June 2010 Solicitor General, School
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Non-profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Riverdale, MD Permit No. 5061 200 Maryland Ave., N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002-5797 Change Service Requested Phone: 202.544.4226 Fax: 202.544.2094 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.BJConline.org Baptist Joint Committee Development Update Supporting Bodies Religious Liberty Day kits traverse the country! Alliance of Baptists American Baptist Churches USA n the March edition of Baptist General Association of Virginia Report from the Capital, Baptist General Conference we reported on a new Baptist General Convention of I opportunity to order a Missouri Baptist General Convention of Texas Religious Liberty Day kit Cooperative Baptist Fellowship that will help you plan a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of celebration of our first North Carolina freedom at your church. National Baptist Convention of Since that time, the America Baptist Joint Committee National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc. received requests from National Missionary Baptist churches and individuals Convention across the country. Kits North American Baptist Conference have been sent to Florida, Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc. Hawaii, Tennessee, Texas, Kansas, Indiana and places So far, individuals and churches in the 14 states colored red have Religious Liberty Council requested Religious Liberty Day kits. Get a kit and highlight Seventh Day Baptist General in between. So far, individ- your state today! Conference uals and churches in 14 states have requested a kit If you have been con- You can also go online to learn more about plan- sidering a focus on reli- to view and print the REPORTfrom the Capital ning a Religious Liberty gious liberty at your resources. Visit Day celebration. church, let us help you! www.BJConline.org/ J. Brent Walker Celebrating religious This year, July 4 falls on a ReligiousLibertyDay to Executive Director liberty can involve an Sunday. Independence read and download docu- Jeff Huett entire worship service with Day could be the perfect ments that can help you Editor every element connected time to talk about the reli- educate those around you to religious freedom, or it gious freedom we enjoy in about religious liberty. Cherilyn Crowe can be as simple as a this country. If you plan a celebration Associate Editor prayer in a service, a spe- If you would like a or recognition of religious packet, contact Kristin liberty at your church, Report from the Capital (ISSN-0346- cial hymn, a Bible study 0661) is published 10 times each year by lesson or a table set up in Clifton at (202) 544-4226 or please let us know! The the Baptist Joint Committee. For sub- the lobby with information send an e-mail to BJC and others can benefit scription information, please contact the about religious liberty. [email protected]. from your experience. Baptist Joint Committee. REPORTfrom theCapital Kagan confirmation hearing set to begin this month WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court Rehnquist, both nominated in 1971, with- nominee Elena Kagan will face questions out prior experience as a judge. The last about her views on a range of legal topics Solicitor General to become a Supreme when she goes before the Senate Judiciary Court Associate Justice was Thurgood Committee on June 28. Marshall in 1967. President Barack Obama formally nom- Kagan, who grew up in New York City, inated Kagan to replace Associate Justice holds degrees from Princeton, Oxford and John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Harvard Law School. Early in her career, Magazine of the Court on May 10 after Stevens announced Kagan clerked for Judge Abner Mikva at Baptist Joint Committee his retirement on April 9. the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District When introducing Kagan as his nomi- of Columbia Circuit and for Associate nee, President Obama said she is “an Justice Thurgood Marshall at the U.S. Vol.65 No.6 acclaimed legal scholar with a rich under- Supreme Court. Kagan later worked in a standing of constitutional law.” D.C.-area private law firm and as a pro- For the past fessor at the year, Kagan University of served as the U.S. Chicago Law June 2010 Solicitor General, School. supervising and From 1995 to conducting gov- 1999, Kagan ernment litiga- served in the tion in the High Clinton White INSIDE: Court. The House, first as Solicitor General Associate Textbook update .2 determines when Counsel to the the government President and will seek then as Deputy Kagan analysis . .4-5 Supreme Court President Obama meets with Kagan before nominating Assistant to the review in a case her for the U.S. Supreme Court. (White House Photo/Pete President for James M. Dunn . .6 and which posi- Souza) Domestic Policy tion the govern- and Deputy ment will take before the Court. Director of the Domestic Policy Council. News in brief . .7 Additionally, the Solicitor General person- President Bill Clinton nominated her to ally conducts oral arguments before the serve as a judge on the D.C. Court of Supreme Court or has a case assigned to Appeals in 1999, but her nomination was another government attorney. stalled in the U.S. Senate. She returned to On the Web In her tenure as Solicitor General, teaching in 1999, taking a position at Kagan argued six cases before the Harvard Law School. Kagan was named Supreme Court, including one in which dean in 2003 and was in that position www.BJConline.org she defended the government’s position, when Obama selected her to be U.S. www.BJConline.org/blog inherited from the Bush administration, Solicitor General in 2009. that a cross on government property in See pages 4-5 for more on the nomina- the Mojave Desert should be allowed to tion of Elena Kagan to be the next @BJContheHill stay in place (Salazar v. Buono). Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme If confirmed, Kagan would be the first Court. justice since Lewis Powell and William — Staff Reports Texas board gives final approval to controversial textbook standards AUSTIN, Texas — Amid vocal protests, the Texas State Board of Baptist Association in Connecticut, had been dropped by the Education voted May 21 to approve social studies curriculum board from an early draft of the high school standards in a list of standards that urge high school students to exam- influential political thinkers, although he still ine church-state separation critically. appeared in the standards at other grade levels Those standards not only influence textbooks in and in other contexts. Texas but also could have an impact nationally In response to a firestorm over the omission, because Texas is one of the top two buyers of text- the board reinstated Jefferson to the high school books in the United States, and many publishers standards. But the board rejected a move to add craft their books with the Texas market in mind. James Madison — primary author of the Bill of Those who expressed immediate disapproval of Rights and the Constitution itself — and drop the- the standards included not only many supporters ologian John Calvin’s name. of strong church-state separation but also legislators in the nation’s At the opening of the May 21 meeting, Republican board mem- other largest textbook market — California. ber Cynthia Dunbar of Richmond offered an invocation articulat- Over the objection of some members, the Texas board ing the position of a vocal segment of the state board — a desire to approved a lengthy list of amendments on the day of the final teach public school students the United States is “a Christian land vote. The new standards — for high school-level classes in history, governed by Christian principles.” government and other social studies — passed along party lines, Prior to final public hearings and the board’s vote on curricu- with the board’s nine Republicans favoring and five Democrats lum standards, some religious leaders had voiced concern about opposing them. proposed language that would downplay constitutional protec- One amendment calling on high school students to compare tions for religious freedom. and contrast separation of church and state with the Founders’ “Our Founding Fathers understood that the best way to protect original intent passed 11-3. It rewrote a contentious church-state religious liberty in America is to keep government out of matters amendment, offering what some observers characterized as com- of faith,” said Roger Paynter, pastor of First Baptist Church in promise language. Austin, Texas. As amended, the standard states that students should “[e]xam- “But this state board appears hostile to teaching students about ine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom the importance of keeping religion and state separate, a principle in America and guaranteed it free exercise by saying that long supported in my own Baptist tradition and in other faiths.” Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of reli- In California, the state Senate passed a bill that would require gion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and compare and education officials in that state to look out for possible influences contrast this to the phrase ‘separation of church and state.’” that the Texas standards might have on textbooks used there. It is Thomas Jefferson, who famously used the phrase “wall of sep- now headed to the California state Assembly. aration between church and state” in a letter to the Danbury —Associated Baptist Press State updates If you have a question about a religious liberty issue in your state, the BJC is a resource for you. Arizona: “free exercise of religion” law states have made similar changes over concerns about Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill barring local governments religious freedom and alternative interpretations of from imposing land-use rules or zoning codes to Judaism.