Free Republic

(CNN) -- A school district in Mississippi has agreed to pay a recent high school graduate $35,000 in damages and adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to a statement released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The settlement comes after the ACLU sued the school district in Fulton, Mississippi, on behalf of Constance McMillen, a lesbian teen who was told by Itawamba Agricultural High School officials she and her girlfriend would be ejected if they attended the school-sponsored prom.

Disappointment as US high school students snub 'lesbian-friendly prom' Senior prom fell far short of the rite of passage Constance McMillen was hoping for when she began a legal battle to challenge a ban on same-sex dates. Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Apr 2010 Constance McMillen Photo: AP The 18-year-old lesbian student said that she was one of only seven students to show up at a private party chaperoned by school officials. She said the rest of her peers went to another private event where she wasn't invited. "It was not the prom I imagined," she said. "It really hurts my...

A federal judge who declined to review the lawsuit Terri Schaivo's parents filed to prevent her painful 13 day starvation death may have had a conflict of interest. Federal District Court Judge James Whittemore of Tampa was charged by Congress to take up the case and issue a temporary restraining order preventing Terri's death. He refused. However, it appears Judge Whittemore, who became the subject of condemnation from Congressional leaders after his decision, possible should have recused himself from the case. Whittemore served in the 13th Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, Florida from 1990 to 1999. According to a report...