An atheist who has shown vehement zeal in his quest to remove Christianity from the public square is again making a challenge against the national motto of “In God We Trust” on American currency.
Michael Newdow, who has filed multiple lawsuits in his campaign against God, first submitted his complaint in 2013 stating that the motto violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. However, in September of that year, a federal judge ruled against him.
He also lost an appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Now Newdow is seeking people to join him with suits in seven of the 12 circuits based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
“[C]hallenges to this practice under the Establishment Clause have, so far, failed,” he wrote in a recent guest post on Patheos. “Challenges under RFRA, however, are not as susceptible to misapplication. This is because every Supreme Court justice involved in the three RFRA cases heard to date has agreed that, under RFRA, religious activity may not be substantially burdened without a compelling governmental interest and laws narrowly tailored to serve that interest.”
“There is obviously no compelling government interest in having ‘In God We Trust’ on our money,” Newdow continued. “Accordingly, for those who feel that being forced by the government to carry a message that violates their religious ideals is substantially burdensome, lawsuits are now being prepared…”
Newdow is focusing on finding children because he believes children will have more of an impact on justices than adults.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has refused to sign the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The governor said that he wants the bill to mirror the federal Religious Freedom Restoration act so that the state is known “as a state that does not discriminate but understands tolerance.”
“The issue has become divisive because our nation remains split on how to balance the diversity of our culture with the traditions and firmly held religious convictions,” Hutchinson said. “It has divided families, and there is clearly a generational gap on this issue.”
Governor Hutchinson is the latest to back away from a bill to protect religious freedom after anti-faith activists in Indiana launched an attack on the state’s governor for signing a religious freedom law in his state. North Carolina’s governor is also backing away from a bill to protect religious freedom saying the law “makes no sense.”
Fourteen states are considering similar legislation this year.
Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” that protects Christians and other people of faith from having to be forced into actions that are violate their faith.
“Today I signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, because I support the freedom of religion for every Hoosier of every faith,” he said in a statement. “The Constitution of the United States and the Indiana Constitution both provide strong recognition of the freedom of religion but today, many people of faith feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action.”
The bill is a mirror of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The law says the government cannot burden someone’s exercise of religion without proving a compelling government interest.
Governor Pence said that while the federal law protects some freedoms, there are things on the state level that needed to be covered by a state law.
“Last year the Supreme Court of the United States upheld religious liberty in the Hobby Lobby case based on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but that act does not apply to individual states or local government action,” he said. “In order to ensure that religious liberty is fully protected under Indiana law, this year our General Assembly joined those 30 states [who have passed local legislation] and the federal government to enshrine these principles in Indiana law, and I fully support that action.”
Lower court justices who voted to deny Notre Dame’s religious rights will have to take a second look at their ruling after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out their decision.
The justices of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals is being ordered to reconsider their decision in favor of the Obama Administration blocking Notre Dame’s request to have an exemption to the President’s signature health care law’s mandate of abortion causing drugs.
The Supreme Court said the 7th Circuit needed to take into account the court’s 2014 ruling in the Hobby Lobby case.
The Notre Dame case is the only appeals court decision that was issued prior to the Hobby Lobby ruling. In other cases, the judges have upheld the rights of the Christian organizations to not pay for abortion causing drugs.
The school said their rights were protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Michigan House of Representatives has passed a state version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act despite outcry from anti-Christian groups in the state.
The bill, HB5958, cleared the House Judiciary Committee 7-4 and passed the full House 59-50. The Senate now picks up the bill for consideration.
The bill was introduced in the state house because the federal law, signed into law in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, only applies to federal issues. Legislators in Michigan wanted to make sure Christians and other people of faith had their rights protected from state groups and organizations.
The statute reads: “The free exercise of religion is an inherent, fundamental, and unalienable right secured by Article 1 of the state Constitution of 1963 and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
The bill is in response to anti-Christian groups that want to eliminate Christians and people of faith from being able to exercise their rights in society.
“I support individual liberty and I support religious freedom,” House Speaker Jase Bolger (R) declared Thursday to the Judiciary Committee. “I have been horrified as some have claimed that a person’s faith should only be practiced while hiding in their home or in their church.”
Another Christian college has been exempted from the nation’s healthcare laws.
Louisiana College in Pineville filed suit in 2012 over the healthcare mandate’s requirements regarding abortion-inducing drugs. The Alliance Defending Freedom brought the suit on the school’s behalf.
“This is bigger than a preliminary injunction — they already had won that,” said Focus on the Family Judicial Analyst Bruce Hausknecht. “This is a decision ‘on the merits’ of the college’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act claim, which they won at the district court level. But this is big because it’s apparently the first such decision in either the nonprofit or for-profit cases that actually decides the substantive issue — not just the temporary reprieve.”
The Department of Justice tried to get the case initially dismissed but it’s now likely in light of the recent Supreme Court decision the case would not be appealed by federal prosecutors.
So far, 56 injunctions against the law have been put in place by various federal judges.
