Lawsuit Challenges NC School Voucher System

Written by Don Byrd
A lawsuit filed by a group of North Carolina public school advocates challenges the state's new school voucher program that allows parents to use taxpayer money to fund private or religious school tuition. The suit argues the scheme violates the state constitution's requirement that school funds be used exclusively for a uniform public school system.

Judge Orders FL Corrections Dept. to Offer Kosher Diet

Written by Don Byrd
Via Religion Clause, a federal judge in Florida granted a preliminary injunction yesterday ordering the State Department of Corrections to provide kosher meals to all inmates who request one according to sincerely held religious beliefs. In 2007, the state abandoned its kosher meals program and defends its right not to provide such meals. Following a lawsuit filed last year by the United States, however, the state initiated a pilot program to provide kosher meals, but only within strict guidelines designed to certify religious sincerity.

In issuing the injunction, the judge found the lack of a kosher offering likely violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), as do the many hurdles to a kosher diet in the state’s current pilot program, including the religious sincerity test that required applying inmates to demonstrate knowledge about their claimed faith.

Government Displays Bring Interesting Competition

Written by Don Byrd
One reason among many to oppose government displays that are overtly religious, even during the holidays, is because the appearance of religious endorsement by the government marginalizes those who don’t share in the beliefs. In recent years, those marginalized citizens have adopted a new tactic, akin to: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Adherents of minority faiths and proponents of atheism are asking for equal space to spread their own message alongside the rest.

In Florida, that means a “Festivus” pole (from a holiday celebration invented by writers of the TV show Seinfeld), made of empty beer cans, has joined the Nativity Scene and other religious displays at the state capitol in Tallahassee.

OK Lawmakers Propose Merry Christmas Bill

Written by Don Byrd
State Representatives in Oklahoma are following Texas’ lead in attempting to pass a bill protecting expressions of Christmas in public schools. The bill “calls for more protections for Christmas and how it’s celebrated in schools, such as religion based greetings and nativity scenes.” But as the the ACLU’s Brady Henderson points out, eventually those supposed protections are going to run into a higher power: the US Constitution.