CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

Do not desire to fit in. Desire to oblige yourselves to lead."

      — Gwendolyn Brooks


Saturday, August 25, 2007

First Amendment claim of Bible club rejected

Students at a high school attempted to found a Bible club, but were not allowed to. The students initiated a lawsuit according to section 1983 for violation of their First Amendment rights. Equal Access Act did not require school district to charter Bible club where its proposed charter would have, in violation of district policy, limited full membership to students willing to sign a “statement of faith” professing belief that “the Bible [is] the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God,” that “salvation is an undeserved gift from God,” and that only by “acceptance of Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, through His death on the cross for my sins, is my faith made real.” District policy barring chartered clubs from discriminating in membership on the basis of religion did not violate potential members’ First Amendment rights to freedom of association and free exercise of religion, nor does it constitute an establishment of religion or violate the Equal Protection Clause.

Gallery Items

http://www.mcmillanlaw.us/wsn/gallery/link.php?id=9

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Supreme court in Perez-Torres v. State of California rules against immunity for holding innocent prisoners.

On August 16, 2007, the California Supreme court ruled that state defendants and agency were not immune from suit after where state defendants conduct in keeping plaintiff in jail after they knew or should have known that he was the wrong man. The decision to hold the prisoner was outside the statutory immunity, making it subject to legal redress on the question of negligence by the state.  The message is where a jailor knows that the prisoner should not be in incarcerated, there is no immunity in continuing to hold that prisoner.

Gallery Items

http://www.mcmillanlaw.us/wsn/gallery/link.php?id=12