Free Republic

New York: A Sikh-American employee at the Walt Disney World in Florida, who was barred from working in view of the guests due his religious appearance, for seven years, has achieved a significant victory, with the company agreeing to end the segregation and accommodate his religious beliefs. Gurdit Singh had been employed as a mail carrier at the popular amusement park in 2008 but was told by his Disney bosses that he would not be permitted to run mail routes visible to park guests because his religious appearance "violated" the company's 'Look Policy,' according to the rights group Sikh Coalition. In a letter...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is certainly no stranger to clashing with the Catholic Church over its pro-life position. This is especially the case when it comes to Catholic hospitals refusing to perform abortions. A lawsuit from 2013 over such an incident has now been thrown out by a federal judge in Michigan. A piece from mlive.com reports that Tamesha Means, who miscarried in 2010, was represented by the ACLU and ACLU Michigan with her lawsuit against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop and three chairs of Catholic Health Ministries. She did not, however, sue the hospital Mercy Health,...

Even before the U.S. Supreme Court announced the previously unknown constitutional “right” to impose same-sex “marriage” on all 50 states, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was readying its next volley. For two decades, the ACLU has cited the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as a defense of religious liberty in various worthy and some not-so-worthy cases. No more. The ACLU has decided that the unalienable right to religious freedom embodied in the First Amendment must give way to newly coined claims by newly empowered groups. In a Washington Post column, ACLU Deputy Director Louise Melling called on Congress...

Larry Klayman, former federal prosecutor for the Justice Department and the founder of Judicial Watch and now Freedom Watch, announced the filing of a lawsuit against the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”), and certain of its attorneys for violating their fiduciary duty and attorney client relationship, as well as defaming NSA/CIA whistleblower Dennis Montgomery. The complaint was filed in federal court in Miami, Florida (Case No. 15-cv-22452). Montgomery sought legal assistance from the ACLU with regard to his whistleblowing of the unconstitutional and illegal acts by the NSA and CIA, much like the disclosures of Edward Snowden. Montgomery possesses information...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, tells Breitbart News exclusively that he’s appalled by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) decision to turn against defending civil liberties. “Their hypocrisy is absolutely stunning,” Jindal said when asked about how the ACLU’s website, and their legal argument history, is filled with defenses of religious liberty. ... Jindal’s interview with Breitbart News came just hours after the ACLU announced it would be suing Jindal over an executive order he issued in the state of Louisiana aimed at protecting religious freedom. The executive order, as Breitbart News reported, tried to protect...

The American Civil Liberties Union is withdrawing its support of a 1993 federal law designed to protect persons acting on their religious beliefs. In an op-ed in the Washington Post June 25, Louise Melling, the ACLU's deputy legal director, wrote that while the organization once supported the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, it is concerned now that the law can be used to trample the rights of others, particularly homosexuals:   For more than 15 years, we have been concerned about how the RFRA could be used to discriminate against others. As the events of the past couple of years amply illustrate,...

For years conservatives and proponents of religious liberty in America have warned that if same-sex marriage became legal, the left would then pursue revoking the tax exempt status for religious institutions, particularly Christian churches, around the country. Just days after the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that gay marriage is a constitutional right, progressive activists like Mark Oppenheimer of the New York Times are calling for tax exempt statutes to be stripped. The Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage makes it clearer than ever that the government shouldn't be subsidizing religion and non-profits. Rather than try to rescue...

Come on. How many will truly be surprised to see the American Civil Liberties Union backpedal away from an enumerated civil right in the Constitution, now that the cognoscenti considers it a form of bigotry? I feel so old. I remember when the ACLU was a civil liberties organization. http://t.co/oe1EiYAXja— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) June 27, 2015 @Popehat @Lorienen @ACLU well now that Christians use it the ACLU can't support it— Clarence Whorley (@ClarenceWhorley) June 27, 2015 The organization that once went to court to ensure that the American Nazi Party could parade through Skokie, Illinois in an exercise of free...

Iknoor Singh, a student at Hofstra University, thought he had found his calling when he attended a campus meeting of the U.S. Army’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. But when he tried to sign up, he was told that he would have to shave his beard, cut his hair and remove his turban. When he asked for a religious accommodation as a Sikh, the Army refused, saying that these articles of faith would undermine unit cohesion and morale, readiness, health and safety, and discipline. ..................................................... Yes, religious freedom needs protection. But religious liberty doesn’t mean the right to discriminate or to...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Anna Núñez, ACLU of Texas, 713-942-8146, Ext. 110, media@aclutx.org [1] HOUSTON – In separate written requests submitted today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas demanded two Texas police departments provide a full accounting of recent incidents involving excessive use of force in the City of McKinney and mass arrests in the City of Waco. Though unrelated, the events share a common problem: police abuse and lack of transparency and accountability. “In order to maintain the trust of the communities they serve, law enforcement agencies must embrace transparency in their operations, especially when questionable incidents...

Four weeks after the deadly Twin Peaks shooting melee that left nine bikers dead, 177 others in jail with million-dollar bonds and way more questions than answers about biker subculture, due process in Waco and conflicting crime narratives, the two sides in all this are only hardening in their positions. In short, a microcosm of the American way. Some vigorously support local law enforcement. They say the facts that bikers came to Waco’s Twin Peaks restaurant well-armed and that search warrants reveal many wore colors of motorcycle gangs associated by the FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety with criminal...

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of a Virginia high school student who has been prohibited from using the boys bathrooms and locker rooms on school premises. The student plaintiff, 16-year-old Gavin Grimm, attends Gloucester High School in quiet, coastal Virginia, reports the Daily Press of Newport News. The reason school officials have prevented Grimm from using facilities reserved for boys on campus is because Grimm was born a girl and by all accounts remains a girl. Nevertheless, Grimm, her family and the ACLU want a court order forcing the local school...

Moldy showers and cells are infested with mice and cockroaches, toilets are broken for days and medical care is poor or nonexistent at a notoriously troubled Baltimore city jail, the ACLU and Public Justice Center said in court documents filed Tuesday. The groups want a federal judge to reopen a lawsuit against the state of Maryland over what they say are conditions so substandard it brings "shame to this city." Inmates suffering from serious illnesses such as HIV and diabetes are being denied life-sustaining prescription medication and the state has failed to cure well-documented systemic problems within the jail after...

The U.S. Supreme Court landed the final blow against an Arizona law that denied bail to immigrants who are in the country illegally and are charged with certain felonies, marking the latest in a series of state immigration policies that have since been thrown out by the courts. The nation’s highest court on Monday rejected a bid from metro Phoenix’s top prosecutor and sheriff to reinstate the 2006 law after a lower appeals court concluded late last year that it violated civil rights by imposing punishment before trial. While a small number of Arizona’s immigration laws have been upheld, the...

DETROIT — The state of Michigan is being sued over its refusal to change gender identities on driver’s licenses without a new birth certificate. The ACLU says an amended birth certificate in Michigan requires proof of transgender surgery, although most transgender people don’t want surgery. Secretary of State spokeswoman Gisgie Gendreau says the agency is following state law.

I’ve been a florist in Richmond, Wash., for more than 30 years. In that time, I’ve developed close relationships with many of my clients. One of my favorites was Rob Ingersoll. Ingersoll came in often and we’d talk. Like me, he had an artistic eye. I’d try to create really special arrangements for him. I knew he was gay, but it didn’t matter — I enjoyed his company and his creativity. Then he asked me to create the floral arrangements for his wedding. I love Rob, and I’d always been happy to design for his special days. But there’s something...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho is warning that a south-central Idaho school district's dress code is unconstitutional and must be changed. The Cassia County School District is requiring all female students participating in the high school graduation to wear white or pastel dresses. Male graduating students must wear pants and a tie. ACLU Legal Director Richard Eppink says schools that make a distinction between boy and girl dress codes are enforcing gender-stereotyping policies, which violate the state and U.S. Constitution.

Education advocates on Monday called on Gov. Larry Hogan and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to increase funding for the city's schools, arguing the recent rioting in Baltimore shows the money is desperately needed. Without the funds, city schools will be forced to cut teachers, critical programs and student services, the advocates said. "Baltimore is not getting sufficient education funding to provide for all of our children's needs," said Bebe Verdery, education reform director at the ACLU of Maryland. The coalition includes the city's parent-teacher association and the city's charter schools organization, among other groups.

The Marxist-founded pressure group gears up to bring the Arab Spring to Baltimore — and the rest of America Cooling down the churning cauldron of mob violence that Baltimore has become is not on the agenda of the ACLU which is now preparing to turn up the heat in cities across America. Following the suspicious death in police custody of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man with a long rap sheet, angry mobs and radical agitators have turned Maryland’s largest city into a Hobbesian jungle. They were already angry at the endlessly sensationalized deaths in recent years of black males...

The Mobile Justice app is unique in the sense that it will allow videos captured by the app to be preserved in the case police seize or destroy the device.The ACLU of Northern California launched a free cell phone recording app Thursday which would allow people to record and send videos to their local ACLU affiliates when they feel their rights are being violated by police. The app comes as protests decrying police violence are taking over the country, most recently for the controversial death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who died after suffering a spinal cord injury...