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A counseling student who refused the curriculum which required her to counsel same sex couples in an accepting way.

Defence hunting foreign troops with citizenship for service THE Australian Defence Force is exploiting forced cutbacks in military spending in Britain and other Western countries, embarking on an unprecedented drive to recruit laid-off soldiers, sailors and air crew. Defence, which has struggled to fill recruitment quotas in the face of increasing competition from the lucrative private sector, is seeking highly skilled specialists such as fighter pilots, special forces officers and submarine crews. And as an incentive, it is prepared to offer a fast track to Australian citizenship for so-called "lateral recruits" after just three months' service. The Australian has learned...

FREDERICK, Md. — A 55-year-old Maryland man who became temporarily unconscious after suffering a heart attack and a seizure has been saved from being starved to death after an ADF-allied attorney obtained an order in state court on behalf of the man’s mother and brother. The man, Daniel Sanger, is now responding to hospital staff after going six days without food and water. Although Sanger told his doctor and his mother “I want to live” before he went unconscious, Frederick Memorial Hospital removed the public-assistance patient from life-giving food, water, and nutrients on Friday with the permission of his wife....

Alan Sears is the president, CEO, and general counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), often called the conservative counterweight to the liberal American Civil Liberties Union. Since ADF's founding in 1994, he has been involved with thousands of cases dealing with freedom of religion, abortion, marriage, and family composition, and has led the training of more than 1,500 lawyers.

LEDYARD, NY, September 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Another town clerk in New York may lose her job for refusing to sign marriage licenses for same sex couples, the New York Times reports. Fifty-seven-year-old Rose Marie Belforti has been the town clerk in the small rural town of Ledyard, New York for ten years. When the state of New York legalized homosexual “marriage” this past summer, Belforti decided that she could not reconcile signing same-sex marriage licenses with her Christian faith. Instead, she decided to delegate the task to a deputy, who would issue such licenses by appointment. Now, a lesbian...

The Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter to the township of Livingston urging officials to stop using a town ordinance to prohibit a resident from displaying crosses in various areas of his own yard. Police ordered the homeowner to take down a cross he had affixed to a tree in celebration of Lent after a neighbor complained. “It’s ridiculous to stop citizens from displaying a cross on their own property,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jonathan Scruggs. “The Constitution guarantees the right of Americans to express their religious beliefs in this fashion, and no local ordinance can trump that. In...

Aussie women outdo Israelis on front line John Lyons, Mark Dodd From: The Australian IN a country that is on permanent war alert and trying to draw on as much of society as possible for its armed forces, Israelis react with puzzlement when told of the debate in Australia as to whether women should serve in frontline positions. "It's not an issue for us any more," Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, spokeswoman for the Israeli Defence Forces, said. "I should also point out that around the world you have something like 17 ministers of defence who are women, which shows women...

San Diego, Calif., Jan 31, 2011 / 01:12 pm (CNA).- Members of the San Diego Fire Department have won a sexual harassment lawsuit against the city for being forced to participate in a local gay pride parade in 2007. On Jan. 26, the California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the city and instead upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the firefighters. The move ends a several-year legal legal battle for four firefighters who lodged a complaint against San Diego for being forced to participate in the city’s gay pride parade in 2007. Although the...

Several Jewish groups are criticizing Sarah Palin's use of the controversial term "blood libel" in her video statement on the Arizona shootings. The phrase has traditionally been used to refer to anti-Semitic and false myths about Jews using the blood of Christians, often children, in their rituals. Abraham Foxman, who heads the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement: It is unfortunate that the tragedy in Tucson continues to stimulate a political blame game.  Rather than step back and reflect on the lessons to be learned from this tragedy, both parties have reverted to political partisanship and finger-pointing at a time...

Dr. Kenneth Howell. Champaign, Ill., Jul 9, 2010 / 06:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The University of Illinois has fired an adjunct professor for teaching in a class on Catholicism that homosexual acts violate natural moral law.Dr. Kenneth Howell was informed that he could no longer teach in the university's department of religion. The decision came after a student complained that Howell's statements were “hate speech.”In response to his firing, Howell wrote a letter to friends explaining the events surrounding his dismissal.Howell said in the letter, which was obtained by CNA, that he first came to teach at the St. John's Catholic...

After serving the nation for several years, an army squadron of 11 Iroquois helicopters will become tourist attractions at military bases around Australia. "Townsville and the other locations selected have had an association with the Iroquois helicopter for a very long time. It's only fitting then that these helicopters come to rest among these communities," Minister for Defence Materiel and Science Greg Combet said. "One Iroquois helicopter will be kept for permanent display outside Townsville's RAAF Base, where we expect it to attract military enthusiasts and other visitors." The helicopters will also be seen at Bandiana and Point Cook in...

FAITH UNDER FIRE Banished! City forbids Bible studies in homes 'This letter will serve as a 10-day written notice to quit such use' Posted: March 13, 2010 12:20 am Eastern By Bob Unruh © 2010 WorldNetDaily The city of Gilbert, Ariz., has ordered a group of seven adults to stop gathering for Bible studies in a private home because such meetings are forbidden by the city's zoning codes. The issue was brought to a head when city officials wrote a letter to a pastor and his wife informing them they had 10 days to quit having the meetings in their...

A "Christ-centered" legal group has filed a federal lawsuit against a high school in New York, accusing it of religious discrimination after it disbanded a student Christian club while leaving dozens of other clubs active. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund claims the Christian club, called Ichthus, was cancelled without notice after being in operation for four years. ADF filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Islip on behalf of a student at Half Hollow Hills High School East in the Long Island town of Dix Hills. ADF attorney David Cortman said Ichthus was disbanded even though there was student...

Zero tolerance for church bells? Ring free zones? Instead of getting tough on dealers, Arizona prosecutors are going after pealers. It doesn't ring true, but it is. Here's the video report from Alliance Defense Fund: [video embed at source link] ADF is representing the bellringing Bishop in an appeal hearing of his criminal conviction and, in a separate civil case, is challenging the application of local noise ordinances to church bells.

<p>The Alliance Defense Fund just filed an emergency injunction and restraining order in response to the decision a couple hours ago by an "ethics panel" at East Tennessee Children's Hospital to discontinue care of 9-month-old Gabriel Palmer.</p> <p>Baby Gabriel was born prematurely with a genetic abnormality, club foot, and narrow airway, but he flourished when he went home from the hospital in June, where he grew, played, and received physical therapy while going to regular doctor visits. He was fed through a tube and received some oxygen and medications.</p>

General Douglas MacArthur famously noted that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away." Sometimes, though, before they fade away, they get angry. And a case being argued in the Supreme Court Wednesday has veterans seeing red, white, and blue-but mostly red. Unsurprisingly, the case will go to the court courtesy of an ACLU lawsuit. The object at the center of the case is a small, unadorned cross sitting in a remote part of the Mojave Desert Preserve in Southeast California. A veterans' group erected this memorial cross on private land in 1934 to honor the dead of all wars....

Community Colleges of Spokane and Spokane Falls Community College officials agreed to a court order Thursday that settles a lawsuit filed after they attempted to unconstitutionally silence the pro-life message of a student group. SFCC officials threatened student Beth Sheeran, represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, and other members of a Christian student group with disciplinary measures, including expulsion, if they chose to hold a pro-life event on campus because the information they were sharing with other students was deemed “discriminatory” and did not include a pro-abortion viewpoint. The agreed-upon order eliminates or revises the problematic policies and...

The Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter to Governor Brewer and other officials saying that it goes against the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. By KFYI News (KFYI News) Federal and Arizona officials, including Governor Brewer, were sent a letter by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) to stop enforcing a requirement banning kids from creating ornaments with religious themes for the 2009 Capitol Christmas Tree. Click here to read the entire letter. Arizona was given the honor of providing Washington D.C. their annual Christmas tree and having schoolchildren from around the state decorate the tree with some 4,000 ornaments....

Dozens of pastors around the nation are challenging an Internal Revenue Service rule that anti-Christian activists often invoke when they want to silence the message of churches, according to the Alliance Defense FundThe organization has announced that more than 80 preachers are taking part in its second annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday this weekend. The pastors will preach Sunday sermons related to biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates or current government officials, exercising their constitutional right to free religious expression, the ADF said. They will do so despite a "problematic" IRS rule that activists use when they want to...

WOMEN should be able to serve in all frontline combat units of the Australian Defence Force, including the SAS and commando units, under a controversial plan that could avert a looming recruitment crisis. The push by Defence Personnel and Science Minister Greg Combet would remove gender as a criterion for selection for specialised categories of military service. The Rudd government wants to lift the proportion of women serving in the defence force from the current level of 13 per cent, as demographic pressures bear down on defence force recruitment over the next decade. Removing any gender discrimination for serving in...

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has asked a New Hampshire court to reconsider its decision to order a 10-year-old home-schooled girl into public school. "Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children," said ADF-allied attorney John Anthony Simmons. "In this case, the court is illegitimately altering a method of education that the court itself admits is working." The parents of the girl are divorced, and the mother has been home-schooling her. In the process of renegotiating the terms of a parenting plan for the girl, the guardian ad litem concluded that the girl "appeared to reflect...

A Christian homeschool girl in New Hampshire has been ordered into government-run public school for having "sincerely held" religious beliefs. An attorney working with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed motions with a New Hampshire court, asking it to reconsider its order to send the 10-year-old homeschooled girl into public school. According to ADF allied attorney John Anthony Simmons, the court acknowledges that the girl in question is doing well socially and academically, but he adds that the court went too far when they determined that the girl's Christian faith was a "bit too sincerely held and must be...

Mayor Chesapeake Alan Krasnoff Chesapeake, Va., Aug 5, 2009 / 06:30 am (CNA).- Following complaints from a Wisconsin-based atheist group against a Virginia city that opens public meetings with prayer, the Alliance Defense Fund and the Family Foundation of Virginia have offered to provide pro bono legal assistance if the city adopts a prayer policy that is challenged in court.The 14,000-member Freedom From Religion Foundation had sent letters of complaint to the city of Chesapeake, Virginia because of what the group called its “illegal practice” of routine opening prayers at its public meetings.ADF Senior Legal Council Mike Johnson, speaking...

A California court has ruled in favor of a student who was insulted for defending traditional marriage and has ordered the college to strike from its website a sexual harassment policy that censors speech deemed "offensive" to homosexual people. As WND reported, Jonathan Lopez, a student at Los Angeles City College, was delivering a speech on his Christian faith in speech class when professor John Matteson interrupted him, called him a "fascist b----rd" for mentioning a moral conviction against homosexual marriage and later told him to "ask God what your grade is." The professor also warned on his evaluation of...

Federal lawsuit claims Eastern Michigan University dismissed grad student from counseling program for her views on homosexuality by Amanda Hamon | The Ann Arbor News Monday April 06, 2009, 9:49 AM A national legal group has filed a lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University on behalf of a graduate student who allegedly was dismissed from a counseling program because of her beliefs about homosexuality.The complaint was filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Detroit, according to a federal database of lawsuits.The Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom says student Julea Ward was dismissed from her graduate program in March...

THE remains of an RAAF Canberra bomber flown by Australia's last two MIAs have been found in Vietnam. The wreckage was found in a remote mountainous region near the Viet-Lao border but no human remains have been located so far, Defence Science and Personnel Minister Warren Snowdon said. Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver went missing on November 3, 1970 after their Canberra bomber failed to return from a mission, The Australian reports.

To the Rev. Les Puryear, a prayer without Christ is not a prayer. So when Puryear, the pastor of Lewisville Baptist Church, recently offered a prayer at a meeting of the Forsyth County commissioners, he prayed in the name of Jesus Christ. Prayer to a specific deity is at the heart of a lawsuit against Forsyth County and a controversy that has dragged on since 2006. The issue could, however, be coming toward an end. A judge could rule on the lawsuit next month. The lawsuit is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two county residents....

(03-17) 16:51 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- UC Hastings College of the Law can deny recognition and funding to a Christian student group because it excludes gays, lesbians and non-Christians, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The San Francisco law school is entitled to require official student organizations to "accept all comers as members, even if those individuals disagree with the mission of the group," the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. It said the school's policy is "viewpoint-neutral" and does not violate the rights of theChristian Legal Society. The brief ruling cited the court's decision last year allowing a...

THE RAAF still aims to acquire the Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft as early as 2017. While the Rudd Government has deferred a decision to acquire the highly sophisticated aircraft, the new defence white paper is expected to outline the requirement for a high-altitude long-range surveillance platform. Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon announced earlier this month that Australia would not sign up to the system design and development (SDD) phase of the US Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program, which includes the Global Hawk. The RAAF plans to replace its 32-year-old fleet of Orion AP-3C maritime surveillance planes with a...

The amount of money that the Gill Action Fund has contributed to the Log Cabin Republicans — about one-third of its total budget in some years — is raising questions about Democratic influence over the GOP organization and its search for a new president. Tim Gill, founder and chair of Gill Action, is widely known for funding the campaigns of pro-gay politicians, many of them Democrats. He’s a wealthy entrepreneur and founder of Quark who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to various Democratic causes and candidates, including to the campaigns of Sens. John Kerry, John Edwards and Chris...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a ruling Wednesday that held a Montana church in violation of the law for speaking about the state's marriage amendment. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a lawsuit in 2004 after the Montana commissioner of political practices investigated Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church, following a complaint by a homosexual activist group. The group claimed the church was required to register as a political committee in order to speak about the marriage amendment.

The 24-page booklet by the National Education Association and American Psychological Association, tells students that homosexuality is a "normal expression of human sexuality". "What's so scary and dogmatic about this report is that it communicates that religious-based viewpoints are harmful, and even dangerous," said Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action. The booklet particularly targets the idea that homosexuality is a condition that can be changed. It instructs educators, "Schools should be careful to avoid discussions of transformational ministry in their curriculum." Brian Raum, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said that the talk of...

After 45 years of proud service, the Air Force DHC-4 Caribou will retire at the end of this year. The announcement was made on 19 February 2009 by Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, who said, “Our nation is extremely proud of the magnificent service that the Caribou has provided to the Royal Australian Air Force over the past five decades.” RAAF took delivery of its first Caribou in April 1964. Operated by Number 38 Squadron, based in Townsville, the Caribou has supported ADF operations throughout the South West Pacific and in South East Asia. It has seen...

Same To You Buddy by: Bethany Stotts, February 20, 2009 “Ask God what your grade is.” These are among the words found on a teacher evaluation form stuffed in Jonathan Lopez’ backpack last November following his in-class presentation on God and miracles. Lopez filed a lawsuit against Professor John Matteson and other Los Angeles City College administrators in the Central District Court of California on February 11, including a scanned copy of the evaluation form, which also stated that “prostyelitizing [sic] is inappropriate to public school.” In the suit, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which is defending the student, argues...

PHOENIX — Maricopa Unified School District officials have changed the district’s literature distribution policy and now allows equal treatment of Christian groups on campus. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit in July after a church and its pastor were told that they would not be permitted to distribute their fliers to students. The previous district policy had allowed a wide array of nonprofit organizations to distribute literature, but targeted religious material for exclusion. "Christians shouldn’t be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman. "We appreciate the school district’s decision to do the right thing....

A MALFUNCTION has forced a Qantas jet to return to Perth, prompting concerns for the second time in three months that interference from a defence station in northwestern Australia may be to blame for a mid-air drama on the national carrier. Qantas flight 71 was on route to Singapore with 277 passengers about 8.30am last Saturday when it had to return to Perth after the jet's autopilot disconnected because of a problem with a unit that supplies key information to flight control computers. The Airbus A330-300 was 45 minutes into the journey and about 380 nautical miles south of the...

The Iowa Supreme Court has heard arguments from homosexuals in a challenge to the state's marriage laws. Douglas Lapier, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, argued against homosexual marriage." "For over 170 years in Iowa, marriage has been defined as a union between one man and one woman," he explains. "It's [a] well-settled law in the state of Iowa." Lapier notes that a member of the court asked the pro-homosexual attorney what would happen in terms of polygamy and incestuous marriage if the court ruled in favor of homosexual marriage. "The plaintiffs simply could not satisfactorily answer that question,...

A northern Minnesota preacher's presidential endorsement from the pulpit of Republican John McCain over the weekend is part of a national challenge of federal restrictions on such political expressions. The Rev. Gus Booth of Warroad Community Church made his endorsement Sunday as part of the Alliance Defense Fund's "Pulpit Freedom Sunday." The fund said Booth and other pastors around the country were exercising "their First Amendment right to preach on the subject, despite federal tax regulations that prohibit intervening or participating in a political campaign." Booth, a delegate to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, said Monday he did...

Pastor Luke Emrich prepared his sermon this week knowing his remarks could invite an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. But that was the whole point, so Emrich forged ahead with his message: Thou shalt vote according to the Scriptures. “I’m telling you straight up, I would choose life,” Emrich told about 100 worshippers yesterday at New Life Church, a nondenominational evangelical congregation about 40 miles from Milwaukee. “I would cast a vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin,” he said. “But friends, it’s your choice to make, it’s not my choice. I won’t be in the voting booth with...

CHICAGO -- Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules. The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship. "For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the...

A university student who challenged his school's "speech code" and won a ruling in federal court that it was vague, overbroad and stifled student speech, including his Christian views, is continuing his battle with Temple University because the school has – three years after he completed it – declined to provide a grade on his master's thesis, thus effectively denying him his degree. The Alliance Defense Fund recently announced that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had affirmed the district court victory by Christian DeJohn, who is a sergeant in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. The ADF handled DeJohn's...

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit against the City of Elmira, N.Y., after police threatened to arrest three Christians if they did not remove a shirt and stop sharing biblical messages during a "gay" pride event at a public park. John Barnes wore a shirt with the message "Liberated from sin by the blood of Jesus" to the Southern Tier Pride 2008 at Wisner Park – a June 14 event promoted as a celebration of homosexual, bisexual and transgender lifestyles. According to the complaint filed in a U.S. district court, Elmira police Capt. Michael Marrone ordered Barnes to remove...

VIETNAM veteran Ian Fruend attributes the breakdown he suffered six years ago to one thing - it was "because of some of the things I did and saw" in battle. After a harrowing war, the infantryman, who served with 8RAR in Nui Dat, Vietnam, returned to Australia without fanfare, landing in Sydney to find the airport in darkness. There was no one to meet him, or offer support. Seeking solace at nearby Liverpool RSL, he was singled out by an old Digger who, identifying his short hair and bandaged arms as that of a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, spat...

An appeals court ruling has trashed the right of Oregon residents to vote on issues in their state by affirming the state's refusal to count referendum signatures even when they were verified in person by the voter. "In America, every citizen's vote should count. The court has tossed aside one of the most important rights we have as Americans," Austin R. Nimocks, a senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said. "Oregon voters deserve to be heard on this referendum. More than enough Oregonians signed the petitions for it. The people didn't thwart this effort; government bureaucracy did. That...

FORTY-TWO years after the Battle of Long Tan, Harry Smith's long campaign for due recognition for his men is over. Mr Smith and two fellow officers will get top gallantry awards for the 100-odd men of D Company 6 RAR who on August 18, 1966, fought against 1500 North Vietnamese regular troops and Viet Cong guerillas. This follows approval by the Rudd Government of the main recommendations of an independent review, by a panel of retired senior army officers, of the battle regarded as a classic study in the use of combined arms to defeat a superior enemy. It restores...

A federal appeals court has ruled the First Amendment rights of homosexuals at Philadelphia's taxpayer-funded "Outfest" celebration in 2004 trumped the First Amendment rights of Christians, and has dismissed the civil rights complaint the Philadelphia 11 had filed. "The city has an interest in ensuring that a permit-holder can use the permit for the purpose for which it was obtained," this week's opinion from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. "This interest necessarily includes the right of police officers to prevent counter-protestors from disrupting or interfering with the message of the permit-holder." The decision upheld a lower court's...

Anti-Civil Liberties Union by: Malcolm A. Kline, July 09, 2008 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sold many college students on the notion that the group defends the downtrodden against the powerful. In reality, the ACLU bears a closer resemblance to the insulated plutocrats it inveighs against than it does to any underdog that you can think of. “The ACLU forced a Catholic charity to pay for an employee’s abortion and an Orthodox Jewish charity to provide housing for an avowedly lesbian employee and her lover,” Steve Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) said at a seminar on...

A federal court ruled against Planned Parenthood and rejected an injunction against a state law requiring doctors to tell women seeking abortions that they may face serious medical conditions and will "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued a 7-4 ruling Friday to lift an injunction against the South Dakota informed consent abortion law. Attorneys representing the Alliance Defense Fund filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Family Research Council in defense of the law. "A woman's life is worth more than Planned Parenthood's bottom...

 PHOENIX, AZ, June 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Tuesday, the State of Arizona passed a bill known as "Jesse's Law", which will help protect incapacitated patients from being euthanized.  The new law, inspired by the ordeal of Jesse Ramirez, closed a loophole in the decision-making process for patients who are physically unable to communicate their wishes regarding medical care.House Bill 2823 establishes a court process to obtain an emergency order to prevent a surrogate decision-maker from withdrawing the administration of food or fluid from an incapacitated patient.Jesse Ramirez was seriously injured in a May 30, 2007, car accident. Barely 10...

AFTER months of gliding silently underwater, stalking imaginary enemies, submarine commander Matt Buckley decided to give his 45 exhausted crew a treat. He ordered his HMAS Collins submarine to surface off the coast of Tasmania and flipped open the hatch. "We were at the entrance to Port Arthur," Buckley recalls. "It was one of those classic misty mornings and we sailed up to the convict ruins. As we glided through the water about 30 dolphins swam alongside us, it was just an incredible moment." It is moments like these the Royal Australian Navy would love to bottle and hand to...