Headline Of The Day

Via press release:

A New York farm that hosts wedding ceremonies for profit does not have a “religious freedom” right to discriminate against same-sex couples, Americans United for Separation of Church and State says. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed yesterday with the New York Supreme Court’s appellate division, Americans United argues that the First Amendment does not permit the owners of Liberty Ridge Farm in Schaghticoke, N.Y., to refuse service to gay couples. This brief is part of AU’s Protect Thy Neighbor project, an initiative that fights on behalf of victims of religion-based discrimination.

“If you run a for-profit business in New York, you have to be open to all comers,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “And if you think the First Amendment gives you the right to turn away LGBT persons, you may soon find yourself in legal trouble – just like the owners of Liberty Ridge Farm.” The case has been ongoing since 2012, when the farm refused to allow Jennifer McCarthy and Melisa Erwin to rent the property for their wedding ceremony. The farm’s owners cited their religious beliefs as justification for the refusal. In response, the rejected couple filed a complaint.

Last year the farm was ordered to pay a $10K fine.

ALABAMA: AG Files Motion Opposing Class Action Status Of New Marriage Suit

"The number and rate of developments has been dizzying as officials came to different conclusions about their legal obligations and as parties tried to intervene in the initial cases and bring other officials under the Court’s injunction. The Court should not further undermine the relationship between the state and federal courts by granting Plaintiffs leave to drastically change the nature of this case at this late date. Granting the relief the Plaintiffs seek will only add to all the chaos and confusion in Alabama, and will only increase the tension between the state and federal courts. The only wise and judicious course of action is to deny the motion to amend and wait until June when the United States Supreme Court will resolve the constitutionality of same sex marriage in a way that will be binding on all federal judges and all state officials." - Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, in today's motion opposing last week's marriage equality suit which calls for class action status.

ALABAMA: Civil Rights Groups File Class Action Demand For Marriage Equality

Via press release:

A group of leading national civil rights organizations today filed a motion requesting a federal district court to expand a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage and to order all county probate judges in the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The joint motion was filed by the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The request, filed as part of a lawsuit brought by five same-sex couples who previously obtained an order from the same court requiring issuance of marriage licenses in Mobile County, seeks class-action status that would include all same-sex couples in Alabama who wish to marry and have their marriage recognized by the state.

The motion requests that the federal district court expand their lawsuit to cover all county probate judges in the state. In Alabama, probate judges are responsible for issuing marriage licenses. Today’s filing requests the federal district court order to require all probate judges to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday halted same-sex marriages in the state despite the U.S Supreme Court’s refusal to stay a lower court’s decision invalidating the ban. “If Alabama officials thought we were going to sit back and allow them to deny same-sex couples their constitutional right to marry, they thought wrong,” said Ayesha N. Khan, legal director of Americans United. “We are going to fight for these couples.

See the full filing.

KENTUCKY: Town To Offer $62M In Bonds For Noah's Ark Theme Park

Bloomberg takes a dim view of the plan:

Given the default history of unrated municipal debt, investors may have to pray for the success of bonds being sold to build a full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark. The northern Kentucky city of Williamstown plans to offer $62 million of securities next month for affiliates of Answers in Genesis, a Christian nonprofit that operates the Creation Museum upstate. Proceeds will help build a 510-foot (155.4-meter) wooden ship, the centerpiece of a planned biblical theme park called “Ark Encounter.” Bond documents project the venue will attract at least 1.2 million people in its first year. Investors who buy $100,000 of the taxable securities will get a lifetime family pass, bond documents show. Yet they may not get their money back, given the track record of unrated munis. Of the 438 issuers currently in default, 93 percent initially offered bonds without a credit grade, according to Concord, Massachusetts-based Municipal Market Advisors.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State are predictably annoyed.

Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director at Americans United, told The Christian Post that the bond offering is one of many examples of government aid proposed for the Ark Encounter project. "The imminent bond offering is only one of several different kinds of aid being given to the Ark Park by the State of Kentucky, Grant County, and the City of Williamstown," said Luchenitser. "The array of government aid to the Ark Park raises very serious issues under the religion clauses of the U.S. Constitution and the even stricter church-state prohibitions of the Kentucky Constitution."

The organizers respond: "We believe it would, in fact, be illegal and unethical for a governmental agency to engage in viewpoint or religious discrimination against the Ark Encounter LLC simply because the content of this theme park happens to focus on biblical history."

SCOTUS To Hear Public Prayer Case

In 2008, Americans United for Separation of Church and State first sued the town of Greece, New York on behalf of two residents who claimed that allowing public prayer at city meetings was a violation of the Establishment Clause. Last year the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the town. Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear an appeal brought by the anti-gay Alliance Defending Freedom.

Some legal experts say while the high court has allowed public prayers in general, it has not set boundaries on when they might become too sectarian in nature. "The case involves a test between two different kinds of legal rules," said Thomas Goldstein, SCOTUSblog.com publisher and a leading Washington attorney. "The Supreme Court has broadly approved legislative prayer without asking too many questions. But in other cases where the government is involved with religion, it has looked at lots of different circumstances. So we just don't know whether this court will be completely approving of legislative prayers in this instance." The justices are now being asked to offer more firm guidelines over when and if such public prayers are constitutionally acceptable.

More about the ADF:

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a "legal ministry" based in Scottsdale, Arizona, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Greece Town Board, saying the Supreme Court has upheld the practice of government bodies "to acknowledge America's religious heritage and invoke divine guidance and blessings upon their work." "A few people should not be able to extinguish the traditions of our nation merely because they heard something they didn't like," said Brett Harvey, an attorney for the group. "Because the authors of the Constitution invoked God's blessing on public proceedings, this tradition shouldn't suddenly be deemed unconstitutional."

RELATED: The ADF is also behind many lawsuits that seek to thwart the civil rights of LGBT Americans

Macklemore Joins Americans United

LGBT ally and rapper Macklemore, whose singles have topped the Hot 100 for months, is speaking out on behalf of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

RELATED: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' Can't Hold Us is #1 for the fourth consecutive week on Billboard's latest pop singles chart. Their previous single, Thrift Shop, held the top spot for six weeks and has been RIAA-certified as quintuple platinum. The act shot to global prominence last year on the strength of Same Love, their hit single that pays tribute to same-sex relationships.

The Musical Break-Up Of Church And State

From Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, starring Jane Lynch and Jordan Peele.

Millions In Public Money For Ark Project

Americans United for Separation of Church and State are protesting the plan to provide $11M in Kentucky state road improvements to support the Christian theme park where the centerpiece attraction is an alleged replica of Noah's Ark.

"The Highway-36 appropriation is intended to promote and support a religious, evangelical enterprise, violating the separation of church and state and the Kentucky Constitution's prohibitions on government support of religion," said Luchenitser. "The KY-36 road project has only one purpose: to support the construction of the Ark Encounter Theme Park – a proposed biblical theme park that would be in the shape of a full-size replica of Noah's Ark, using the dimensions set forth in the Bible." Chuck Wolfe of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet told CP that the project was necessary given the expected traffic increase courtesy of the Ark Park. "The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is designing a project to accommodate a significant increase in traffic projected for KY 36 in Grant County, northern Kentucky," said Wolfe.

I demand millions of road improvement for MY equally historically true life-size replica of the starship Enterprise. Stop repressing my religious liberty! America was based on the Prime Directive! It's in the BIBLE, people!

RELATED: Last year the state of Kentucky granted over $40M in sales tax rebates to the theme park's developers. The town where the park is located also gave them a 75% discount on property taxes for the next 30 years.

Tony Perkins On Rick Perry's Prayer Rally

Barry Lynn of the Americans for Separation of Church & State takes on FRC's Tony Perkins. The rally takes place today in Houston. Halfway through the clip, Matthews runs a montage of the outrageous comments made by the event's sponsors.

Quote Of The Day - Pastor Cary Gordon

"We're tired of the hypocrisy of these people because they desire to ensconce, and frankly they're doing it, secular humanism as the new state religion of the United States of America in violation of the original intent of the First Amendment. I have never, nor will I ever, get a message from the Holy Spirit and then go check with the IRS tax code first to see if it's okay to preach it. I'm tired of pastors submitting to this tyranny and I'm expecting to try to get the IRS to sue us so that we can take it all the way to the Supreme Court and restore freedom in America's pulpits." - Pastor Cary Gordon.

Americans United For Separation of Church and State filed an IRS complaint after Gordon mailed letters to Iowa's pastors demanding they support his "Biblical campaign" to remove his state's Supreme Court justices for legalizing same-sex marriage. IRS rules stipulate that tax-exempt churches may not engage in political campaigns.

Americans United Demands Military End Its Proselytizing Christian Concerts

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is calling on the U.S. military to stop holding Christian music concerts on its bases. Their complaint is spawned by an upcoming Christian rock concert planned for Fort Bragg.

The “Rock the Fort” event at Fort Bragg this weekend targets both military personnel and adults and children in the surrounding community for conversion to Christianity. This clearly violates the separation of church and state, attorneys with Americans United informed Army officials in a letter today. “It’s not the Army’s job to convert Americans to Christianity,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “This event is totally unacceptable and must be canceled. “It is particularly shocking that the military would join forces with Franklin Graham,” Lynn continued. “Graham has expressed utter contempt for Islam, Hinduism and other faiths. When our military joins hands with him, it sends exactly the wrong message to the world. Our military defends a nation that includes people of many different faiths and some who follow no faith at all.”

RELATED: Last month about 80 soldiers at Fort Eustis, Virginia were punished by their superiors for refusing to attend a mandatory Christian rock concert on their base.

Anti-Gay Florida Church Targeted For Tax-Exempt Status Violations

Americans United for Separation of Church and State have called on the IRS to investigate Gainesville, Florida's Dove World Outreach Center for violating their tax-exempt status. Earlier today I posted the latest video from Dove World's Pastor Luke Jones in which he calls for homosexuals to be put to death.

Dove World Outreach Center erected a sign on its property reading, “No Homo Mayor.” The reference is to Craig Lowe, a mayoral candidate who is gay. Contacted about the matter by the Gainesville Sun, a top church official admitted that the church had erected the sign. “We don’t feel as though the city should be represented by a homosexual,” said Terry Jones, senior pastor at Dove World Outreach Center. The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, called the church’s actions a blatant example of illegal politicking by a tax-exempt group. “This is an open-and-shut case,” Lynn said. “The church freely admits that it intended to intervene in the election in violation of federal tax law. I urge the IRS to act promptly.” Americans United sent a letter to IRS officials today, asking them to investigate the matter. Jones told the Sun he believes the church is acting within its constitutional rights. But as Americans United pointed out in its letter to the IRS, groups accepting tax exemptions must meet certain conditions, including refraining from election interventions.

Typically, we'd expect Liberty Counsel etc to come rushing to Dove World's defense, but the church's brisk business in "Islam Is Of The Devil" t-shirts and other assorted assholery may mean they'll stand (or fall) alone on this one.

Prop 8 Trial Set, Gay Groups Excluded

A federal judge has set January 11th, 2010 as the start of the Olsen/Boies suit to overturn Proposition 8. The ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Lambda Legal were all denied in their request to be a party to the action. The judge did allow San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera to take part, but only to assess Prop 8's impact on local governments.

Protect Marriage exults:

As the only party to Perry v Schwarzenegger that has consistently fought to preserve Prop.8, we are pleased with Judge Walker's decision to deny intervenor status to Campaign for California Families, the Our Family Coalition, Lambda Legal, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The motions for intervenor status clearly demonstrate the discord and disagreement that exists among gay activists as they continue to run roughshod in their efforts to overturn the will of the people in regards to upholding traditional marriage in California.

The ACLU complains:

On behalf of our clients, we are disappointed that the court did not permit organizations that represent California’s diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community to participate in the case as the Court weighs the harms inflicted by Proposition 8. The significance of this case for our entire community is enormous. To exclude the people whose very freedom is at stake is troubling. Our commitment to restoring marriage for all Californians is unwavering, and we will continue to do everything within our power to secure full equality and justice for LGBT people.

Law Dork 2.0 analyzes:

What the intervention rulings mean is that Ted Olson and David Boies, along with San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, will be the lawyers now controlling this challenge to Proposition 8, considered by many to be the most broad, grand-scale attack on marriage discrimination of all those brought in recent years. It is not yet clear how Vaughn ruled in terms of whether both plaintiff groups — the AFER plaintiffs and the City Intervenor-Plaintiff — will be responsible for all decisions or whether Walker named one lead plaintiff in the case. The ramifications of an appellate or Supreme Court ruling would have impact far outside California’s borders, with a success for the plaintiffs calling into question other state amendments banning lesbian and gay couples from marrying, as well as the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Dennis Herrera cheers:

We're gratified that San Francisco has been granted a key role in the federal challenge to Proposition 8. In terms of our unique public sector perspective and the evidence we've already developed, we think the City is an extremely well-prepared co-plaintiff in the kind of trial Judge Walker envisions. We are ready to help put anti-gay discrimination on trial based on the facts, and our office has the experience and expertise to aggressively assist in doing exactly that.

ACLU: No Public Money For Religious Hate

The ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State have filed a joint lawsuit in a federal appeals court asking that government funding be refused to a Baptist childcare agency in Kentucky because the agency fires gay employees and proselytizes to the children.

The lawsuit asserts that Kentucky Baptist Homes has no right to accept public funding while imposing religious dogma on the children in its programs, and that the Homes’ religion-based anti-gay employment policy violates civil rights laws.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Alicia Pedreira, a former employee at the Louisville home who worked with troubled young people. Despite her excellent performance reviews, Pedreira was terminated in 1998 after officials at the facility learned she is a lesbian.

A federal district court dismissed the case earlier this year, ruling that the plaintiffs do not have legal standing to bring it. Americans United and the ACLU Thursday asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the case.

"I put my heart and soul into helping the children who were under the care of Baptist Homes and was making a difference in their lives," said Pedreira. "It was unfair to be fired for being a lesbian. It’s not right that an organization that is funded by state and federal dollars to do work for the state can get away with this." The lawsuit also asks the appeals court to strike down public funding for Kentucky Baptist Homes.

Faith-based tax dollars at work.

SC's "I Believe" Plate Challenged

The Americans United for Separation of Church and State have filed a federal lawsuit to stop South Carolina from issuing the "I Believe" license plate mentioned here last week.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today filed a lawsuit in federal district court on behalf of several religious leaders and a religious organization whose First Amendment rights are violated by South Carolina’s “I Believe” license plate. The new plate features the words, “I Believe,” accompanied by a depiction of a large, bright-yellow Christian cross superimposed on a multicolored stained glass church window.

Plaintiffs in the case include four South Carolina clergy the Rev. Dr. Thomas A. Summers, Rabbi Sanford T. Marcus, the Rev. Dr. Robert M. Knight and the Rev. Dr. Neal Jones as well as the Hindu American Foundation. The Summers v. Adams lawsuit charges that the Christian plate gives preferential government treatment to one faith. It asks the court to prevent South Carolina officials from producing the plates.

“The state has clearly given preferential treatment to Christianity with this license plate,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “I can’t think of a more flagrant violation of the First Amendment’s promise of equal treatment for all faiths. I believe these plates will not see the light of day.”

According to the suit, the plates violate not only separation of church and state, but freedom of speech as well. Other religions will not get their own plates nor will a "I Don't Believe" plate be issued.