Tuesday we are turning our attention
to two nation-wide stories that emanate from right here
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| Casey Mattox |
in Central Iowa. The
first is the Iowa State University speech code and the second is the effort by
the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to dictate to Iowa churches just what can and
cannot be said during their services. Both subjects have generated federal
lawsuits and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is involved in both.
Joining us Tuesday will be Senior
ADF Counsel Casey Mattox. Below is a blog post by Alan Sears, president and CEO
of ADF about both cases.
So join Deacon Mike Manno, co-host
Gina Noll and Casey Mattox for a lively discussion of these and other stories
of interest to people of faith. Faith On Trial is aired every Tuesday at 9 a.m.
(Central) and 9 p.m. on Iowa Catholic Radio 1150 AM; 88.5 & 94.5 FM and streaming
on IowaCatholicRadio.com where you can find podcasts of earlier programs.
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Alan Sears’ post (Posted Oct. 21) is
below:
Sometimes, the events in just one state offer a pretty clear
microcosm of what’s happening all over the country. Right now, Iowa is
Exhibit A for what is fast becoming a nationwide contempt in our courts for the
First Amendment of our constitution.
Assault on Freedom of Speech
A
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Alan Sears
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t Iowa State University, Alliance Defending Freedom
attorneys have filed a federal lawsuit
on behalf of Robert Dunn, a student at Iowa State University, who is
challenging the school’s draconian speech code. University officials are openly
warning students that “engaging in First Amendment-protected speech activities”
may be punished as “harassment,” and telling them that if they fail to embrace
that singular interpretation of the constitution, they may be prohibited from
graduating.
Dunn is a Christian and the president and founder of the
politically conservative student group ISU Young Americans for Freedom, the
campus chapter of the national Young America’s Foundation. Last month, he
received an e-mail from the university requiring a new online training program
on “the university’s non-discrimination policies and procedures.” The 118-slide
course doesn’t acknowledge any free speech rights for students,
and requires each student to certify that he has “read, understood, and
will comply with” the university’s speech policies.
The policies, as outlined, “may cover those activities
which, although not severe, persistent, or pervasive enough to meet the legal
definition of harassment, are unacceptable …” What’s more, officials say, even
“First Amendment-protected speech activities” may constitute harassment
“depending on the circumstances,” including whether other students believe the
speech is not “legitimate,” not “necessary,” or lacks a “constructive purpose.”
The policies define “harassment” as, among other vague
things, any student expression that may “annoy or alarm another.” Iowa
State officials have warned that opposing same-sex marriage, for instance,
could be deemed a violation of the harassment policies.
“No university policy can trump the First Amendment,” points
out ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox, who says Iowa State is setting up itself
and other students – rather than the constitution – as the arbiters of
what speech is and is not protected. “These are anti-speech policies
masquerading as ‘harassment’ policies,” he says, calling the policies unworthy
of an institution of higher education, “especially when Iowa State – a
taxpayer-funded entity – demands that students agree to them under threat of
withholding the ability to graduate.”
These threats to freedom on campus affect the rest of us as
surely as they do the students themselves. Students who’ve been taught that
their First Amendment rights are somehow gifts from the government, to be
granted or taken away at that government’s whim, may take those impressions
with them when they graduate and assume their own careers in our schools,
courts, and legislatures. That’s how misconceptions become popular
misconceptions.
Assault On Religious Freedom
Some Iowa state officials are no fonder of the Free Exercise
Clause of the First Amendment, as members of the state’s Civil
Rights Commission are moving to censor church statements on biblical sexuality
and forcing congregations to open their restroom and showers to members of both
sexes and all gender identifications.
Those officials asked a federal district court to dismiss a
lawsuit filed by ADF attorneys on behalf of several Iowa pastors and churches;
last week, the court declined
to do so. The court’s ruling states that the church’s “fear of prosecution …is
objectively reasonable,” since churches have never been public accommodations
subject to government regulation, and state officials have no business trying
to decide which church activities are religious and which ones aren’t.
“The government acts outside of its authority when it
attempts to control churches. Neither the commission nor any state law has the
constitutional authority to dictate how any church uses its facility, or what
public statements a church can make concerning sexuality,” says ADF Senior
Counsel Steve O’Ban, who argued before
the court on behalf of the church. “As the court found, government
bureaucrats don’t get to decide which church activities have a religious
purpose; that’s for the church to decide.”
The court’s ruling is crucial, as the lawsuit goes forward,
because other states (especially Massachusetts)
are watching this case as they move to enforce their own encroachments on
church autonomy and religious freedom.
As Americans and as people of faith, so blessed for so long
with the protections afforded to us by a remarkable constitution, we are all
tempted to put too much faith in inertia – why would a country that has for 240
years moved in one clear direction suddenly swerve off into another?
But today, other hands are grappling for the wheel – and if
we don’t keep a firm grip (through our prayers, through our votes, through our
willingness to fight in the courtroom for our constitutionally protected
rights), the nation we love and the heritage we cherish will skid out of
control in new, profoundly dangerous directions.
What’s happening in Iowa isn’t a fluke or an exception –
just among the most high-profile examples of the moment of this growing assault
on our most cherished freedoms. Please be in prayer for our ADF attorneys and
allies, and for the courageous clients in Iowa and elsewhere who are standing
in defense of the truths we hold dear.
Alan Sears, President, CEO, and
General Counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom
Alan
Sears leads ADF efforts through a comprehensive legal strategy that includes
training, funding, and legal advocacy that have resulted in various important
roles in 49 victories at the U.S. Supreme Court and three out of four cases.
