Category: Courts

August 4, 2012
image showing wall between church and state

This November, Florida voters will be deciding if they want to gut the state’s Blaine amendment language so it can give money directly to churches. The main benefit would be to allow school vouchers. In the run up to the vote Jon East, writing on the pro-voucher website redefinED had to bring in the evil secular humanists to make a false argument in support for passage of Amendment 8.

A Blaine Amendment refers to Maine Republican Congressman James G. Blaine (1830-1893) who took on the idea, expressed by President Grant in 1875, to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit the use of tax dollars to pay for any religious school. The idea was mainly anti-catholic since Catholics were the only religious sect at the time to have their own separate schools.

July 6, 2012
image of Proselytizing Ohio teacher John Freshwater
Proselytizing Ohio teacher John Freshwater

John Freshwater, the Mount Vernon Ohio public school science teacher who was fired for proselytizing to his students will get a hearing on an appeal in the Ohio Supreme Court. I’ve been following this story since Freshwater burned his first cross in a student in 2008. He has lost in every court yet this case will not go away.

June 25, 2012
image of the Mt Soledad Cross
San Diego’s Mt Soledad Cross

One bit of good news from the Supreme Court today was it refused to hear an appeal in Trunk v. City of San Diego which concerned the constitutionality of the San Diego’s Mt. Soledad Cross. By refusing to hear the appeal it let stand the 9th Circuit’s last ruling in the long fought 1st Amendment case which said the cross now on Federal land is still unconstitutional. Of course one justice took the unusual step to issue a statement and possible hint to pro-cross people on how to keep the cross on Mt. Soledad.

The 9th Circuit ruled in January of 2011:

May 13, 2012
image of the scales of justice

A three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled unanimously, on May 10th, that Day of Prayer proclamations by the Governor are unconstitutional. The court didn’t address the National Day of Prayer but the reasoning can be applied to that law: “A reasonable observer would conclude that these proclamations send the message that those who pray are favored members of Colorado’s political community, and that those who do not pray do not enjoy that favored status.”

The case was brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 2008:

April 4, 2012
quote image of President Reagan supporting separation of church and state

I had a Facebook friend post the image to the right of this text that shows a quote from President Ronald Reagan that seems to support the separation of church and state. I like to check these kinds of things out because I don’t want to pass on a false quote. When I found out where the quote came from, the story is a lot bigger than this small 300×300 image. Learning the full story shows a classic politician speaking out both sides of his mouth.

November 4, 2011