Topeka, Kansas--Families across Kansas became one step closer, today, to protecting their children from forced atheistic teaching in their public school system. Pacific Justice Institute filed a complaint in Federal District Court challenging the State Board of Education's (BOE) adoption of certain science standards which would create a hostile learning environment for those of faith. The standards being challenged are the Next Generation Science Standards adopted by the BOE June 11, 2013, and the corresponding Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas.

In addition to citing numerous areas of law that the standards violate, the complaint cites that the standards cause the state "to promote religious beliefs that are inconsistent with the theistic religious beliefs of plaintiffs, thereby depriving them of the right to be free from government that favors one religious view over another."

Bakersfield, CA--Attorneys with the Pacific Justice Institute sent a warning letter late yesterday to officials with the Bakersfield City School District (BCSD), urging them to retract a bulletin which seeks to restrict religious speech by teachers even when they are not working. 

The Advisory Bulletin, dated September 19 and addressed to principals in the district, claims that teachers cannot participate in tomorrow’s annual “See You At The Pole” (SYATP) events.  For the past several years, students across America have gathered around their schools’ flagpoles before school begins on the fourth Wednesday in September to pray for their fellow students, their campuses and the nation.  Locally, SYATP events tend to be loosely organized and open to the general public.  PJI’s letter to BCSD reminds the District that teachers do not lose their rights to act as citizens and exercise their First Amendment freedoms, when they are off the clock.

San Francisco, CA--Attorneys challenging California’s attempts to ban “sexual orientation change efforts” announced today that they are asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for rehearing or, in the alternative, rehearing en banc by a larger panel of the court.
 
Two weeks ago, the Ninth Circuit issued its much-anticipated ruling on the challenges to SB 1172, which has been on hold since Pacific Justice Institute filed suit in October and won a preliminary injunction against the law in December of last year.  The law’s restrictions on what therapists, psychologists and other mental health professionals can say to clients about same-sex attraction has stirred controversy nationwide and even internationally.    

Sacramento, CA—In a temporary victory today for youth groups across the state of California, Senate Bill 323 was placed on the inactive file in the State Assembly. Known as the Anti-Boy Scouts Bill, SB 323 aimed to take away certain tax-exemptions from non-profit youth groups that do not embrace homosexuality and “gender identity”—the notion that you can be a different gender than your biological sex.

Since the bill would have increased taxes, it required a two-thirds vote of approval. It previously received sufficient votes in the Senate, but appeared questionable as to if it would receive sufficient votes in the Assembly.