All Articles For Lanting, James

U.S. Supreme Court poised to strike down the laws of 27 states prohibiting Christian counselors from advising gender transitioning minor patients to instead affirm their biological sex in accordance with biblical perspectives of sex and gender   member of Cornerstone PRC in Dyer, Indiana, is a practicing attorney   STATUTORY PROHIBITION OF CONVERSION THERAPY In the last two decades there has existed an ideological warfare over counseling goals for children who express so-called gender confusion or gender dysphoria, which has been defined as the alleged unease, discomfort, or distress some children feel about their biological sex, leading them to supposedly...

Mr. Lanting, a member of Cornerstone Protestant Reformed Church of Schererville, Indiana, is a practicing attorney. “In the context of the Pledge of Allegiance, the statement that the United States is a nation ‘under God’ is an endorsement of religion. It is a profession of a religious belief, namely, a belief in monotheism. The recitation that ours is a nation ‘under God’ is not a mere acknowledgement that many Americans believe in a deity. Nor is it merely descriptive of the undeniable historical significance of religion in the founding of the Republic. To recite the Pledge is not to describe...

Mr. Lanting, a member of Cornerstone Protestant Reformed Church of Dyer, Indiana, is a practicing attorney. “In sum, the Ohio voucher program is entirely neutral with respect to religion. It provides [tuition aid] directly to a wide spectrum of individuals…. It permits such individuals to exercise genuine choice among options public and private, secular and religious. The program is therefore a program of true private choice. In keeping with an unbroken line of decisions rejecting challenges to similar programs, we hold the program does not offend the Establishment Clause.” Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, U.S. Supreme Court (June 27, 2002) (majority opinion)...

Mr. Lanting, a member of Cornerstone Protestant Reformed Church of Dyer, Indiana, is a practicing attorney. The Cleveland tuition voucher scheme involves the grant of state aid directly and predominantly to the coffers of the private, religious schools, and it is unquestioned that these institutions incorporate religious concepts, motives, and themes into all facets of their educational planning. … We hold that the Cleveland voucher program has the primary effect of advancing religion, and that it constitutes an endorsement of religion and sectarian education in violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Simmons-Harris v. Zelman, U.S. Court of Appeals,...

Mr. Lanting, a member of Cornerstone Protestant Reformed Church of Dyer, Indiana, is a practicing attorney. In light of the school’s history of regular delivery of student-led prayers at athletic events, it is reasonable to infer that the specific purpose of the policy was to preserve a popular state-sponsored religious practice. The delivery of such a message—over the school’s public address system, by a speaker representing the student body, under the supervision of school faculty, and pursuant to a school policy that explicitly and implicitly encourages prayer—is not properly characterized as “private speech.” The common purpose of the Religion Clauses...

Mr. Lanting, a member of Cornerstone Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. May the State of Vermont exclude same-sex couples from the benefits and protections that its laws provide to opposite-sex married couples? That is the fundamental question we address, a question that the Court well knows arouses deeply-felt religious, moral, and political beliefs…. We hold that the State is constitutionally required to extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law. Whether this ultimately takes the form of inclusion within the marriage laws or a parallel “domestic partnership” system or some...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. We confess some of our own “sins” for once believing that we could make things right through manipulation of the political system…. The Moral Majority folded in the late eighties, giving way to the Christian Coalition and other organizations that have taken up its agenda, using, with minor variations, the same strategies to achieve the same ends we failed to achieve. Two decades after conservative Christians charged into the political arena, bringing new voters and millions of dollars with them in hopes of transforming the culture...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. For several decades, cultural conservatives’ strategy has been to elect conservatives to government offices and then rely on their help to retake society’s institutions. I was an architect of that strategy…. In terms of the culture war, this strategy has failed. In truth, I think we are caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportions, a collapse so great it simply overwhelms politics. That’s why I am in the process of rethinking what it is that we, who still believe in our traditional, Western, Judeo-Christian...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod Radio Station Escapes FCC Affirmative Action Demands The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates the licensure of radio stations and scrutinizes applications for license renewals. One such FCC regulation requires license renewal applicants to satisfy equal employment opportunity (EEO) guidelines forbidding discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. Moreover, stations are specifically compelled to “adopt an affirmative action EEO program targeted to minorities and women.” The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod owns and operates an AM station and an...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. The [Milwaukee voucher] program does not involve the state in any way with the school’s governance, curriculum, or day-to-day affairs. The state’s regulation of participating private schools, while designed to insure that the program’s educational purposes are fulfilled, does not approach the level of constitutionally impermissible involvement. Supreme Court of Wisconsin, Majority Opinion (June 10, 1998). Early this summer, the Wisconsin Supreme Court gave the school voucher movement its most significant legal victory. In a landmark 4-2 decision, Wisconsin’s highest court surprisingly ruled that the controversial...