Paul Wood is a minister at the First United Methodist Church in Cheraw, South Carolina. His blog is part of this week’s “Religious Freedom Goes to School” blog series.Share your story about religious freedom in South Carolina’s public schools by reporting potential religious freedom violations to us.
By Carol Rose, Executive Director, ACLU of Massachusetts at 4:30pm
Today's utterance by Chief Judge Sandra Lynch, of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, gives me hope that the court will do justice for the victims of human trafficking who will be impacted by how the First Circuit rules in a case argued before it this morning.
By Dr. A. Scott Henderson. When I was a first-year teacher, I had the opportunity to tutor an eighth-grade boy (I’ll call him “John”) who had recently moved to the United States from India. We spent an hour together each day for an entire school year. During that time I got to know John pretty well.
By Richard Muniz, Reproductive Rights Fellow, ACLU of Illinois at 1:59pm
Today, the ACLU and the ACLU of Illinois filed a friend-of-the-court brief in two additional appeals challenging the Affordable Care Act's ("ACA") contraceptive coverage rule. Our brief urges the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to reject requests by secular, for-profit companies and their owners to block enforcement of the rule. The district court in both cases refused to grant the companies' requests, and they seek to overturn those decisions.
By Jordan Anderson, ACLU Plaintiff. In late 2011, the ACLU and ACLU of South Carolina brought a lawsuit against Chesterfield County School District on behalf of student Jordan Anderson and his father, Jonathan Anderson. The lawsuit sought to put a stop to the school district’s widespread religious freedom violations, including official prayer at school events, school-day assemblies featuring preaching, and displays of religious symbols such as crosses and the Ten Commandments. The lawsuit resulted in a consent decree restoring religious freedom to all district students. Jordan’s blog is part of this week’s “Religious Freedom Goes to School” blog series.
Texas Judge Lanny Moriarity's decision to "make of an example" of 17-year old honor student Diane Tran succeeds only in highlighting the insensitive and counterproductive treatment of Texas juveniles in the state's criminal justice system. Judge Moriarty fined Diane and sentenced her to spend 24 hours in jail with adults charged with serious criminal offenses. The crime? Truancy. Tran is a straight-A student taking difficult college courses and missed classes because she has been working two jobs to help support a family torn apart by divorce and her mother's abandonment. Tran should, in fact, be made an example of, but not because of the number of school days she missed; Tran exemplifies the triumph of determination and hard work over serious adversity.
Just how many ways can one public school official violate students' legal rights? The principal of Haywood High School in Brownsville, Tennessee, seems to be going for a record.
At an assembly earlier this month, Principal Dorothy Bond reportedly threatened to expel any gay student who publicly shows affection for members of the same sex. According to students and families who contacted the ACLU, Principal Bond proclaimed that gay students are "not on God's path" and are "going to a bad place." No, the "bad place" is not Haywood High. Rather, as Principal Bond made clear to a lesbian student she earlier singled out for displaying affection for her girlfriend, Principal Bond believes that gay students are "going to hell." Principal Bond also allegedly interfered with efforts to establish a Gay-Straight Alliance at Haywood High and may have prevented students in same-sex relationships from attending the school prom as couples.
By Dena Sher, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:54am
On Monday, we celebrated the 44th anniversary of an important civil rights milestone, the Supreme Court decision in the ACLU case Loving v. Virginia, which struck down state bans on interracial marriage. At an event at the Capitol, we screened The Loving Story (a terrific documentary) and hosted a panel discussion with the film's director and producer, Nancy Buirski, one of the Lovings' attorneys, Phil Hirschkop, and Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Bobby Scott (both of whom Laura Murphy—the director of ACLU's Washington Legislative Office and our moderator for the evening—rightly called our most stalwart defenders of the Constitution).
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."
