Blog of Rights
Daniel
Bullard-Bates
04/12/2013
Anti-Muslim Bias

What Constitution? Anti-Muslim Rep. in North Carolina Pushes for Christian Prayer in Government Meetings

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 4:17pm

Should local officials be able to start their meetings with prayers that endorse a particular faith? North Carolina State Rep. Michele Presnell thinks so, with one tiny caveat: the faith endorsed must be her own. When asked by one of her constituents whether she would be comfortable with a prayer to Allah before a public meeting, Presnell responded, "No, I do not condone terrorism."

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07/19/2012
Student Rights in School

Religious Rites, Students’ Rights, and Rites of Passage

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 1:04pm

For several years, the public high schools of Enfield, Connecticut held their graduation ceremony in the First Cathedral Church in nearby Bloomfield. Students, friends, and family entered the building under a large cross, passed through a lobby decorated with religious banners, and entered into the main sanctuary, where the graduation ceremony took place below a stained glass cross and two banners that read “Jesus Christ is Lord” and “I am God.” Attending graduation meant going to church.

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09/26/2011

Jail or Church? Between a ROC and a Hard Place

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 5:19pm

When the ACLU calls for alternatives to incarceration, this isn’t what we have in mind. A new program in Bay Minette, Alabama, offers an unconstitutional choice for non-violent offenders. Operation Restore Our Community, or “ROC,” will give misdemeanor offenders a choice. They can both pay a fine and go to jail, or they can have their charges dismissed entirely if they go to church for a year.

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09/26/2011
B-SHOC

A SHOC-king Disregard for the Constitution

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 10:27am

A public school in South Carolina flagrantly violated the Constitution recently by holding a Christian rap concert for students on school property during school hours. While most people would go to great lengths to avoid being caught breaking the law, footage of the event, believed to be taken by the event's organizers, was posted online.

Please note that by playing this clip You Tube and Google will place a long-term cookie on your computer. Please see You Tube's privacy statement on their website and Google's privacy statement on theirs to learn more. To view the ACLU's privacy statement, click here.

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09/08/2011
Indiana

Victory in South Bend

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 5:43pm

Yesterday, a federal court decision barred the City of South Bend, Indiana, from unconstitutionally donating land bought with taxpayer funds to a private religious school. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Indiana, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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08/17/2011
Indiana

A Bad Deal for South Bend: Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Gift to Religious School

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 6:01pm

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Indiana, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit yesterday against the City of South Bend, Indiana. The city spent taxpayer money to buy a piece of land in South Bend they intend to sell to the Catholic Diocese that runs St. Joseph’s High School, a private religious school.

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08/08/2011

Rock Beyond Belief

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 12:38pm

On September 25, 2010, an evangelical Christian concert was held on the military base at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. After receiving complaints about the "Rock the Fort" concert, military officials claimed that they would support similar events sponsored by nonevangelical groups. But when one such event, "Rock Beyond Belief," was proposed by Sgt. Justin Griffith, an atheist, military brass refused to provide the same level of support.

The ACLU of North Carolina first became involved in October of 2010, when it sent a letter and Freedom of Information Act request regarding the "Rock the Fort" concert. Since then, the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, ACLU of North Carolina, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent two follow-up letters (here and here) encouraging the officials at Fort Bragg to do the right thing — and the constitutional thing — by not playing favorites with religion and, at the very least, showing the same amount of support for "Rock Beyond Belief" that it offered to "Rock the Fort."

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08/04/2011
Sharia

Gov. Christie Is Tired of Dealing with the Crazies

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 5:35pm

"Ignorance is behind the criticism of Sohail Mohammed," said Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey during a press conference last week. "They're criticizing him because he's a Muslim American." Sohail Mohammed was appointed as a New Jersey Superior Court judge last week, having been nominated by Gov. Christie.

Gov. Christie's comments came after the state Senate Judiciary Committee focused on his faith instead of his credentials, questioning Mohammed about Hamas, the Muslim community's reaction to terrorism, and the terms "jihad" and "Islamo terrorist" during his confirmation hearing last week. These questions were asked despite the fact that Mohammed has, in Gov. Christie's words, "never been accused of doing anything but honorably and zealously acquitting the oath he took when he became a lawyer," and despite his assistance in setting up "dozens of meetings with Muslim American leaders to convince them that federal law enforcement could be trusted in the aftermath of September 11th and that they should provide information and leads to help to combat potential terrorist attacks in our state."

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06/21/2011
School Vouchers

Your Money's Good Here, It's You That's the Problem

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 4:15pm

The Douglas County School District in Colorado plans to implement a new voucher program in the coming school year. Up to 500 district students will be "counted" as public school students for the purpose of obtaining state funding, but the funding will actually go to the private schools that participating students will attend. Any student is qualified to participate, as long as he or she can gain admission to an approved "Private School Partner." That shouldn't be a problem — unless the student is gay, HIV-positive, non-Christian, or just doesn't go to church every Sunday.

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05/05/2011

Our War Is Not Against Islam

By Daniel Bullard-Bates, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 4:32pm

"Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader," President Obama said this Sunday, "he was a mass murderer of Muslims." Despite the President's assertion that "our war is not against Islam," the very next morning in Portland, Maine, a mosque was spray-painted with the words, "OSAMA TODAY ISLAM TOMOROW [sic]."

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