Free Republic

FARMINGTON, September 12, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm today announced that United States District Judge Victoria A. Roberts has entered a permanent injunction granting equal rights to a Bible club and its members at Farmington High School in Farmington, Michigan. The Law Center represents ALIVE, a voluntary student Bible club, its president and co-founder, Aaron Grider, and his parents. In 2006, Grider had requested that ALIVE be recognized by the school as a noncurriculum-related student group and receive the same treatment and benefits that other noncurriculum-related student groups receive at Farmington...

Georgetown University has rediscovered its Catholicism. The nation’s oldest Catholic school, the flagship of Jesuit education in America, has been a sad topic among American Catholics for some time now. Crucifixes removed from classrooms, a lay president, pro-abortion activity, a general embarrassment at religion. Indeed, over the years, Georgetown has been perhaps the clearest example of what many such schools practice: the whipsaw of “Catholic tradition,” in which the strongest declarations of Catholic identity come from the fund-raisers, the alumni association, and the public-relations office—all the people trying to sell the university in a tight economic situation that requires a...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Three Pennsylvania high school students backed by a conservative legal group have sued their school district, claiming they were prevented from quoting Biblical verses in school and expressing opposition to homosexuality, their lawyers said on Friday. The students of Downingtown Area School District near Philadelphia say school officials denied them permission to put up a poster containing Bible verses and a picture of a Christian cross on the grounds that it would have violated rules aimed at preventing discrimination. The district also instructed the students to refer to themselves as a "Prayer Club" rather than a "Bible...

DECADE OF STRUGGLE AND PERSEVERANCE PAYS OFF! For ten years, ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jordan Lorence has fought a legal battle against the City of New York to allow the Bronx Household of Faith to have the same access to public school facilities as other groups enjoy. I am pleased to report that ADF strategy, training, funding, litigation – and YOUR prayers and support -- have PAID OFF handsomely. Yesterday, that decade of perseverance netted a permanent injunction against the Board of Education of the City of New York City, barring them from refusing to rent space at a public...

Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Bible study groups are free to hold meetings at San Diego public schools without paying fees. The San Diego Unified School District has revoked an unpopular policy implemented in August to charge Scouting groups user fees. It also agreed to stop charging an elementary school Bible study group, the Good News Club, and similar youth organizations. The reversals are part of an effort by the district to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Child Evangelism Fellowship in June. The organization, which sponsors the Good News Club, alleged discrimination because it had to pay to meet...

San Diego, CA -- A preliminary injunction hearing is set for tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. PT before federal district Judge Irma Gonzalez on Child Evangelism Fellowship's ("CEF") lawsuit against the San Diego City Schools. Liberty Counsel filed suit on behalf of CEF in June because the District charges discriminatory fees for use of school facilities by Good News Clubs, which are religious, after-school clubs for elementary school children sponsored by CEF. CEF is represented by Mathew Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, and Mary McAlister, litigation attorney for Liberty Counsel. In July 1999, Child Evangelism Fellowship of Greater...

A legal confrontation is playing out here as a student organization seeks official recognition and money from a state-run university even though the students plan to exclude non-Christians and gays...

Daughter Barred Distributing Bible Club Invitations POSTED: 12:13 am MST December 16, 2004 UPDATED: 12:21 am MST December 16, 2004 DENVER -- The parents of an elementary school student who was told not to distribute invitations asking classmates to join a Bible club sued the school district in federal court Wednesday, claiming their right to religious freedom had been violated. The lawsuit says the Gilpin County RE-1 School District violated constitutional rights protecting free speech and religion. Robert and Patricia Unruh said the school barred their daughter from distributing the invitations based solely on their religious content. .....several parents had...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that public schools that permit after-school clubs must give equal access to religious clubs, and now a federal appeals court has answered whether a teacher or school employee can participate in these religious clubs. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that South Dakota elementary school teacher Barbara Wigg must be permitted to participate in after-school, child Bible study at Laura B. Anderson Elementary School, where she teaches. The school district argued that it could not permit one of its teachers to lead such a class because...

Court Upholds After-School Bible Club's Equal Access RightsBy Jim BrownJuly 6, 2004 (AgapePress) - The three-judge panel of a federal appeals court has ruled that an evangelical group's plan to distribute fliers to students in Maryland elementary schools is not an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. That decision reverses a lower court ruling blocking the access of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) of Maryland to the Montgomery County Public Schools' take-home flier program. CEF is a respected national organization that has provided its "Good News Clubs" program for more than 60 years, offering Bible stories, songs, games and other fun activities...

First Amendment Defenders Win Suit For High School Bible Club By Jim Brown November 25, 2003 (AgapePress) - There has been an important religious freedom victory at a public high school in Washington State. A student-led Bible club at Shorecrest High School was initially denied recognition as an official "associated student body" or ASB. School officials cited concerns about violating the so-called "separation of church and state." But after the Rutherford Institute law firm applied legal pressure, the school backed down. http://www.rutherford.org/ Institute attorney Casey Mattox does not believe the school officials intended to discriminate against Christians specifically, but rather...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court turned aside a church-state fight over a Bible club given permission by a lower court to meet in a public school during classtime.</p> <p>Attorneys for a school superintendent in the state of Washington argued that a federal appeals court was far out of bounds when it ruled in favor of the Bible club last year. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the club, called World Changers, should be treated the same as other school clubs and allowed to use school space and supplies.</p>

Action sought in Kentridge Bible club battle 2003-09-16 by Nora Doyle Journal Reporter KENT -- A Kentridge High School student and a former student asked the U.S. District Court in Seattle Monday to take immediate action to allow a Bible club to meet on the high school campus. Approval of a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by attorneys for the Truth Bible Club would allow members to temporarily open the club at Kentridge for the remainder of the school year, until the court issues a final ruling in a civil lawsuit set for trial in June 2004. In...

Judge: Public school teacher can lead Bible club meetings Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - When the Good News Club starts its meetings later this month, Barbara Wigg plans to help out. Wigg, a teacher at Laura B. Anderson Elementary School in Sioux Falls, can teach the after-school Bible class - at least until a court appeal is decided. This summer, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol ruled Wigg should be able to participate in the Good News Club but that the Sioux Falls School District can prevent her from doing so in her own school. Piersol said it is...

Bible Class for Students Carson Clark Reports, 8/21/03 The debate over school prayer returns to one school system in the Tennessee Valley. Now, students may be able to leave school to pray. In the 1990s, the courts ruled that religion had no place in DeKalb County Schools. However, that's not stopping students from getting instruction from the Bible. Kids at two schools are participating in a new program called, "Release Time." The program allows students to voluntarily leave campus once a week. They go to a nearby church, where they have a Bible class for one hour. The program...

<p>A new report by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency confirms what Barbara Mayfield of Hornitos says she has learned after 20 years of teaching Bible study classes. A song, a story about Jesus and the promise of God's love can go a long way with young people who are trying to find their paths in life.</p>

Can Bible study during public school hours produce better students? A secular group that recently completed an independent study thinks so. An evaluation by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, released Monday, indicates public school students can improve academic performance and build character through off-campus religious instruction for one hour during the school day. School Ministries Inc., producers of a program called Released Time Bible Education, asked the group to examine a program operating in the Oakland, Calif., public school system. NCCD studied about 75 fourth- and fifth-graders who skipped one class period a week to attend a Bible...

Secular research shows boost in academic performance, character Posted: July 30, 2003 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Can Bible study during public school hours produce better students? A secular group that recently completed an independent study thinks so. An evaluation by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, released Monday, indicates public school students can improve academic performance and build character through off-campus religious instruction for one hour during the school day. School Ministries Inc., producers of a program called Released Time Bible Education, asked the group to examine a program operating in the Oakland, Calif., public school system....

After several weeks of silence, Chancellor James Moeser has now responded to my recent charge (see “The Campus Crusade Against Christ (revisited)”) that university administrators have been involved in an “unconstitutional assault on religious organizations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.” His form response to Townhall.com readers follows: Thanks for sharing your views as a result of a recent Internet commentary about the university and an issue involving student organizations with religious affiliations that is some six months old and has been satisfactorily resolved. Permit me to provide some additional background information. I think you will be...

<p>SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — It's been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious clubs must have the same access to public school facilities as non-religious clubs.</p> <p>But that ruling hasn't helped Barbara Wigg, who has filed a federal lawsuit against a South Dakota school district, charging her constitutional rights are being violated by not being allowed to lead an after-school religious club on school property — off the clock.</p>