Judge Rules Michigan City Cannot Ban Catholic Farmer’s Market Vendor for Refusing to Host Same-Sex Weddings

A federal judge ruled Monday that the city of East Lansing, Michigan, cannot prohibit a local Catholic businessman from participating in a farmer’s market because it violates his faith beliefs to host same-sex weddings on his farm’s property.

In his opinion in Country Mill Farms, LLC v. City of East Lansing, Judge Paul Maloney of U.S. District Court Western District of Michigan, Southern Division, ruled, “The City has not established that the decision to deny CMF [Country Mill Farms] a vendor license is narrowly tailored to meet a compelling government interest.”

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National Pro-Life Group Sues Vermont for ‘Unconstitutional Attack’ Against Pregnancy Care Centers

The National Institute for Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), in conjunction with two Vermont pregnancy centers and their attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), have filed a complaint against the state of Vermont “for the unconstitutional attack launched against pregnancy centers in the state” resulting from a law that “suppresses the free-speech rights of faith-based pregnancy centers,” ADF said in a press release.

ADF attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday that describes the case as “a challenge by pro-life pregnancy services centers and their membership organization to a state law that unconstitutionally restricts the centers’ speech and provision of services.”

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Female Athletes Ask to Make Their Case over Policy Allowing Biological Males to Compete in Women’s Sports

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit heard arguments Tuesday in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools in which four female athletes assert that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s (CIAC) policy that allows males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions based on gender identity not only “create[s] an unfair playing field for female athletes,” but also “reverses nearly 50 years of athletic advances for women.”

Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Ashley Nicoletti – all dedicated elite athletes from Connecticut – have all trained hard “for the personal satisfaction of victory, an opportunity to participate in state and regional meets, and a chance to earn a college scholarship,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), their legal representatives.

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Court Rejects Massachusetts Middle-Schooler’s Free Speech Request to Wear ‘Two Genders’ Shirt at School

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston denied 12-year-old Liam Morrison’s request this week for a temporary injunction or restraining order to block his school from prohibiting expression of his view that “there are only two genders” before the court issues its final decision. “MFI [Massachusetts Family Institute] recently filed suit to vindicate the rights of this brave Middleborough 7th-grader to wear a shirt to school that simply stated ‘There Are Only Two Genders,’” the pro-family organization said in a press statement sent to The Star News Network. “After being censored by his school, Liam’s case went viral. MFI has partnered with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to file a federal lawsuit against the school.”

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National Pro-Life Group Praises Ruling Suspending FDA’s ‘Rubber Stamp’ of Abortion Drug as Democrat-Led States Stockpile Pills

One of the nation’s leading pro-life organizations is praising the ruling out of a U.S. district court in Texas Friday that has stayed the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion drug mifepristone nationwide.

However, within hours of the ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee, a Washington State federal judge then issued a decision in State of Washington v. United States Food and Drug Administration, which blocked “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone.”

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Lawsuit: Oregon State Officials Deny Woman’s Adoption Application Because of Her Christian Religious Beliefs

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit last week against the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) on behalf of a woman whose application to adopt siblings from foster care was denied because her Christian faith beliefs do not allow her to agree to support the “sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression” of children placed in her home.

“Oregon’s policy amounts to an ideological litmus test: people who hold secular or ‘progressive’ views on sexual orientation and gender identity are eligible to participate in child welfare programs, while people of faith with religiously informed views are disqualified because they don’t agree with the state’s orthodoxy,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs, who runs the ADF Center for Conscience Initiatives.

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