All Articles For Church and State

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney.

Mr Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. We recognize that . . . throughout the course of the educational process, there will be instances when religious values, religious practices, and religious persons will have some interaction with the public schools and their students. But these matters, often questions of accommodation of religion, are not before us. The sole question presented is whether a [nonsectarian prayer] may be conducted at a graduation ceremony in circumstances where, as we have found, young graduates who object are induced to conform. No … school can persuade or...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. [Church membership] may be severed freely by a member’s positive act at any time. But until it is so terminated, the church has authority to prescribe and follow disciplinary ordinances without fear of interference by the state. Within the context of church discipline, churches enjoy an absolute privilege from scrutiny by the secular authority. Hadnot v. Shaw (Oklahoma Supreme Court, 1992) Post-Withdrawal Discipline At times a church consistory is involved in the unpleasant but necessary task of admonishing and disciplining a communicant member. But more often...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. Operation Rescue and Leader Randall Terry Under Siege Operation Rescue, the activist anti-abortion organization founded by Randall Terry, has fallen on hard times. Numerous federal courts across the country have imposed injunctions, imprisonment, and fines on the organization and its leaders. Operation Rescue’s tactics of using human blockades to deny access to abortion clinics or doctor’s offices is under heavy legal scrutiny nationwide. The courts are seemingly unimpressed by Terry’s argument that his trespass and other unlawful acts are justified to “prevent a greater harm.” Although...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. Aborting Protestors Suffer Legal Setback We therefore maintain that the [abortion rights advocates] may maintain this lawsuit if the [protestors] conducted their enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity. We hold that RICO contains no economic motive requirement.  U.S. Supreme Court,  National Organization for Women  (NOW) v. Schiedler, et. al. (1994) The U.S. Supreme Court held in January that abortion rights advocates may use a federal racketeering law to sue abortion protest groups that organize confrontations at abortion clinics across the nation. The case pitted the...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. Equal Pay Act Applies to Church-Operated School The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought a federal suit against the First Baptist Church in northern Indiana for alleged violation of the federal Equal Pay Act. The Act prohibits discrimination “between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees . . . at a rate less wages paid to employees of the opposite sex . . . for equal work….” The EEOC claimed that the Baptist school, which serves preschoolers through eighth graders, paid male...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. It was therefore error for the trial judge to instruct the jury to disregard evidence of Cheek’s understanding that . . . he was not a person required to file a return or to pay income taxes and that wages are not taxable income, as incredible as such misunderstandings of and beliefs about the law might be.  Cheek v. U.S., Supreme Court (1991) Tax Protesters The tax protest movement is a loosely organized group of Americans who refuse to file income tax returns and pay income...

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. State Aid to Parochial Schools If Jimmy had chosen to attend an equally appropriate private school devoted to progressive politics, feminism, militarism, or Afrocentrism, the state would have provided a sign language interpreter. Because the values espoused by his school are religious, however, Jimmy forfeited this valuable benefit. This is in plain violation of the free exercise clause….  Brief of Christian Legal Society,  Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills (1993) The perennial conflict over the use of governmental funds in nonpublic schools was heightened recently when the U.S....

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. “…we have not found and defendants have not presented any case that finds the existence of a Fourteenth Amendment fundamental right of parents to direct their children’s secular education free of reasonable regulation. We conclude that parents do not have such a constitutional right requiring a strict scrutiny standard. On the contrary, the state may reasonably regulate education, including the imposition of teacher certification and curricula requirements on home-school programs, in order to advance the legitimate interest of compulsory education.”  People v. Bennett, Michigan Supreme Court...