In today’s News:
Oregon’s governor challenged for religious discrimination
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a private, religious K-12 Oregon school filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday against Gov. Katherine Brown to challenge her order threatening private schools with 30 days jail time and $1,250 fines for reopening in-person instruction, despite allowing public schools of identical size in the same county permission to resume in-person classes. After nearly two months of advising that Hermiston Christian School could provide in-person instruction to the 51 students enrolled in its K-12 program, Brown reversed course and, on July 29, ordered private schools in Umatilla County and elsewhere to remain closed while offering exemptions to public schools with 75 or fewer students. On the same day Brown extended the prohibition of in-person instruction to private schools, a spokesperson for the governor expressed a desire to prevent a “mass exodus” from public schools and emphasized that public schools could suffer a reduction in funding if students disenrolled to obtain education elsewhere.
College changes its athletic policy
Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire decided to rescind its transgender sports participation and inclusion policy as it was being investigated for Title IX violations, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said Friday. The private university “will rescind its transgender participation and inclusion policy and will cease any and all practices related thereto,” Mario Diaz, general counsel for the DOE’s OCR, said in a letter Friday, noting that the university requested to resolve the matter before the investigation was completed. The OCR was investigating whether the university “denies female student-athletes equal athletic benefits and opportunities by permitting transgender athletes to participate in women’s intercollegiate athletic teams.” a civil rights complaint had been filed against the university last year from the public policy organization Concerned Women for America.
Court upholds safety requirements for abortion centers
Abortion groups in Kentucky are challenging the life-saving 1998 law, claiming it imposes an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to abortion. Planned Parenthood and EMW Women’s Surgical Center have argued that they may have to close because they cannot meet the safety requirement, thus preventing women in Kentucky from getting abortions. According to Reason, the Sixth Circuit panel disagreed with the abortion groups’ argument and reversed a lower court ruling blocking the state from enforcing the law. In the majority opinion, Judge Joan Larsen wrote that the abortion facilities did not prove that they would be forced to close, The Hill reports. She pointed to a 90-day waiver in the law that allows abortion facilities to operate temporarily until they fulfill the safety requirement. Because of the ruling, Planned Parenthood and EMW, the only two abortion facilities in the state, will have to either enter agreements with local hospitals, apply for waivers or close.
