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Welcome to the Legal Update, a free newsletter from Crosswalk.com, the world's largest Christian website. We honor your privacy and time. If this newsletter no longer meets your needs, please use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this newsletter and you will be removed immediately.
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PJI Defends Sacramento Church Against City's Harassment
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Mary Rettig
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A group of Russian immigrants at the Independent Baptist Church of Sacramento, California are fighting their local government's hostile effort to keep them from filling their church pews. Having fled Russia to escape communist oppression, the church members had to seek legal assistance from the Pacific Justice Institute in order to avoid another kind of oppression -- the tyranny of municipal bureaucracy. Brad Dacus of PJI says the church's building can hold 500 people, but the city of Sacramento will only allow the congregation to have 120 -- the capacity of the church parking lot. After offering to expand the parking lot or use a shuttle system, Dacus explains, the City of Sacramento said no to both offers and told church members, "We're not going to let you do that." According to the lawyer, the city's actions are a clear violation of religious land use laws and an infringement of First Amendment rights. He says the Independent Baptist Church case is not the first of its ki
nd, but is in fact a classic example of California's almost open hostility to churches. Despite this unfair treatment, the members refused to back down. After meeting with PJI's attorneys, he says the Independent Baptist Church chose not to go "underground," as they might have done in Russia, but instead to fight for their rights by filing a federal lawsuit challenging the city's decision.
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First Lawsuit Filed to Overturn Voter-Approved Marriage Amendments
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Melanie Hunter
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The first of what is expected to be a wave of litigation challenging defense of marriage initiatives approved by voters last week was filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma on Thursday. The suit asks the court to strike down Oklahoma's Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional, but pro-family groups say it's just the beginning. "We fully expect a tsunami of litigation designed to strike down marriage in different states across the country - including every state where voters approved state DOMA initiatives on Election night," said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage. State constitutional amendments banning same-sex "marriage" were approved in all 11 states where they appeared on the ballot. Those states include Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah, and Oregon. In eight of those 11 states, the ballot measures also banned civil unions and/or domestic partnerships. "The constitutional probl
em created by almost a decade of activist lawsuits to destroy our marriage laws demands a constitutional fix," said Daniels. "Ultimately, only our Federal Marriage Amendment will protect marriage - while leaving all issues of benefits to the democratic process in the states," he said.
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Parents Demand District Stop Barring Christmas from Classrooms
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Jim Brown
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A group of parents is upset that little -- if any -- discussion of Christmas is allowed in their Maine school district's classrooms. In 1994, the Scarborough School District banned all Christmas celebrations. However, since the policy was adopted, talk about Hanukkah and other non-Christian holidays has been allowed in the district. And, according to area parent Lisa Lowry, even though the schools' policy was amended two years ago, the teachers are still afraid to discuss Christmas. As a result of this situation, Lowry says Scarborough kids are coming home afraid to say "Merry Christmas." Of particular concern to the Scarborough parent is the fact that the schools go beyond merely suppressing the Christian holiday to expressly discriminate against it. "Right now in our school system Hanukkah festival [music] is being played in the school band, but nothing about Christmas," she says. Lowry feels strongly that if talk about Hanukkah and other religious holidays is allowed -- as
it should be -- then Christmas should not be left out either.
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Website Mobilizes Opposition to Arlen Specter
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Susan Jones
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"Arlen Specter MUST NOT become Chairman of the Judiciary Committee," says a petition being circulated by an anti-Specter website. The petition, which claims to have 14,359 signatures so far, criticizes the "arrogance and sheer audacity of Senator Specter," who said last week that President Bush should be "mindful" of nominating judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Specter, who supports abortion rights, later said his comment had been taken out of context. He insisted that he would not impose a "litmus test" on judicial nominees -- but some conservatives don't believe it. "Voters sent a clear message of support for the President's agenda, and he deserves a Chairman that shares his views of the judicial nomination process, not a maverick seeking to impose his own beliefs on the court," the online petition says. The website NotSpecter.com is a project of RedState.org, which describes itself as a "Republican community weblog."
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