Free Republic

June 1, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has instituted sweeping changes to its policies and procedures in caring for children who experience gender dysphoria that essentially weed out all employees and volunteers who cannot in good conscience support and promote transgender ideology.    Illinois now "requires that all LGBTQ children and youth be placed in an affirming safe housing, receive LGBTQ competent medical and mental health services, and have equal opportunity and access to care." However, in order to assure consistent achievement of that goal, the new policy requires "any person who is involved with...

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a vocal opposition this week against a Maine bill criminalizing female genital mutilation (FGM), Mainely Media reports.Republican Rep. Heather Sirocki is sponsoring the bill, saying that it would classify performing FGM as a Class B crime in the state, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The bill would also punish the parent or guardian of the victim.However, the Maine ACLU staunchly opposes the protection. ACLU spokesman Oamshri Amarasingham said that the risk of mutilation isn’t worth expanding Maine’s criminal code. The Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault also supported the ACLU, arguing...

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has urged the federal government to revoke a permit for a “free speech” rally and to refuse a permit for an anti-Muslim march planned for Portland next week. Wheeler made the request in light of a gruesome stabbing on a MAX light-rail train Friday, May 26. Two men died and another was seriously injured when they intervened to defend two teenage girls from a man’s bigoted tirade. In a series of posts on Twitter, Wheeler said the events should be canceled.

A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's collection of emails, texts and other online communications that privacy experts have long argued violates constitutional protections of Americans' privacy. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond on Tuesday reversed a lower court decision and declared that Wikimedia Foundation has the legal standing to pursue the case against the NSA, America's primary foreign spy surveillance agency. Wikimedia alleges in its suit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, that the NSA's upstream collection practices violate the 4th Amendment because they gather...

(Skip) The ACLU was once a nonpartisan organization focused on liberty and equality before the law. In recent years it has chosen its battles with an increasingly left-wing sensibility. In doing so, it has become considerably more equivocal and sometimes even hostile toward core civil liberties concerns of free speech and due process. (Skip) On balance, the organization has been a quiet friend more than an active opponent of campus censorship. How often have you heard the ACLU speak out against progressive censors? How often have you seen it quoted defending speech in coverage of censorship news, like the violent...

Don’t mess with Texas — no, really, says the American Civil Liberties Union. The nonprofit legal group is warning travelers to stay away from the Lone Star State after it passed a law that allows cops to ask about a person’s immigration status during routine stops. “We plan to fight this racist and wrongheaded law in the courts and in the streets. Until we defeat it, everyone traveling in or to Texas needs to be aware of what’s in store for them,” said ACLU of Texas executive director Terri Burke in a statement. “The Lone Star State will become a...

The American Civil Liberties Union issued a warning Tuesday urging residents of California and other states to be on alert when traveling in Texas after that state passed a law this week prohibiting its cities from protecting undocumented immigrants.

President Donald Trump today signed an executive order that would allow religious organizations to endorse political candidates and expand participation in politics. The executive order signed today also enables private employers to use religion as a pretext to deny reproductive health care to their employees. “The actions taken today are a broadside to our country’s long-standing commitment to the separation of church and state. Whether by executive order or through backroom deals, it’s clear that the Trump administration and Congressional leadership are using religion as a wedge to further divide the country and permit discrimination. We intend to file suit...

Last year, Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, California refused to remove the uterus of Evan Michael Minton. Minton is in the process of transitioning from female to a simulated male body. This Catholic hospital declined to remove a healthy uterus and referred Minton to a nearby nonreligious hospital within the same Dignity Health network. American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Bertram Petty claimed that “the hospital violated Mr. Minton’s right to have whatever surgery he wants at whatever facility he chooses. The hospital’s assertion that the surgery goes against its sincerely held religious beliefs is irrelevant. Under Obamacare, the...

Does California’s non-discrimination law on sexual orientation override a Catholic hospital’s freedom of religious expression? A new lawsuit from the ACLU claims yes, filed on behalf of a patient denied an elective hysterectomy as part of a surgical transition from female to male. Despite having arranged an emergency referral to another hospital which did conduct the operation, the transgender patient and the ACLU want Catholic hospitals forced to perform these surgeries in the future: More than seven months after a Dignity Health hospital refused a hysterectomy to a Sacramento-area transgender patient, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit...

Evan Michael Minton, a former legislative aide in California, wants to change from being a woman to a man. As part of the process, Minton sought a hysterectomy at Mercy San Juan Medical Center, part of the Dignity Health Care chain. As a Catholic institution, Mercy San Juan does not perform elective hysterectomies. A spokeswoman for the hospital explained that such procedures may only be performed to treat a serious medical problem, and when there is no alternative treatment available. Mercy immediately referred Minton to another hospital within the Dignity chain—one that is not Catholic—and the procedure was performed within...

A few months after lefty activists crowded Washington D.C. for the Women's March, activists from many of those same organizations went to bat for a serial rapist and murderer. Ledell Lee's victims were all women.  While he was on trial for the rape and murder of Debra Reese, the testimony of three of his rape victims was presented. Lee had made a habit of knocking on doors and asking to borrow some tools to see whether a woman's husband might be home. Debra Reese called her mother and told her that a strange man had tried to borrow some tools....

The American Civil Liberties Union does not want school police to be armed. In an opinion piece published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ACLU of Pennsylvania senior policy advocate Harold Jordan calls for the disarming of school police. The article has been posted on the ACLU’s website and also tweeted out by the organization. School police are currently not armed in Pittsburgh, and Jordan and the ACLU are just fine with that. “Having officers patrol the hallways with firearms sends a negative message to students,” Jordan writes. “It makes many students feel that they are being treated like suspects. It...

A middle school in Chatham, New Jersey, is using a cartoon video to teach the Five Pillars of Islam to seventh-grade students, and now two parents have obtained legal services to fight the school district which has ignored their concerns. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/03/moms-declare-holy-war-after-school-teaches-islam-true-faith/#sjdZKBDuy51VZHcr.99

Wonder no more. Fresh off an attack on Jeff Sessions, the ACLU disclosed its plans to fight Donald Trump. The plan sounds so baldly partisan it could have been written by Debbie Wasserman Schultz: CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union staged a nationwide training event Saturday to make sure people are aware of their rights as protesters and urge organized, public resistance by those opposed to policies of President Donald Trump. Organizers said the event at a sports arena on the University of Miami campus was livestreamed to locations in all 50 states. ACLU Executive Director...

The American Civil Liberties Union staged a nationwide training event Saturday to make sure people are aware of their rights as protesters and urge organized, public resistance by those opposed to policies of President Donald Trump. Organizers said the event at a sports arena on the University of Miami campus was livestreamed to locations in all 50 states. ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said 200,000 people had signed up to attend one of an estimated 2,000 local events.

Activist Ginger McQueen crashed the local ACLU Stop Trump training session today and began to lecture the indoctrinated leftists. Ginger urged the snowflakes to think for themselves. So they called the police on her. When the officer got there he shook her hand and laughed. Ginger is Senior Editor of the Beltway Times. I crashed the ACLU's Stop Trump meeting. They called the police on me. The cop shook my hand and laughed. pic.twitter.com/BYVayGHUSF — Ginger McQueen (@GingerMcQueen) March 11, 2017 The police were called in. Yes, the police actually showed up because the snowflakes can't handle having their ideas...

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who in 2015 spent six days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples due to her religious beliefs, will not have to pay $231,000 in court fees, a federal judge has ruled. U. S. Magistrate Judge Edward Atkins denied the plaintiffs' demand in Miller v. Davis that Davis pay the ACLU $231,000 because the plaintiffs didn't win their case against Davis, Liberty Counsel reported. Their were three cases against Davis, all of which were dismissed as moot on April 19, 2016, after the Kentucky legislature passed a law providing Davis, and...

In the weeks following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, we have seen the harms that his policies cause people around the world and the danger his actions represent for our civil liberties. Trump’s use of executive power has prompted the protest and defiance of millions, echoing the voices of many who know that our basic American values are being tested by our president. The ACLU will continue to defend our basic freedoms and hold this administration accountable for every unlawful or unconstitutional measure they propose. We will use the courts as one avenue to aggressively advance our agenda, but we cannot...

The state of Arkansas plans to put to death eight inmates over a span of 10 days next month, a pace of executions unequaled in recent American history and brought about by a looming expiration date for a drug used by the state for lethal injections. The eight men facing execution — four black and four white — are among 34 death row inmates in Arkansas, where capital punishment has been suspended since 2005 over legal challenges and difficulty in acquiring the drugs for lethal injections. All eight men were convicted of murders that occurred between 1989 and 1999, and...