Tag Archives: Topic: Education

Above the Law: An obvious point to make here is that these rankings don’t seem to distinguish between prestige of clerkship. Were these feeder judges or non-feeder judges, circuit courts or district courts, Article III courts or non-Article III courts? In the land of law, these things are very important. Considering how coveted clerkships are and how closely we hold U.S. News rankings to our hearts, this is information we’d love to see.

WFMAZ.com: A substitute teacher who lost his job for showing his Bible to a student has filed a complaint against the Phillipsburg School District.

lliance Defending Freedom, Cornerstone Policy Research, and Liberty Institute have filed a friend-of-the-court brief with a New Hampshire court in defense of the state’s tax credit program for businesses that wish to help students attending private schools.

Fox News: WYMT-TV reports the move came after the schools received a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The group’s letter says the displays have been up for years. | FFRF press release and letter

The Denver Channel: The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has petitioned the Colorado Supreme Court to overturn a decision that found the Douglas County schools’ voucher program constitutional.

Above the Law: Since then, we’ve been receiving reports of 2Ls around the country being hired as law clerks during this current semester, before they even have their spring grades.

Beaumont Enterprise: Beaumont attorney David Starnes, who is representing 15 cheerleaders in their fight to keep the Bible banners, said he’s still reviewing the district’s new policy because it’s “convoluted” and unclear.

Cadiz Record: The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky is alleging that school districts in Kentucky are allowing organizations to hand out religious literature to students in elementary schools during school hours.

The Hill: Neurosurgeon Ben Carson on Wednesday withdrew as commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine after students protested statements he made about same-sex marriage.

Tufts Daily: Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans last Thursday joined the leaders of 49 other collegiate Democrat and Republican organizations in a statement supporting marriage equality for LGBTQ couples.

Guardian: Final draft of nonbinding education standards ‘buries’ human role but gives cohesion in introducing students to climate science

Baltimore Sun: The controversial anti-abortion group, Voice for Life, at the Johns Hopkins University won its battle to become a fully recognized club that will conduct “sidewalk counseling” sessions outside clinics and be eligible for funding, the university announced Wednesday.

Star Herald: Prayer at the beginning of Kearney Public Schools Board of Education meetings is unconstitutional, the district’s attorney says. “We’ve received information from our school attorney and were told, I quote from our attorney, ‘We advise against such practice as courts have determined that school board prayers are unconstitutional,’” board president Tim Higgins said at Monday’s meeting.

Pittsburgh Tribune: He said he would like to see the high court include justices from law schools other than Harvard and Yale, which dominate the bench today. Thomas went to Yale, with which he has had a contentious relationship. “I’ve been all over the country. … There is something valuable about these people from modest neighborhoods who work their way up,” he said.

Harvard Gazette: James Lindgren, a law professor at Northwestern University, began with numbers, citing a study in which only 13.2 percent of faculty at the country’s 100 largest law schools reported being “Republican or Republican leaning.” Of law school faculty that have donated more than $200 to a political party, 81 percent have donated to Democrats (91 percent at HLS), according to the study. “My opinion is that there is some discrimination in law school hiring,” Lindgren said.

Logan Daily: The Logan-Hocking School Board refused to allow an elective Bible Literature Course under similar wispy threats, with the same measly excuse. Some of us tried to tell them of the enormous amount of help available for courageous freedom lovers. Think Alliance Defending Freedom; American Center for Law and Justice; Heritage Defense; Christian Freedom Foundation… It’s a long list. But fear carried the day. They stand spinelessly, while the very knowledge or reference to Jesus Christ is systematically obliterated from the thoughts of our youth. Thus freedom dies.

Fox News: Maryland lawmakers agreed this week to require public school teachers to pay union fees – a move that bolsters the state’s connection to organized labor as others move toward a right-to-work status.

Cardinal Newman Society: The joint comment, prepared by the expert attorneys at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), is posted online here. The comment asks the Obama administration to exempt all organizations with “a religious or moral objection from being forced to provide, offer, pay for or in any way participate in a health insurance plan that covers or specifically triggers coverage of‘contraceptives’ (including abortifacients… ), sterilization, and related education and counseling. Religious freedom requires no less.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Taylor v. Roswell Independent School District, (10th Cir., April 8, 2013), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected 1st and 14th Amendment challenges by student members of a religious group, Relentless, to decisions by Roswell, New Mexico school officials that prevented them from distributing 2500 rubber fetus dolls to other high school students. The schools took the action after disruptions, described by the court . . .

LifeSiteNews: A federal court dismissed the case, on Good Friday, of Ave Maria University’s on the grounds that the federal regulations in question are not in final form. “One thing is clear, Ave Maria is not going to comply with the federal contraception mandate,” university President Jim Towey said in a statement.

Robert Knight at Townhall: A courageous German Christian couple refused to hand over their children to the government schools and fled to America three years ago. Now, the Obama Administration is trying to send them back. A likely outcome would be the state seizing the children and imprisoning the parents.

George F. Will at Washington Post: Hopkins’s institutional intolerance would be boring were it simply redundant evidence of academia’s commitment to diversity in everything but thought. It is, however, indicative of the increasingly extreme ambitions and tactics of those operating under the anodyne rubric of “choice.” . . . Planned Parenthood, which receives more than $500 million in government subsidies, is branching out, expanding its mission beyond the provision of abortions to the defense of consumers’ rights: If you pay for an abortion, you are owed a dead baby.

Christian Post: The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky sent a letter Thursday to 174 public school superintendents citing the possibility of a lawsuit in the 2013-2014 academic school year if they continue to allow The Gideons International to distribute Bibles, the New Testament and religious literature to students on public school campuses. In the letter accompanying the Open Records Act request . . .

Patheos: And when I say that, I’m thinking of this quote from the student leading the assault on Father Greg, who, after Father Greg told him that his homosexual behavior would prevent him from having a priestly vocation, became a priest in a schismatic sect . . .

One News Now: Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has filed a lawsuit against a Michigan university for denying funds to a pro-life student group because of its “very controversial” views.

Christian Newswire: Focus on the Family spokesman and Truth Project founder Dr. Del Tackett yesterday declared his support for HSLDA’s efforts to defend the Romeike family. Tackett believes that the U.S. government is siding with the restrictive homeschooling laws in Germany and that this could have serious implications for American homeschoolers.

WFPL.org: The ACLU of Kentucky is calling on school districts to disclose their practices for letting groups distribute literature to students during school hours.

Miami Herald: In a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union, Spring Independent School District stated that Tony Zamazal, a transgender student at Spring High School, may wear a dress, pump-style shoes, makeup and a wig to the school prom on May 11 . . .

Columbus Dispatch: The painting long hung in the middle school, which was once the high school, until the Hi-Y club recently moved it to the new high school. Some Jackson residents hope the club sues the district to seek the painting’s return. The club’s attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom did not return calls yesterday.

WRAL: A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide . . . House Bill 494, a resolution filed by Republican Rowan County Reps. Harry Warren and Carl Ford, would refuse to acknowledge the force of any judicial ruling on prayer in North Carolina – or indeed on any Constitutional topic . . .

David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch at NY Daily News: Gay marriage is here. It is already part of our social fabric. But don’t savor the moment for too long. There’s much more to marriage equality than gay marriage equality. Marriage today is fracturing along class lines.

American Freedom Law Center: Yesterday, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a lengthy memorandum of law in opposition to a Buffalo-area school district’s motion to dismiss AFLC’s federal civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Joelle Silver, a Christian public school teacher who was forced by school officials to censor her personal speech and remove all religious content from her classroom under threat of being fired.

AP: Hiram Sasser, an attorney with the Liberty Institute that helped defend the school, said Wednesday that the Hi-Y Club could file its own lawsuit for the right to display the portrait, but he didn’t know its plans.

Above the Law: These are schools that we don’t talk about very much (except for when they accidentally release the personal data for their entire incoming class), but the trend here seems to be that if the school has any kind of a religious affiliation, its peer assessment score drops quicker than the Walls of Jericho.

Alan Sears at Alliance Defending Freedom: One of the quieter – though equally intense – battles for religious freedom in America is being fought almost daily on behalf of young school children. This week, two cases from two different parts of the country spotlight the obstacles being placed before people of faith, like you, who want nothing more than to select a school that best meets the needs of their children and grandchildren.

PBS: Now the debate over vouchers and school choice is heating up anew in some states — the latest, last week, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld a 2011 state law allowing tax funds to be used for private schools through tuition vouchers.

LA Times: Nearly 20 lawsuits — five of them against California schools — are being litigated at a time of dim employment prospects for lawyers. Much of the work once done by lawyers can now be done more quickly by computers.

Todd Starnes at Townhall: The Student Government Association at Johns Hopkins University compared pro-life students to white supremacists and denied them official club status at the school.

LifeSiteNews: On March 12th, a pro-life group at Johns Hopkins University, Voice for Life (VFL), was denied the right to become an official student club by the Student Government Association (SGA) during a student Senate meeting, after having been recommended for approval by the SGA Appointments and Evaluations Committee.

HutchNews (AP): The Wilsons, backed by the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, say refusing to provide tuition assistance to attend a religious school is unconstitutional.

WECT.com: “No university should refuse promotion to an accomplished professor simply because it disagrees with his religious and political views,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Vice President Jordan Lorence. The group is representing Adams in his lawsuit.

The Blaze (includes video): An Oregon public school teacher says he’s on the verge of being fired because of his outspoken views against Planned Parenthood and abortion.

Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to an Alabama school district Wednesday after it banned the word “Easter” at one of its elementary schools in the “interests of religious diversity.”

The Eastern Echo: Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal ministry, filed a lawsuit against EMU on March 19 on behalf of Students for Life. ADF’s lawsuit said EMU officials have denied Students for Life funding for mandatory student activity fees. The fees would be used to fund a pro-life exhibit called the Genocide Awareness Project. The display is a traveling exhibition that shows photos comparing abortion to genocide.

Charisma News: A new report released Tuesday finds that Americans overwhelmingly believe morals and values are declining in the U.S. (77 percent). The most-cited cause for the decline? A lack of Bible reading. The findings are reported in the American Bible Society’s annual State of the Bible survey released Tuesday

BizJournals.com: The Goldwater Institute is jumping into the fray between the Arizona Board of Regents and the Arizona Students Association, which is fighting for its financial life.

Education News: Boys and girls at an Alabama elementary school will still get to hunt for eggs – but they can’t call them ‘Easter Eggs’ have the principal banished the word for the sake of religious diversity.

David Hacker appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the case. | MP3 audio 8:10 mins

KFBB.com (AP): The Wilsons, backed the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, say refusing to provide tuition assistance to attend a religious school is unconstitutional.

Sentinel and Enterprise: The state’s highest court has opened the floodgate of opinion by seeking outside briefs in a religious discrimination case against the Acton-Boxboro Regional School District by an atheist family that is challenging the use of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance . . . Listed in the court docket as filing briefs so far are: the Acton School System, John Doe (the atheist family that filed the lawsuit and wished to remain anonymous), the American Humanist Association, Daniel and Ingrid Joyce, the Knights of Columbus, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Patheos: Listed in the court docket as having filed briefs so far are: the Acton School System, John Doe (the atheist family that filed the lawsuit and wishes to remain anonymous), American Humanist Association, Daniel and Ingrid Joyce, the Knights of Columbus, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Wall Street Journal (via Google): “We find it inconceivable,” the justices wrote, that the framers meant to prohibit government spending from which a religious institution could ultimately benefit. Everything from police protection to city sidewalks benefit religious institutions, but “the primary beneficiary is the public,” and any benefits to religious groups are “ancillary and indirect,” said the ruling. “The direct beneficiaries under the voucher program are the families of eligible students and not the schools selected by the parents for their children to attend.”

AP: Boston College is threatening disciplinary action against a group of students who distribute condoms out of their dorm rooms.

Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement: Controversy continues to swirl around an anti-Israel “BDS” event at Brooklyn College on February 7, in which police removed four Jewish students from the event advocating for “BDS,” which is “boycott [of], divestment [from] and sanctions [against])” Israel. School officials are now investigating the removal, according to an article in the Jewish Daily Forward.

Matt Sharp at Alliance Defending Freedom: We often underestimate children. We think they understand less than they do and that they are incapable of having their own thoughts or views. Schools often make the same mistake and use a child’s age to justify restrictions on their speech. We have been involved in numerous cases where schools restricted young students from handing out invitations to church events or sharing their faith at school.

Statesman.com: In December, conservative groups Texas Values and the Alliance Defending Freedom submitted a brief to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asking that his office find the Pflugerville district and other government entities in violation of the state constitution.

AP: The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the law creating the nation’s broadest school voucher program, clearing the way for a possible expansion.

GoUpstate.com (AP): A federal appellate court on Monday upheld a South Carolina school district’s decision to bar a student from wearing shirts with the Confederate battle flag on campus, ruling that school officials need to keep order and promote education. | Hardwick v. Heyward

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit late last week against the Montana Office of Public Instruction and Columbus Public Schools on behalf of a hearing-impaired preschooler. State and school district officials denied the young girl disability benefits for tuition payments because her parents enrolled her in a Columbus faith-based preschool.

Heritage Foundation: In a new paper, Heritage expert Jason Richwine reveals that “Proper accounting would reveal tens of billions of dollars in extra teacher pension costs, equivalent to somewhere around $1,000 in unreported spending per student.”

Travis C. Barham at Speak Up Movement: After over six years of litigation, Mike Adams has won the right to present his retaliation case to a jury of his peers. Back in 2006, he was denied promotion to full professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

Lowell Sun: Listed in the court docket as having filed briefs so far are: the Acton School System, John Doe (the atheist family that filed the lawsuit and wishes to remain anonymous), American Humanist Association, Daniel and Ingrid Joyce, the Knights of Columbus, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Baptist Press on Opposing Views: Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious liberty legal group based in Arizona, filed a lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University on behalf of a student group that was denied university funding for an exhibit that compares abortion to other historically recognized forms of genocide, according to a report on the Detroit Free Press website.

LifeSiteNews: The California Department of Education has revised the statewide recommended reading list for its 6.3 million K-12 students, adding roughly 40 titles focused on homosexuality or gender confusion.

Lloyd Marcus at American Thinker: Think of us as crew members on the starship Enterprise of the Star Trek TV show, boldly going where no one has gone before. Folks, this is what it feels like challenging the Homosexuality Is Normal Movement. It is extremely dangerous. Homosexual activists attempt to humiliate and politically destroy anyone who dares even criticize their agenda.

Religion Clause Blog: In Berkowitz v. East Ramapo Central School District, (SD NY, March 21, 2013), Jewish teachers and nurses sued after school officials refused to abide by provisions in collective bargaining agreements allowing teachers and school nurses to use paid sick leave days for observance of religious holidays.

Ypsilanti Carrier: Eastern Michigan University has been sued by the Alliance Defending Freedom after a student group was denied funding to create an exhibit comparing abortions to the Holocaust, according to a Detroit Free Press report. Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian group in Arizona, filed the lawsuit Tuesday.

NJ Star Ledger: However, because this boy was also written up as a bully, it kick-started an entire bureaucratic process: There was an investigation, and a legal dispute. A hearing before an administrative law judge. Tearful testimony from L.L. The appeal of the judge’s decision and, ultimately, the backing of it by the state’s education commissioner.

Greg Baylor at Speak Up Movement: The freedom of religious student groups at America’s public universities is under constant attack. However, the Virginia legislature is the latest to fight bac

Illinois Review: Friday, the Chicago Republican Party proposed letting parents take over closing Chicago public schools, and giving vouchers to kids who are displaced by the closings.

Mediaite: According to Rotela, Dr. Deandre Poole, professor of the Intercultural Communications course, asked students to write ‘Jesus’ in bold letters on a sheet of paper, place it on the floor, stand up, and stomp on it.

LifeSiteNews: Scott Kent, the Education Minister for the Yukon, has forbidden publicly funded Catholic schools to educate students about the Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality.

LifeSiteNews: Universities should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,” said Senior Legal Counsel David Hacker in a statement. “The university funded the advocacy of other student organizations but singled out Students for Life for exclusion based purely upon its viewpoint.”

Fox News: “Universities should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,” said David Hacker, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom. “The university funded the advocacy of other student organizations but singled out Students for Life for exclusion based purely upon its viewpoint.”

Engage Family Minute: Rollins College is coming under fire for being the latest center for “higher education” to tell InterVarsity student group that it has to leave campus. The “crime”? InterVarsity requires that all leaders in their group share their faith and agree to their doctrinal beliefs.