard Law Exams dating back to 1871 are now available online.

Dan Lips at Townhall: Is a college degree really worth this cost? Some bright minds think Americans are paying way too much. In fact, Bill Gates–one of the country’s most famous college dropouts–thinks it should be closer to zero. He told an audience last summer: “Five years from now, on the web, for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university.”

David Limbaugh writes at Townhall: “Christian parents should not assume their kids are equipped to filter out the false claims they will likely encounter. Christianity is the opposite of how it is often portrayed in our culture and is none of those negative things indicated above. You owe it to yourselves and your kids to anticipate the attacks and think through how they can be countered. Don’t assume your excellent child rearing will be enough. We must stand up to the challenge and test our own faith, if necessary, reviewing what and why we believe. If we can’t explain it, should we expect our kids to understand it?”

LifeSiteNews: Days after the videotaped incident was posted on YouTube, the video sharing website pulled down the footage, leaving a message stating: “This video has been removed because its content violated YouTube’s Terms of Service.” TFP’s John Ritchie told LifeSiteNews.com that they were not aware of which Youtube rules the video supposedly broke. “It seems YouTube broke their own guidelines when removing it, because the policy states that the video poster will be notified of any problem, and be given 48 hours to either remove the video or correct the problem,” Ritchie said.

Religion Clause Blog: In Crider v. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (ED TN, March 28, 2011), a Tennessee federal district court dismissed a case brought by a Seventh Day Adventist who claimed that the University of Tennessee failed to accommodate her religious beliefs that precluded her from performing any work from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

ADF attorney Heather Gebelin Hacker at the Speak Up University Blog: Students often lose their faith in college. This is concerning, both for Christian parents of college-aged children and for Christians in general. As an attorney with the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, I am often asked by parents what they should do about this.

Christian Newswire (links to video): Volunteers from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) visited Brown University during their state-wide tour for traditional marriage in Rhode Island. While peacefully demonstrating on the Ivy League campus, their pro-family banner was vandalized and a volunteer was spat upon in the face.

ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco appeared on the Paul Edwards Program to discuss this: ADF to appeal ruling that allows Eastern Michigan U. to expel Christian students for holding to beliefs. | MP3 audio 11:06 mins

Theticker.org: After numerous instances where he felt he was being censored due to the subject matter of his fliers and events, Hayon and fellow members have filed a lawsuit against the school with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund . . . “The March 9 agreement was a short term resolution that addressed the immediate concerns that the plaintiffs had — that had provoked their request for a hasty injunction hearing with the court. Our agreement at that point did not resolve the case overall,” wrote Jeff Shafer, an ADF senior legal counsel, in an email on Friday, March 25. | Related ADF Press Release

Religion Clause Blog: The East Valley Tribune reported yesterday that the Arizona Senate has passed HB 2565 that will bar colleges and universities from discriminating against students because of their religious beliefs or religious expression and will permit religious and political student groups to exclude members who do not share their beliefs.

LifeNews: More than a dozen pro-life groups are banding together for a letter to the president of Seattle University asking that the Catholic institution end its promotion of the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

ADF attorney David French appeared on Relevant Radio to discuss this: ADF files two appeals with U.S. Supreme Court over right of students to fight policies that muzzle speech. | MP3 audio 20:32 mins

ADF attorney Jeff Shafer writes at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: The monopoly authority to centrally influence how young people understand the world is quite a prize. As we have explored in past posts (see, e.g., here and here), the idea of the religious neutrality of secularism is a myth. Secularism is a rival religion. But the myth of its non-religious character secures its governing role in our system, due to the constitutional interpretation which hands civic control exclusively to the “non-religious.” (It’s all in the categorizing, you see.) From that position of authority it is uniquely empowered to fulfill its own Great Commission to go and make disciples. Its control over the State Church of Education gives it a tremendous competitive advantage.

NECN.com: The private college is among the first in the midstate to make gender-neutral restrooms available for LGBT staff and students.

ABC27.com: “Faculty and students at Shippensburg University rallied Tuesday morning in protest of Gov. Tom Corbett’s state budget proposal.”

ADF attorney Travis Barham at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Standing.  For most people, it is something they mastered when they were about one or two years old.  For lawyers, it is a migraine-inducing set of legal doctrines that dictates whether someone has the right to bring a lawsuit in federal court . . . As David French explains at Phi Beta Cons, this standing question is critical for students because it determines whether courts will even review their schools’ speech codes.  Until recently, the unquestioned rule was that students could challenge policies that “chilled” their speech. | Related ADF Media Information

Slate: “But the biggest reason may be cultural, not economic. In the past year or two, scads of blogs have committed themselves to exposing law school as a “scam,” and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have devoted thousands of words to telling readers why law school is a bad, bad idea if you do not actually want to be a lawyer.”

Jeff Mirius writes at Catholic Culture: “Have I hinted that the growth of support for gay marriage over the past few years tells us more about the tendency of people to espouse fashionable ideas than about any significant moral shift? It might almost be said that taking significant moral positions, at least from the point of view of one’s own interior life, depends precisely on the ability to resist the temptation to be fashionable. Those who do not resist this temptation do make significant moral decisions in terms of their consequences, of course, but they are hardly significantly engaged with moral issues.”

ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco appeared on the radio to discuss the case of Julia Ward Howe. | The Janet Mefferd Show; MP3 audio 18:22 mins | The Hugh Hewitt Show; MP3 audio 5:32 mins

One News Now: David Hacker serves as legal counsel with ADF. “The rulings from the courts in Maryland and California essentially conflict with other federal courts which have held for many years that…if a student is subject to a code of conduct on campus, he or she can challenge that if it stifles or chills their speech.”

Deborah Sheasby writes at the Center for Arizona Policy Foundations Blog (includes video): “These incidents are occurring across the country, including right here in Arizona. That’s why CAP is supporting HB 2565, which ensures that universities and community colleges do not infringe on the rights of students to practice their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

ADF attorney David French writes at the National Review Phi Beta Cons Blog: “This afternoon, my colleagues and I at the Alliance Defense Fund filed two simultaneous cert petitions to the Supreme Court. The issue: Can students challenge university speech codes in court when those codes chill their free-speech rights, or must they wait until the university formally and officially punishes their speech? Until two recent decisions by the Ninth and Fourth Circuits, the answer to this question had been clear.”

Berkleyside: A former Jewish student at UC Berkeley has filed a lawsuit against the university contending it violated her civil rights when it did not protect her against attacks from a pro-Palestinian student.

Education News: Western universities are undoubtedly under pressure to find financial support, but this does not mean they should allow abusive and corrupt foreign dictators, officials or their families launder their images in exchange for money.

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed two appeals Wednesday with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to resolve a stark disagreement between federal appeals courts as to whether students can challenge college speech codes that regulate every human interaction they have on campus.

ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco writes at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Non-profit advocacy groups often raise funds by highlighting the actions of groups their donors oppose, and I have no gripe with Lambda highlighting Julea Ward’s important civil rights case to its donors. In fact, it could be viewed as a form of flattery that Lambda’s letter spills most of its ink on ADF cases. My problem is with the letter’s complete misrepresentation of Ms. Ward’s case (there appear to be other inaccuracies in the letter that exceed the scope of this post).

ADF attorney Jeff Shafer writes at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Indirect methods of censorship are often government officials’ most effective means of speech control. Because such restraints on speech are not formally directed to interfering with the speaker’s message (only having the effect of doing so), it allows for both better public relations (“we aren’t intending to censor you”) and the resulting likelihood of diminished resistance from the affected speaker.

ABA Journal: “The religious freedoms enshrined in our Constitution do not evaporate when you step on campus,” said Schuette in an online statement announcing the filing of the brief (PDF posted by the Chronicle of Higher Education). Ward and her lawyers at the Alliance Defense Fund contend the school violated her right to the free exercise of religion when it ousted her in 2009. The school, on the other hand, says it dismissed Ward because she didn’t follow an ethics code that requires counselors to set aside their personal beliefs when counseling clients.

Detroit Free Press: “Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has waded into a closely watched federal appeals case, siding with an Eastern Michigan University student who claims her dismissal from the university for refusing to counsel gay and lesbian patients violated her religious belief against homosexuality . . . But that’s not how Ward sees it. She and her attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund say the case is about religious discrimination.”

LifeSiteNews: Last year, a graphic display set up by pro-life students at the University of British Columbia was obstructed by protesters, who covered the pro-life posters with large cloths and impeded discussions as university security and police stood by. So last Thursday, as UBC Lifeline prepared to set up this year’s display of the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), they were prepared for a large and raucous protest.

Seattle Times: Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and a vocal critic of the academy, criticized the scope of the review as it was outlined in the Air Force statement. The problem at the school is not with any restriction on the free exercise of religion, but with unwanted proselytizing by fundamentalist Christians, a violation of the constitutional concept of the separation of church and state, he said.

Rasmussen: “In fact, only three percent (3%) say individuals who go to Ivy League schools are better workers than those who go to other schools. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 79% do not think Ivy League students make better workers. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided . . . But only 28% of Americans believe that people who work harder generally make more money than others anyway.”