Free Speech

A college student in New York is once again getting the run-around from school officials for trying to express his religious views on campus.

Last year, Joseph Hayon was initially barred by school officials from distributing pro-life material on the campus of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. The matter was resolved only after the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) intervened.

But since Hayon, president of the student Republican Club, wanted to hold an on-campus forum entitled "The Economic, Political, Social, and Legal Outcome on Same-Gender Marriage" to defend the definition of marriage as one man and one woman, another free-speech situation has popped up...

A crisis pregnancy center in Silver Spring has become the second group in Maryland to sue a Washington-area government over laws that pro-lifers say are part of a national campaign to snuff out anti-abortion speech.

Centro Tepeyac Women's Center, a 20-year-old Catholic agency on Apple Avenue, sued Montgomery County last week at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt over a Feb. 2 vote by the County Council that created a law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to post certain signs in English and Spanish...

(CNSNews.com) – Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan said the high court should be focused on ferreting out improper governmental motives when deciding First Amendment cases, arguing that the government’s reasons for restricting free speech were what mattered most and not necessarily the effect of those restrictions on speech.

Kagan, the solicitor general of the United States under President Obama, expressed that idea in her 1996 article in the University of Chicago Law Review entitled, “Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine.”

In her article, Kagan said that examination of the motives of government is the proper approach for the Supreme Court when looking at whether a law violates the First Amendment. While not denying that other concerns, such as the impact of a law, can be taken into account, Kagan argued that governmental motive is “the most important” factor...

A Christian student in the Los Angeles Community College District is carrying his free-speech case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jonathan Lopez had an assignment in a public speaking class and was required to give an informative speech on any topic. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney David Hacker tells OneNewsNow that Lopez chose to speak about his Christian beliefs. "And during that speech, when he mentioned that marriage is between a man and a woman according to his Christian beliefs, the professor called him this horrible name, refused to let him finish the assignment, and told other students in the class, 'If you're offended, you can leave,'" Hacker explains.

When no students left, the professor dismissed the class. Hacker adds that Lopez is an "A" student -- "but the problem is he never got a grade on that informative speech, and in fact, the professor wrote on his evaluation form, 'Ask God what your grade is.'"....

A judge in Montana has ruled against a high school valedictorian who wasn't allowed to speak at her graduation ceremony because she wanted to give God credit for her success. (See earlier article)

Rennee Griffith is now in her second year of college. She graduated from Butte High School in 2008 as one of the valedictorians, but when she submitted a draft of her speech to school authorities, her First Amendment rights were violated.

"She was asked, as were the other valedictorians, to speak about what helped them get through school. Some people wanted to thank the football coach or the track coach or their uncle or a particular teacher, and they were permitted to do that," explains Griffith's attorney, Bill O'Connor. "The only thing they would not permit, by their own admission, was...her to attribute any achievements to her belief in God."....

A federal lawsuit has been filed against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted federal "Hate Crimes Act."

The lawsuit was filed against Holder by the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) on behalf of three Michigan pastors and the president of the American Family Association of Michigan. Robert Muise, senior trial counsel for the TMLC and the attorney handling the case, tells OneNewsNow this law, attached to a defense authorization bill that the president signed last October, is political payoff.  read more »

Pro-life demonstrators in Chicago are defying a new "bubble zone" law outside abortion clinics.

Chicago recently passed a law that essentially exists to keep sidewalk counselors away from potential customers entering abortion facilities. Eric Sheidler, communications director of the Pro-Life Action League, voices his thoughts on the law. "It creates a very confusing scenario in which once you enter a 50-foot circle around the door of an abortion facility in the city of Chicago, you then have to get permission to approach closer than eight feet to another person," he explains...

CAMDEN, N.J. - A New Jersey high school student claims in a federal lawsuit that administrators violated her religious and free-speech rights by prohibiting her participation in a silent abortion protest.

The girl, identified in court papers as C.H., says she asked Bridgeton High School's principal last month for permission to join in the Pro Life Day of Silent Solidarity on Oct. 20.

She planned to remain silent, except when called on in class. She also wanted to wear an armband with the word "life" on it and distribute anti-abortion pamphlets...

A Christian student government president in California faces recall for allowing a pro-life display on campus.

Sacramento City College recently celebrated Constitution Day, an annual celebration of the U.S. Constitution and free speech. The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), a pro-life organization, requested and was granted a display space at the event. Steve Macias, 19-year-old Associated Student Government president, and Monica Guzman, student affairs commissioner, now risk losing their positions for refusing to kick the pro-life group off campus.

Macias explains the GAP had given a proposal a week prior to being granted the space. The governing body voted unanimously to allow GAP to have a presence on campus. Two days into the event, several pro-abortion groups began protesting the GAP display. That same day, the administration pulled Macias out of class and told him to force GAP to remove its display and leave campus.  read more »

The pro-life community has won a battle against buffer zones around abortion clinics.

At issue before the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was an ordinance in Pittsburgh severely restricting activities of pro-life counselors. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) senior counsel David Cortman tells OneNewsNow the problem with the law was that it established a fixed, and then a floating buffer zone.

"So the fixed zone is a circle drawn 15 feet around the door where no pro-life advocate can enter. On top of that zone, as if it was not restrictive enough, they've also added [that] within 100 feet of every clinic in the city, you were not able to approach another person on a public sidewalk unless you get prior consent from the person," Cortman reports...