In a 9-0 decision, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the punishment of florist Barronelle Stutzman, who was fined last year for declining to participate in a same-sex "wedding" ceremony.
A three-person panel of commissioners from the Illinois Human Rights Commission has decided not to review the decision to punish Christian bed and breakfast owner Jim Walder. Last spring, Judge Michael Robinson fined Walder more than $80,000 for refusing to rent out his facilities for a same-sex ceremony.
Barronelle Stutzman had her day in court. Accused of violating the state’s law against discrimination for declining to decorate for a same-sex "wedding," yesteday Mrs. Stutzman went to the Washington State Supreme Court to argue that the First Amendment protects her right to decide the kind of messages she supports with her art. A crowd of approximately five hundred people showed up to support Mrs. Stutzman. The crowd filled the three-hundred person auditorium and two overflow rooms at Bellevue Community College, where the arguments were held.
Today, the Court of the Judiciary (COJ) issued a decision on the charges against Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, suspending him without pay for the remainder of his term, which runs through January 2019. When his term expires, he will be ineligible to run for election as judge again because of his age. So the suspension until the end of his term is a de facto removal from the bench.
The lawyer representing suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said Thursday that the Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) has hired John Carroll to be the prosecutor in Moore's ethics case. Carroll is the former legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the same group which filed the ethics complaints against Moore to the JIC. "I have almost no words for this corrupt and unjust system," Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, which represents Chief Justice Moore, stated in a press release.
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has been charged with violating judicial ethics and suspended from office. His crime? Telling Alabama probate judges to follow the Constitution and not issue any marriage licenses to same-sex couples, notwithstanding federal court opinions to the contrary. "The Judicial Inquiry Commission has no authority over the administrative orders of the chief justice of Alabama or the legal injunctions of the Alabama Supreme Court prohibiting probate judges from issuing same-sex marriage licenses," Moore said.
The Colorado Supreme Court will not review the case of a Denver-area cake artist ordered by the state government to bake and decorate cakes to celebrate same-sex "marriages." Lawyers for Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., said they are evaluating his legal options. In 2012, Phillips declined to bake a cake celebrating the same-sex "wedding" of Charlie Craig and David Mullins, who then filed a discrimination complaint against him.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore on Wednesday said that complaints against him brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center to the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama are politically motivated. "This is not about any wrongdoing I’ve done, this is not about ethics, this is about marriage," Chief Justice Moore said. "And it’s about my legal judgments I’ve issued in administrative orders, which is in my capacity as chief justice to issue. This is about legalism, it’s about what the law is."
The Oregon bakers who were ordered to pay $135,000 for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex "wedding" filed a brief with the Oregon Court of Appeals on Monday, arguing the ruling against them was biased and violates both the Oregon and U.S. constitutions. The Kleins maintain that they did not decline to serve the cake due to sexual orientation—but only because of their Christian beliefs about marriage.
A Christian couple in rural Illinois say they will never host same-sex "marriages" or civil unions at their bed and breakfast, after being forced to pay $80,000 in damages to a same-sex couple they turned away in 2011. Jim and Beth Walder, the owners of TimberCreek B&B, issued a statement that says, in part, "We cannot host a same-sex wedding even though fines and penalties have been imposed by the Illinois Human Rights Commission. Our policy will not be changing."
An Illinois inn that refused to allow a same-sex couple hold their civil union ceremony on the property was fined more than $80,000 by the Illinois Human Rights Commission on Tuesday. An administrative law judge with the commission ordered TimberCreek Bed & Breakfast to pay $15,000 each to Todd Wathen and Mark Wathen for "emotional distress." TimberCreek, located about 100 miles south of Chicago, must also pay $50,000 in attorneys' fees and $1,218.35 in costs.
A Christian magistrate in the UK was removed from his position after he appeared on TV discussing adoption by homosexual couples. Richard Page JP was interviewed on BBC Breakfast earlier this week by the BBC. He was featured on the program because he'd previously refused to agree that placing a child for adoption with a same sex couple was in the child's "best interests."
A Christian postgraduate student in the UK has been expelled from Sheffield University for voicing opposition to "gay marriage." In a Facebook discussion, Felix Ngole expressed support for Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, quoting a verse from Leviticus which calls homosexuality an abomination. Two months later, a university panel concluded that Ngole's comment "may have caused offence to some individuals" and decided to expel him.
A small town bakery owned by a Edie and David Delorme is receiving threats after declining to bake a "wedding" cake for a same-sex couple. On Feb. 17th, Ben Valencia and Luis Marmolejo requested the bakers make a cake for their upcoming "wedding." When their order was turned down, the two men went public — accusing the Delorme family of discrimination. So far, no formal charges or complaints have been filed against the bakery owners.
The Christian family at the center of the same-sex "marriage" cake suit have said they will take "strength from God" after being forced to wait another four months to fight their case. A High Court appeal by the owners of Ashers Baking Company, who were fined for discrimination, was brought to a halt yesterday after a last-minute intervention by the Attorney General, who raised questions over Northern Ireland's equality legislation.
A high profile appeal by Christian bakers who were fined for declining to bake a pro-"gay marriage" cake has been dramatically halted to facilitate an intervention by Northern Ireland's top legal adviser. Attorney General John Larkin QC has made a last-minute request to make representation in the case about any potential conflict between the region's equality legislation and European human rights laws.
The appeal of Ashers bakery is due to begin in Northern Ireland this week. The business was fined £500 last year for declining to provide a cake bearing a pro-"gay marriage" slogan for a customer. "At one stage the [the Equality Commission] said that if we apologized formally for our actions it would go away," General Manager Daniel McArthur said. "But why should we apologize to the commission about that as we felt we did not do anything wrong?"
The owners of a wedding venue in New York who were fined $13,000 fro refusing to host a lesbian "wedding" had their appeal rejected by a state court on Thursday. Robert and Cynthia Gifford cited their conservative Christian beliefs in refusing to host the 2013 "wedding" of two women at Liberty Ridge Farm. They appealed a ruling from the state's Division of Human Rights, asserting their rights to free speech and religious exercise.
The owners of an Oregon bakery who denied service to a same-sex couple have paid more than $135,000 in state-ordered damages – months after refusing to do so – according to state officials. Tyler Smith, an attorney representing Aaron and Melissa Klein, said his clients have not abandoned their appeal. Smith said it was in his clients’ best interests to pay now rather than wait for the appeal date, which is slated for next year.
Homosexuality won’t be referred to as a sin anymore at the Jan Evans Juvenile Justice Center in Reno, Nevada. The Washoe County juvenile detention center said it will now offer more "tolerant" Sunday services and Bible classes after parting ways with its longtime chaplain, Marvin Neal. Neal was terminated for reading Scripture passages that label homosexuality as a sin. A new chaplain is undergoing a background check.
The cave-in at the major Boston Harvard-affiliated hospital is complete. The Board of Directors of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has formally notified Dr. Paul Church that they are upholding his expulsion from the hospital and that his medical privileges there are terminated. His crime? Voicing both medical and moral concerns to his colleagues about the hospital’s aggressive promotion of pro-homosexual activities.
The operators of a well-known agro-tourism farm in the state of New York were in court Monday, appealing a fine by the state Human Rights Commission for their refusal to perform a "wedding" for a same-sex couple. Melisa McCarthy and Jenny McCarthy were turned away by the owners of Liberty Ridge in 2012. Last year, the Human Rights Commission fined the venue $13,000 — $10,000 to the state and $1,500 to each partner.
At the urging of Senate leader David Long, Indiana Senate Republicans decided last week to ban Sen. Jim Smith from future GOP caucus meetings and to require him to sit with Democrats in the Senate chamber. Smith was punished for exposing a bill that had yet to be revealed in a Nov. 5 Facebook post. In the post, Smith wrote, “The Indiana senate republican leadership is pushing a homosexual civil rights bill … What do you think?”
A lawsuit is headed to trial that claims Gov. Bobby Jindal violated the state constitution by issuing an executive order barring Louisiana from denying or revoking tax exemptions and deductions, contracts and other pacts based on a person’s opposition to same-sex "marriage." State District Judge Todd Hernandez refused Wednesday to throw out the suit filed in Baton Rouge by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Louisiana.
The two male "parents" of a six-year-old little girl told employees at the Childrens’ Lighthouse Learning Center in Katy, Texas to refer to their daughter as a "boy," and to call her by a new masculine name. The little girl’s hair had also been cut like a boy’s. Upon refusing to aid in the gender distortion, Madeline Kirksey and one other worker were fired.