Tag Archives: Lawsuit

University of Texas professors sue to block guns in classrooms

A student walks at the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas,

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Three University of Texas professors have filed a federal lawsuit to halt a state law that would allow holders of concealed handgun licenses to bring pistols into classrooms, saying the measure would have a devastating effect on academic discourse.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court in Austin on Wednesday, comes just weeks before the law takes effect on Aug. 1. It allows license holders 21 and older to bring handguns into classrooms and buildings throughout the University of Texas system, one of the nation’s largest, with an enrollment of more than 214,000 students.

“Compelling professors at a public university to allow, without any limitation or restriction, students to carry concealed guns in their classrooms chills their First Amendment rights to academic freedom,” according to the lawsuit, whose defendants include the state’s attorney general, the school’s  president and university’s board of regents.

The professors argue that they discus controversial and emotionally laden subjects such as reproductive rights and it would be inevitable for them to pull back at important junctures because of a cloud of gun violence hanging over the classroom.

University officials said they were reviewing the lawsuit and typically do not comment on pending litigation. Earlier this year, university President Greg Fenves reluctantly approved plans for holders of concealed handguns to bring pistols into classrooms, saying he had been forced to by the Republican-backed law.

The office of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, was not immediately available for comment but has said the law protects the rights of gun owners.

Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has said the law could prevent mass shootings because someone with a licensed concealed weapon could confront a gunman.

The so-called “campus carry” law allows private colleges to opt out and most of the state’s best-known private universities have done so, saying the law runs counter to protecting student safety.

Eight states now have provisions allowing the carrying of concealed weapons on public post-secondary campuses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks state laws.

The Texas law takes effect on the 50th anniversary of one of the deadliest U.S. gun incidents on a U.S. college campus:  student Charles Whitman killed 16 people by firing from a perch atop the clock tower at the University of Texas at Austin.

(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to defend Yazidi women, ISIS sex slaves

Lawyers meet with Syrian refugees

By Lin Taylor

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney will defend Yazidi women who have been victims of sexual slavery, rape and genocide by Islamic State militants in Iraq, her law firm said on Friday.

Clooney, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, is seeking to prosecute the Islamist group through the International Criminal Court for their crimes against the Yazidi community.

“We know that thousands of Yazidi civilians have been killed and that thousands of Yazidi women have been enslaved,” Clooney, who is married to actor George Clooney, said in a statement.

“We know that systematic rapes have taken place, and that they are still taking place,” Clooney said. “And yet no one is being held to account.”

Islamic State militants have killed, raped and enslaved thousands of Yazidis since 2014, accusing them of being devil worshippers and forcing over 400,000 of the religious minority to flee their homes in northern Iraq.

Yazidi campaigners, including Nobel Peace Prize nominee Nadia Murad Basee Taha, have been pushing for international justice for the crimes committed against them by Islamic State.

Taha, 21, took her message to the U.N. Security Council in December last year, and has spoken to successive governments, appealing to the international community to act.

Taha said she was abducted by Islamic State militants from her village in Iraq in August 2014, and taken to the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, where she and thousands of other Yazidi women and children were exchanged by militants as gifts.

She was tortured and repeatedly raped before she escaped three months later.

According to the United Nations, the Sunni militants enslaved about 7,000 women and girls in 2014, mainly Yazidis whose faith blends elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam, and is still holding 3,500, some as sex slaves.

The United States, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe have all described the Islamist militant group’s actions as genocide.

(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Astrid Zweynert. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women’s rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)

FFRF Targets Christian Sheriff For Preaching In Uniform

An atheist organization is targeting a Christian sheriff in Lakeland, Florida for preaching at a church while wearing his uniform.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), who routinely targets Christians for harassment and lawsuits, is claiming they received complaints from anonymous residents about Sheriff Grady Judd speaking to churches while in uniform.

“I was invited to this church, as I am to many churches and secular events, and you know what, the message was clear,” Judd told BayNews9. “The message was uplifting. The message talked about and bragged on how wonderful our community was.”

The FFRF took issue with the appearance, claiming that by wearing his uniform Judd is endorsing Christianity.

“Promoting your personal religion using a Polk County government title and uniform gives the unfortunate impression that the county supports and endorses the First Baptist Church on the Mall and its religious teachings,” the letter read.

“Giving this sermon in your official capacity, wearing your official uniform, unabashedly promotes this church and its religious views,” it continued. “You are excluding the nearly 30% of U.S. adults and the 30% of Florida adults who are non-Christian. This message alienates both non-Christians and nonbelievers in Polk County by turning them into political outsiders in their own community.”

Judd said he will not be intimidated by the atheists.

“Let me say this clearly and unequivocally: When people call the sheriff’s office and ask me to come speak, I’m going to come speak, [and] I’m going to wear my uniform,” he told reporters. “You can guarantee it.”

School In Prayer Lawsuit Drops Free Period To End Suit

A Colorado Springs high school that had been at the subject of a lawsuit over banning Christian students from meeting during their “free period” is sidestepping the issues of the suit by eliminating the free period for students.

Now former student of Pine Creek High School, Chase Windebank had been meeting with other Christian students during “seminar”, the school’s version of study hall.  The students would meet to pray, sing worship songs and encourage each other in a room away from students who did not have faith.

The school stepped in during Windebank’s senior year and said they would no longer be allowed to meet during the seminar time, because the school considered it to be “instructional time”.  The school said they were not violating Windebank’s civil rights by redefining the period to bar the Christian students from meeting.

Windebank filed suit with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom because other students were still able to express themselves during the free period while the Christians were being blocked.

“I’m actually quite excited that I was able to take this stand and be able to make a victory for free speech in public schools,” he said. “Not just for me because I filed this lawsuit. For those after me as well, being able to express what they believe.”

Windebank says the school has agreed to allow prayer and gathering of students during lunch.

The school claims the suit’s dismissal has nothing to do with a deal and that those who pursued the suit are grandstanding.

“Pine Creek High School has never had, and does not have, a policy in place which restricts students’ rights to associate at lunch, and by extension to meet with others and discuss faith, pray, or talk about the news of the day from a Christian perspective,” he wrote. “As such, no nonexistent policy was revised to achieve the suit’s abandonment.”

Supreme Court Rules Abercrombie & Fitch Discriminated Against Muslim Woman

The Supreme Court has ruled that a woman who was denied a job with the clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch because of her headscarf was discriminated against on the basis of her religion.

The ruling was 8-1 in favor of the woman.

“Thus, the rule for disparate-treatment claims based on a failure to accommodate a religious practice is straightforward: An employer may not make an applicant’s religious practice, confirmed or otherwise, a factor in employment decisions,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the 8-1 majority.

The court said that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employers to not consider religious accommodations in hiring processes.

“For example, suppose that an employer thinks (though he does not know for certain) that a job applicant may be an orthodox Jew who will observe the Sabbath, and thus be unable to work on Saturdays. If the applicant actually requires an accommodation of that religious practice, and the employer’s desire to avoid the prospective accommodation is a motivating factor in his decision, the employer violates Title VII,” Justice Scalia wrote.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit on behalf of the woman.

Abercrombie claimed they had not violated the law because she had not been denied employment for the head scarf.  They said she did not mention during her interview she was wearing the scarf for religious reasons and so it’s not on the company to know that’s why she was wearing it.  Scarves are a violation of the company’s employee dress code.

In his dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said that the company could not be guilty of discrimination because the company’s policy applied to all employees and not just Muslims.

Atheist Deal With IRS Subject Of Lawsuit

A legal group has filed suit in federal court concerning a deal the IRS made with an anti-religious organization to monitor churches.

The Alliance Defending Freedom says the IRS has failed to honor a Freedom of Information act request regarding the details of an agreement between the group and the anti-religious Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“As of the date of this complaint, Defendant has failed to: (i) determine whether to comply with the request; (ii) notify Plaintiff of any such determination or the reasons therefor; (iii) advise Plaintiff of the right to appeal any adverse determination; and/or (iv) produce the requested records or otherwise demonstrate that the requested records are exempt from production,” reads the complaint.

“Plaintiff is being irreparably harmed by reason of Defendant’s unlawful withholding of records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request, and Plaintiff will continue to be irreparably harmed unless Defendant is compelled to conform its conduct to the requirements of the law.”

The anti-religious group demanded in 2012 that the IRS enforce their view of the Johnson Amendment which strips churches of tax exemptions if they are openly involved in political activity.

This is the second suit against the IRS over agreements related to “monitoring of churches and other tax exempt religious organizations.”

Supreme Court Justice Grants Abortion Pill Relief

A Supreme Court justice has given temporary relief to two religious groups that objected to the compromise to the abortion pill mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

Geneva College of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and the Roman Catholic dioceses in Erie and Pittsburgh along with their affiliated organizations.  The groups sued the Obama administration because the so-called “compromise” still required them to provide abortion-inducing drugs.

The University of Notre Dame had previously filed a lawsuit over the same issue.

“Signing such a form or letter facilitates moral evil,” the groups wrote in legal briefs. “This is true whether or not applicants pay for the objectionable coverage.”

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito granted temporary relief and ordered the Obama administration to respond to the appeal by Monday.

The Supreme Court has already remanded the Notre Dame ruling to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to be reconsidered in light of the 2014 Hobby Lobby stations.

Court Awards $330 Million To Family Of Slain Missionary

In a landmark judgment against the nation of North Korea, the family of an American missionary who was kidnapped and killed by North Korean agents has been awarded $330 million.

Rev. Kim Dong-Shik, who had been taken by North Korean agents while he was in China, was taken in January 2000 and tortured to death in a prison camp in North Korea.   Kim was born in South Korea but a permanent resident of the United States.  He had been working as a missionary providing humanitarian aid and religious council to Christians who had fled North Korea at the time of his kidnapping.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia awarded $15 million to Kim’s son and brother along with $300 million in punitive damages.

“This is an important human rights decision that will be utilized in all political abduction cases going forward,” Israel Law Center head Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told The Christian Post.

The court ruled that when a foreign regime abducts an individual, it is the responsibility of the abductors to prove that the person has not been murdered.

“We are grateful that the court has found that once we proved the kidnapping of Rev. Kim by North Korean intelligence and brought human rights experts to testify about the horrific conditions in the political detention camps, the burden must be on Pyongyang to show was still alive after so many years,” Darshan-Leitner said.

Christian watchdog groups say around 100,000 Christians are being tortured and forced into hard labor at North Korean prison camps.

Satanists Sue Indiana County For Rejecting Display

The Satanic Temple along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has announced they are suing an Indiana county that refused to allow a Satanic display during the month of December.

The lawsuit claims that a Franklin County ordinance that requires permits for displays and activities be restricted to county residents is a violation of the First Amendment.

“Our joint lawsuit with the FFRF is our response to this arbitrary limitation,” Satanist spokesman Doug Mesner said. “I suspect that the arbitrary restriction of local standing is merely but an effort at keeping varying viewpoints to a minimum.”

The Indianapolis Star says the American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit.

The Satanic Temple wanted to display “an artistic three-dimensional sculpture mounted on a wooden platform” between November and January and the FFRF wanted to display cut out figures marking the “December 15 nativity of the Bill of Rights.”

“FFRF wishes to erect this display on the courthouse lawn in order to highlight what it believes to be the paramount importance of the Bill of Rights and to otherwise express itself,” the lawsuit reads.

“Additionally, FFRF is aware that it has members who reside in the county and also has members that visit the county. It would also like to erect its display to support these persons and to make sure that their secular beliefs are adequately represented.”

ACLU Trying To Force Hospital To Perform Abortions

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington is attempting to force a hospital to perform abortions in their facility.

The lawsuit claims that Skagit Regional Health is violating a state law that requires medical facilities that provide maternity care to also kill babies via abortion.  The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a woman who is doctoral nursing student.

“As a woman and a health care provider, I care deeply about reproductive health issues. I want to make sure that women throughout Washington have access to the full range of reproductive health care services,” Kevan Coffey said in a statement. “And I personally want to have all options, including abortion, available to me.”

“The right of women to choose or to refuse to have an abortion is fundamental and has long been recognized under Washington law,” said ACLU Executive Director Kathleen Taylor. “We want to ensure that all women in our state can access the full range of reproductive health care at public health facilities in their communities.”

The state has said numerous times that hospitals have to provide abortion services if they want to provide maternity services.