The American Humanist Association’s bid to have the Bladensburg Peace Cross war memorial torn down (or its cross member sawn off) continued this month with oral arguments at the Fourth Circuit court of appeals. The AHA lost their case last year and appealed in December 2015.
The First Liberty Institute, which is defending the cross, accurately Read more
US Army Major General David Haight was demoted to Lieutenant Colonel and retired after an investigation into his decade-long swinging sexual lifestyle:
An Army spokesman says Maj. Gen. David Haight was demoted by three steps to the rank of lieutenant colonel, a steep and rare downgrade for a senior officer.
The official cause, as summarized by the Associated Press:
An Army inspector general investigation concluded that Haight had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a woman who was not his wife, and that he misused government resources, including a department cell phone and computer, for a “high volume” of personal calls and emails.
Given that “misuse” of a government cell phone and computer — as determined Read more
The case of former US Marine LCpl Monifa Sterling, who made national news when her court-martial included charges related to posting a Bible verse on her desk, has been appealed to the US Supreme Court.
Sterling was a substandard Marine, but the straw that broke the camel’s back to get her court-martialed was posting, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper,” a paraphrase of Isaiah 54:17…
Religious liberty lawyers at First Liberty Institute agreed that Sterling’s posting Bible verses is protected by law…[and] recruit[ed] one of the greatest Supreme Court litigators in recent decades, former Solicitor General Paul Clement, to lead their team…
Sterling’s case has become a fascinating discriminator for Read more
December 24th was Christmas Eve, but it also marked the first day of Hanukkah — a day celebrated even by the US troops stationed in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan:
At sundown on Saturday, Navy Lt. Lauren Sucher of Annapolis, Md., and Navy Chief Petty Officer Kent Frosch of Washington, D.C., stepped outside at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah.
The short Stars and Stripes article is a reminder that regardless where the US military sends its troops, it generally supports their ability to practice their religion — even if some people might find it uncomfortable.
In this case, these Jewish US troops are surrounded by an Islamic nation and Read more
Despite deployment and austere conditions at locations around the world, the US military tries to provide its troops the resources and opportunities they need to celebrate Christmas, as well as the freedom to interact with local communities to honor the Christmas season. In most, but not all, cases, the military isn’t afraid to say “Christmas” or “Hanukkah” or otherwise acknowledge the point of what’s being celebrated — despite the occasional criticism from Scut Farkus. Some recent examples, from Colorado Springs to Japan:
Sailors at Fleet Activities Sasebo (Japan) brought Christmas gifts to orphans through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program.
Led by their battalion commander, LtCol Lawson Bell, Soldiers out of Fort Carson, Colorado, participated in an all-night march to downtown Colorado Springs, where they teamed with Catholic Charities to support the Marian House Soup Kitchen.
The III MEF Band at Read more
The Town of New Windsor, New York, has been threatened over a war memorial which contains the words “To Those Who Served Both God and Country“:
Town Attorney Michael Blythe said the lawyer, Martin Karlinsky, sent the town two letters, suggesting that the wording on the memorial, invoking the word “God,” runs counter to the First Amendment clause that draws a strict separation between government and religion. Blythe said there was a “veiled threat” of a lawsuit.
Apparently unmoved, Town Supervisor George Green had a pithy response to the threat: Read more
In a shocking development, the Arkansas Supreme Court recently ruled a birth certificate is supposed to have the names of the child’s biological mother and father.
In an era in which Americans suddenly require a law to state the millennia-long obvious about marriage — that it is supposed to be between a man and a woman — and a law to state the other obvious fact that the little boys room is supposed to be for little boys, it shouldn’t be a surprise a state’s highest court had to tell people Mom and Dad are supposed to be on little Johnny’s birth certificate:
Identifying biological parents is an “important governmental objective,” wrote Arkansas Supreme Court Associate Justice Josephine Linker Hart in the majority opinion, explaining Read more
