Alliance Defense Fund

An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney has secured a $1.15 million settlement on behalf of Saint Benedict Center of Richmond in a lawsuit over the town’s unconstitutional zoning restrictions. The center contended officials singled it out for discrimination after certain officials expressed their view that the church’s moral positions on matters such as abortion and homosexual behavior are “abhorrent.”

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund and the Home School Legal Defense Association filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights Friday asking it to hear the case of a seven-year-old boy seized by Swedish authorities because his parents home-school.

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel David French will be available for media interviews Thursday following a summary judgment hearing in Ward v. Wilbanks, a lawsuit filed by ADF attorneys against Eastern Michigan University on behalf of student Julea Ward.  EMU dismissed Ward from its graduate counseling program in March 2009 for not affirming homosexual behavior as morally acceptable.  Ward would not agree to change her religious beliefs about homosexual behavior or express a message contrary to them during counseling sessions as a condition to receiving a degree.  French will argue that the case should be decided in Ward’s favor without further proceedings.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have agreed to represent a South Dakota church reported to the Internal Revenue Service by Americans United for Separation of Church and State because the church’s pastor engaged in free speech from the pulpit.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys sent Kingsborough Community College officials a letter Monday calling upon them to end an unconstitutional policy that allows a faculty advisor to cancel a student organization’s event and silence its message by simply not showing up for the event. The policy, which requires that a faculty advisor be present at all events, was misused when one student scheduled a forum on the topic of marriage.

Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel Roger Kiska will be available for media interviews following a hearing Thursday before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission concerning the deportation of American Christians from Morocco. ADF represents Village of Hope, an orphanage whose staff was targeted for the deportations. Members of Village of Hope will testify as witnesses before members of the U.S. House of Representatives at the hearing.

Attorneys representing ProtectMarriage.com will be available for media interviews before, during, and after closing arguments in the trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a lawsuit seeking to overturn the will of California voters by striking down a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys are co-counsel in the lawsuit together with lead counsel Charles J. Cooper and ADF-allied attorney Andrew Pugno, who represents the official proponents and campaign committee of Proposition 8. ADF will also be blogging live from the trial.

The Boston Centers for Youth and Families has notified Alliance Defense Fund attorneys that it will put an end to its problematic policy banning the use of religious content in its publicly available meeting rooms.

The Alliance Defense Fund and the Montana Family Foundation sent Montana State University-Northern officials a letter Monday assuring them that they can continue the school’s graduation prayer tradition, despite a contrary letter they received from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed an appeal Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, contesting a federal judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the Idaho Public Charter School Commission’s across-the-board ban on the use of texts and documents deemed to be “religious.” ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of Nampa Classical Academy last November after the commission threatened to revoke the academy’s charter if it used the Bible or other religious texts on its classroom resource list for any purpose whatsoever.

The Alliance Defense Fund submitted a supplementary letter brief Thursday on behalf of The American Legion Department of California to provide additional defense of the Mt. Soledad veterans’ memorial in light of the latest decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on another veterans’ memorial in California, the Mojave Cross.

The Alliance Defense Fund sent letters Monday to 151 governmental entities urging them to end unconstitutional policies on their books that restrict or forbid access to public meeting rooms for religious purposes. The policies govern more than 750 public facilities across the nation.

An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney filed an amended complaint Monday in a lawsuit against Jet Propulsion Laboratory on behalf of an employee demoted, silenced, harassed, and threatened with termination for discussing his beliefs with willing co-workers about intelligent design as a scientific theory of life’s origins. The California Institute of Technology operates JPL under a contract with NASA.

The Alaska Supreme Court Wednesday upheld a trial court’s finding that petitions for a parental notification initiative do not contain confusing and misleading language and are therefore valid. The decision means that the measure, which would require parents to be notified if their minor daughter seeks an abortion, will go on the ballot for voter approval during the Aug. 24 primary.

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will join members of the Minnesota Family Council in a press conference Thursday at the Minnesota State Capitol to announce their intention to submit a request to intervene to defend marriage against a legal attack filed in state court.

In a letter issued Thursday, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights granted the request of Alliance Defense Fund attorneys to allow 32 members of the European Parliament to intervene in a lawsuit over crucifixes in Italy’s public schools. ADF, which represents MEPs from 11 different nations, argued in a legal memo that a lower chamber’s ruling last year in favor of an “offended” parent who wanted the crosses removed exceeded the European court’s authority over such matters within Italy.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, working with the Family Research Council, sent letters to all 535 members of the U.S. Congress Wednesday, advising them regarding the legal and religious freedom implications associated with the proposed repeal of the military’s standing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The information provided to Congress included legal analysis by ADF of the religious freedom threat posed to both chaplains and service members.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys will defend Arizona’s tuition tax credit program in the U.S. Supreme Court, the second time the matter has reached the high court in a lawsuit backed by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking to strike down the program.  On Monday, the court agreed to hear the case after ADF attorneys filed a petition in February asking the justices to reverse portions of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled parts of the program unconstitutional.  ADF is asking that the suit be dismissed because the opponents have not proven that they have suffered any injury that would give them standing to bring a lawsuit over the challenged tax credit program.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit Wednesday against Montgomery County on behalf of a Silver Spring pregnancy resource center. The suit concerns a new law that makes “limited-service pregnancy centers” and individuals who have a “primary purpose” of offering information about pregnancy face steep fines if they don’t post signs saying the county believes women should consult someone else.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a motion to intervene Wednesday on behalf of 32 members of the European Parliament from 11 nations supporting Italy in a forthcoming appeal of a ruling from the Second Section of the European Court of Human Rights. The ruling overruled Italy’s courts and ordered the removal of crucifixes from the predominantly Catholic nation’s public schools. ADF attorneys argue in a legal memo that the ECHR ruling last year in favor of an “offended” parent exceeded the European court’s authority over such matters in Italy and counters existing law and traditions throughout Europe.