By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 2:21pm
"What's the harm?" That is the question we are often asked when the ACLU steps in to stop public school officials from including official prayer in school events and proselytizing students. It was a question posed by many community members in the Chesterfield County School District when we filed a lawsuit on behalf of middle school student Jordan Anderson after the district invited Christian rapper B-SHOC and a youth minister to evangelize students during a school-day assembly and continued to subject to students to a variety of other religious practices.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 3:10pm
Students at Hugoton High School in Hugoton, Kansas, are set to finally learn the “truth about dinosaurs” next week—at least the truth as the Creation Truth Foundation sees it. The religious organization, which advocates for “a return to all of [the] realities of Biblical Creation,” is scheduled to conduct several mandatory school-day assemblies about dinosaurs for all students and teachers on Tuesday. The ACLU of Kansas & Western Missouri and the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief learned about the planned assembly yesterday afternoon and sent a letter today demanding that the public school district cancel the event.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 4:23pm
It's no secret that, after 9/11, a wave of anti-Muslim bigotry washed over the country. The intensity of that prejudice has sustained it for a decade, and, in many ways, anti-Muslim sentiment and fear of Islam seem even stronger and more deeply rooted today than in the months and years after the attack. In the last few years, for instance, a number Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims have been violently assaulted; and scores of mosques and Islamic Centers have been vandalized, with attacks ranging from racist and anti-Muslim graffiti to arson and firebombing.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 4:25pm
A federal judge signed and entered a consent decree and order today in the ACLU’s case challenging widespread and pervasive religious practices in South Carolina’s Chesterfield County School District. The ACLU brought the lawsuit on behalf of a local father, Jonathan Anderson, and his son, who is a student at New Heights Middle School. Both are non-believers. The school district’s unlawful practices promoting religion garnered national attention after a video was posted online documenting a school-day assembly that featured a Christian rapper who calls himself “B-SHOC” (pictured). The assembly also included a sermon delivered by an evangelical youth minister, and students were asked to sign cards pledging themselves to Jesus. Students who did not want to attend the assembly were told that they could instead spend the afternoon in in-school suspension.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 10:52am
One of the great American ideals is that everyone has an equal chance to succeed in life. A cornerstone of this ideal is our public education system. American public schools are meant to ensure that every child — regardless of race, religion, or background — has access to a good education. At their best, our public schools establish a common foundation upon which an informed democratic citizenry can be built.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 2:39pm
As the ACLU has documented elsewhere, there has been a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks on Muslim communities in the U.S. in the last few years. Most recently, multiple states have proposed legislation banning the consideration of Islamic or "Sharia" law by state courts. Anti-Muslim groups claim these measures are necessary because the courts are being "overtaken" by Sharia law. Specifically, Sharia-ban proponents have pointed to a number of court cases involving Islamic religious doctrine or Muslim parties that supposedly evince a "Sharia threat" to our judicial system.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 11:25am
Thirty million. That’s the amount of tax dollars that could be diverted annually from New Hampshire’s coffers to private schools by the year 2022 if the state is allowed to implement its new Education Tax Credit Program. Under the tax credit program, in exchange for donations to “scholarship organizations,” New Hampshire businesses will receive tax credits equal to 85 percent of the amount they donate. The scholarship organizations, in turn, will use the funds to award scholarships to private school students, including those attending religious schools. In short, rather than paying their taxes to the state, businesses will instead be able to direct money owed to the state toward religious education.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 4:34pm
The new school year starts this week for most public schools across South Carolina, and the ACLU wants to make sure students, parents, and schools are primed on one particularly important subject: religious freedom. That’s why the ACLU and ACLU of South Carolina are announcing a new campaign today, “Religious Freedom Goes to School,” which aims to strengthen religious freedom in South Carolina’s public schools.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 5:15pm
The anti-Muslim crowd is at it again. Last week, shortly after publication of an ACLU report debunking the myth that "Sharia law" is overtaking our courts, the Center for Security Policy (CSP) issued a 633-page report. The CSP "study" of the issue does not even try to dispute the fact that, as the ACLU report concluded, our courts treat claims brought by Muslims or involving Islamic law in the same way that they treat lawsuits brought by people of other faiths or touching on other religious beliefs (and, indeed, lawsuits involving no religion at all). Instead, the CSP report consists mostly of 50 judicial opinions, which the authors copied and pasted word-for-word simply because they mention Islam or involve claims brought by Muslims, contending that these cases serve as evidence of the so-called "Sharia threat."
