Pastors Disrupt D.C.!

Dear Friends, If you follow us on Facebook and receive our Advocates In Action emails, you’ve heard about my recent trip to Washington, D.C.  Advocates for Faith & Freedom was honored to be a sponsor of Church United’s Awakening Tour for California pastors.

Church United’s founder, Pastor Jim Domen, admits his purpose is to “disrupt” California pastors and bring a revival to the churches of California. And I believe a sense of revival is about to happen!

Over 150 pastors and influential church leaders from across the state came together in May to accept the challenge to pray for our politicians, pray for revival and to respond to the spiritual issues that threaten our communities.  At least 28 of these pastors are affiliated with Advocates for Faith & Freedom’s ministry!

Everyone prayed for an awakening in the Church!

Church United arranged for most pastors to meet with their own congressional representatives to pray with them and for them.  Most of the politicians were extremely encouraged by their visit from the pastors. God definitely had His hand in the connection made between the pastors and their elected officials!

The pastors were encouraged by so many Christian congressmen and senators who boldly warned that revival won’t come from Washington D.C., but will be flamed in our local churches. After all, California is the birthplace of some of our most significant revivals like Azusa Street and the Calvary Chapel “Jesus People” movement.  The pastors came in unity from the inner-city to the suburbs, from democrat to republican, from orthodox to charismatic, from rich to poor. It was an amazing symbol of a “church united” in the heart of our Nation’s capital.

U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, House of Representatives Leader Kevin McCarthy, Freedom Caucus Chairman Congressman Mark Meadows, Congressman Mike Johnson, CA State Senator Mike Morrell, and many more spoke with a conviction that called on these pastors to find the courage to speak from the pulpit and the public square with faith and without fear! All Believers, some were even former pastors who said they never aspired to run for public office, but seeing the decline of our country’s religious and moral character, they are now giving a voice to America’s Christians who feel they’ve been forgotten by their government.

I was blessed to have had the opportunity to share with these pastors about Advocates for Faith & Freedom’s ministry. Simply put, we exist to defend their First Amendment right to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, inspired by the hope of revival and the unity they shared, here is what these pastors had to say…

So, what can you do to help inspire this united message of hope for California and our country? Please pass this newsletter on to your own pastors and encourage them to contact us about attending the next Pastors’ Awakening Tour in Washington, D.C. You can also contact Church United directly at www.churchunited.com.

As Advocates for Faith & Freedom continues our fight in the courts for you and your church’s right to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, won’t you partner with us with your prayers of support? And won’t you consider sending a tax-deductible gift of $25, $100, $250 or more?

Thank you for your generous support, which allows us to continue our ministry in law and our partnership with other ministries like Church United!

They Sued Chino Valley Unified for Freedom of Religion! Really?

We filed a major brief on April 26, 2017 in the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeal in our defense of Chino Valley Unified School District and its longstanding policy that allows an opening prayer before its public school board meetings. The School District became the target of a federal lawsuit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an aggressive, anti-religion organization based in Wisconsin.

After losing in the lower court, the School Board approached our lawyers to take over their defense.  Our lawyers at Tyler & Bursch now represent the School District in the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeal. Advocates for Faith & Freedom is raising the funds to underwrite this very expensive and nationally significant case and we need your financial support.

Would you partner with Advocates for Faith & Freedom with your tax-deductable donation for our pro-bono defense of the School District?

This case is so important that we asked some of our friends and colleagues to file amicus briefs/friend of the court briefs. Jay Sekelow of American Center for Law and Justice, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, and Freedom, Law and Religious Practitioners have all filed supporting briefs. Many more are likely to be filed.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation claims that the School District’s policy of allowing prayer before its public board meetings violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Without your support and our strategic defense, the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s radical view of the First Amendment will become the law of the land.

The lower court initially sided with the Freedom From Religion Foundation and ordered the School District to stop the invocations before board meetings. Our appeal seeks to reverse the lower court.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled 5-4 in Town of Greece v. Galloway that opening City Council meetings with prayer does

not violate the Establishment Clause, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The U.S. Supreme Court also held that legislative prayer is considered to have “historical precedent” and “lends gravity to public business, reminds lawmakers to transcend petty differences in pursuit of a higher purpose, and expresses a common aspiration to a just and peaceful society.”

Because of your enormous outpouring of prayers and generous financial support, I think it’s important to share more excerpts from our brief, so you can read what was actually cited and submitted to the court. You can also view our entire 70 page brief. Here are a few excerpts from our brief:

The prayers offered at the start of the Board of Education meetings were constitutionally permissible, legislative prayers under Marsh and Town of Greece. The District Court held that the Marsh/Town of Greece legislative prayer exception does not apply to school boards…. The district court erred. The line of cases concerning prayers at school do not apply to opening prayers at the Board of Education meetings because those prayers are constitutionally permissible legislative-prayers.

. . . .

           The Legislative prayer exception was established for State Legislatures and “other deliberative bodies”. These “ceremonial” prayers were simply a “recognition that, since this Nation was founded and until the present day, many Americans deem that their own existence must be understood by precepts far beyond the authority of government to alter or define. . . .”

. . . .

The Supreme Court extended the Legislative prayer exception to local legislative bodies. “In Marsh, the Nebraska state legislature opened each session with a prayer. Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 784-85 (1983). A citizen sued, claiming the practice violated the Establishment Clause. Id. at 785. Relying on the “deeply embedded” history and tradition of our country, the Supreme Court held that the practice of allowing opening prayers for a legislative body or “other deliberative public bodies” did not violate the Establishment Clause. Id. at 786, 795. Indeed, the Court found that the Framers of the Constitution “did not consider opening prayers as a proselytizing activity or as symbolically placing the government’s official seal of approval on one religious view. . . . Rather, the Founding Fathers looked at invocations as ‘conduct whose . . . effect . . . harmonized with the tenets of some or all religions.” Id. at 792 (quoting McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 442 (1961).)”

. . . .

“The Supreme Court in Marsh and Town of Greece found that prayers before deliberative public bodies are Constitutional legislative prayers to which the traditional Lemon test [a three-part test  put  forward  in  Lemon v. Kurtzman which is used to assess whether a law violates the Establishment Clause] does not apply.”

. . . .

“The Fifth Circuit recently held that prayers delivered by elementary and middle school students during the ceremonial portion of school board meetings do not violate the Establishment Clause. The Fifth Circuit reasoned that school boards are deliberative public bodies to which the legislative prayer exception applies.” At the strategic guidance of Tyler & Bursch’s lawyers, the Chino Valley Unified School District board members have wisely agreed to amend its policies to restrict some of the more controversial comments of board members during public meetings and to focus this appeal solely on the constitutionality of allowing a ceremonial prayer at the beginning of school board meetings.

We are confident that we will prevail with the appeal, whether at the Ninth Circuit or before the U.S. Supreme Court. We’re fighting for invocations; something that’s been going on since the founding of our country. That is why this case is of utmost importance to religious liberty in our country.

There is no other country in the world whose morals and laws are influenced more by Christian values than ours. But, those principles are being silenced by extreme groups like Freedom From Religion Foundation.

As always, Tyler & Bursch and Advocates for Faith & Freedom offer our services pro bono in protecting religious liberty in order to confront these anti-Christian organizations.

If you are able, your tax-deductable gift to Advocates for Faith & Freedom for $25, $50, $100 …or more, will allow us to continue to fight these court battles and ensure we remain free to believe, worship, and pray in this “one nation under God.” God bless you for your generosity, your faithfulness, and your prayers.

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Legal Update

• Also known as Go Mobile For Life, The Scharpen Foundation is challenging Xavier Becerra, Attorney General of California on California’s "Reproductive FACT Act" which compels Christian-based, pro-life clinics to post a notice advising the women they serve that free or low cost abortions are available, along with where they can be obtained and a phone number. The judge in this case is expected to issue a preliminary written decision any day now and we look forward to presenting our evidence in a full trial to prove discrimination of pro-life clinics statewide. Through litigation, we have uncovered covert discrimination. The law purports to apply to thousands of licensed medical clinics. But after exemptions, it really only applies to approximately 82 pro-life organizations!

• In a unique, two-pronged strategy, as Advocates for Faith & Freedom argues for the Scharpen Foundation in Superior Court, we are concurrently awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Living Well Medical Clinic case (sister case to Scharpen) as to whether the High Court will accept our federal case for review, challenging California’s anti-life law.

• If you’ll remember, in the free speech VICTORY of Mackey v. Meyer, three federal appellate judges in the Ninth Circuit issued a final ruling in favor of a Christian man who was unlawfully arrested for reading the Bible aloud in front of the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Having won our appeal in the Ninth Circuit, the CHP settled and agreed to pay $10,000 to our client! We will now file a motion to recover attorney fees to support future cases.  
• Instead of making a final ruling in April on the religious land use case of Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship County of Riverside the U.S. District court hearing resulted in the judge asking both sides to submit additional briefing on specific issues. Based on the oral arguments at the April hearing, we’re optimistic that we will persuade the judge to rule in our favor at our final hearing in August, and that he will find that Riverside County’s zoning ordinance unlawfully discriminates against churches.

• Church United, an organization whose purpose is to reach California pastors with the message to be bold in proclaiming a Biblical worldview to their congregations, has invited me to join them along with 170 plus pastors on their fully-sponsored trip to Washington, DC. Our goal is to encourage and support those courageous pastors who no longer wish to stay silent about the moral and ethical issues facing our culture today.

Can California Ban Moral Standards of Religious Employers? They're Trying!

Should a church be allowed to remove a high school youth pastor from his position if he coerced his pregnant girlfriend to get an abortion? What if the youth pastor was female, pregnant and unmarried? Today, church leaders have the ability to take the appropriate employment action that they believe is best in that situation. I suspect that you agree that the First Amendment protects the church’s right to make the best decision that the leaders see fit for that particular situation based on their religious beliefs.

But the California Legislature will soon decide whether the church is capable of making the right decision. If passed, AB 569 would outlaw the right of religious organizations, including churches, pro-life organizations, non-profits and Christian colleges to maintain employment standards regarding “reproductive health.” These are just liberal code words for abortion and birth control.

What if a Catholic nun became pregnant by a priest and later had a partial birth abortion? Will the California legislature really have the nerve to tell the Catholic Church that the church has no ability to take appropriate disciplinary action?

Assembly Bill 569 stomps on religious freedom by forbidding religious organizations from requiring that their employees maintain the moral standards taught by the individual organization.

We will certainly oppose the legislation and encourage you to do the same.

ACTION ITEM: It is absolutely vital that members of the Assembly hear your concerns. To see if your Assemblymember is on the committee, click here. To find your Assemblymember and contact information, click here.

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         At the end of February, I was invited by Jim Domen of Church United, to participate in a briefing with pastors at the California State Capitol. We met with numerous politicians to pray with them in the Capitol Building. I was honored to have the opportunity to provide a legal briefing and to encourage the pastors to engage in today’s culture.

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Litigation Update           Reproductive Fact Act Lawsuit: You may recall that we are aggressively challenging this abusive law that requires pro-life licensed medical clinics to post a notice to patients in the waiting room or in the clinic’s intake paperwork. The notice states that free and low cost family planning services and abortions are available by calling a particular phone number. Last week, along with our co-counsel at the ACLJ, we filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to accept our case for review after the Ninth Circuit ruled that forcing this speech on pro-life organizations is not unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, on April 6, 2017, we will be in the California State Superior Court where we are taking a second strategic path of litigation against the California Attorney General’s Office. We have uncovered important evidence that will help us prove discrimination by exempting most all other that the State engaged in viewpoint licensed clinics from the law. Our case will either be dismissed by the court or set for trial. Please pray that we receive a fair hearing and favor before the state court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Our cost of litigating these cases are significant and we urgently need your support so that we can continue to battle to protect the unborn and our First Amendment right to free speech and free exercise of religion - all in the same litigation.

Religious Liberty Conference in Zambia

As a faith-based religious liberty legal firm, we take Scripture to heart: “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 ESV). As I discovered over the holiday, Samaria needs us. My family and I were privileged to travel to Zambia to work at the Breath of Heaven Orphanage with the children and their school teachers. I  participated in a  pastor’s  conference  on religious liberty and traditional  values.  About  100  pastors attended.  The purpose was to encourage pastors to stay  involved in a  cultural  tug-of-war  as the   nation is  faced   with   increased  pressure  from  the   United Nations to embrace a liberal agenda on moral issues.

The Christian nation is facing increased pressure to secularize by those who support abortion and same-sex marriage. Their struggle resembles the one we once faced in America. Beyond the social issues, there is a push to remove Christianity from its Constitution.

The new Zambian president created a new cabinet position—the Minister of National Guidance and Religious Affairs. I was invited to meet with the minister and am looking forward to the possibility of serving her office and Zambia’s parliament in the future with legislation promoting religious liberty.

In His Service,

Robert Tyler President and General Counsel

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.” Dr. Martin Luther King

Christian Vindicated - WIN in the Ninth Circuit!

I have great news to share with you regarding a case that many of you have followed and supported for many years! On January 11^th, three federal  appellate judges in the Ninth Circuit  issued a final ruling in favor of our  client,  Mark  Mackey, who was arrested back in 2011 for reading the  Bible aloud  in  front of the  California Department of Motor Vehicles in Hemet.

Overzealous CHP officer, Darren Meyer, approached Mark Mackey, grabbed the Bible from his hands, slapped handcuffs on his wrists, and hauled him off to jail. The entire episode was recorded on video and, despite clear evidence that Mr. Mackey and his friends were merely exercising their constitutional rights, the state refused to drop the charges. The video showed Officer Meyer saying that it was illegal to “preach to a captive audience.”

The court also rightly rebuked Officer Meyer for false allegations in his police report. In that report, the officer alleged that Mr. Mackey was yelling at people waiting in line and that a “verbal confrontation” had become “heated and nearing a physical state.”

The Ninth Circuit judge explained, “That version of events is completely belied by video and audio footage which does not reveal any confrontations whatsoever, and merely shows Mackey reading the bible aloud somewhat apart from people standing in line.”

It was obvious to us from the beginning that a great injustice had occurred. An innocent man exercising his religious liberty and free speech was criminally  prosecuted  based on erroneous claims put  forth  by a false and deceitful police report because the officials did not agree with our client’s speech. But that is exactly why our founders created the First Amendment—to protect even disagreeable speech.

Mr.  Mackey  filed a federal lawsuit, but  immediately  offered to drop the  federal  suit  if  the CHP admitted to the unlawful arrest and agreed to properly instruct its officers on how to handle such cases. They declined. Instead they prosecuted him. We successfully prevailed over the criminal charges.

Because of the nature of this case, it received national attention and more than 165,000 people have viewed the online video. But the real work was done behind the scenes as our team invested hundreds of hours investigating legal precedents, drafting briefs and dealing with opposing counsel.

Without dedicated supporters like YOU, who offered consistent prayers and financial backing over the years, Mr. Mackey would never have prevailed. His win in the liberal Ninth Circuit is a win for all of us who hold religious liberty dear. On behalf of Mark Mackey—and those who come after him—We Thank You!

If you would like to financially support the essential work we do here at Advocates for Faith & Freedom, please click here.

Click to view the Press Release.

School District Stands Up to Atheists

Earlier this year, we shared the news that Advocates for Faith & Freedom had agreed to represent the Chino Valley Unified School District in a high-stakes federal case involving the constitutionality of allowing an invocation at the start of school board meetings. The district asked us to represent its interests after a lower court judge declared its prayer policy unconstitutional. James Long, a staff attorney for Tyler & Bursch, LLP, is working on the case for us and has spent the entire summer diligently preparing briefs for the federal appeal. With hundreds of hours already logged in this case, we expect to submit our opening brief to the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals within 60 days. In addition to the official filing, numerous organizations will be supporting our effort through their own amicus briefs.

As you may recall, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) took exception to Chino Valley’s pre-meeting prayer policy and, in November 2014, filed a lawsuit seeking to block it. The anti-religious freedom group took the legal action despite the fact that just five months earlier the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of legislative prayers at city council meetings. In Town of Greece v. Galloway, the court sanctioned the practice as long as the city has a nondiscriminatory process in selecting volunteers who offer the prayers.

The significance—and possible ramifications—of the Chino Valley case has also garnered attention in scholarly circles. In a January 2015 article in The Journal of Law & Politics, author Marie Elizabeth Wicks explores how the Town of Greece ruling should also apply to local school district boards.

“Because school boards are deliberative public bodies and are nearly identical in structure to town boards like that in Town of Greece, school boards also should be allowed to solemnize the start of meetings with a brief prayer,” Wicks wrote in reference to our case.

FFRF is, in essence, trying to inoculate its position from the Supreme Court ruling by arguing that the presence of students at the board meetings shifts the focus of such gatherings from a business meeting to a school setting. But as writer Wicks rightly argued in her Journal of Law & Politics article, the presence of students in the audience does not negate the historical significance of such prayers, a key finding in the High Court case.

“The striking similarities between school boards and the Greece town board support the logical extension of the Town of Greece principles to school boards’ prayer practices,” Wicks wrote. “In both situations, an opening invocation acts to solemnize the occasion and is directed toward the board members.”

Chino Valley’s policy, which was adopted in 2013, does in fact allow all religious organizations an opportunity to participate and works to ensure equality in the process by sending out invitation letters to all religious assemblies in its area.

The implications from the case are great and extend well beyond the Southern California school district. Not only is the issue of school district prayer the first of its kind to reach the 9^th Circuit Court, but it is also the first case in the nation to reach the federal appeals level since the pivotal Town of Greece ruling.

While we have completed a great deal of legal research, much work still remains. This is where you can help partner with us to ensure that local school districts maintain the same rights the U.S. Supreme Court has already confirmed on town councils as “deliberative public bodies.” As you can imagine, the costs associated with mounting such a significant legal defense can escalate quite quickly. To that end, Advocates for Faith & Freedom is helping to underwrite the costs with the Tyler & Bursch legal team.

Would you prayerfully consider contributing to this vital cause for religious liberty? We can think of no more fitting way to help guide our educational policymakers than by ensuring they retain their constitutional right to begin their deliberations with the historical act of prayer.

Help Us Get Bibles for Belizean Defense Force

It has been a number of weeks since my last correspondence. I apologize for the delay. We spent close to one month in a religious liberty jury trial from mid-May to mid-June. As a result, I simply didn’t have the time to write and get out our regular monthly newsletters. Let me bring you up to speed on a few important things we have been working on.

Bibles for the Belize Military

We have been asked to extend our advocacy for faith to the military personnel in the Central American country of Belize! A close friend of mine, John Gotz, serves as a missionary in Belize and as a military chaplain to the Belizean Defense Force of approximately 3,000 troops. The country’s leading General has requested that John acquire 5,000 Bibles to deliver to each member of the military!

When John told me about this opportunity, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring this to Advocates for Faith & Freedom. Would you please participate in this outreach by generously donating to Advocates so that we can purchase the Bibles and advocate for our Christian faith internationally? The Bibles will probably cost us approximately $15,000.

I plan to personally deliver the Bibles to the Belizean military with John as soon as we can raise the money to buy the Bibles. We will have the opportunity to hold Bible studies for many of the troops. In contrast to the U.S. military chaplaincy policies, the doors are wide-open to the Gospel in Belize.

You can designate a specific gift by referencing “Bibles for Belize.” Thank you for your prayer and generosity.  We won’t be able to do this without your generous partnership!

In the Hands of a Jury One of our attorneys, Jordan Bursch, and I spent 3 ½ weeks in a jury trial in downtown Los Angeles that led us to a new realization of the environment in which we live. Our client, who asked to be left anonymous, filed a suit a few years ago through another attorney claiming religious discrimination against his former employer, the Metropolitan Water District. Just a couple weeks before trial, we were asked to take the case over. Unfortunately, we had to fight as though we had “one arm tied behind our back”   due to the   prior   attorney’s agreement to exclude substantial evidence.

Picking a jury was extremely enlightening to the state of our culture. During voir dire, we were able to question and exclude numerous jurors who appeared blatantly biased. One juror claimed that “religion is the root of all evil and Christians are the worst.” Another young professional said she was an atheist and could not be unbiased in a religious discrimination case. A high ranking official at UCLA said he was atheist, grew up in communist China, and didn’t believe that anyone should have the right to bring a claim of religious discrimination, regardless of the First Amendment. A young homosexual man said that he believed that whenever he heard of a Christian claiming discrimination, “it was really the Christian doing the discriminating and doing harm to others.” This comment broke my heart as this young man does not understand true Christianity.

While we initially persuaded five of the jurors needed to prevail, the jury ruled that we were not able to show enough evidence of discriminatory intent. Even though we established clear evidence that our client’s immediate supervisor stated, among other derogatory things, that “Jesus isn’t going to save your job,” it was not enough. The burden of proof is very high for proving religious discrimination. You can imagine how easy it is for a large institution to hide their real intent for terminating an employee with vague and benign reasoning.

We knew the likelihood of success would be pretty slim when we took over this case just a few weeks before trial. However, we felt led by the Lord that this gentlemen needed our help regardless of the probable outcome. Sometimes we are called by God to show up and advocate a righteous cause in spite of the odds. I am learning more and more in this post-Christian era that we must respond to God’s calling and leave the results to Him.

Defending Prayer at School Board Meetings

Lastly, I wanted to ask you for your prayer as we work extensively this summer on briefs that will be due in September in the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeal. We agreed to take over the defense of the Chino Valley Unified School District in the Ninth Circuit appeal where a District Court judge ordered the School District to cease and desist its practice of allowing an invocation at the beginning of School Board meetings. This case will likely have a national impact as many school districts nationwide have a practice of allowing invocations at the beginning of their meetings. Please pray for us to have wisdom as we research and write our legal arguments.  

Thank you for your financial support to our ministry. Because of your generosity, we can quickly come to the aid of worthy causes like these. Know that we will continue to work diligently to protect religious liberty and our First Amendment right.

Court Halts School Board Prayer.....NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT!

The Chino Valley Unified School District asked Advocates for Faith & Freedom to help them in defending its policy of allowing an opening invocation at their board meetings.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutional right of a city council to open its public meetings with an invocation —provided there was a nondiscriminatory process in selecting who offer the prayers.

The Supreme Court commented in Town of Greece v. Galloway that “legislative prayer has become part of our heritage and tradition, part of our expressive idiom, similar to the Pledge of Allegiance, inaugural prayer, or the recitation of ‘God save the United States and this honorable Court’ at the opening of this Court’s sessions….”

In the 1983 Marsh v. Chambers decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Nebraska Legislature’s chaplaincy prayer practice did not violate the Establishment Clause. In doing so, the ruling noted that legislative prayers were deeply embedded in American history as early as the 1774 Continental Congress, when such prayers were presented through paid chaplains.

Chino Valley Unified School District decided to appeal a recent federal court ruling calling its own prayer policy unconstitutional, even though the board policy adopted in 2013 contained the same stipulations later upheld in the Town of Greece v. Galloway ruling.

In keeping with those long-held and federally recognized provisions, the school district retained Tyler & Bursch, LLP to represent it pro bono on appeal to the Ninth Circuit. Advocates for Faith & Freedom is working in association with Tyler & Bursch, LLP to help underwrite the costs of the appeal.  This case is being defended  by Tyler & Bursch  in order to  minimize the potential bias that we have experienced in the past when advocates for Faith & Freedom is the law firm of record.

CVUSD’s prayer policy is nondiscriminatory because it allows clergy from all faiths to present their prayers. To ensure the policy is nondiscriminatory, the district sends out a letter to all religious assemblies inviting them to voluntarily sign-up to participate in the invocation. The militant Freedom from Religion Foundation sued the school district in November 2014.

In February, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal ruled against CVUSD saying that the Town of Greece decision allowing prayer before city council meetings did not apply to school districts because of the impressionability of schoolchildren who may attend the meetings.

“The School Board possesses an inherently authoritarian position with respect to the students. The board metes out discipline and awards at these meetings, and sets school policies that directly and immediately affect the students’ lives,” Bernal wrote.

After losing at the district court level, Chino Valley officials asked us to take over their legal representation before the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. Our appeal will narrowly focus on the question of whether a school board may begin its meetings with a ceremonial prayer.

We believe this case will have serious ramifications because it is the first one to advance to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and is ripe for review by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is also the first case to advance to the appeal level since the Town of Greece case reaffirmed the constitutionality of allowing ceremonial prayers before governmental meetings.

Because this case will require intensive staff time and legal costs throughout most of this year, we are asking that you please consider contributing to our defense fund. We seriously need additional financial support today to take on this battle. Whether you can afford to give $5, $25, or $1,000, it all matters and is greatly appreciated! We can’t afford to let a small minority of people and a radical organization redefine our way of life. To do so fosters tyranny of the worst kind. Thank you for your prayerful consideration to this cause. If you would like to donate to Advocates, click here.

Press Release 3-17-16

17 Opening Brief_4-26-17

Victory for Dream Center Lake Elsinore

Pastor Brett Masters leased a store front in downtown Lake Elsinore, California, as his headquarter offices for the Lake Elsinore Dream Center. The Dream Center is a volunteer driven organization that finds & fills the needs of individuals and families in their community. They do this by connecting isolated people to God and a community of support providing services that address immediate and long-term needs in order to build relationships that will allow them to speak into their God-given potential. They work to bring hope to the needy, a way off the streets, out of poverty, and into self-sufficiency. One of Pastor Brett’s plans has been to implement a weekly community assistance program called “Adopt-A-Block.” Through Adopt-A-Block, the Dream Center teams assist residents in cleaning up their properties and offer a hand-up to those in need. The Dream Center needed a conditional use permit (CUP) from the City of Lake Elsinore in order to begin using the building for their headquarters. The planning staff had been very friendly and supportive of the project.  However, during the process of obtaining the permit, Pastor Brett faced stiff opposition from a couple of individuals who spent considerable time opposing the project.  This resulted in a Planning Commission deadlock vote.

Pastor Brett was referred to Advocates for help on his appeal to the City Council.  After a review of the law protecting the religious use of land, Advocates was able to help Pastor Brett understand the existing zoning laws and the CUP process as he prepared for the public hearing at the Lake Elsinore City Council.  With much planning and prayer, the Dream Center was unanimously approved. The City of Lake Elsinore and its residents will be enjoying the assistance from this wonderful staff and many faithful volunteers for years to come.

In 2007, Advocates prevailed against the City of Lake Elsinore on behalf of Elsinore Christian Center  where we set precedent in the Ninth Circuit preventing zoning discrimination against churches. That case helped pave the way for this victory and many others across the country.

We appreciate the financial support and prayers from faithful people like you! It’s only with your help and donations that we can make a difference and help Pastor Brett Masters and the Dream Center.

Two Christmas Victories for Advocates and Religious Liberty

The spirit of Christmas has arrived at Advocates for Faith & Freedom with the settlement of two Christmas-themed cases involving Southern California children. Both cases involve incidents that happened in December 2013. The resolution of these cases demonstrate how West Covina and Temecula Valley school districts worked with us to address our clients’ First Amendment liberties. As you may recall, Isaiah Martinez, then a first-grader, was barred from handing out candy canes to his West Covina classmates after his teacher noticed an accompanying note explaining the legend of the candy canes. The legend involves a candy maker who created the red-and-white-striped candies to represent the life of Jesus Christ. The teacher consulted with the principal, who told her the candy canes could not be distributed with the Christian legend attached. After school, Isaiah reported to his parents that the teacher tore off the Christian legend and told him that Jesus was not allowed in school.

We filed a federal lawsuit after several attempts to resolve the case at the school district level were unsuccessful. But in depositions for the lawsuit, the district’s representative admitted that the principal made a mistake and violated Isaiah’s rights by telling him he couldn’t give the religious-themed candy canes to his friends. The revelation helped Advocates’ staff attorney, James Long, to successfully negotiate a settlement after the school district had revised its district policy to accommodate religious liberties at all of its campuses. The district also agreed to pay Advocates for a portion of the attorney fees we incurred. The school district required that the amount remain confidential. Alex Martinez, Isaiah’s father said, “Advocates have been a blessing to my family. This organization is truly a Godsend! We thank God for Bob Tyler and the staff there.”

The second case involved Brynn Williams who was a first grade student in December 2013 within the Temecula Unified School District. She was prevented from reading from John 3:16 during an in-class Christmas presentation. After filing an administrative complaint, the school district agreed to a settlement and we agreed to the joint statement that follows:

 The Temecula Valley Unified School District, Brynn Williams, and Brynn’s parents Gina and Shane Williams, have reached an agreement that will result in the dismissal of the administrative complaints submitted to the District by the Williams family.  The Williams family alleged that Brynn’s constitutional rights were violated when she was not permitted to read a Bible verse out loud as a part of a class assignment. The District’s internal 

investigation into the matter concluded that the actions of the classroom teacher and the principal were not anti-religious. 

Although further administrative action through an appeal and litigation are available to the Williams family, and litigation is available to District employees, the parties agree that a compromise would be more beneficial to all involved. The compromise reached by the parties is not an admission of liability on the part of either party.  The settlement presents a compromise that is in the best interests of Brynn Williams, her family, the District, District staff, and local students.

The District continues to be committed to providing an educational environment that ensures that students do not lose their constitutional rights when they enter the schoolhouse gates.  Therefore, the District will continue to work to ensure that all of its students continue to enjoy their constitutional freedoms, including religious freedoms, in harmony with District policies. 

The District agrees that it is in the best interest of all concerned to provide training to school administrators on the topic of First Amendment rights of staff and students.  The Williams family, the District, and the District’s employees are very satisfied with the outcome and the Williams family applauds the School District’s willingness to provide First Amendment training to its staff.

While both cases were two years in the making, their successful completion shows the need for persistence when advocating for religious liberty and the protection of free speech. When we take on a case, it is not something that is usually resolved in a day or even a month. It’s typically a long-term commitment with many struggles and 150 to 500 hundred hours of legal work. For example, Isaiah Martinez’ case, our attorneys logged-in more than 350 hours.

We are grateful for your continued commitment to our vital work. To that end, would you please consider helping us to continue our core mission by making a year-end tax deductible donation so that we can continue to defend your liberties along with the liberties of students like Isaiah and Brynn who simply want to share the love of Jesus? We know there are many great ministries that deserve your support and we truly appreciate any contribution you can make to Advocates for Faith & Freedom.