Latest news with #ACLUof
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawsuit filed over Arkansas Ten Commandments in classrooms law
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Families of students at some school districts in northwest Arkansas are suing over Act 573 of 2025, a law mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms. The plaintiffs come from diverse backgrounds, some of which are very religious, while others are not, but all argue that the law is unconstitutional. Ten Commandments, 'In God We Trust' in classrooms is now Arkansas law When school starts, the Ten Commandments are to be displayed in classrooms across the state. However, the lawsuit seeks to stop the law from taking effect. John Williams, legal director for the ACLU of Arkansas, said the plaintiffs believe the law violates the U.S. Constitution. 'We think that by posting a religious document for students to view every day when they're in school, that that is an establishment of a preferred religion, and that's against the Establishment Clause,' Williams said. Williams also said the law violates the free exercise of religion. USDA approves Arkansas Gov. Sanders' waiver to ban soda, candy from SNAP Jerry Cox, executive director of the conservative Family Council, supports the law. 'We think that this is a very good law; the purpose of school is to teach young people good values and to teach them about our history,' Cox said. Cox says that the Ten Commandments are also historical and foundational to Western civilization. 'I think it's undeniable that the Ten Commandments formed the basis for all Western civilization, our laws, our morals, our society,' Cox said. Williams disagreed, emphasizing the religious nature of the commandments. 'Ten Commandments are not really a basis for law in the United States,' he said. Cox noted that the commandments are already displayed in various public places. 'We display the Ten Commandments in a lot of public places. They're over there on the grounds of the Capitol, you can find them at the U.S. Supreme Court,' he said. Lawsuit filed to halt Arkansas law putting 10 Commandments in classrooms The law is scheduled to take effect Aug. 5, before the new school year begins. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawyers look to have Trump dropped from NH transgender sports ban lawsuit
Attorneys for the Trump administration have filed a motion seeking to be dropped from a lawsuit filed by two transgender teens fighting a New Hampshire law and a presidential executive order banning them from playing girls school sports. The families of Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 14, and the civil rights advocates representing them filed a motion in February in U.S. District Court in Concord to expand their lawsuit to challenge President Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender athletes from playing in girls and women's sports. In a motion filed Friday, Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Lawson argued attorneys for Tirrell and Turmelle — following months of litigation challenging state law — are now attempting to 'drag the federal government into a lawsuit well under way not because of any imminent injury, but because of a generalized grievance with policies set by the President of the United States.' GLAD Law and the ACLU of New Hampshire are representing Tirrell and Turmelle, who sued state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, members of the State Board of Education and the students' respective school districts in August. The case challenges HB 1205, also known as the 'Fairness in Women's Sports Act,' signed into law last July. The law requires athletes in grades 5-12 to play on interscholastic or club teams matching the sex on their birth certificates. In September, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Landya McCafferty blocked enforcement of the law while it is being challenged in court. Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 5 called 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' to bar transgender girls and women from playing in girls and women's sports. Just two days after attorneys for Tirrell and Turmelle filed their motion to add Trump as a defendant in their lawsuit, the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association told schools to abide by the order, saying in a news release that noncompliance could lead to 'possible consequences to federal funding.' In the motion filed Friday, Lawson argued attorneys for Tirrell and Turmelle failed to claim the federal defendants have taken 'a single action' to implement the executive order against the plaintiffs, the plaintiffs' schools, or 'even in the state of New Hampshire.' 'What's worse, plaintiffs' attempts to rope the federal defendants into this case are based on flawed understanding of Equal Protection law' and separation of powers, the motion states. 'Plaintiffs lack constitutional standing and their stated speculative risk of future injury is not close to imminent and may never become ripe,' Lawson argued in his motion. The motion asks the judge to dismiss the claims against Trump, the justice and education departments and department heads. 'Plaintiffs assert a Fifth Amendment equal protection claim alleging that the 'Sports Order' impermissibly discriminates 'on the basis of sex,'' Lawson wrote, adding the plaintiffs also argued the order discriminates based on 'transgender status.' 'The Sports Order simply reaffirms that males and females are not similarly situated when it comes to sports,' Lawson wrote. 'The Supreme Court recognizes that 'differences between men and women' are 'enduring' and thus sex is not an inherently 'proscribed classification.' The biological differences between the sexes make them dissimilarly situated in sports, with males having a distinct physical advantage.'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Federal judge extends block on Idaho gender-affirming care ban in prisons
Protestors on April 2, 2024, dropped 48,000 handmade hearts — meant to represent LGBTQ Idahoans, in protest of anti-LGBTQ legislation — down the rotunda of the Idaho State Capitol Building. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun) A federal judge extended a temporary legal block, preventing Idaho from enforcing a new law that would block people in prisons from accessing state-funded gender-affirming health care. Judge David Nye last week extended a preliminary injunction blocking Idaho from enforcing the 2024 state law for all people in Idaho prisons diagnosed with gender dysphoria and receiving hormone therapy. The Idaho Legislature in 2024 passed the law through House Bill 668. Nye has blocked the law from being enforced against people in Idaho prisons in response to a lawsuit brought by ACLU of Idaho. Around 60 to 70 patients in Idaho Department of Correction custody have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, according to documents released in the lawsuit last year. Idaho's law 'clearly violates Idahoans' Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment by denying access to standard, life-saving health care,' ACLU of Idaho Legal Director Paul Southwick told the Idaho Capital Sun in a statement. 'Everyone deserves bodily autonomy and access to necessary medical care, regardless of their gender or incarceration status.' The judicial blocks only last 90 days under limits by federal law. Boise State Public Radio first reported on the extended legal block. The Idaho Attorney General's Office could not be immediately reached for comment. Separately, a federal judge recently blocked federal prisons from enforcing an executive order by President Donald Trump that would've blocked gender-affirming care for people incarcerated in federal prison who have gender dysphoria, Bloomberg Law reported. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Robison et al. v. Labrador prelminary injunction ruling 6-2-25
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Transgender teens challenge Kansas law banning gender-affirming care for minors
Two transgender teenagers and their parents are challenging a Kansas law banning gender-affirming care for minors, arguing the measure violates the state constitution and 'is actively harming Kansas families' in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a state district court. Kansas's Senate Bill 63 prohibits health care providers from administering treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries to minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria, characterized by a severe psychological distress that stems from a mismatch between a person's gender identity and sex at birth. The bill, passed by the state Legislature in January, includes exceptions for minors born with 'a medically verifiable disorder of sex development.' Health care providers who break the law, which also targets social transition, face civil penalties and may be stripped of their license. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Kansas filed Wednesday's challenge in Douglas County District Court pseudonymously on behalf of plaintiffs Lily Loe, 13, Ryan Roe, 16, and their mothers, Lisa Loe and Rebecca Roe. The two children 'have been thriving since they started receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy,' the lawsuit states, 'but now their trusted doctors in Kansas can no longer help them, and they are at risk of unimaginable suffering.' For their parents, Senate Bill 63 'impermissibly infringes on the fundamental right to the care, custody, and control of their children,' the lawsuit says, 'by displacing their medical decision-making authority with a government mandate, even when they, their adolescent children, and medical providers are all aligned.' Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach, who is named in the lawsuit, did not immediately return a request for comment. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill in February for the third time in as many years, though her veto ultimately did not stand. 'It is disappointing that the Legislature continues to push for government interference in Kansans' private medical decisions instead of focusing on issues that improve all Kansans' lives,' Kelly said in a statement at the time. 'Infringing on parental rights is not appropriate, nor is it a Kansas value. As I've said before, it is not the job of politicians to stand between a parent and a child who needs medical care of any kind.' The state's Republican-led Legislature overrode Kelly's veto the following week. Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson (R) and House Speaker Dan Hawkins (R) said they voted to override the governor's action 'in honor of the children Governor Kelly failed to protect with her repeated vetoes of this sensible legislation.' The ACLU and the ACLU of Kansas are seeking an injunction to block enforcement of the law while the case moves forward. 'Our clients and every Kansan should have the freedom to make their own private medical decisions and consult with their doctors without the intrusion of Kansas politicians,' said D.C. Hiegert, civil liberties legal fellow for the ACLU of Kansas. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
28-05-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Transgender teens challenge Kansas law banning gender-affirming care for minors
Two transgender teenagers and their parents are challenging a Kansas law banning gender-affirming care for minors, arguing the measure violates the state constitution and 'is actively harming Kansas families' in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a state district court. Kansas's Senate Bill 63 prohibits health care providers from administering treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries to minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria, characterized by a severe psychological distress that stems from a mismatch between a person's gender identity and sex at birth. The bill, passed by the state Legislature in January, includes exceptions for minors born with 'a medically verifiable disorder of sex development.' Health care providers who break the law, which also targets social transition, face civil penalties and may be stripped of their license. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Kansas filed Wednesday's challenge in Douglas County District Court pseudonymously on behalf of plaintiffs Lily Loe, 13, Ryan Roe, 16, and their mothers, Lisa Loe and Rebecca Roe. The two children 'have been thriving since they started receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy,' the lawsuit states, 'but now their trusted doctors in Kansas can no longer help them, and they are at risk of unimaginable suffering.' For their parents, Senate Bill 63 'impermissibly infringes on the fundamental right to the care, custody, and control of their children,' the lawsuit says, 'by displacing their medical decision-making authority with a government mandate, even when they, their adolescent children, and medical providers are all aligned.' Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach, who is named in the lawsuit, did not immediately return a request for comment. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill in February for the third time in as many years, though her veto ultimately did not stand. 'It is disappointing that the Legislature continues to push for government interference in Kansans' private medical decisions instead of focusing on issues that improve all Kansans' lives,' Kelly said in a statement at the time. 'Infringing on parental rights is not appropriate, nor is it a Kansas value. As I've said before, it is not the job of politicians to stand between a parent and a child who needs medical care of any kind.' The state's Republican-led Legislature overrode Kelly's veto the following week. Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson (R) and House Speaker Dan Hawkins (R) said they voted to override the governor's action 'in honor of the children Governor Kelly failed to protect with her repeated vetoes of this sensible legislation.' The ACLU and the ACLU of Kansas are seeking an injunction to block enforcement of the law while the case moves forward. 'Our clients and every Kansan should have the freedom to make their own private medical decisions and consult with their doctors without the intrusion of Kansas politicians,' said D.C. Hiegert, civil liberties legal fellow for the ACLU of Kansas.
