The first state to start a voucher system kicked off the $5.5 million pilot program last fall, giving low income parents $2,500 to help send their children to private schools, including those affiliated with a religion.
Parents of about 2,000 Cleveland kindergarten through third grade public school students received vouchers to attend their choice of 53 private schools, 80 percent of which are religious.
A teachers union and a taxpayers group challenged the program. The court said the program is impermissible because it "provides direct and substantial non-neutral government aid to sectarian schools."
A similar voucher program was struck down last fall in Milwaukee, Wis.
"The ACLU is not objecting to the references to God at this time, but objecting to references to a specific god at the exclusion of all others," said Las Vegas lawyer and ACLU board member Melvin Lipman.
Legislative Counsel Bureau administrator Lorne Malkiewich said that it is the intention of the bureau to offer as inoffensive and as inclusive a prayer as possible. However, several Jewish members of the Legislature and Assembly have complained about the Christian-dominated prayers. All of the invocations this session have been delivered by Christians, except for one Muslim and one American Indian.
Although U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent struck down the 1993 school prayer law as unconstitutional, he did not address all the challenges brought forth in the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama-backed lawsuit. Instead, DeMent ordered the defendants to engage in settlement negotiations, but none were made.
ACLU attorney Pamela Sumners said she will ask Judge DeMent for a summary judgment on unsettled issues such as the legality of teachers soliciting students to pray in the classroom or prayers being broadcast over the public address system during school-sponsored events. Issues such as release time and evangelical assemblies are expected to be decided upon during the trial.
The suit, filed on behalf of Michael Chandler, assistant principal at Valley Head Middle School in DeKalb County, names Gov. Fob James as the primary defendant in the case.
Foster caved into the Christian Coalition in December when he ordered an investigation into whether clinics were breaking state laws by offering birth control or providing abortion counseling. Foster also ordered a 14-member task force, stacked with Christian Coalition members, to monitor the clinics.
Louisiana has one of the highest rates of high school drop-out and teen-pregnancies.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in May unanimously rejected a challenge which claims the law is an illegal attempt to return prayer to public schools. Brian Bown, former Gwinnett County teacher, challenged the law after being fired for refusing to hold a moment of silence in his suburban Atlanta classroom. Bown's attorney plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the law unconstitutionally entangles teachers, as government workers, with religious matters.
The law states that students will open the day with 60 seconds of "silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day."
"This law survived by the skin of its teeth, really," said Gerry Weber, legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. "The court left open the fact that there may be applications of this statute that are unconstitutional, such as claims by students that they are being coerced into engaging in silent prayer."
Prof. Ian Plimer, head of earth sciences at the University of Melbourne, has accused Allen Roberts of breaching Section 52 of the act with his claims to have found the wreck of Noah's Ark on top of Mount Ararat in Turkey.
Roberts toured Australia in 1992 to raise money to mount an expedition to examine the structure. He claimed to have found scientific evidence of boats ribs, petrified wood, fossilized dung and anchors made of stone. Plimer, who visited the site in 1994, found an ordinary rock formation, partly covered in mud that was at least 110 million years old. The geologist said he just wants show that Roberts' claims are "codswallop."
The adopted constitution-which would guarantee civil and economic liberties, free health care and education, and keep the Roman Catholic church and the state separated-will be put to a referendum and, if approved, come into effect three months after being signed by the president.
Without comment, the justices turned away arguments that Tilton's church should be allowed to pursue conspiracy and racketeering allegations over a 1991 "PrimeTime Live" report that portrayed Tilton as an insensitive fraud. ABC, which focused on Tilton's lifestyle of multimillion-dollar homes and a generous salary, quoted people as saying Tilton accepted some followers' donations and then trashed their prayer requests.
The justices, without comment, let stand rulings that Gerald D'Amelia, Jr., is not immune from being sued over the 1993 incident.
In a bizarre string of events, D'Amelia posed a deal with a woman to drop all charges of alleged sexual abuse of her son if she swore on a bible in church that she had not abused the boy.
All charges were dropped against the woman after she swore on a bible held by D'Amelia at the Orange County church on May 7, 1993 that she "did not have any form of sexual contact" with her son.
Four months later, the woman sued D'Amelia stating his conduct, instigated by her estranged husband, amounted to an unlawfully coerced religious practice. Both a federal trial judge and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to dismiss the suit.
Toms reportedly siphoned $2 million from more than a dozen personal trusts and accounts. Prosecutors say Toms understated his income-by at least $539,000 in 1990 and by $222,000 in 1991.
Opponents of the programs say religious programs have no place in weekday curriculum and they disrupt the "educational flow."
The law was challenged on the points of free speech and support for religion. The court reportedly did not address the argument that one type of speech-religious books-received favorable treatment because of its content. Instead the court ruled that the state cannot give "aid" to religion.
Governor Tom Ridge has announced his administration will appeal the decision to the State Supreme Court. Retailers were notified to continue exempting bibles and all religious publications from sales tax.
In a 13-2 decision, the justices noted that Japan's constitution-written after World War II by U.S. occupation forces-mandates separation of church and state due to past "abuses resulting from close links between the state and Shintoism" (the indigenous faith of Japan).
Until recently, divorce was a stigma among Catholics. Before 1977, divorced U.S. Catholics who remarried without an annulment were automatically excommunicated. (It is still true that they are not permitted to remarry in a Catholic ceremony.)
Only one spouse needs to apply for an annulment. A finalized civil divorce is a prerequisite, and the other spouse will be informed and can respond. The Catholic church says fees, typically $450, may be waived or reduced in hardship cases.
According to Vatican statistics, of those who applied for annulments in 1992 in the U.S., 83% were granted, 2% were denied and 15% were abandoned by the applicants.
The procedure, usually performed on girls 4-12 years old, ranges from cutting the hood of the clitoris to the removal of the clitoris and tissue at the entrance to the vagina. Also known as "female circumcision," the painful procedure can cause hemorrhaging, scar tissue, large cysts, sexual difficulties, difficult childbirths, and death.
About 130 million women have had the procedure in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The practice has even spread by immigration to Europe, Australia, Canada and the U.S. The UN plans to publicize the harmful effects of the practice and will target doctors, politicians, religious and village leaders, as well as traditional healers in the countries where it is most common.
The policy change stems from the 1994 American Indian Religious Freedom Act and applies to any of the 9,262 American Indians in the service--0.6% of the military population. The guidelines, still in draft form, say:
Peyote may be used only by enrolled members of Indian tribes; it may not be used, possessed or brought aboard military vehicles, vessels, aircraft or military installations without permission of the installation commander; American Indians who smoke peyote for religious reasons and wish to enlist can answer "No" when asked if they have ever used drugs; military personnel must notify their commanders of use upon return to duty; and, additional limitations may be imposed overseas to comply with foreign laws.
The small cactus with psychedelic properties is illegal for most people to use, but federal law permits 250,000 members of the Native American Church, with chapters in 20 states, to use peyote. The theology centers on the belief that peyote brings peace of mind, helps people think good thoughts and heals illnesses if one sincerely believes and concentrates.