Hong Kong Liberal Religious Forum

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): Religion and Belief
www.aclu.org/religion

ACLU: "Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself."



ACLU of Florida Launches Religious Freedom Project (5/19/2005)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org
www.aclu.org/religion/gen/16277prs20050519.html

...In response to recent and bold assaults on First Amendment freedoms, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida will launch the Florida Religious Freedom Project. The project will focus on issues in the state involving religious freedom and separation of church and state.

...The project will concentrate on several issues including [against] efforts to weaken or repeal Florida's explicit prohibition on the direct or indirect use of state funds to aid sectarian institutions and the spread of vouchers to support church-run schools, while also closely monitoring state "faith-based" legislation and executive branch policies that involve government-funded religion and government-funded discrimination.

...The work of the Religious Freedom Project staff will also address the rights of members of minority religions by challenging school-sponsored religious programs. Non-school related, church-state issues also will be on the staff's agenda, such as the exemption from state licensing requirements for religious-based social service agencies and the impact on children of the state statute, unique in the nation, that authorizes a court to order prayers for minors with health problems and whose parents reject medical care.

...Since its founding in 1920, the ACLU has had an unflagging commitment to the fight for religious freedom. This project is a timely response to protect one of America's most basic freedoms, the First Amendment's guarantee of separation of church and state.

The ACLU is currently involved in litigation in Georgia and Pennsylvania challenging the actions of school boards to order the placement of stickers in textbooks warning students that evolution is merely a theory and to require the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in public school science classes.