Isabel Vaughan-Spruce. / Credit: ADF UK
CNA Newsroom, Aug 19, 2024 / 11:19 am (CNA).
West Midlands Police have paid 13,000 pounds (about $16,800) in compensation to Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the Christian volunteer who was twice arrested for prayi… […]
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 10, 2024 / 17:55 pm (CNA).
Seven states and a group of pediatricians are suing President Joe Biden’s administration over a rule that would force doctors to provide sex-chan… […]
Bryan and Rebecca Gantt, two foster parents in Vermont, had their licenses revoked for refusing to embrace gender ideology. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 12, 2024 / 11:35 am (CNA).
Two Ver… […]
null / Credit: Brian A Jackson / Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Mar 8, 2024 / 16:35 pm (CNA).
In a “resounding victory” for religious freedom, a court in North Dakota ruled this week that the federal government cannot compel religious employers and he… […]
Emergency room intensive care unit. / Credit: Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Jan 3, 2024 / 10:40 am (CNA).
A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected the Biden administration’s argument that emergency room doctors should be required to perform aborti… […]
Oregon resident Jessica Bates appealed a court’s ruling against her in a case alleging that the government is religiously discriminating against her by refusing to allow her to adopt children from the state system. / Credit: Alliance Defending F… […]
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 27, 2023 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
Two parents are suing a Michigan school district alleging that their 11-year-old daughter’s middle school treated her like a boy for months and actively deceived them… […]
The Celebrate Life Day rally was organized to commemorate the first anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court decision. / Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
This week state Supreme Courts in Arizona, Wyoming, and New Mexico will hear oral arguments for litigation related to the states’ abortion laws. In all three cases, the pro-life side will be argued by lawyers at the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom.
The Arizona Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday, Dec. 12, on whether prosecutors can enforce the state’s pre-Roe v. Wade abortion laws, which prohibited most abortions at the moment of conception.
Arizona’s prohibition was declared unconstitutional shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide. Despite the law being unenforceable for about 50 years, the state Legislature never repealed the law and the prohibition is still technically written into the state code.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich requested that the 50-year-old injunction that blocked the enforcement of the law be lifted.
The law in question prohibits both chemical and surgical abortions in every case, except when it is necessary to save the life of the mother. There are no criminal penalties on the books for the mother who procures an abortion, but anyone who “provides, supplies, or administers” drugs or other substances, or “employs any instrument or other means whatever, with the intent thereby to procure the miscarriage” is subject to a prison sentence between two and five years.
Following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill to prohibit abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This is the threshold that is currently enforced in Arizona.
The Wyoming Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday, Dec. 12, on whether two state lawmakers and a pro-life organization have standing to intervene in a lawsuit about the state’s pro-life laws, which are currently held up in the court system.
State Reps. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams and Chip Neiman, along with Right to Life of Wyoming, are appealing a trial court decision that blocked them from intervening in a lawsuit that challenges the Life Is a Human Right Act, which prohibits chemical and surgical abortions in most circumstances.
A district court judge blocked the enforcement of the law in March of this year.
The lawmakers and the pro-life organization argue that they have standing to defend the state law because they “have abiding interests in protecting women and unborn children.”
Abortion is currently legal up to the point of viability in Wyoming.
The New Mexico Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday, Dec. 13, on whether the state constitution protects a right to abortion after state Attorney General Raúl Torrez petitioned the court to strike down local pro-life ordinances in a handful of cities and counties.
In his petition, Torrez asked the court to find a constitutional right to abortion within the New Mexico Constitution and declare the ordinances unconstitutional. There is no explicit right to “abortion” mentioned anywhere in the state constitution, but the attorney general claimed that abortion rights are implied in several sections of the state constitution.
Roosevelt County is asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to find that there is not a constitutional right to abortion. The county is asking the court to allow its ordinance, which bans the shipment of abortion materials by mail, to remain in effect.
Mid Vermont Christian School is suing the state over a ban from athletic competitions due to the school’s transgender policy. / Credit: Mid Vermont Christian School
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 27, 2023 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
A Christian school based in Vermont filed a lawsuit against state officials after the school was banned from participating in the state’s sports leagues and a tuition program because of its policies related to transgender athletes.
The lawsuit, filed by Mid Vermont Christian School, a K–12 school in the town of Quechee, argues that the ban is a violation of the school’s First Amendment rights. It asks the court to readmit the school into the sports league and allow the school to participate in the tuition program.
Mid Vermont Christian School was banned from participating in the sports league earlier this year after its girls basketball team refused to participate in a playoff game against Long Trail School because the team’s roster included a biological male who identifies as a girl. Mid Vermont Christian chose to forfeit the game due to concerns about fairness and safety.
“The biological male on Long Trail’s team is taller than any girl on Mid Vermont Christian’s team,” the lawsuit states. “Available video of the biological male playing basketball, which showed the athlete repeatedly blocking girls’ shots, throwing elbows, and knocking girls down further underscored Mid Vermont Christian’s concerns.”
In response, the Vermont Principals’ Association expelled Mid Vermont Christian from sports participation, claiming that the school’s decision to forfeit the game violates the VPA’s policies related to gender identity, which bans “discrimination based on a student’s actual or perceived sex and gender.”
“Mid Vermont Christian school is ineligible to participate in VPA activities going forward,” the expulsion letter read.
Vermont’s Agency of Education subsequently refused to recognize Mid Vermont Christian School as an approved independent school, which prevented the school from participating in the state’s Town Tuitioning Program. The lawsuit argues that the school meets all requirements to access the program except for its refusal to adhere to the state’s nondiscrimination policies related to sexual orientation and gender identity, which the school says violates its religious beliefs.
“Vermont has an infamous record of discriminating against religious schools and families, whether it be withholding generally available public funding or denying them membership in the state’s sports league because they hold religious beliefs that differ from the state’s preferred views,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Ryan Tucker, who is representing the school in the lawsuit, said in a statement.
“The state’s unlawful exclusion of Mid Vermont Christian from participating in the tuition program and athletic association is the latest example of state officials trampling on constitutionally protected rights,” added Tucker, who serves as the director of the ADF Center for Christian Ministries. “And egregiously, Vermont continues its blatant discrimination against religious schools despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Carson v. Makin that the government cannot exclude families from public benefits just because they choose religious education for their children.”
The lawsuit argues that the state agencies’ actions violate the First Amendment on several grounds, which include the school’s freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. It also claims that the actions constitute unconstitutional retaliation and violate the 14th Amendment’s implied right of parents to control the upbringing of their children, based on prior Supreme Court precedent.
Two families whose children are enrolled in the school also joined the lawsuit, claiming that they and their children have been negatively impacted by the state’s actions, which they say violate the Constitution.
“The students who choose to attend Mid Vermont Christian are currently losing out on valuable tuition reimbursement and being excluded from playing competitive sports and participating in academic competitions … whom we represent in this case,” ADF legal counsel Jake Reed said in a statement. “Vermont, through its education agency and sports association, has engaged in unconstitutional discrimination by requiring a Christian school and its students to surrender their religious beliefs and practices in order to receive public funds and compete in sports.”
Neither the Agency of Education nor the Vermont Principals’ Association responded to a request for comment from CNA.
The Hall of Justice building in downtown Lansing is home to the Supreme Court of Michigan. / Credit: Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Nov 27, 2023 / 16:15 pm (CNA).
A Jewish group and an Islamic advocacy team have weighed in on a Catholic school’s chall… […]
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