The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling that struck down North Carolina’s law requiring mothers to obtain an ultrasound prior to killing their child via abortion.
The court agreed with the lower court that the requirement is unconstitutional because it violates the “right to free speech.”
North Carolina lawmakers passed the Women’s Right to Know Act in 2011, which required women to obtain an ultrasound prior to an abortion, and that the abortionist describe the child’s features to the mother, as well as offer the opportunity to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. The governor at the time, Beverly Purdue vetoed the bill because of her endorsement of abortion. The legislators overruled the veto.
Mega-abortionist Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the Center For Reproductive Rights sued to block the law and it was struck down by Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles as “an impermissible attempt to compel providers to deliver the state’s message in favor of childbirth and against abortion.”
“This compelled speech, even though it is a regulation of the medical profession, is ideological in intent and in kind,” the panel wrote in support of Eagles’ ruling. “The First Amendment not only protects against prohibitions of speech, but also against regulations that compel speech. A regulation compelling speech is by its very nature content-based, because it requires the speaker to change the content of his speech or even to say something where he would otherwise be silent.”
Attorney General Roy Cooper, who said he personally opposes the law, said he will appeal because it’s his responsibility to defense state law regardless of his personal beliefs.
A group of anti-Christianists have forced the removal of a nativity scene that had been placed in front of a North Carolina courthouse for over 40 years.
The virulent anti-Christian organization Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is not located in Dallas, North Carolina, complained that because the nativity was on government property the town owned it.
The nativity scene was moved to a local auto shop amid complaints from residents that the out of town anti-Christianists shouldn’t be forcing the community to go against their values and standards.
The Christian-hating organization also complained about a nativity scene in Jay, Florida. The city declared it “surplus property” and sold it so a private group could display it.
“The majority of the folks have been very supportive in understanding that there is a reason we moved it from City Hall to downtown. Actually, now that it’s downtown, it is more visible to the public than it was right here at city hall,” Jay Mayor Kurvin Qualls said, according to WEAR-TV.
The city estimated the costs to fight the anti-Christian group in court would be around $100,000.
A North Carolina Muslim has admitted that he was going to fight with terrorist groups.
Akba Jihad Jordan was arrested earlier this year with his friend Avin Marsalis Brown when they talked with an undercover FBI agent about joining jihad. They told the agent about weapons they have in their possession and that they would use them against the United States.
Jordan was arrested on the same day Brown was arrested at Raleigh Durham International airport attempting to fly to Turkey. Jordan had an appointment scheduled to get his passport so he could leave the country.
“Akba Jordan turned his back on his own country and was willing to fight side by side with terrorist groups in Yemen and Syria who wish to do us harm,” John Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in North Carolina, said in a statement following the hearing. “American citizens who offer support to terrorist organizations pose a grave threat to our national security and will face serious consequences for their actions.”
Jordan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. He could face up to 15 years in prison.
A virulent anti-Christian group is demanding that Bible classes in multiple North Carolina.
Cleveland, Woodleaf and Mount Ulla Elementary Schools in the Rowan-Salisbury School System have 45 minute classes that parents may opt out their children if they do not wish them to receive instruction.
The anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a threatening letter after another “anonymous” individual complained that the school was teaching the Bible.
“It is irrelevant that parents may excuse students from the elementary Bible classes,” the anti-Christian group wrote. “Suggesting that children who do not wish to be subjected to religious activity at their school should be segregated from their classmates is reprehensible. … It makes no difference if some parents would like the Rowan-Salisbury School system to teach the Bible as fact to its students.”
The school district said they are looking into the matter but refused further comment.
The Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on the constitutionality of states issuing license plates with the ”Choose Life” slogan.
The Alliance Defending Freedom filed an appeal on Friday with the court on behalf of the speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Thom Tills, and the president pro tem of the North Carolina Senate, Phil Berger. The appeal comes after a three-judge panel with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the license places were unconstitutional.
The ADF says “state governments have the right to advance messages consistent with their public policies.” The Supreme Court, the ADF notes, has already affirmed that right in other cases.
The ACLU of North Carolina brought the initial suit against the plates because there were no pro-abortion license plates offered at the same time.
The “Choose Life” plates cost an extra $25, of which $15 goes to a pregnancy care fellowship that helps with pregnancy care centers in the state. If the ACLU is successful in removing the plates, thousands of women in North Carolina will be denied pregnancy care coverage because the ACLU is doing nothing to replace the funds that will be lost.
The virulent anti-Christian group Americans United for Separation of Church and State is again attempting to have a memorial removed because it has a cross in it.
A war memorial in King, North Carolina featured a Christian flag and a sculpture of a soldier kneeling before a cross. U.S. District Judge James A. Beaty ruled Tuesday there is sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial.
The “plaintiff” in the case is Steven Hewett, who is being represented by Americans United, who claims that the “King’s veterans’ memorial only honors Christian veterans.”
The Christian flag had been removed from the memorial in 2010 after the ACLU and Americans United both made threats against the city. The citizens of the community were outraged that organizations from outside the town were coming in to censor their free speech rights.
The flag was part of a lottery that the town held every year that allowed a veteran to choose what flag flew every week. Citizens United was angry that the majority of the time people chose to fly the Christian flag.
The American Legion as joined the case to defend the statue saying that the cross is a symbol of graves worldwide that thus it is not a violation of the Constitution.
Hurricane Arthur ripped through North Carolina overnight and is moving into the northeast as a weakened Category 1 storm.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Arthur’s maximum sustained winds have fallen to 90 miles per hour as the eye was located about 70 miles north of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Power companies say that at least 44,000 residents are without power across the Carolinas because of downed power lines and trees. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said storm damage evaluations would begin after the storm completely passed the state. Flooding was the governor’s major concern.
“We’re most concerned about flooding inland and also storm surges in our sounds and our rivers further inland,” he said.
Business owners in the region lamented the timing of the storm saying that it was a badly needed weekend for tourists. Business owners say because of storms they lost the last three straight fall tourism seasons and have struggled to stay open.
A Christian professor who was denied full professorship because of his conservative Christian beliefs has won a lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
Professor Mike Adams received the ruling against the University of North Carolina at Wilmington who refused to promote the associate criminology professor. The school has been ordered to pay over $700,000 in legal fees.
Professor Adams has been fighting the school in court for over eight years because of their discrimination. Adams, a former atheist that found Christ in 2000 and began to write a nationally syndicated column with conservative viewpoints, faced opposition from the liberal leaning leaders in his department.
Adams had received multiple awards for his teaching work and multiple accolades from colleagues.
Attorneys for the Alliance Defending Freedom said that the school is still appealing the case and that the costs could go even higher. They noted the judge’s ruling only covered the attorney’s fees in the case and that increased damage awards against the school could happen following the appeal.
The North Carolina House of Representatives has passed a bill that would protect the rights of students to express their religion along with allowing teachers and staff to voluntarily participate in student-led religious activities at schools.
The bill, SB370, was presented to the House after an elementary school student was banned from reading a self-written poem about her grandfather. The grandfather was a World War II veteran who often cited his prayers for protection as part of his stories of service. The school said the student could not mention God.
The bill states that students may “[e]xpress religious viewpoints in a public school to the same extent and under the same circumstances as a student is permitted to express viewpoints on nonreligious topics or subjects in the school.”
The bill also prohibits any teacher from issuing a bad grade to a student because they may not like a student’s religious beliefs. In addition, the bill includes protections for teachers and staff to be a part of student-led activities in schools that include religious worship.
“Local boards of education may not prohibit school personnel from participating in religious activities on school grounds that are initiated by students at reasonable times before or after the instructional day so long as such activities are voluntary for all parties and do not conflict with the responsibilities or assignments of such personnel,” the bill states.
The ACLU has taken issue with the bill.
The bill is expected to be approved by the Senate.
A piece of artwork called Homeless Jesus that features an image of Jesus lying on a park bench covered in a blanket is drawing outrage from some residents in Davidson, North Carolina.
The sculpture in front of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church was created by the artist as “a representation that suggests Christ is with the most marginalized in our society.” The artwork shows a part of Christ’s face but shows his entire nail-scarred feet.
The sculpture is a duplicate of a piece on display in Vatican City that was blessed by Pope Francis. Reverend Dr. David Buck, rector of St. Alban’s, said the artwork is beautiful and reminds Christians their ultimate calling is to do what they can individually to take care of those in need of shelter, food and clothing.
However, some residents of the area are upset with the Sculpture.
One woman, Cindy Castano Swannack, called police when she drove past it the first time thinking a homeless person was lying on a bench in her neighborhood.
“My complaint is not about the art-worthiness of meaning behind the sculpture,” Davidson resident Jerry Dawson wrote in a letter to the editor. “It is about people driving into our beautiful, reasonably upscale neighborhood and seeing an ugly homeless person sleeping on a park bench.”
The church says they will not remove the sculpture.