Free Republic

Christian students filed a lawsuit against a former Michigan State University (MSU) professor who allegedly required her students to buy a subscription to her political organization that donated to Planned Parenthood, a complaint shows. The lawsuit alleges that Amy Wisner violated the students’ First Amendment rights when she forced her class to purchase a $99 subscription to “The Rebellion Community” that reportedly donated to Planned Parenthood. The students are represented by legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom and filed the lawsuit against Wisner on May 18. “While Plaintiffs enjoy testing the mettle of their own views by exploring other ideas and...

The issue of racial justice topped social concerns for members of the prominent religious student group InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, according to a recent survey.InterVarsity released the findings of a survey on Tuesday that they conducted among 316 members enrolled at 127 different college campuses. The survey focused on multiple matters.When asked which “social issues” were “the most important” to them, 38.61% of students who responded to the survey said "racial justice" was the most important.Racial justice was ranked higher than the social concerns of “reducing abortion” (26.27% of respondents) and “religious tolerance/freedom” (25.63% of respondents).Second place in the social issues...

That gasp heard after this ruling dropped comes from every college and university with a “free speech zone” and policies that impose heckler’s vetoes. Plaintiffs suing over restrictions on speech and religious expression on campus only need to establish “nominal damages” to gain standing, the Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision, not necessarily actual damages. That opens up a vast new field of litigation that attorneys all across the country will rush to meet. The 8-1 ruling in Uzuegbunam v Preczewski from Justice Clarence Thomas does not actually settle the case in favor of the students, but the writing...

Chief Justice John Roberts was the only dissenter in the U.S Supreme Court’s most recent ruling favoring a couple of Christian students who challenged their university for restricting when, where, and how they could speak about their faith and disseminate materials on campus.Today's 8-1 decision in Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski marks the first time Chief Justice John Roberts has ever been the sole dissenting justice during his entire tenure. https://t.co/6Ux9HvXiDL— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) March 8, 2021Uzuegbunam et al. v. Preczewski et al. first materialized after Chike Uzuegbunam, a student at Georgia Gwinnett College, was stopped by campus police for handing out religious...

A new survey of college students by the liberal-leaning Knight Foundation shows the future of the First Amendment doesn't look so bright in America. It found 41 percent said "hate speech" should not be protected by the Constitution. Only 58 percent thought it should. In fact, a 2017 survey out of UCLA found that out of 1,500 college students who were asked whether "hate speech" is protected by the First Amendment, only 39 percent correctly said yes. On campus today, it can be defined as "unsafe" to hear an opinion you don't like. Unwelcome speech is compared to a physical...

IOWA CITY, Iowa - A federal judge has ruled that the University of Iowa was wrong to strip a Christian student group of its registered status after the organization barred a gay student from a leadership position. U.S. District Judge Stephanie M. Rose on Wednesday granted a permanent injunction banning the university from rejecting the status of the group, Business Leaders in Christ, The Des Moines Register reported. Rose found that the university had unevenly applied its human rights policy by allowing other groups to limit membership based on religious views, race, sex and other protected characteristics. "Particularly when free...

Temporary reprieve for Sikhs, Muslims and ChristiansWhen a judge forced the University of Iowa to recognize a Christian student group on the same terms that it recognized a Muslim student group, the university balked. It derecognized more than three dozen religious student groups that didn’t explicitly allow students outside their faith to serve in leadership positions, including the Muslim club. Following a new lawsuit by a different Christian student group, InterVarsity, in response to its sudden derecognition, the taxpayer-funded institution has allegedly relented, at least temporarily. InterVarsity’s lawyers at the Becket firm said Monday that the university agreed to reinstate...

Another student-led group is suing a university because the school kicked the group off campus for requiring student leaders to agree with their faith tenets. The University of Iowa told InterVarsity Christian Fellowship they weren’t allowed to hold their meetings on campus because they require their members to hold to specific faith standards and kicked them out — in response, InterVarsity sued. The University of Iowa did the same thing last year with Business Leaders in Christ, or BLinC. This kind of blatant discrimination — one that infringes on religious freedom via the pretense of protecting other kids’ feelings —...

At Oxford, where the motto is, “The Lord is my Light.” Members of the Christian Union (CU) were banned from attending a freshman fair at the University of Oxford for fears that incoming students might face “potential harm” and feel unwelcome. According to Breitbart London, the university wanted to keep the freshers’ fair a “secular space” after concerns were raised by “student welfare representatives.” This was a strange turn of events for an institue established under Christianity. An internal e-mail explained the university’s reasoning: "We recognise the wonderful advantages in having CU representatives at the Fresher’s Fair, but are concerned...

An assistant principal at a suburban Philadelphia school has resigned after video circulated online showing him arguing with and cursing at teenage abortion protesters outside the school. Zach Ruff, dean of student life and academics at Downingtown STEM Academy, had been on unpaid leave after the April confrontation. The school district said Thursday that it would like to put "this terribly unfortunate incident" in the past. Video showed an escalating argument between Ruff and two protesters who were on a sidewalk near the school. When asked to leave, the protesters said they were on public property. Ruff can be heard...

Zach Ruff is an assistant principal in Downington, Pennsylvania and he really doesn’t like people who are pro-life, or Christian. Like, not at all. On Wednesday, one of Ruff’s students, 16-year old Conner Haines, decided to express his opinion that abortion was wrong on the PUBLIC sidewalk that runs in front of his High School. Conner was joined by his 19-year old sister and the two held pro-life signs while telling passers-by that abortion was a murder but that they could find forgiveness in Jesus. Soon after they began their completely legal demonstration, Ruff appeared and the situation immediately grew...

Seattle Pacific University says it supports the right of its LGBTQ students to advocate against anti-gay actions and name-calling. Its LGBTQ students want the evangelical university to go a step further, and affirm non-heterosexual practices and various gender identities.

Students in a math class at Riverview High School in Florida are being persecuted for their faith. They are punished for not removing their cross jewelry. They are harassed for not embracing the LGBT agenda pushed on them by their lesbian teacher. But one ninth-grade student is pushing back. Her attorneys filed a demand letter requiring the teacher to cease and desist by close of business Thursday.Cross.jpg - 500 Parents told Liberty Counsel that at least three students were not allowed to wear their cross necklaces. Math teacher Lora Jane Riedas claimed they were “gang symbols.” When one student asked...

The Muslim professor who was accused by one of her students of asserting that Jesus’ crucifixion never took place and that Christ’s disciples did not believe he was God has resigned from Rollins College.

New details surfacing regarding a Muslim Rollins College professor who was involved in the wrongful suspension of a Christian student show that she has multiple ties with radical Islamic individuals and organizations, most notably through an ex-lover under FBI investigation and in her position as the spokesperson for the Islamic Society of Central Florida (ISCF).The College Fix reported last Monday that the professor, Areej Zufari, falsely accused the student, sophomore Marshall Polston, of violating the terms of his suspension by setting foot on campus, resulting in a disciplinary hearing with the university conduct system. Polston has since been exonerated of...

Full title........................Christian student is suspended for 'threatening' his Muslim professor after he 'confronted her for saying the Crucifixion was a hoax and Jesus' disciples didn't believe he was God'.......................... Marshall Polston, 20, was suspended from Rollins College on March 24, after his Middle Eastern humanities professor filed a police report about him Professor Areej Zufari filed the report last Friday, claiming Polston violated a school order by staring into her classroom In the report she said she has been fearing for her safety due to Polston's repeated outbursts in class and negative reaction to poor grades But Polston says he's...

A student says he was suspended from Rollins College for challenging his Muslim professor’s anti-Christian assertions, including her claim that Jesus’ crucifixion never took place. Twenty-year-old Marshall Polston, a sophomore at the private, Florida-based four-year college, said that the professor of his Middle Eastern Humanities class also told students that Jesus’ disciples did not believe he was God.

One of the largest evangelical college ministries in the U.S. has asked any staff members who support same-sex relationships to quit, a move critics call a purge and supporter laud as an affirmation of true Christianity. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship informed all staff about the policy over the summer after issuing a position paper based on their three years of study of sexuality that concluded sex should be reserved for marriage between a man and a woman. The organization’s leaders said employees are expected to “believe and behave” in accord with InterVarsity’s stand on sexuality, including not engaging in immoral sexual...

Andrew Cash, a former student at Missouri State University, is suing the institution over his dismissal from a graduate program in counseling. Cash has retained counsel from the Thomas More Society, a national public interest law firm, and has filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Governors of Missouri State University. Cash and his lawyers contend that he was dismissed from the university’s Master’s program in counseling because he expressed concern over counseling same-sex couples due to his religious convictions. In an exclusive interview, Spero News interviewed attorney Tom Olp of the Thomas More Society, which is representing Cash....

People often speak of places of sanctuary, where they feel most free and where they can “breathe.” One such place for me—a former high school teacher—is within the walls of a school. There is something invigorating and God-inspired in having people of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences exercise their minds around common subjects and principles, learn the facets of the world, and seek answers about their place in it. Whether in the context of a public or private educational institution, this wide-open breath of a school community has always provided me a true sense of freedom.Presently, however, the air...