A Stitch in Haste

Attributed to Scalia in yesterday's oral arguments for Pleasant Grove City v. Summum:
"You can't run a museum if you have to accept everything, right?"
Right — Which is exactly why the government should not be running museums in the first place.
As for the outcome of this bizarre case, I think Chief Corky Roberts summed it [...]

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Consider the following correction in Sunday's Washington Post:
Because of an editing error, the Nov. 7 op-ed column "Vows That Can't Be Voted Down" incorrectly suggested that the Mormon Church had contributed funds to efforts to pass Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in California. The op-ed should have said "members of the [...]

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Dear Shaman Clayton,
If someone were to walk up to me, hit me in the face for no legitimate reason and walk away, then I would probably not chase him down just to hit him back.
But when someone walks up to me, hits me in the face for no legitimate reason and then tells me it's [...]

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Four more years of filling the federal courts with judges who write opinions like this?
Both the Cobb County Commission [Georgia] and the Cobb County Planning Commission have a long tradition of opening their meetings with a prayer offered by volunteer clergy or other members of the community. The clergy have represented a variety of faiths, [...]

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An update to my previous post about an illegal and un-Christian stunt being planned by the theocrats at the Alliance Defense Fund:
Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance [...]

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"Help Keep Politics Out of the Exam Room!"
–Planned Parenthood Website
Since I have relentlessly railed against theocratic church leaders abusing their tax-exempt status by endorsing, overtly or otherwise, specific political candidates, I feel compelled to engage in a little equal-opportunity indignation:

Clever — but is it legal?
The Planned Parenthood Action Fund had stationed volunteers outside, handing out [...]

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Depressingly wrong church-and-state ruling from the Texas Supreme Court recently:
On Saturday June 8, 1996, Tom and Judy Schubert left town, leaving their three teenage children at home. While the Schuberts were away, their seventeen-year-old daughter, Laura, spent much of her time at the family's church, Pleasant Glade Assembly of God, participating in church-related activities.
…
During the [...]

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How about, "So unconstitutional that the judge awarded the ACLU $42,000 in lawyer fees"?
Yesterday, a federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana awarded the American Civil Liberties Union $42,000 in attorneys' fees in a case they brought challenging the legality of a picture of Jesus Christ that was displayed at the Slidell City [...]

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If you find you job offensive, then you have one and only natural right: the right to quit.

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A Stitch in Haste recommends the following report from the Congressional Research Service:
Tax-Exempt Organizations: Political Activity
Restrictions and Disclosure Requirements
Summary:
This report examines the limitations that the Internal Revenue Code places on political activity, including lobbying and campaign intervention, by tax-exempt organizations. … The report also looks at the administrative procedures recently unveiled by the IRS that [...]

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