Playing for the Rules: How and Why New Christian Right Public Interest Law Firms Invest in Secular Litigation
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How the U.S. Christian Right Is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa
Colonizing African Values How the U.S. Christian Right is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa A PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES BY KAPYA JOHN KAOMA Political Research Associates (PRA) is a progressive think tank devoted to supporting movements that build a more just and inclusive democratic society. We expose movements, institutions, and ideologies that undermine human rights. PRA seeks to advance progressive thinking and action by providing research-based information, analysis, and referrals. Copyright ©2012 Political Research Associates Kaoma, Kapya John. ISBN-10: 0-915987-26-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-915987-26-9 Design by: Mindflash Advertising Photographs by: Religion Dispatches, Michele Siblioni/AFP/Getty Images, Mark Taylor/markn3tel/Flickr This research was made possible by the generous support of the Arcus Foundation and the Wallace Global Fund. Political Research Associates 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 Somerville, MA 02144-1837 www.publiceye.org Colonizing African Values How the U.S. Christian Right is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa A PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES BY KAPYA KAOMA POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES i Colonizing African Values - How the U.S. Christian Right is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa Foreword ganda’s infamous 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, onstrates in Colonizing African Values that the Ameri- which would institute the death penalty for a can culture wars in Africa are growing hotter. Tracing U new and surreal category of offenses dubbed conflicts over homosexuality and women’s repro- “aggravated homosexuality,” captured international ductive autonomy back to their sources, Kaoma has headlines for months. The human rights community uncovered the expanding influence of an interde- and the Obama administration responded forcefully, nominational cast of conservative American inter- the bill was tabled, and the story largely receded ests. -
UNDENIABLE the Survey of Hostility to Religion in America
UNDENIABLE The Survey of Hostility to Religion in America 2014 Edition Editorial Team Kelly Shackelford Chairman Jeffrey Mateer Executive Editor Justin Butterfield Editor-in-chief Michael Andrews Assistant Editor Past Contributors Bryan Clegg An Open Letter to the American PEople UNDENIABLE To our fellow citizens: The Survey of Hostility to Religion in America Hostility to religion and religious freedom in America—institutional, pervasive, damaging hostility—can no longer reasonably be denied. And 2014 Edition yet there remain deniers. Because denial of these attacks is a mortal threat to the survival and health of Kelly Shackelford, chairman our republic, Liberty Institute and Family Research Council collaborated in 2012 to publish a survey documenting the frequency and severity of incidents Jeffrey Mateer, executive editor of hostility. In the 2013 survey entitled Undeniable, the research team led by Justin Butterfield, editor-in-chief a Harvard-trained constitutional attorney found almost twice the number of incidents in the previous twelve months than all the incidents found from Michael Andrews, assistant editor several years’ past. The rate of hostility was increasing at an alarming rate. This year in Undeniable: The Survey of Hostility to Religion 2014, the team Copyright © 2013–2014 Liberty Institute. of researchers again documented an alarming increase in the number of All rights reserved. hostile incidents toward religion from the year before. The rate of hostility is continuing to climb. We offer Undeniable 2014 to you, the American people, as an alarm bell This publication is not to be used for legal advice. Because the law is ringing in the night. We believe the many public opinion surveys showing constantly changing and each factual situation is unique, Liberty Institute that you, the people, are still a religious people. -
Inclusion, Accommodation, and Recognition: Accounting for Differences Based on Religion and Sexual Orientation
INCLUSION, ACCOMMODATION, AND RECOGNITION: ACCOUNTING FOR DIFFERENCES BASED ON RELIGION AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION DOUGLAS NEJAIME* This Article analyzes the rights claims and theoreticalframeworks deployed by Christian Right and gay rights cause lawyers in the context of gay-inclusive school programming to show how two movements with conflicting normative positions are using similar representational and rhetorical strategies. Lawyers from both movements cast constituents as vulnerable minorities in a pluralis- tic society, yet they do so to harness the homogenizing power of curriculum and thereby entrench a particularnormative view. Ex- ploring how both sets of lawyers construct distinct and often in- compatible models of pluralism as they attempt to influence schools' state-sponsored messages, this Article exposes the strengths as well as the limitations of both movements' strategies. Christian Right lawyers'free speech strategy-articulatingrelig- ious freedom claims through the secular language of free speech doctrine-operates within an inclusion model of pluralism. This model stresses public participationand engagement with differ- ence. After making significant advances over the past several years, lawyers have begun to employ the inclusion model with some success in the school programming domain, despite signfi- * Sears Law Teaching Fellow, The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law; Associ- ate Professor, Loyola Law School (Los Angeles) (beginning Summer 2009). J.D., Harvard Law School, A.B., Brown University. I am indebted to the -
OPEN LETTER to REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR REINCE PRIEBUS Where Does the GOP Stand on Gay Bashing?
OPEN LETTER TO REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR REINCE PRIEBUS Where Does the GOP Stand on Gay Bashing? Dear Mr. Priebus, Fifteen years ago, your predecessor called for party members to shun the Council of Conservative Citizens because of the group’s “racist views.”1 “A member of the party of Lincoln should not belong to such an organization,” GOP Chairman Jim Nicholson said.2 His comments had their intended effect: Senior members of Congress distanced themselves from the group. Today, Chairman Priebus, we ask that you take a similar stand and call upon Republican officials to disassociate themselves from the groups behind the upcoming Values Voter Summit. The reason is simple: These groups engage in repeated, groundless demonization of LGBT people — portraying them as sick, vile, incestuous, violent, perverted, and a danger to the nation. The Family Research Council, the summit’s host, is vigorously opposed to extending equal rights to the LGBT community. Its president, Tony Perkins, has repeatedly claimed that pedophilia is a “homosexual problem.”3 He has called the “It Gets Better” campaign — designed to give LGBT students hope for a better tomorrow — “disgusting” and a “concerted effort” to “recruit” children into the gay “lifestyle.” 4 He has condemned the National Republican Congressional Committee for supporting three openly gay candidates.5 Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, a summit sponsor, has said the U.S. needs to “be more like Russia,” which enacted a law criminalizing the distribution of LGBT “propaganda.”6 He also has said, “Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine, and six million dead Jews.”7 Similarly, Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel, another summit sponsor, has compared those who do not denounce same-sex marriage to those who remained silent during the Holocaust. -
Bibles, Badges and Business for Immigration Reform News Clips January – August 2015
Bibles, Badges and Business for Immigration Reform News Clips January – August 2015 JANUARY ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 CHRISTIAN POST: Top 10 Politics Stories of 2014 ......................................................................................... 4 CHRISTIANITY TODAY (Galli Column): Amnesty is Not a Dirty Word ............................................................ 5 THE DENVER POST (Torres Letter): Ken Buck is right on immigration .......................................................... 6 SIOUX CITY JOURNAL: Church News ............................................................................................................. 6 CBS-WSBT (Indiana): South Bend police chief helps launch immigration task force ................................... 7 FOX NEWS LATINO (Rodriguez Op-Ed): Pro Life, Pro Immigrant .................................................................. 7 TERRA: Funcionarios de seguridad crean fuerza de tarea migratoria en EUA ............................................. 9 UNIVISION (WFDC News): Noticias DC – Edición 6 P.M. ............................................................................... 9 THE POTPOURRI (Texas; Tomball Edition): Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia helps launch national immigration task force .................................................................................................................................. 9 CBS-WSBT (Indiana): South -
Justice John Paul Stevens Retires from the Bench
VOLUME XXXII NUMBER 2, 2010 JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS RETIRES FROM THE BENCH On Monday, June 29, 2010, Justice John Paul Stevens Justice Stevens was raised in Chicago by an influential sat in a formal session of Court for the last time as an active family that operated the Stevens Hotel. At the time, that hotel member of the Supreme Court of the United States. He an- was the largest in the world, boasting 3,000 rooms. nounced on April 9, 2010 his intention to resign in a letter Justice Stevens attended the University of Chicago and to the President. Justice Stevens wrote: “Having concluded then the Northwestern University School of Law. As with that it would be in the best interests of the Court to have my many of his generation, his education was interrupted by successor appointed and confirmed well in advance of the service in the Navy during World War II. When speaking of commencement of the Court’s Photo credit—Photo by Steve Petteway his military experience, Ste- Next Term, I shall retire from vens is fond of reporting that regular active service as an he joined the Navy on Dec. Associate Justice . effec- 6, 1941. “I’m sure you know tive the next day after the how the enemy responded Court rises for the summer the following day,” he quips, recess this year.” His resigna- alluding to the attack at Pearl tion had been anticipated for Harbor that took place on some time following unof- December 7, 1941. Like his ficial comments he made and previous colleague Lewis F. -
Take Two Tablets and Do Not Call for Judicial Review Until Our Heads Clear: the Supreme Court Prepares to Demolish the "Wall of Separation" Between Church and State
Valparaiso University Law Review Volume 43 Number 2 Winter 2009 pp.595-670 Winter 2009 Take Two Tablets and Do Not Call for Judicial Review Until Our Heads Clear: The Supreme Court Prepares To Demolish the "Wall of Separation" Between Church and State Terence J. Lau William A. Wines Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Terence J. Lau and William A. Wines, Take Two Tablets and Do Not Call for Judicial Review Until Our Heads Clear: The Supreme Court Prepares To Demolish the "Wall of Separation" Between Church and State, 43 Val. U. L. Rev. 595 (2009). Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol43/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Valparaiso University Law School at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Valparaiso University Law Review by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Lau and Wines: Take Two Tablets and Do Not Call for Judicial Review Until Our He TAKE TWO TABLETS AND DO NOT CALL FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW UNTIL OUR HEADS CLEAR: THE SUPREME COURT PREPARES TO DEMOLISH THE “WALL OF SEPARATION” BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE Terence J. Lau∗ William A. Wines** I. INTRODUCTION “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof[] . ” 1 “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”2 “At a time when we see around the world the violent consequences of the assumption of religious authority by government, Americans may count themselves fortunate: Our regard for constitutional boundaries has protected us from similar travails, while allowing private religious exercise to flourish. -
President Woodrow Wilson Once Said
BY JON W. DAVIDSON, LEGAL DIRECTOR The Other President Woodrow Wilson once said, “If you want to make ene- mercenary organization deployed in Iraq by the Bush Admin- mies, try to change something.” The effort to change how LGBT istration). ADF’s President and General Counsel is Alan Sears, people are treated under the law has certainly proven President author of The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat Wilson’s quip to be true. While gay rights cases once pitted to Religious Freedom Today. In addition to its in-house lawyers, Lambda Legal against either government agencies and officials or ADF claims to have trained more than 1,200 allied attorneys private businesses, it is increasingly the case that our opposition and 400 “Christian law students” in exchange for commitments is represented by a cadre of arch-conservative nonprofit organiza- to provide ADF with legal assistance. tions that have been formed to oppose LGBT rights as a center- piece of their work. Over the last several years, ADF filed four separate cases seeking to stop New York’s recognition of marriages lawfully entered by Most of these groups came into existence within the last 20 years same-sex couples in other jurisdictions. Lambda Legal inter- with the express goal of countering the success in the courts of vened and defeated each of these challenges, two of which are impact litigation organizations like Lambda Legal. While decry- now before New York’s high court. Lambda Legal also turned ing what they call “judicial activism,” they frequently ask courts back ADF’s legal challenges to California’s comprehensive do- to strike down laws that protect lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and mestic partner law, New Orleans’ domestic partner registry, the transgender people. -
1 Emily Jo Wharry HIST 490 Dec. 10, 2019 Student Club to Supreme Court: the Federalist Society's Origins on Law School Campuses
1 Emily Jo Wharry HIST 490 Dec. 10, 2019 Student Club to Supreme Court: The Federalist Society's Origins on Law School Campuses Following the election of President George W. Bush in January 2000, a 35-year-old Brett M. Kavanaugh joined the new White House legal team, taking a position as an associate counsel to the president.1 A couple of months into the job, Kavanaugh came across a news article about his past that frustrated him. The article described him as still being an active member of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, a national organization of lawyers, judges, law school students, and professors who advocate for conservative legal doctrine and originalist interpretations of the United States Constitution. Worrying over this misreported detail, Kavanaugh wrote an email to his White House colleagues in which he assured them of the article's inaccuracy: "this may seem technical, but most of us resigned from the Federalist Society before starting work here and are not now members of the Federalist Society." Kavanaugh continued, "the reason I (and others) resigned from Fed society was precisely because I did not want anyone to be able to say that I had an ongoing relationship with any group that has a strong interest in the work of this office."2 Nineteen years later, in November 2019, the Federalist Society hosted its sold-out annual National Lawyers Convention at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. Kavanaugh, no 1 Scott Shane et al., “Influential Judge, Loyal Friend, Conservative Warrior — and D.C. Insider,” The New York Times, July 14, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/us/politics/judge-brett-kavanaugh.html. -
The U.S. Supreme Court Here’S How the Team Breaks Down: Chief Justice of the U.S
VOLUME TEN NUMBER 1 When the Minority Needs to Be Heard by Roberta K. Glassner, Esq. Imagine you are on your town’s baseball team of 20 players. The mayor of the town has just named someone to be your new coach. In this made-up situation, your team gets to vote on whether or not it wants the mayor’s choice. To get the job, the coach needs to get a “yes” vote from a majority of the team, in this case at least 11 of the 20 players. FALL2005 The U.S. SuprSupremeeme Court and the Road to Becoming a Justice by Roberta K. Glassner, Esq. justices should sit on the Court. The U.S. Congress makes that determination. John G. Roberts Jr. was recently sworn in as the 17th The number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court Here’s how the team breaks down: chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. As chief justice, has changed six times. The first Court, under President the majority of the team, 12 players, Roberts, along with the other eight justices of the Court Washington, consisted of six justices. Between 1807 are all for the mayor’s choice. Eight will interpret the law based on the rights, freedoms and 1837, three more justices were added, bringing players are dead-set against him. and protections set forth in the U.S. Constitution. the total to nine. In 1863, during the Civil War, under The eight players, who do not want How did Chief Justice Roberts get to his place President Abraham Lincoln, Congress voted to increase the mayor’s candidate, know that on the Court? Let’s take a look at how the U.S. -
Why the Religious Right Can't Have Its (Straight Wedding) Cake and Eat It Too: Breaking the Preservation-Through-Transformation Dynamic in Masterpiece Cakeshop V
Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality Volume 36 Issue 1 Article 3 January 2018 Why the Religious Right Can't Have Its (Straight Wedding) Cake and Eat It Too: Breaking the Preservation-Through-Transformation Dynamic in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission Kyle C. Velte Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Law and Gender Commons, and the Supreme Court of the United States Commons Follow this and additional works at: https://lawandinequality.org/ Recommended Citation Kyle C. Velte, Why the Religious Right Can't Have Its (Straight Wedding) Cake and Eat It Too: Breaking the Preservation-Through-Transformation Dynamic in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 36(1) LAW & INEQ. (2018). Available at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/lawineq/vol36/iss1/3 Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality is published by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. 67 Why the Religious Right Can’t Have Its (Straight Wedding) Cake and Eat It Too: Breaking the Preservation-Through- Transformation Dynamic in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission Kyle C. Velte† Introduction In the 2017 term, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the most significant LGBT-rights case since its 2015 marriage equality decision:1 Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.2 The case presents A question—what I call the Antidiscrimination Question3—that has been percolating through lower courts for nearly a decade: may small business owners, such as photographers, bakers, and florists, be exempt from state antidiscrimination laws based on their religious beliefs about same- sex marriage?4 The Religious Right5 has been squarely behind this † Visiting Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University School of Law. -
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CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON 1 The case for the impeachment of Attorney General Bill Barr Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has previously called on the United States House of Representatives to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry into Attorney General William Barr. Today, CREW outlines the contours of that inquiry, which should assess whether Attorney General Barr abused the powers of his office by engaging in a course of conduct that impaired the Special Counsel investigation of President Trump, the conduct of lawful inquiries by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the purpose of that agency, and the oversight and impeachment powers of the United States House of Representatives. These actions violate DOJ’s founding principal to maintain the independence and impartiality of federal prosecutions from political intervention. The inquiry should also assess whether Barr directed federal law enforcement officers to violate the First and Fourth Amendment rights of American citizens who gathered to engage in peaceful protest outside of the White House and across the United States. Article I of the U.S. Constitution vests the House of Representatives with the power to impeach a federal official for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” and the Senate with the power to try all impeachments and convict if it deems that individual’s removal from office both merited and wise. The term “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” refers to serious abuses of official power (Sunstein at 36-37). As Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist 65, impeachment proceedings are reserved for “offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.” Cabinet officials have faced impeachment proceedings for such abuses of power, including the 1876 impeachment of Secretary of War William Bellknap and the impeachment inquiry of Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, which was abandoned after his resignation in 1932.