Free Republic

Today's lead editorial in The New York Times came out in strong support of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed for firing the city's Fire Chief, Kelvin Cochran. Cochran, as you may know was fired recently for having “antigay views.� Christian author and professor, Denny Burk, took issue with the NYT editorial on his blog, arguing that if the Atlanta Fire Chief’s termination isn’t a religious liberty case, then nothing is. Extensive details about this curious case of termination are easy to find elsewhere. For instance, see this Christianheadlines.com article, click the related links throughout this post, and view Chief Cochran’s own...

It was only a matter of time before it actually happened. In Colorado, where Masterpiece Cakeshop has been cited by the state for refusing to make wedding cakes for gay couples, a man has filed a complaint with the state that a different bakery has refused to make him a cake, violating public accommodation laws. In this case, though, the man claims religious discrimination for a bakery's refusal to make a cake that's not quite so love-affirming. ...."He wanted us to write God hates …" she trails. "Just really radical stuff against gays." "He wouldn't allow me to make a...

Ex-CIA Officer Indicted for Leaking Classified Info to New York Slimes Reporter Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer, was indicted today for leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen. The indictment shows that the federal government had access to their e-mail and phone contacts going back several years. Sterling served on the Iran desk of the CIA in the 1990s, and oversaw a classified program aimed at sabotaging the development of its nuclear programming. He left the CIA in 2000 and sued for racial discrimination (he is African American) in a case that went all the way...

A former CIA officer was arrested on Thursday on charges of illegally disclosing national defense information about Iran to a New York Times reporter who wrote a book. The U.S. Justice Department said Jeffrey Sterling, 43, was charged with six counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and one count of unlawfully keeping national defense information, mail fraud, unauthorized conveyance of government property and obstructing justice.

He seemed like a shoe in for the job of Director of Public Health for the state of Georgia. A medical doctor and PhD, Dr. Eric Walsh had been thoroughly vetted for the position in over 100 pages of documentation praising the doctor being hired by the agency. That is, until Dr. Walsh’s Christian sermons were uncovered. In a law suit filed by Liberty Institute on behalf of Dr. Walsh, it is alleged that Department of Public Health, DPH, Human Resource decision-makers decided not to hire the doctor after viewing You Tube recordings of his sermons. Dr. Walsh’s Christian faith...

San Jose State University in California has intimated Ratio Christi, a grassroots campus student ministry, of its decision to "de-recognized" the campus chapter as punishment for the ministry's "discriminatory" policy for leadership positions. School officials wrote to Ratio Christi, explaining their action is as per a new California State University Executive Order on how an organization selects its officers, the ministry revealed on its website this week. The ministry requires its chapter officers to be Christian and holding biblical beliefs, and the State of California now deems that as "discriminatory." "De-recognition" means the school chapter of the ministry is no...

In the closely watched Supreme Court case, EEOC v. Abercrombie, the Becket Fund a brief debunking Abercrombie's claim that a Muslim job applicant should have explained during her job interview that she was wearing a headscarf for religious reasons in order to be protected by anti-discrimination laws. "Abercrombie's claim is both an absurd and dangerous precedent for all people of faith seeking employment," said Eric Baxter, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. "Justice may be blind, but that doesn't mean employers can cover their eyes. A job applicant does not have to bring a 'Look at me...

NEW YORK — The highest-ranking Hispanic woman in a management position at Major League Baseball headquarters said in a lawsuit on Thursday she has faced discrimination there for two decades. Sylvia Lind’s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks unspecified damages for what she describes as a failure by the league to consider, interview, appoint and promote qualified Hispanic women to managerial and executive positions. Lind, 48, says the league has created a hostile work environment for her because of her age.

For decades, courts have been struggling to reconcile two conflicting theories of what constitutes unlawful discrimination. The first theory, often called “disparate treatment,” reflects the commonly understood meaning of “discrimination.” Under this theory, a government action discriminates—violates the principle of equal protection or equality under the law—if it explicitly or implicitly treats members of one race or other special group differently from others. Examples of disparate treatment include Jim Crow’s black codes, university admission caps and quotas, and policies excluding women from certain positions.The second theory, known as “disparate impact,” argues that the definition of discrimination should be much broader...

In a dispute that could have greater legal implications, a local pro-life organization filed suit Wednesday against a landlord, whose Vacaville office building houses Planned Parenthood, alleging religious discrimination after the owner first agreed to lease space to the group and then reneged, saying only that their pro-life clinic was “not a good fit.” Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit legal defense organization, filed the complaint on behalf of Alpha Pregnancy Clinics of Northern California in Solano County Superior Court, alleging breach of contract and violation of the organization’s civil rights. Alpha, a licensed medical clinic in the state of California,...

Organizers of a recent Ferguson protest at the University of Missouri requested “only people of color” take part in the event’s “die-in,” one element of a larger demonstration that prompted at least two classes to be shelved so students could participate. “During the demonstration we will hold a ‘die-in’ in the student center. We are asking that only people of color be the ones to do so,” event organizers stated in an email obtained by The College Fix. “We are asking non-people of color to stand holding hands in solidarity.” “The ‘die-in’ is meant to represent black bodies that are...

For five hours, numerous people spoke about whether transgender men and women should be protected under the human rights ordinance in Miami-Dade County....

We hear very little about the treatment of Christians in Israel. Among the terrible persecution that Christians face in Muslim countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, Israel is usually portrayed as a beacon of tolerance where Christians are free to follow their faith without fear of being killed. Everything is relative. Looking at what happens in Israel's neighbouring countries, where Christians are forced to convert to Islam, humiliate themselves by becoming second-class citizens and paying the extortionist jizya tax, die or flee, Israel may indeed seem a good place for them to live. Israel has no policy of...

The Justice Department reached an agreement Monday with Peapod, a popular Internet grocer, to settle claims that the company’s website discriminated against people with disabilities.The agreement forces Peapod LLC and parent company Ahold USA to update www.peapod.com so assistive technologies like text-to-speech and Braille displays function with the site.The DOJ hailed the action as ensuring that anti-discrimination laws under the Americans with Disabilities Act apply to Internet businesses as well as brick and mortar stores.“This agreement ensures that people with disabilities will have an equal opportunity to independently and conveniently shop online for groceries,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita...

COURT HOUSE – Colin Flaherty is a noted journalist for 30 years, whose works have appeared in major newspapers including The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, and has been published in 1,000 sites around the world and received 50 journalism awards. Flaherty made an appearance Nov. 3 at Atlantic Cape Community College to speak about black-on-white violence, a topic, he stated, which does not receive much press. The subject makes editors uncomfortable, Flaherty said. Liberals, he said, cringe at the idea of black-on-white violence and police underreport it. Flaherty documented cases in Chicago where Mayor Rahm...

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted that it didn’t exercise much effort to track down emails cited in an investigation of IRS abuses involving harassment of conservative political organizations. “Look, we were between a rock and a hard place,” Koskinen contended. “On the one hand, we have Congress and the Courts demanding we produce these documents. On the other hand, some very powerful and dangerous people were very determined that these documents never be found.” “If we defy Congress and the Courts the worst case scenario is we get held in contempt,” Koskinen pointed out. “It’s embarrassing. We look like crooks...

A librarian who formerly worked at the Riverhead Free Library has filed a lawsuit saying that she was fired because she did not discriminate against white people. Riverhead Free Library is located in Long Island, New York. Diane Woodcheke says she was fired after she questioned her boss's decision to only hire minorities. Her boss told her that “my people have been kept down,” and, therefore, only minorities should be hired at the library. Woodcheke questioned this, telling her boss that "discrimination is illegal." Woodcheke claims that her boss then mocked her and then fired her soon after. “Discounting people...

A federal judge overturned the Obama administration’s “desperation” move to try to find more ways to prove discrimination in housing in a decision Monday that also delivered a searing rebuke to Thomas Perez, a Cabinet official whom liberals are pushing to be the next attorney general. Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that the administration cannot rely on “disparate impact” to judge discrimination, dealing a blow to civil rights groups that said the analytical tool gave them more room to file discrimination cases. Potentially just as important for President Obama’s postelection moves was the rebuke Judge Leon delivered to Mr. Perez,...

The White House in general, and Perez in particular, like disparate impact theory because it "sets a very low bar for proving discrimination" The idea of “disparate impact” is an abomination that has taken root in the business world and is being pushed into other sectors as well, such as housing and labor. This idea holds that “a defendant can be held liable for discrimination for a race-neutral policy that statistically disadvantages a specific minority group even if that negative “impact” was neither foreseen nor intended. In such cases, defendants can be forced to pay for harm caused not by...

A primary school has been accused of racism after English speaking children were barred from going on school trip and forced to attend classes instead. St Mary’s C of E Primary School in Kidderminster, Worcs., laid on a petting zoo visit on Tuesday for non-English speaking pupils only, while pupils who did speak the language had to stay in lessons. Parents criticized the decision and said their children had been discriminated against for being British. Several even refused to allow their children to go to school on the day of the trip to Rays Farm, near Bridgnorth, Shrops., which was...

A Canadian woman says that she was barred from getting a job at a wilderness tourism company because of her Christian faith. Bethany Paquette, who is an experienced rafting guide, said she was “attacked” over her religion by Norwegian company Amaruk Wilderness Corp. Paquette has taken her email correspondence with the company to lawyers and is preparing a case for the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. Describing her experience, Paquette said: “I did feel really attacked on the basis that I’m a Christian”. She says she was shocked when she read an email sent in reply to her application by...

WHAT A disappointment. Officials have retracted their promising report that voter registration surged by more than 3,000 in Ferguson, Missouri since August 9, when the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white police officer touched off sometimes-violent protests. The St. Louis County Election Board now says only 128 new people registered. The original figure turned out to be the number of previously registered voters who had re-registered to change their address or other personal information, Rita Days, St. Louis County’s director of elections, said. THAT’S STILL good news for democracy, although not as much as...

To those who buy the romanticized image of labor unions - those brave champions of the working man who work day and night to protect the best interests of just plain folks against the robber barons in the boardrooms and the plush corporate offices - it’s hard to conceive of why anyone would not want to join the United Auto Workers. Democrats who hate right-to-work laws in states that have them deride said laws as “right to work for less.” You dumbasses! Why would you not join the union when it’s going to get you more money and protect you...

Racial and ethnic admission preferences will probably have to be pried from the cold, dead fingers of university officials, but the pressure to end this affirmative discrimination continues. For starters, such preferences are unpopular with most Americans, and most Americans have a dog in this fight. I’ll cite just two recent polls, from somewhat surprising sources. A survey conducted last April by MTV of “millennials” aged 14 to 24 found that 90 percent “believed that everyone should be treated the same regardless of race” — and so, unsurprisingly, 88 percent opposed affirmative action. The Boston Globe in July discussed a...

I started this narrative bibliography for "The Case for Reparations" back in June, but, regrettably, I didn't finish the final section before I left for the summer. Some time has passed but I think it is very important that, as much as possible, I complete this public acknowledgement of all the previous work that contributed to my own. As I've written, the process began with the understanding that racism was a "done thing" and not an irrepressible clash between people of different hues. Another way of putting this is to say white supremacy is not an invention of white people;...

Residents in the Vickery Meadow neighborhood of Dallas are living near the epicenter of the Ebola scare in North Texas. Now, they say they’re facing a different challenge — discrimination. Thomas Duncan stayed at an apartment in the community before being diagnosed with Ebola and admitted into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for treatment. Dallas City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates says that she met with over 30 community leaders on Monday, trying to assess the needs of the residents. Most are concerned about the possible stigma of living near the apartment building. “Unfortunately, they are feeling discriminated against,” said Gates....

Two immigration groups have filed legal complaints against the Obama administration for kicking over one hundred thousand Obamacare customers off their insurance plans without sending notices in their native language, Modern Healthcare reports. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Philadelphia’s Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMACC) have both filed complaints with Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. The groups believe the Obama administration’s move to end the health plans of customers who failed to prove their legal immigration or citizenship status violate customers’ rights as immigrants. The Obama administration terminated 115,000 customers’ Obamacare...

It’s hard to imagine that any school would have a problem with a book about a Christian family that helped Jews escape the Holocaust. But Springs Charter Schools in Temecula, Calif., not only had a problem with “The Hiding Place,” they also took issue with any other book that was written by a Christian author or included a Christian message. “We do not purchase sectarian educational materials and do not allow sectarian materials on our state-authorized lending shelves,” Superintendent Kathleen Hermsmeyer wrote in a letter to attorneys at the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI). Pacific Justice Institute is representing a parent...

Lakeland Eye Clinic, a Lakeland, Fla.-based organization of health care professionals, discriminated based on sex in violation of federal law by firing an employee because she is transgender, because she was transitioning from male to female, and/or because she did not conform to the employer's gender-based expectations, preferences, or stereotypes, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today. This is one of the first two lawsuits ever filed by the agency alleging sex discrimination against transgender individuals. The other case, EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. was filed today by the EEOC's...

Sen. Ben Cardin said Tuesday that his legislation to prohibit law enforcement agencies from racial profiling had received renewed national attention after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last month. Speaking at a briefing on Capitol Hill, the Maryland Democrat said the bill had "gotten new life" and that he hoped the proposal could forward this year. "How many more Michael Browns will we have?" Cardin asked. "We all know that profiling is un-American and wrong. We know it turns communities against law enforcement, where they need to work together."

Denial of reasonable accommodation, Right to Free Speech The world has witnessed a lot of bizarre creativity on the part of Obama administration. One of the novelties imposed on us is the emergence of a brand new form of inequity: discrimination on the basis of sacrifice. Neglectful and unfair treatment of American veterans is not only a disgrace, but a blatant abuse of their civil and human rights. Labelling The first rule of labelling strategy is “I don’t label, I care!” In everyday life a manipulator will combine “crazy making” with negative stereotyping to make you look bad and to...

Two women were arrested after they robbed and then intimidated three tenants out of their Brooklyn apartment — and the crime was partly motivated by race and class resentment, law enforcement sources said. Precious Parker, 30, and Sabrina James, 23, knocked on the door of an apartment building on Ocean Ave. near Newkirk Ave. in Flatbush at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday and held a 34-year-old man, a 37-year-old man, and a 25-year-old woman at gunpoint demanding they move out or be killed, police said. The women then stole $800, an iPhone and personal information

Environmentalist groups accuse hog farms of violating civil rights. Environmental groups have filed a civil-rights complaint against hog farmers in North Carolina, claiming that by maintaining farms near neighborhoods where minorities live, the pork producers are engaged in illegal discrimination against minorities. The 48-page complaint explains that the farms create problems for surrounding neighborhoods such as foul smells and runoff in the water. The crux of the complaint, which was filed by Washington-based EarthJustice and three other environmental groups in the Tar Heel State, is not these problems themselves, however. The four environmental groups object to seeing these problems occur...

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich), chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is preparing a report that will absolve the IRS and Lois Lerner of any wrongdoing in the campaign to target and harass conservative political organizations. “Those who have alleged that Lerner and the IRS took it upon themselves to conduct a vendetta against conservative organizations have it all wrong,” Levin alleged. “Evidence has emerged that the IRS was acting upon urgent requests from highly placed members of the government. Bureaucrats being responsive to the needs of the government is behavior we should be encouraging not punishing.” The highly...

A Texas catering business will pay the United States $26,400 for engaging in “citizenship-discrimination,” as part of a settlement with the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Culinaire International unlawfully discriminated against employees based on their citizenship status, the Justice Department claimed, because it required non-citizen employees to provide extra proof of their right to work in the United States. Culinaire has agreed to pay the United States $20,460 in civil penalties, receive training in anti-discrimination rules of the Immigration and Nationality Act, revise its work eligibility verification process, and create a $40,000 back pay fund for “potential economic victims.”

If organizers are insistent in holding the event they could always agree to march in the nude or carry “Death to Israel!” signs. That should do it for the city once known as 'Toronto the Good'. With less than a month to go before the parade expected to draw thousands of participants, Toronto bureaucrats told the organizers of the annual event that it could not be held. Although excuses were given, there is no other logical explanation other than the cancellation of the event, held without incident for the past 14 years, was nothing more than Christian-bashing. According to Canada...

Edelman global CEO Richard Edelman said in a conversation with an editor of Vice’s Motherboard blog that former US CEO Mark Hass was fired from the agency in part because of the way he responded to an investigation into PR agencies’ work with climate-change deniers. Quoted by Motherboard senior editor Brian Merchant, the chief executive of the world’s largest PR agency said, "We fired the head of our US [division] in part because of that stupid note he wrote, about, you know, how we don’t answer these kinds of things." In response to inquiries from the Climate Investigations Center that...

The Obama administration has done little to calm racial tensions as they spread from Manhattan to St. Louis to Los Angeles. Quite the opposite, some top officials have fueled African-American fears of racism with false accusations of anti-black discrimination. Attorney General Eric Holder’s race-baiting is no secret. Justice Department documents show the nation’s top cop gave thousands of dollars to help the Rev. Al Sharpton organize marches protesting the death of Trayvon Martin. Now he’s sent the civil-rights unit to St. Louis to do the same thing in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Less known, however, is the role...

One of the major causes of the financial crash of 2008 was the insularity of the “good old boys” network on Wall Street, says Sallie Krawcheck. The former Citigroup CFO has started a socially responsibly stock mutual fund that promotes the world’s 400 most female-focused firms. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

A few weeks ago the Dublin Girls had gathered inside the local mall for an evening power walk. They formed a small circle and as they had done many times before, they bowed their heads to petition the Almighty. But before one of the runners could say, “Lord Jesus,” she was interrupted by a mall cop barreling down a corridor. “The security guard came running toward us and said, ‘You are not allowed to pray at the mall. That’s against the policy,’” Tammy told me. The ladies were aghast. “I told him we’ve been praying since last November and no...

Colorado regulators say a Denver gay bar discriminated against a man when a bouncer denied him entry last year because he was dressed in drag. The civil rights division of the state's Department of Regulatory Agencies has ordered the Denver Wrangler to resolve the dispute with Vito Marzano, a gay man who was wearing a dress, wig and light make-up when he went to the bar August 31, 2013. The order obtained Monday says the bouncer turned Marzano away because his appearance didn't match the one on his driver's license. But regulators determined that the bar wrongly favors those with...

Some of the world’s top PR companies have for the first time publicly ruled out working with climate change deniers, marking a fundamental shift in the multi-billion dollar industry that has grown up around the issue of global warming. Public relations firms have played a critical role over the years in framing the debate on climate change and its solutions – as well as the extensive disinformation campaigns launched to block those initiatives. Now a number of the top 25 global PR firms have told the Guardian they will not represent clients who deny man-made climate change, or take campaigns...

The organizer of a yearly conference for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students pursuing MBAs is in a huff because entirely too many straight students are attending the event, which includes a recruitment fair. Matt Kidd, executive director of Reaching Out MBA, has also charged that a few attendees made comments that he says some gay people did not appreciate, reports Campus Reform. For example, in addition to having the temerity to show up while failing to be gay, one straight attendee allegedly said “Dude, I’m not gay.” Another allegedly said: “There needs to be less focus on gay stuff...

A born-again Christian who was fired from South Tipperary County Council has been awarded €70,000 compensation after the Equality Tribunal found he was discriminated against over his religion. According to the council, John McAteer was dismissed after repeatedly failing to comply with senior staff members who told him to stop speaking about his faith to workers and members of the public during office hours. Mr McAteer said the tenets of his religion require him to speak to people about Jesus and share the Gospel with them. The complainant had been working as a civil engineer in the Clonmel Borough Council...

The business community in an Irish village has hit back at a cafe owner who has refused to serve "loud Americans". Peter Fitzgerald of Waterville, County Kerry, annoyed villagers when he posted a notice in his cafe banning coach parties and loud Americans. The story went viral on social media and was picked up by dozens of newspapers around the world. The village, however, has assured all, loud or not, of a warm welcome. Business people and residents took to the streets on Tuesday to send out a strong message to visitors. Albert Walsh, chairman of Waterville Business Association, said:...

The European Court of Justice has pointed the finger at unequal retirement plans between men and women in the French civil service. EurActiv France reports. According to a judgment by the ECJ (17 July), the French retirement system for civil servants is discriminating against men. “French rules on certain pension-related advantages granted to civil servants give rise to indirect discrimination on grounds of sex,” the court decided. […] French law states that if a civil servant has raised at least three children, he or she can benefit from early retirement. It also outlines “service credit advantages” to parents working in...

President Barack Obama's LGBT workplace discrimination order has revealed a rift among Democrats over whether religious freedom trumps gay rights. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives could exploit that rift by bringing the Senate-passed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has a religious exemption, to the floor for a vote. ENDA, which would ban workplace discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity, was passed by the Senate in November with the support of 54 Democrats and 10 Republicans. The bill likely would not have passed if it had not contained a religious exemption. The exemption was a major point of contention during...

President Barack Obama issued an executive order Monday prohibiting workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity for federal contractors. What does this mean for Christian organizations that remain faithful to the biblical teaching on homosexual behavior? Here are two main points that those groups need to be aware of: First, the order only applies to government contractors and sub-contractors, it does not apply to groups that receive government grants. Most religious non-profits that provide services for the government do so through a government grant. They would not be affected. A grant recipient is awarded money for general purpose,...

President Barack Obama's executive order of July 21 has installed workplace rules forbidding the firing of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people by the federal government and federal contractors -- a key provision in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act languishing in Congress. The U.S. bishops have opposed the bill, known as ENDA, which was passed by the Senate last November but was never scheduled for a vote in the House. The bill has been introduced in almost every Congress since 1994. "Today's executive order is unprecedented and extreme and should be opposed," said Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of...

Don Mullen: Why don’t America’s hotels provide hair products for black as well as white hair? Is there a way to get them to correct this “micro-aggression”? Jenée Desmond-Harris: Thanks for your question. I thought about the issue of hotel toiletries when I was writing the Race Manners column that answered the question, “Is Using Lotion a Black Thing?” In my opinion, the tiny moisturizer that most hotels provide is very clearly not designed for those who want or need to use it on their entire body (read: most black people). But off the top of my head, I’m not...