The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

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The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

In This Issue:

مقالات متعلقة :

Ninth Circuit: Pledge of Allegiance Constitutional

UN Threatens Binding Treaty on Defamation of Religions

Oregon Repeal:

April 2010 E-Update

The Becket Fund has moved to a new location:

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Ninth Circuit: Pledge of Allegiance Constitutional

In a stunning reversal of its 2002 rejection of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco today ruled, in a 193-page opinion, that the words “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance do not violate the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution.

In its ruling, the Court adopted the Becket Fund’s argument for the Pledge’s constitutionality, in particular the idea that Congress’s purpose in enacting the Pledge was “to underscore the political philosophy of the Founding Fathers that God granted certain inalienable rights to the people which the government cannot take away.” This is in contrast to the “ceremonial deism” argument—namely, the idea that the words “under God,” through years of rote repetition, have lost any meaning—made by the federal and local governments in the case.

To visit the United We Pledge Campaign website, please click here.

To watch The Becket Fund’s founder and president, Kevin “Seamus” Hasson in an interview on the recent victory on EWTN’s “The World Over,” click here.

UN Threatens Binding Treaty on Defamation of Religions

On March 25, 2010, the UN Human Rights Council agreed to extend the mandate of the Ad Hoc Committee, a UN body that is working on a binding treaty on the 'defamation of religions’ by adopting the motion without a vote. However, support for the flawed concept is dwindling as attempts to fast-track the drafting of a formal treaty were defeated. The Becket Fund and over 130 collaborating organizations opposed the concept in a common statement last fall denouncing the ineffectiveness of the concept to ease inter-religious tensions.

“Something has been broken in Geneva for too long. The UN should focus on protecting our most fundamental freedoms of conscience and expression instead of spending all day finding ways to restrict them,” stated L.Bennett Graham, International Programs officer for the Becket Fund.

To read Mr. Graham’s op-ed piece on the ‘defamation of religions” concept published in The Guardian, click here.

Oregon Repeal:

On April 1, 2010, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed the repeal of a Ku Klux Klan-inspired law that forbade Oregon teachers from wearing religious dress in public schools. Under the 87-year old law, which was passed to prevent Catholic nuns from teaching in public schools, Orthodox Jewish teachers could not wear yarmulkes, Sikh teachers could not wear turbans, and Muslim women teachers could not wear headscarves.

The Oregon Legislature moved to repeal the law after The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and a coalition of interfaith, civil rights, and bar association organizations urged the immediate repeal of the discriminatory Oregon law in a letter to state legislative leaders. In her Washington Post online column, Becket Fund Legal Fellow Asma Uddin took the ACLU to task for supporting a KKK law by using KKK tactics.

Click here to read Asma’s piece.

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