Religion Clause: 11th Circuit: No Liability For Withdrawing Permiss...

Religion Clause: 11th Circuit: No Liability For Withdrawing Permiss...: 

In Chabad Chayil, Inc. v. School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida, (11th Cir., Sept. 8, 2022), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district Court' dismissal of free exercise, equal protection and due process claims brought by a Jewish organization that ran a popular after-school Hebrew program for more than ten years using public school classrooms. In 2019, after a complaint and investigation of whether Chabad complied with the rules for use of school facilities without paying a fee, the Miami-Dade County superintendent withdrew permission for Chabad use of school classrooms. Chabad sued. The court held that plaintiff had not shown the elements necessary to assert liability against either the school board or the Inspector General's office that investigated complaints against Chabad.

Can Catholic hospitals be forced to perform gender reassignment surgery?

This week on Faith On Trial we hosted Attorney Joe Davis from the Becket Fund to discuss that question in light of a case just completed in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, we conducted a wide discussion with Joe concerning several other similar issues in the context of other pending litigation. You can listen to the broadcast, and older programs, here: https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/, just click on the program and date of the program to which you wish to listen. FOT airs every Thursday morning on Iowa Catholic Radio.

Judge Who is a Planned Parenthood Donor Strikes Down Michigan Abortion Ban - LifeNews.com

Judge Who is a Planned Parenthood Donor Strikes Down Michigan Abortion Ban - LifeNews.com: A Michigan judge who has come under fire for donating to the very abortion business that brought a lawsuit before her has struck down the state’s abortion ban that protects the lives of unborn children. Judge Elizabeth Gleicher claims the 1931 law, passed well before the Supreme Court issued and overturned the infamous Roe v. […]

U.S. Supreme Court Asked Again to Reverse State Decision Targeting Oregon Bakers for Religious Beliefs

Washington, D.C.—Attorneys for First Liberty Institute and Boyden Gray & Associates have once again asked the Supreme Court of the United States to review a decision by the Oregon Court of Appeals allowing the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (“BOLI”) to penalize Aaron and Melissa Klein because they could not in good conscience employ their artistic talents to express a message celebrating a same-sex wedding. 

A copy of the petition can be found here.  

“All Americans are entitled to due process, with a fair hearing before an unbiased tribunal. The Kleins never received that,” said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “We hope the Court will hear the Kleins’ case and clarify that all Americans have a constitutional right to due process, free speech, and religious liberty. After nearly a decade, it’s past time for the Supreme Court to put an end to the state of Oregon’s hostility toward Aaron and Melissa.” 

Ambassador C. Boyden Gray said, “The First Amendment protects the right of all Americans to speak freely and live according to their sincere religious beliefs without interference from the government. Carefully guarding this right is all the more important when the beliefs expressed are controversial.” 

BOLI originally imposed a devastating $135,000 damage award against the Kleins for violating Oregon’s public accommodations statute after they declined to design and create a wedding cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. Following a series of appeals, the United States Supreme Court in 2019 returned the case to Oregon for further consideration in light of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which held that government officials cannot be hostile to the free exercise of the religious beliefs of its citizens. 

The Oregon Court of Appeals determined that BOLI had demonstrated anti-religious hostility toward the Kleins and struck down the assessment of damages. However, the court then sent the case back to the same biased commission, BOLI, for further proceedings.  In July 2022, BOLI unilaterally reimposed a damage award of $30,000. 

To learn more about the case, visit KleinFacts.com.  

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About First Liberty Institute

First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans. 

Religion Clause: Eminent Domain Violated Rights of Chabad

In Tingley v. Ferguson, (9th Cir., Sept. 6, 2022), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected free speech, free exercise and vagueness challenges to Washington state's ban on practicing conversion therapy on minors.  The court said in part:

Washington’s licensing scheme for health care providers, which disciplines them for practicing conversion therapy on minors, does not violate the First or Fourteenth Amendments. States do not lose the power to regulate the safety of medical treatments performed under the authority of a state license merely because those treatments are implemented through speech rather than through scalpel....

SB 5722 is a neutral law targeted at preventing the harms associated with conversion therapy, and not at the religious exercise of those who wish to practice this type of therapy on minors.

Judge Bennett concurred in part.  Courthouse News Service reported on the decision.

Can the government force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions or gender reassignment surgery?

This week we’ll discuss the issue of governmental encroachment on medical and religious decisions with Attorney Joe Davis from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberties. Becket has been one of the leaders defending our religious heritage and Joe will have some first-hand information about recent cases around the county. The program airs this Thursday at 9:30 CT and can be found at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/ along with podcasts of earlier programs.

Alliance Defending Freedom: Building Freedom's Future

Biden hires known enemy of Catholicism

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue 

Never before in American history has there been a president of the United States who has worked harder to oppose Catholic teachings on marriage, the family, abortion, school choice, conscience rights, and the wellbeing of children (e.g., transgenderism) than President Joe Biden. Now he has added to his legacy by appointing a man to a senior position in his administration who is a confessed enemy of the Catholic Church, John Podesta. 

On the Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend, Biden appointed Podesta to oversee his climate policies. Podesta started in the job on September 6. 

Podesta served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and was chairman of Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bid in 2016. He founded the far-left Center for American Progress, and has now come out of retirement to man this new post. 

Podesta is not merely someone who disagrees with the Catholic Church's teachings on many issues—he has actively sought to subvert it. We know this because of the Wikileaks revelations made public in 2016.  

In 2012, Sandy Newman, founder of the left-wing group, Voices for Progress, asked Podesta for advice on how best to "plant the seeds of the revolution." The revolution he sought was to sunder the Catholic Church. 

"There needs to be a Catholic Spring," Newman told Podesta, "in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church." (The reference to a "Catholic Spring" in the Church was an allusion to the "Arab Spring" freedom movements in the Middle East.) 

Podesta's reply was priceless. "We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this." He added, "Likewise Catholics United. Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up." 

The Catholic League fought Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United, both funded by George Soros, tooth and nail for years, exposing them as the fraud that Podesta admitted they were. From the get-go they were nothing but Catholic front groups for those who wanted to take down the Catholic Church from within. 

In 2010, Catholics in Alliance closed its doors and ceased to exist, though it gave the appearance of hanging on. In 2013, the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status for failing to file a 990 form for three consecutive years. It was the final nail in the coffin for this dummy Catholic letterhead. 

Catholics United hung on for a few more years, and finally went under after the Wikileaks emails went public indicting Podesta and others who conspired with him against the Catholic Church. Podesta, along with Hillary Clinton communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, both claimed that they could not be anti-Catholic because they identified as Catholic. 

Here is what I said on October 17, 2016, about that line of defense. "Bigotry is determined by what is said and done," I said at the time, "and does not turn on biographical data. For example, putting a swastika on a synagogue is no less anti-Semitic if done by a Jew. Similarly, making anti-Catholic statements, or engaging in anti-Catholic conduct, is no less anti-Catholic if done by a Catholic." 

It was also revealed that both Podesta and Palmieri ridiculed News Corps CEO Rupert Murdoch, and Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson, for raising their children Catholic. Biden has to know about Podesta's anti-Catholic record, but it matters not a whit. Nor does it matter to the media. Yet if a Republican president hired a man who deliberately set out to undermine Islam, he would never get away with it. 

This latest chapter in Biden's antipathy for Catholicism makes mince meat out of his professed "devout" Catholic status.

The Horror: Joe Biden and His Demons - The Stream

The Horror: Joe Biden and His Demons - The Stream: Joe Biden's demons manifested themselves last week in his Darth Vader speech, reminding us all of what horror movies teach us.

Parents don’t need to know

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – In a first-grade classroom in Mission Viejo, Calif., a little seven-year-old girl who suffers from severe ADHD, and while the Black Lives Matter chants were echoing throughout the land, decided to draw a picture for her friend. The girl, only referred to as “Jane” who uses art as her own form of therapy contained the words, in a little girl’s spelling, “Black Lives Mater.”

The drawing included figures representing children in all colors, but when she noticed that no color matched her friend’s, she added the words “any life” then gave the drawing to her friend.
A simple expression of love and tolerance, right?

Not according to the school principal. Jane was forced to apologize to her classmates for the picture and was banned from drawing in class. She thought she had done something bad and was afraid to tell her mother thinking she would be punished again.

It wasn’t until almost a year later when another parent mentioned the incident to Jane’s mother who then contacted the school which started rounds of rebuffs and avoidance by school officials. Mom was ridiculed as one of those “fringe” parents with views which the school did not agree.
Jane’s mom then got a lawyer.

In another Orange County district, the Los Alamitos Unified School District, several parents had sent their fifth grade, ten and eleven-year-old girls to a school-sponsored four-day science camp. When the girls returned home none were willing to speak about the camp, which was an annual event for the district.

Finally one of the girls started to talk. It seems that when they arrived at the camp they were met by counselors who were assigned to their respective barracks who began asking them which pronouns they used and identified “itself” (sorry only reference I have) as a “they” or “them.” When pressed by one of the girls who did not want to stay overnight with a boy counselor, all she got back was the “they, them” answer.

If that wasn’t disturbing enough for a fifth-grade girl, they were not allowed to have cell phones and were not permitted to use camp phones to call home. For the four days and three nights of the camp, they were isolated.

The experience was so disturbing to the girls that it took ten days for one of them to broach the subject with her parents. The parents then began their own investigation and found that the new group that was contracted by the school to host the camp had a reputation for promoting LGBTQ propaganda and had received low reviews on the Internet review site, Yelp, because of its sexual identity. A review of the camp’s web page confirmed some of the parents’ worst fears and they went to the school district.

“Were our daughters housed with boys or girls?” they asked. The answer from the school was that it was against the law to tell them — which of course is an out-and-out lie. Again, like Jane’s mother, these parents were being stonewalled.

Later, however, the district did try to reply. It told the parents that it was “pretty sure” the girls didn’t have boy counselors sleeping in their rooms.

And like Jane’s mother they found a lawyer. Ironically the same one that Jane’s mom did. His name is Alexander Haberbush from an organization called the Lex Rex Institute who was on our radio program last week.

Lex Rex is Latin for “The Law is King,” he told our audience, “because we are committed to holding government officials and anyone in government accountable to the law, our leaders are not king in this country, the law is king.”

Thus they seek to defend the individual rights of people especially in the areas of constitutional protections, religious liberty, free speech, Second Amendment rights, and issues of separation of powers.

Both of these cases fall into a pattern we’ve seen many times before in school — including college cases — that the institution either ignores the requests for information, provides non answers, or attacks the questioners.

The issue here, as we have seen across the nation is what Mr. Haberbush calls the “dismissive” attitude held by the school officials towards the parents.

“The real problem we see in this country right now is that school administrators have been held largely unaccountable for what they do. I deal with people in the government every day in the line of work I do, there is nobody who is more confident in their decisions and more confident that they will not have to account for what they do than school administrators,” he said.

So what is going on now in both these cases? In Jane’s case there is a statutory provision that a lawsuit against the state, or political sub-division, cannot be filed until the notifications have been served and the time for reply has expired. This week, as you read this, all the notification times required will have expired and a lawsuit will be filed. Stay tuned for this one — as you know, unless one side is willing to settle, these things can take a long time.

In the science camp case a suit is already in progress. The parents have fired the first volley by demanding copies of documents concerning the district’s communications with the camp organizers which they had requested under a Freedom of Information request and was duly ignored by the school.

The parents make the claim in their filing: “In order to ascertain the facts and circumstances of [camp] selection, information regarding their children’s wellbeing, and information regarding [the district’s] response to parental complaints, [parents] submitted several requests for records. [The district] has provided a few documents and records, claiming that these responses are complete. However, Plaintiffs have evidence to show that additional documents exist, but [the district] has refused to provide them.”

We’re waiting now.

“What’s important here is that the school inform parents and allow them the opportunity to opt out. When they don’t tell you of the kind of camp this is, the parents are robbed of this choice,” he told our radio audience.

I’ve referred to this radio program many times since it started in May of 2013. In the early days the few school cases we were able to deal with usually involved something as simple as a lunchroom staffer telling a kid it was against the law to pray before eating, or a teacher who wouldn’t allow a child to write about Jesus or draw His picture. In more recent years it has become apparent that for political and social reasons there are groups of school officials that seem intent on building a wall between children and their parents, thus the rash of new cases in which we find administrators promoting transition closets where little Johnny can change to become Mary for the school day before changing back at dismissal, and other school policies that are deliberately designed to keep parents out of their kids’ lives, and to substitute themselves in that role.

And it’s not just happening in California, it is all over. Back in 2013 we saw this as a coastal thing and worried that it would creep into the middle of the country. It has.

I give thanks every day that my little Goddaughter is in a Catholic school, but don’t assume that parochial schools are immune from this activity, nor are the schools in your community immune. It is all over and it affects our most precious treasure which we are obliged to protect. That is why organizations like Lex Rex and the numerous others that you have read about in this column deserve your support, both financial and with your prayers.

The child you save might be your own.

You can listen to the complete interview at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT on Faith on Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)

Anti-Catholic school official put on leave

Cos Cob Elementary School Assistant Principal Jeremy Boland has been placed on administrative leave after telling an undercover reporter that he actively discriminates against Catholic applicants when hiring teachers. Boland had called Catholics "brainwashed" and said "you don't hire them," citing Catholics' moral beliefs and their unwillingness to endorse "gender transition" treatments for minors.

Science camp or LGBT indoctrination?

When 5^th graders are sent to a 4-day science camp by their school and come home with strange questions about pronouns parents raise questions the school won’t answer. Alexander Haberbush of the Lex Rex Institution joins Deacon Mike and Gina to tell us what he has learned. Listen here:  https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/,Faith On Trial Episode 329 – Sept. 1, 2022.

Faith On Trial airs every Thursday mornings at 9:30 CT on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM and 94.5 FM Des Moines; 88.5 FM Adel, 90.9 FM Creston, and 95.7 FM Oskaloosa.

Former California fire chief files appeal after termination for attending leadership conference hosted by church

San Francisco, CA—First Liberty Institute, Baker Botts LLP, and the Church State Council asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse a lower court decision that allowed the Stockton (CA) Fire Department to dismiss a fire chief, Ron Hittle, for attending a leadership conference held at a church. 

You can read the brief here.   

“Stockton city officials fired a public servant whose goal was to save lives because they were intolerant of his religious beliefs,” said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel at First Liberty. “The city fired Chief Hittle for attending a world-class leadership conference attended by millions simply because it was associated with religion. This is clear evidence of illegal religious discrimination.” 

Alan Reinach of the Church State Council said of the appeal, “The lower court rubber stamped the city of Stockton’s decision to fire an exemplary fire chief who served the city of Stockton for 24 years, simply for being a Christian. The Ninth Circuit needs to fix the lower court’s dangerous ruling.” 

Aaron Streett of Baker Botts said, “City of Stockton officials were completely intolerant of Chief Hittle’s religious beliefs.  Federal law protects the freedom of every American to live without fear of being fired simply because of their beliefs.” 

After 24 years of service, the city of Stockton, California fired Fire Chief Ron Hittle because he attended a religious leadership conference while on the clock. Although the city requested Hittle attend a leadership training course, it later opened an investigation after he attended Willow Creek Church’s Global Leadership Summit, a world-class conference with speakers from a variety of religious and non-religious backgrounds, including Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric; Terri Kelly, president and CEO of W.L. Gore and Associates; Tony Dungy, winning coach of 2007 Super Bowl; and Zhao Xiao, Ph.D., leading Chinese economist. Over the years, speakers at the conference have also included Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and former President Bill Clinton. The city listed as the primary reason for Hittle’s termination his attendance at a “religious event” while on duty.  Hittle sued, but in March of this year, a District court sided with the city. 

Today’s brief argues, “The City’s disproportionate response to Hittle’s attendance at the Summit provides further evidence of discrimination.  The City listed attendance at the Summit as two of the four ‘most serious acts of misconduct’ that led to Hittle’s termination.  Yet there were steps short of termination that the City could have taken to remedy this alleged misconduct.  If the City believed it was impermissible for Hittle to attend the Summit while on duty, it could have requested that Hittle charge the attendance at the Summit to personal leave.  That is precisely the course the City pursued with [others], who attended with Hittle.  The City’s treatment of Hittle’s attendance at the Summit as misconduct meriting termination further reveals the City’s discriminatory animus.”

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First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.

9th Circuit: High School Must Recognize Fellowship of Christian Athletes

In Fellowship of Christian Athletes v. San Jose Unified School District Board of Education, (9th Cir., Aug. 29. 2022), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, ordered reinstatement of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as an official student club at San Jose high schools.  The majority said in part:

This case pits two competing values that we cherish as a nation: the principle of non-discrimination on the one hand, and the First Amendment’s protection of free exercise of religion and free speech on the other hand.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) requires students serving in leadership roles to abide by a Statement of Faith, which includes the belief that sexual relations should be limited within the context of a marriage between a man and a woman. The San Jose Unified School District ... revoked FCA’s status as an official student club at its high schools, claiming that FCA’s religious pledge requirement violates the School District’s non-discrimination policy.

... Under the First Amendment, our government must be scrupulously neutral when it comes to religion: It cannot treat religious groups worse than comparable secular ones. But the School District did just that.

The School District engaged in selective enforcement of its own non-discrimination policy, penalizing FCA while looking the other way with other student groups. For example, the School District blessed student clubs whose constitutions limited membership based on gender identity or ethnicity, despite the school’s policies barring such restricted membership. The government cannot set double standards to the detriment of religious groups only.

Judge Lee filed a concurring opinion, saying in part:

One schoolteacher called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ (FCA) beliefs “bullshit” and sought to ban it from campus. Another described evangelical Christians as “charlatans” who perpetuate “darkness” and “ignorance.”...

This is not, to put it mildly, neutral treatment of religion. More than a whiff, a stench of animus against the students’ religious beliefs pervades the Pioneer High School campus. I write separately to highlight the depth of that animus and explain why it is yet another reason why the School District violated the Free Exercise Clause.

Judge Christen dissented, saying in part:

My colleagues are correct that the competing values at issue in this case are cherished by our nation and enshrined in our Constitution. The plaintiffs will surely have their day in court for their claims of past harm. Once they do, the court will have to consider both the plaintiffs’ rights and the rights of those they would exclude. Notably, the majority offers no limiting principle to the permission it grants allowing one club to discriminate. In the meantime, we are not free to contort our standing jurisprudence in order to prematurely reach the merits and we ought not do so in a case of this magnitude before the record has been developed and tested. 

Next Faith On Trial: Science camp or LGBTQ indoctrination?

What happens when your 5^th grade daughter’s school takes her class to a 4-day “science camp” that turns out to be an LGBTQ retreat with leaders that refer to themselves as “they” and “them?” Joining Deacon Mike and Gina this Thursday will be Alexander Haberbush attorney and president of the Lex Rex Institute who has filed suit against the school on behalf of the parents. Faith On Trial airs every Thursday mornings at 9:30 CT on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM and 94.5 FM Des Moines; 88.5 FM Adel, and 90.9 FM Creston, 94.5 Des Moines, 95.7 Oskaloosa, or catch it streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com. where you can listen to programs you may have missed.