Alliance Defending Freedom Archives - The Florida Capital Star

New York Court Sides with Crisis Pregnancy Centers on Abortion Reversal Pill in Legal Blow to Letitia James

August 24, 2024 Florida Capital Star Staff

A federal district court in New York ruled Thursday that pro-life pregnancy centers are allowed to promote an abortion pill reversal medication while the suit continues.

Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit in early May against 11 pregnancy centers, claiming the organizations were misleading pregnant women when talking about an abortion reversal medication. The court granted the preliminary order in favor of the National Institute for Family and Life Advocates and Gianna’s House Inc. and Options Care Center’s follow-up suit against James, stating that the First Amendment protects the right for the groups to talk about the abortion reversal pill.

State of Oregon Attempts to Force Christian Ministry to Remove Christian Beliefs in Order to Receive Funding

May 30, 2024 Florida Capital Star Staff

The state government of Oregon enacted a new restriction on a Christian youth ministry group, withholding crucial funding on the condition that the group specifically hire non-Christians or people who otherwise don’t agree with the group’s beliefs.

As reported by Fox News, the group, 71Five Ministries, is struggling with a large budget deficit following the Oregon Department of Education’s decision to revoke its funding due to its Christian beliefs. The ministry filed a lawsuit against the state in March, with the support of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), declaring the state’s decision to be a violation of their First Amendment right to freedom of religion. Oral arguments in the case ended last week, and both sides are now waiting for the judge’s decision.

Commentary: At WNBA Ceremony, Biden Urges America to Support the Women’s Sports He’s Destroying

May 17, 2024 Florida Capital Star Staff

WNBA event at the White House featuring the players for the Las Vegas Aces

In previous years, people might have missed the irony. But not now—not after the meteoric rise of women’s basketball.

When the WNBA champs visited the White House last week, reporters didn’t cover it out of obligation. They covered it because it was a real story. And President Joe Biden’s betrayal of girls sports only made it more of one.

Commentary: Biden’s Title IX Revisions Aren’t Good News for Women

April 25, 2024 Florida Capital Star Staff

Locker rooms and bathrooms at schools that accept public funding are about to become dangerous places for women — even in states that have the kind of commonsense legislation intended to keep women’s private spaces private.

Last week, the Biden administration released a host of changes to Title IX, the federal legislation that is best known for dictating equal treatment of men and women in sports and for governing the way schools handle sexual assault charges. While the administration hasn’t yet decided whether biological men who identify as female should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, it redefined “sex” as “gender identity” in almost every other context while simultaneously allowing schools to violate the due process rights of students accused of sexual assault.

Mandatory State Training Steers Judges to Question Fitness of Parents Who Don’t Affirm Gender-Confused Kids

March 28, 2024 Florida Capital Star Staff

Judges who handle child abuse and neglect cases in California are required to take a training on LGBT issues that pushes them to consider whether parents who object to their child’s preferred pronouns should have custody.

The Judicial Council of California’s “LGBTQ+ Considerations” training, offered twice annually for judges working on juvenile dependency cases, instructs judges on how to handle youth gender identities, advising them to “be aware that LGBTQ youth may be at risk of harm at home, school and in other settings due to biased or uninformed attitudes or conduct by peers/adults,” according to a presentation from June 2023 obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation via a public records request. After citing statistics on mental health problems among LGBT youth and warning judges to stay alert about “physical or emotional abuse” by parents that does not have a “clear reason,” the presentation puts forward three hypothetical scenarios for the judges to sort through.

Washington State Violated Court Order by Forcing Foster Parents to ‘Affirm’ Gender ID: Lawsuit

March 27, 2024 Just the News

The Pacific Northwest has a message for foster and adoptive parents: Agree to affirm a child’s self-determined “sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression,” including using their preferred pronouns and taking them to Pride parades, or leave the program.

Washington state adopted new Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity/Expression (SOGIE) regulations after accepting a permanent injunction against the “nearly identical” Policy 6900 to settle a First Amendment lawsuit by would-be foster parents in July 2021, non-renewed foster parents claim in a new lawsuit.

Pro-Life Pregnancy Group Appeals to SCOTUS in Clash with New Jersey AG over ‘Unlawful’ Subpoena

March 10, 2024 Florida Capital Star Staff

by Noah Slayter An organization that operates pro-life pregnancy centers in New Jersey asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case involving what the centers’ petition calls an “improper” and “unlawful” subpoena by state Attorney General Matthew Platkin. Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal firm known as ADF, filed a petition with…

Oregon Mother Appeals Court Ruling Denying Her Ability to Adopt Children After Not Accepting ‘Gender Ideology’

December 30, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

A mother of five in Oregon appealed a ruling on Dec 13. prohibiting her from adopting children due to her refusal to adopt the tenets of “gender ideology” because of her Christian beliefs, according to a press release.

Jessica Bates wanted to adopt a sibling pair in 2022, but after going through the application process, she was told by Oregon’s Department of Human Services (ODHS) that she would need to support her adopted child’s desire to change his or her sex and to “affirm” their “gender identity.” Bates filed a lawsuit against the state on religious grounds challenging the gender identity policy in Oregon, which an Oregon district court ruled against in November, and Bates appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Parents Speak Out After Their Daughter Was Told to Sleep with a Boy Who Identified as a Girl

December 26, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

Parents Joe and Serena Wailes were shocked and horrified to discover that their 11-year-old daughter had been assigned to not only room with, but also share a bed with, a boy on her school trip.

That boy identified as a transgender girl, the Wailes say, and his parents had allegedly told the school district that he was operating under “stealth mode”—meaning that his gender identity was to be kept secret.

GOP-Led States Demand Major Firms Stop Backing Efforts to ‘De-Bank’ Conservatives

December 5, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

Nearly two dozen state attorneys general signed onto a letter Wednesday demanding major firms that provide voting advice to corporate shareholders stop backing efforts to “debank” conservatives.

Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led 22 other state attorneys general in sending a letter to the two companies that control 97 percent of the proxy advisory services market, Institutional Shareholder Service (ISS) and Glass Lewis, whose advice they say shapes “the choices and activity of businesses and ultimately the United States’ and global economy.” The letter warns them against opposing shareholder resolutions to hold financial institutions accountable for restricting services based on clients’ religious and political beliefs, noting that viewpoint discrimination comes with “legal liabilities.”

Commentary: Notorious Southern Poverty Law Center Tries to Blacklist Turning Point USA, Project Veritas from Donor-Advised Funds

October 23, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

by Tyler O’Neil The Southern Poverty Law Center routinely attempts to shame charities into blacklisting conservative nonprofits to defund the SPLC’s ideological opponents, whom it brands as hateful. This week, the SPLC released a report condemning six donor-advised funds for directing money to “extremist finance.” The report aims to shame the charity…

Commentary: Inside the Defamation Lawsuit That Could Blow Southern Poverty Law Center Wide Open

October 3, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

The Southern Poverty Law Center is notorious for branding mainstream conservative and Christian organizations, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty “hate groups” or “antigovernment extremist groups,” placing them on a map alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

Many of the SPLC’s targets have sued for defamation, but almost every lawsuit has failed. Earlier this year, however, a judge allowed one defamation lawsuit against the SPLC to move forward.

National Family Group Condemns American Medical Association’s ‘Ethics’ Journal’s Support for Taxpayer-Funded Uterus Transplants in Biological Men

August 26, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

The American Family Association (AFA) issued an alert Wednesday urging Americans to sign its petition that demands the American Medical Association (AMA) “do no harm” by ending its support for taxpayer-funded “unnatural and irreversible gender-modifying procedures,” such as uterus transplants from dead women for biological men in order to improve their “mental health.”

The petition, which, at the time of publication had collected over 25,000 signers, cites a paper, published in June, in AMA’s Journal of Ethics, that AFA asserts is “driven with political and social activism.”

Vermont Agrees to Pay $125K to Father, Daughter Punished for Speaking Out Against Trans Student

June 5, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

A Vermont school district punished a father and his daughter for speaking out against a biological male in the girls’ locker room. Now, The Daily Signal has learned, the district has settled with the Allen family in what its legal team is hailing as a “resounding victory.”

That settlement requires that the Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust pay $125,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees and costs to Travis Allen and Jessica Allen, on behalf of their daughter, Blake Allen, and their attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Analysis: Companies That Ignore First Amendment Rights

May 27, 2023 Admin

A new database shows that some of Americans’ favorite companies—such as Airbnb, Amazon, and Disney—disregard religious freedom and free speech.

Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization devoted to protecting religious freedom and other First Amendment rights, joined with Inspire Insight, an investment tool that provides data on the religious values of companies, to produce the second annual Business Index ranking companies by Viewpoint Diversity Score.

Planned Parenthood CEO Calls for Supreme Court Reform: ‘The Court Now Has Been Fully Captured’ on Abortion Rights

May 16, 2023May 15, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

The CEO of Planned Parenthood said on Mother’s Day on MSNBC that the Supreme Court has now “been fully captured” by a “conservative supermajority” that has attacked abortion rights and, therefore, must be reformed, along with the lower courts as well.

Led by former Biden White House Press Secretary-turned MSNBC opinion host Jen Psaki, Alexis McGill Johnson said “the reality is the Court now has been fully captured in so many areas.”

Homeless Shelter Sues State Officials Preventing It from Hiring Christian Employees

March 5, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

A Christian homeless shelter filed a lawsuit against Washington state officials Thursday alleging that the state’s anti-discrimination law prevents the shelter from only hiring employees that agree with their faith-based worldview.

Yakima Union Gospel Mission (YUGM) in Yakima, Washington, describes its mission as “helping people move from homelessness to wholeness” on its website and has been working in the community for 35 years, according to a press release by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the world’s largest law firm representing faith and free speech issues. The shelter explains in the lawsuit that the defendants, Attorney General Robert Ferguson and Executive Director of the Washington State Human Rights Commission Andreta Armstrong, have been using Washington’s anti-discrimination law to prevent the organization from hiring in line with their faith, according to the lawsuit.

Christian Organizations Continue to Make Amazon Smile’s ‘Naughty’ List

December 27, 2022December 26, 2022 Star News Staff

Amazon Smile continues to deny admission to Christian organizations that support traditional marriage and religious freedom, opting instead to place them on a proverbial naughty list by recommendation of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Amazon Smile allows customers who sign up to have 0.5% of their purchases donated to their favorite charity. Organizations on SPLC’s “designated hate groups” list, however, are barred from registering, according to Amazon’s website.

Authorities Arrest Woman for Silently Praying Outside an Abortion Clinic

December 23, 2022December 22, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

Authorities have arrested a pro-life woman for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in the United Kingdom.

News of Isabel Vaughan Spruce’s arrest comes amid anxieties over the Justice Department’s crackdown on pro-life activists in the United States, such as Mark Houck, a pro-life father arrested for allegedly pushing an abortion clinic volunteer who was reportedly bothering his son as they prayed outside an abortion clinic.

University Pays Christian Students $90K to Settle Free Speech Lawsuit

December 12, 2022December 11, 2022 Admin

The University of Idaho (U of I) paid $90,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by three Christian students and a faculty advisor who claimed the university violated their right to free speech.

The lawsuit was filed after the university issued no-contact orders prohibiting Peter Perlot Mark Miller and Ryan Anderson, all members of the Christian Legal Society (CLS), and faculty advisor Professor Richard Seamon from interacting with a law student who disagreed with a CLS requirement that all members define marriage as between a man and a woman, according to the lawsuit’s text. U of I rescinded the no-contact orders in a settlement in favor of the legal society, ADF announced in Wednesday’s press release.

Vermont Backs Down on Religion-Free School Choice after SCOTUS Knocks Down Maine Policy

December 5, 2022December 4, 2022 Just the News

Vermont families that want to send their children to religious schools will no longer be excluded from the state’s tuition benefit program, as a result of legal settlements in two cases brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

The plaintiffs who were denied funding under the Town Tuition Program, which provides tuition for students who live in areas without local public schools, will get reimbursement for money spent out of pocket on tuition. Other families denied funding can apply as well.

Lawsuit Moves Forward from Professor Fired for Gender Ideology Criticism

November 29, 2022November 28, 2022 Admin

A federal lawsuit against the University of Louisville for the demotion and dismissal of a professor who questioned transgenderism moved forward.

Professor Allan Josephson’s attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom argued his case the first week of November in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. The university dismissed him in 2019 after several years of controversy stemming from his participation at a Heritage Foundation event on transgenderism.

Herschel Walker Rips Biological Men Competing Against Women in Sports: ‘Unfair and Wrong’

November 23, 2022November 22, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Georgia Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Herschel Walker blasts allowing biological men to compete against women in sports in a new runoff election campaign ad that features former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines.

Gaines tied with transgender athlete Lia Thomas for fifth place in the women’s 200-yard freestyle finals during this year’s NCAA championships, but was not awarded the fifth-place trophy.

Suspended Vermont Student and Coach Father Sue School District for Retaliating After Complaint About Biological Male in Girls’ Locker Room

October 29, 2022October 28, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

A Vermont high school volleyball player who was suspended from school and her father, the team’s coach, who was suspended from his job, are suing the school district for retaliating against them following their complaint about the policy that allows biological males in the girls’ team locker room.

Blake Allen, 14, a student at Randolph Union Middle School, and her father, Travis Allen, who coaches his daughter’s volleyball team, spoke out against a biological male, claiming to be female, being allowed in the girls’ team locker room while they were changing. Now, the family is suing the school district after Blake was suspended and Travis was fired from his job, asserting the district retaliated against them, the Daily Signal reported Thursday.

Kansas School Forced to Give Teacher Nearly $100K After Suspending Her for Refusing to Use Transgender Name

September 6, 2022September 5, 2022 Admin

A Kansas teacher has been awarded nearly $100,000 after being suspended from her school due to her refusal to use a transgender-identifying student’s new name in class.

Democrats’ January 6th Committee Quietly Collaborating with the Left’s ‘Top Censor’

July 7, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

A left-wing nonprofit that labels conservative and Christian groups “hateful” is reportedly funneling research to the committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — which claims to be “nonpartisan.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a legal advocacy group with former employees President Joe Biden has handpicked for federal roles, is collaborating with the committee, Politico reported. The group has provided roughly 40 pages of research and written testimony to the committee to facilitate its investigation of the riot, an SPLC lawyer told the outlet.

Christian Student Silenced by School Receives Settlement

June 27, 2022June 26, 2022 Admin

A college student will receive a massive settlement from his school after it tried to silence him from speaking about his faith, according to a Wednesday press release from Alliance Defending Freedom.

Georgia Gwinnett College settled with Chike Uzuegbunam for $80,000 six years after the lawsuit was first filed, which alleged that the school repeatedly denied him the right to speak about his Christian faith to other students, the press release said.

Commentary: Ohio Professor Wins Settlement in ‘Preferred Pronoun’ Case

April 19, 2022April 18, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

In a refreshing religious liberty result from the world of academia, free speech won and preferred pronouns lost.

A professor at Shawnee State University, in Portsmouth, Ohio, will be able to honor his conscience as a Christian who believes God created human beings as male and female and that a person’s sex cannot change, and will not be required by the school to compromise that belief when addressing students.

Catholic Charity Can Remain Open After Court Found Michigan Violated First Amendment

March 23, 2022March 22, 2022 Admin

Catholic Charities West Michigan will remain open after state officials agreed under court order to pay the nonprofit’s attorney’s fees and acknowledged that taking actions against the charity for its beliefs would violate the First Amendment.

Catholic Charities prioritizes placing children up for adoption or in foster care with a married mother and father. The group filed a lawsuit with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) after Michigan officials gave the nonprofit the ultimatum to either close its adoption and foster care ministry or change its policy prioritizing a married mother and father to receive a child.

Supreme Court to Hear Case of Woman Forced to Create Websites for LGBT Causes Against Religious Beliefs

February 23, 2022February 22, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of a web designer fighting a Colorado law that forces her to promote messages against her religious beliefs, the court announced Tuesday.

Lorie Smith of 303 Creative asked the court to review the 10th Circuits’ ruling that Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act requires Smith to engage in speech that violates her conscience, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing her.

Web Designer Forced to Publish Messages Countering Her Religious Faith Asks Supreme Court to Hear Case

September 27, 2021September 26, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

A Colorado web designer asked the Supreme Court to take up her case challenging a state law forcing her to publish websites with messages counter to her religious beliefs.

Lorie Smith filed the petition with the Supreme Court on Friday, arguing a lower court ruling that upheld the Colorado law was wrongly decided, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the firm representing her, announced. The law compelled Smith’s speech in violation of her First Amendment rights by forcing her business 303 Creative to produce content against her beliefs, she said.

“The government shouldn’t weaponize the law to force a web designer to speak messages that violate her belief,” ADF General Counsel Kristen Waggoner said during a press call before filing the petition. “This case involves quintessential free speech and artistic freedom, which the 10th circuit astonishingly and dangerously cast aside here.”

Pediatricians Sue Biden Administration for Requiring Doctors to Perform Trans Surgeries Against Beliefs

August 29, 2021August 28, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Medical professionals are suing President Joe Biden’s administration over a mandate requiring doctors to perform transgender surgeries in violation of their religious beliefs or medical judgement.

Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the American College of Pediatricians, the Catholic Medical Association and an OB-GYN doctor specializing in adolescent care filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga Thursday against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

FSU Settles Discrimination Lawsuit with Former Student Senate President Jack Denton

May 27, 2021May 26, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

Florida State University has settled a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) on behalf of Jack Denton, the former Student Senate President who was removed from his role for criticizing Black Lives Matter.

After the death of George Floyd, Denton advised fellow students in a Catholic group chat not to donate to Black Lives Matter, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) or Reclaim the Block, leftist organizations who support anti-Catholic teachings.

Female Athletes Appeal Ruling Dismissing Complaints Against Biological Males In Women’s Sports

April 27, 2021April 26, 2021 Admin

Four female athletes are appealing a ruling that dismissed their challenge to a policy that allows biological males to compete in female sports.

Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Ashley Nicoletti will continue to challenge the Connecticut policy, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the law firm announced Monday.