Free Republic

It’s going to be “Constitution 101″ for state police in Maryland, who will be undergoing training on the First and Fourth Amendments as part of a settlement of a lawsuit over the illegal arrests of pro-life protesters there. Confirmation comes from officials with the Alliance Defense Fund, who argued that the officers’ decision to arrest, take into custody and strip-search the protesters simply wasn’t allowed. The ADF noted that the settlement with Maryland State Police will include “training on rights protected by the First and Fourth amendments to the U.S. Constitution.” “Under the terms of the settlement, Maryland State Police...

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...