For Immediate Release Contact: Amy Couch, 202-238-9088, acouch@americanhumanist.org Monica Miller, 202-238-9088, mmiller@americanhumanist.org (Raleigh, NC, March 29, 2018)—The American Humanist Association (AHA) Appignani Humanist Legal Center won a monumental victory today in its case against the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) on behalf of Humanist inmates, including Plaintiff Kwame Teague, being denied equal treatment. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has ruled that NCDPS violated both the Establishment and Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitution by refusing to recognize Humanism as a faith group and by refusing to allow Humanists
This post originally appeared on TheHumanist.com. Tomorrow marks the one-month anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The students of Parkland are giving the world a lesson in activism and showing the power of making a statement in the face of longstanding legislative inaction. Student walkouts to protest gun violence in schools have been happening across the country, making national headlines and engendering disciplinary threats from some school administrators. Tomorrow morning (March 14) at 10 a.m. across all time zones, students from at least 2,200 schools nationwide are expected to participate in the National School Walkout. The walkout
This post originally appeared on TheHumanist.com. A chaplain is a clergy member or lay representative of a religion trained to serve a secular institution like a hospital, prison, school, police department, sports team, or parliamentary body. A chaplain can come from any faith or no faith—such as a humanist chaplain—but that doesn’t mean they’ll be allowed to lead prayer for the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Like chambers in most states, Oklahoma has had visiting chaplains provide an opening prayer Monday through Wednesday with additional remarks on Thursday. Any member of the House could propose a guest chaplain. This system was going fine until May 2017, when Rep. Chuck Strohm, chapla
This post originally appeared on TheHumanist.com On January 31 the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced an update to the United States Attorneys’ Manual—a new section titled “Associate Attorney General’s Approval and Notice Requirements for Issues Implicating Religious Liberty”—and directed the designation of a religious liberty point of contact for each of the ninety-three US Attorney’s offices. The Trump administration continues to display support for loopholing protections from discrimination under the cloak of so-called religious liberty. Now with the mandate of religious liberty czars, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is doubling down on efforts to privilege the rights of the religious t
For Immediate Release Contact: Amy Couch, 202-238-9088, acouch@americanhumanist.org (Washington, D.C., March 1, 2018) — Today, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its ruling in favor of the American Humanist Association that the massive Christian cross on government property in Bladensburg, Maryland violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Court denied the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s request for a rehearing of the case. The case was brought by the AHA and three of its members. Following oral arguments, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled the cross unconstitutional in October 2017, and today, the majority of the active
