CENTER ATTORNEYS FILE LAWSUIT ON BEHALF OF WASHBURN CLS CHAPTER
The Christian Legal Society chapter at Washburn University School of Law filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on September 16, 2004 against school officials who revoked its funding in response to a student’s charge of religious discrimination.
Washburn law student Daniel Arkell cited university policy and filed a charge of religious discrimination last April against the school’s Christian Legal Society (CLS) chapter. He had led a CLS Bible study earlier in the semester, where he espoused religious beliefs inconsistent with CLS’s statement of faith, which he refused to sign. As a result, chapter leaders informed him that he would no longer be permitted to lead CLS-sponsored Bible studies.
Arkell, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, details his disagreement with all five points of the CLS statement of faith in the complaint he filed with the university. He demanded that Washburn’s Student Bar Association (WSBA) revoke the CLS chapter’s funding. On September 2, following a hearing, the WSBA revoked the CLS chapter’s funding.
CENTER CONFRONTS ANOTHER SCHOOL DISTRICT’S DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BIBLE CLUB
The Center is assisting yet another Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) group facing discrimination at the hands of a public school district.
For the past two years, officials of the PrinceWilliamCountyPublicSchool District forbid two elementary school teachers from serving as instructors in CEF’s after-school Bible clubs. In addition, the school district is charging CEF $15.00 per hour to use school facilities solely because it is a “church group.” Secular groups meet without charge.
Center attorney Timothy J. Tracey sent a letter to the district superintendent laying out CEF’s constitutional rights. The Center’s letter calls upon the school district to respect those rights by allowing the teachers to participate in CEF meetings and by removing the rental charge. The Center also demands a change in district policies to permit teachers to participate in any after-school community group and to authorize religious groups to use the school’s facilities without being charged discriminatory rental fees.
HERITAGE FOUNDATION RELEASES NEW BOOK
The Heritage Foundation recently released Bringing Justice To The People: A Story Of The Freedom-based Public Interest Law Movement edited by Lee Edwards, with a foreword by former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, III. The book charts the evolution of the “freedom-based public interest law movement.” It includes a chapter about the work of Christian religious liberty organizations, including CLS’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom.
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