Thursday, July 02, 2015

ACLU Uses RFRA Law It Opposed To Allow Sex Offenders To Enter Churches Attached To Schools

The ACLU of Indiana jumped on the bandwagon this year in opposing the enactment of Indiana's RFRA law, even though the national ACLU organization was a key backer of the original RFRA legislation passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton twenty years ago. The day Indiana's new RFRA law took effect, the ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit in Elkhart County Superior court, which relies upon the new law to assert rights of persons convicted of serious sex offenders who are barred under another state law from entering schools. The ACLU claims the sex offender law , which also just took effect, prevents serious sex offenders from entering churches with schools attached to them and this unduly burdens those sex offenders right to exercise their religious freedom.
"This is a prime example as a place where people's religious rights are being burdened, and therefore under RFRA the state has to justify that," said ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk. "It makes no sense to ban people on a Sunday if there are kids there on a Thursday . . .
The ACLU of Indiana opposed RFRA, arguing that the law would allow discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals. But Falk said the lawsuit uses RFRA "as it was originally contemplated" to protect religious freedom. 
"We're not going to pretend it doesn't exist now," Falk said. "It does exist. The legislature said it wants to protect religious liberties, and that's exactly what we're trying to do."
This is a case where the ACLU of Indiana is clearly playing politics with the state's new law. The claim it asserts could have been brought in federal court under the federal RFRA law long before now. The ACLU has not shied away from using the federal law to go to bat for Muslim inmates at Terre Haute's federal prison to force prison officials to allow the inmates to conduct group prayer meetings on a daily basis as opposed to the weekly basis prison officials had traditionally allowed for inmates of different religious faiths. The ACLU of Indiana has traditionally been run by leftist, partisan Democrats and things haven't changed.

Advance Indiana wonders if the ACLU of Indiana would take up the cause of a state lawmaker fired from their private sector job because he or she supported RFRA. Rumors have been circulating in the Terre Haute area and around the State House that State Rep. Alan Morrison (D-Terre Haute) was separated from his long-time employment with Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology where he had worked since 2001 because some university supporters complained about his support of the RFRA legislation during this past session. University officials and Morrison did not respond to requests by the Terre Haute Tribune-Star on the reason for his termination. Advance Indiana reached out to a House Republican spokesperson for Rep. Morrison earlier today for comment on those rumors but has not yet received a response. Anti-RFRA activists have been engaged in organized Alinsky-style attacks on a number of politicians, in addition to Gov. Mike Pence, who supported RFRA, which have included efforts at harming their business interests and pressuring their employers to fire them from their jobs.

Indianapolis' State Sen. Scott Schneider's ice business was negatively impacted after RFRA opponents began contacting his customers threatening to boycott their businesses unless they stopped doing business with Schneider's business. Several businesses with long-time ties to Schneider's Mr. Ice cut their ties to the business because of Sen. Schneider's role in sponsoring RFRA and the vocal pressure they were under from gay rights and other left-wing activists to stop doing business with Mr. Ice.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is just first class legal trolling, and probably meritorious as well. Law of unintended consequences, anyone?

Anonymous said...

If Christians don’t want to do wedding business with gays, why should gays want to do business with supporters and proponents of RFRA? I think it goes without saying that it cuts both ways. Christians sniff that they don’t approve of that lifestyle without thinking that maybe we don’t approve of their nauseating bigotry. Gay people have long memories. We remember our friends and we remember our enemies. I remember every single word Senator Pat Miller said to me when she lied about her reasons for supporting RFRA, and I’ll refresh her memory of it when it comes time to donate my money to her opponent in the next election. That’s the way that works. And there’s a lot of payback coming in Indiana to bigots who had no reservation insulting gays during that fight. We have long memories. I use my money to support my friends, not my enemies.

Paul K. Ogden said...

Anon 1:41, do you mean by "unintended consequences" that opponents will lie about and misrepresent legislation? That's the only thing I'm seeing. The ACLU has to know that the state has a compelling interest to apply the law to prevent convicted sex offenders from working in schools.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The ACLU's contention is that school is not in session when the affected persons are attending church services so the law unfairly burdens their right to exercise their religious freedom. The statute in question could have been more narrowly tailored to clarify that it only applied during regular school days.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Several years ago, there was an attorney who had worked for one of the three big firms in Indianapolis for a long period of time. She was very good at the work she did, and she was also active in Democratic Party politics. A young, lesbian associate came along at the firm who didn't much care for her. She took something she said and twisted it around entirely to make it appear this very open-minded woman was an anti-gay bigot. The woman was summoned to a partner's office and fired on the spot without any opportunity to defend her remarks. Anyone who knew this woman knew she didn't have an angry bone in her body towards gays or lesbians. A long and distinguished career at a prestigious law firm was flushed down the toilet by a younger, totally dishonest associate of the law firm who knew how to play the discrimination card to her advantage, particularly in a legal setting.

I once heard a conversation a district manager of a Fortune 500 company, who happened to be gay, was heaving with a group of his gay friends. He boasted about using a lesbian employee at one of the stores in his district to fabricate discrimination charges against the manager just so he would have an excuse to get rid of him. The point of his conversation was to express how delighted he was to fire the manager that day under false pretenses. His friends thought it was really funny.

When Evan Bayh was governor, there were certain senior members of his staff who were totally homophobic and were prepared to extinguish anyone's career over their sexual orientation alone. One of those persons is a talking head who screams louder now about others supposedly discriminating against gays when this person was one of the worst offenders when in a position of authority to help make state government more hospitable to gays and lesbians. This person now yells and screams about anyone who objects to same-sex marriage or non-discrimination laws to protect gays and lesbians.

I generally find that that the people who scream the loudest about bigotry are often the worst offenders who will use it in the most cruel of fashions to destroy other persons professional lives.

Anonymous said...

Gary, the last line of your 4:42 comment is the absolute truth. I should know. I am an LGBT who witnesses it in my community all the time.

Anonymous said...

http://www.ibj.com/articles/53889-indiana-cancels-post-rfra-contract-with-pr-firm-after-3-months

$365,000 out of a $750,000 for no value added.

Anonymous said...

How does this affect a Democrat city councilor?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Welch is spot on in his response here. I have personally seen several instances like the ones explained, and these types of things will continue to happen.

Anonymous said...

Paul Harvey wrote about the ACLU.... Click this link: The ACLU is...

Paul K. Ogden said...

I commented before fully reading the article. They wouldn't be working in church schools but attending churches with schools attached. Still I think it's unlikely to pass the RFRA test. I agree that this is all about the ACLU and trying to score political points. The ACLU has grown incredibly hostile toward religion which is ironic since just two decades ago the organization led the charge for RFRA.

Marycatherine Barton said...

I feel sorry for the judge who is assigned to hear this case.

Anonymous said...

You all just watch how militant the left will get to further any cause that surrounds them. I"m already feeling sorry for my gay friends who just want to live a normal life, they can't say anything without retribution.
Same thing with my black friends, if they go against the grain, their called the house slave!
Were in trouble folks!

Pete Boggs said...

The ACLU sides with those who prey; vs those who pray.