The Department filed a lawsuit today against Essex County, N.J., alleging that it discriminated against a Muslim corrections officer on the basis of her religion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suit alleges that the county refused to permit Yvette Beshier to wear a religiously mandated headscarf while working as a corrections officer.
Category: Current Events
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signs the Workplace Religious Freedom Act
Breaking News: We have received word that Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has signed the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act (SB 786). SB 786 requires employers to make credible attempts to accommodate religious holy day observance and religious dress. Prior to SB 786, employers in Oregon could make only the bare minimum effort to meet accommodation…
Oregon law is too strict on teachers’ religious garb (Oregonian)
EXCERPT: In nearly every state in the union, local school districts have the discretion to say whether teachers can wear religious garb such as yarmulkes, turbans and head scarves while on the job. Not around these parts. Oregon is one of only two states with laws that expressly forbid public school teachers from wearing religious…
Law Professor Alan Brownstein on California marriage debate (Liberty Magazine)
Religious liberty and equality is predicated on the right to be different. Its underlying principle is that we do not have to accept the truth or value of someone else’s religious beliefs in order to agree that those beliefs and practices deserve protection against discriminatory treatment.
July 2009 News and Opinion – The Economy, Marriage, and More
July 2009 News and Opinion – The Economy, Marriage, and More Posted using ShareThis
Russian President may push ‘new world currency’…
EXCERPT FROM BLOOMBERG.COM Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may discuss his proposal to create a new world currency when he meets counterparts from Brazil, India and China this month, Natalya Timakova, a spokeswoman for the president, told reporters by phone today. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 meeting in London in April included studying a…
1967 U.S. Supreme Court Decision sheds light on California marriage debate
There is presently much debate about gay marriage in California, and the roots for the argument come from several directions. In 1967 the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether marriage was a fundamental right. Granted it had to do with people of the opposite sex, but the arguments for the State of Virginia which forbade interracial marriage were primarily religious in nature.
When you think about it, 1967 was not very long ago. If you are older than 42, if your parents were from sixteen states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, or Florida, and were from different races their marriages would have been illegal. In California, interracial marriage was illegal until 1948.
Doug Kmiec on a Court Packed with Catholics (Wall Street Journal)
If Judge Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed by the United States Senate, she will be the 6th Catholic among the 9 United States Supreme Court justices. Doug Kmiec, my constitutional law professor in the area of the Bill of Rights at Pepperdine University, discusses what this will mean in a recent interview with Suzanne Sataline of…
Oregon House of Representatives passes Workplace Religious Freedom Act
SB 786 has passed both houses of the legislature and is now on the Governor’s Desk.
The dangers of relinquishing liberty for a quiet and “safe” life
In recent months, it has become increasingly clear that religious freedom, or any individual liberties for that matter, are best respected in lands where private property and financial resources are respected by the state. Mark Steyn explores the themes of private property and financial responsibility in this speech describing the dangers other nations are facing when…