We at the Freedom From Religion Foundation have had a whole lotta legal shaking going on (with apologies to Jerry Lee Lewis).
We sued twice in the past week as part of broader coalitions to protect the First Amendment — garnering national attention in the process.
“Seven Arkansas families have filed a federal lawsuit to block a new law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms in the state, arguing that the law will infringe on their constitutional rights,” said a piece in USA Today. “The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a multifaith group of families by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).”
Other national publications also covered the case.
“Seven Arkansas families filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an upcoming state requirement that public school classrooms have posted copies of the Ten Commandments, saying the new law will violate their constitutional rights,” stated a story in the U.S. News & World Report. “The suit was filed on behalf of the families by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.”
Arkansas media featured the lawsuit extensively, too, such as the Little Rock paper.
Another case of ours made major media waves in the Land of Lincoln.
“A group of local residents filed suit Monday seeking to remove a nearly seven-foot-tall Ten Commandments monument from the lawn of the Jefferson County Courthouse,” said an Illinois public broadcasting story. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the ACLU of Illinois assert the monument violates the Illinois Constitution’s protections for the separation of church and state.”
To learn more about these cases, listen to our Freethought Radio episode this week. FFRF Senior Litigation Counsel Sam Grover and FFRF Legal Fellow Hirsh Joshi join co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor to talk about these lawsuits (as well as another recent FFRF challenge of religious displays in Massachusetts).
Missouri papers love us
FFRF Action Fund Regional Government Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens has written an op-ed (on legislative anti-abortion shenanigans) that has completely enamored folks in Missouri. The Kansas City Star published it on Monday. The St. Louis Post Dispatch featured it on Thursday. And the Springfield paper was all set to run the piece until the folks there learned that it had been published elsewhere. We’re on a roll in the Show Me State!
A misnamed ‘religious liberty’ commission
We sounded the alarm about the first public meeting of the newly established Religious Liberty Commission at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 16. FFRF will closely monitor such meetings and share updates and analysis on its social media platforms. “A public meeting on religious liberty shouldn’t be a platform for Christian nationalist ideology,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
Protesting autocracy
It’s imperative that Americans and organizations of all stripes voice dismay at President Trump’s frightening, unconstitutional and autocratic move to deploy the military against his own people. FFRF, which exists to uphold our secular Constitution, can’t do its work in an autocracy, especially one with a Christian nationalist flavor. This is all the more reason for peaceful citizens to exercise our First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly by showing up Saturday, June 14, for the “No Kings” Day of Defiance. FFRF is a co-sponsor of the event.
Bad legislation in Iowa
Our legislative arm is also keeping tabs on the state of the nation.
The FFRF Action Fund is upbraiding Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for signing into law two troubling pieces of theocratically oriented legislation that will deeply affect Iowa public school students. “These measures will do a huge disservice to public school students in Iowa,” says FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
A pair of theocratic and secularist members of Congress
The Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is U.S. Rep. Mary Miller for her intolerant post about a Sikh prayer and its supposed incompatibility with what Miller calls a “Christian nation.” While FFRF opposes opening Congress with any prayer, Miller’s latest remarks are discriminatory and incompatible with our secular democracy. She has certainly earned her “Theocrat” title.
The FFRF Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” is U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan for grilling Project 2025 architect Russell Vought on his Christian nationalist views during a recent House hearing. The Fund looks forward to more members of Congress joining the “Secularist” fight to keep Christian nationalism out of the U.S. government.
Shedding light on recent Supreme Court decisions
Among our media offerings this week, FFRF attorneys Liz Cavell and Chris Line break down on our “Ask an Atheist” Facebook Live feature the latest big church/state cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Watch here the erudite discussion.
The evangelical destruction of civil rights
In a blog aptly titled “Era of Deconstruction,” FFRF Legal Fellow Kyle Steinberg details how evangelical Christians are helping dismantle civil rights.
“Make no mistake about it: Our civil rights are under attack,” he writes. “Evangelicals are trying to drum up support through television advertisements while destroying the last remnants of American efforts to ensure equal justice for all.”
How the Trump administration is endangering women’s health
In one of two blogs that she penned this week, Annie Laurie focuses on a recent Trump administration move against emergency room abortion care that will have a severe impact on women’s health.
“The anti-abortion agenda is fueled by inhumane religious fervor that dangerously places dogma about humanity,” she concludes. “Once again, anti-abortionists and the public officials that pander to them show how much they care about human life, all the way from conception … until birth. And their actions show why religion should never be allowed to dictate our laws and social policy.”
Joyless fundamentalists versus the joy of the arts
In the second piece, Annie Laurie contrasts the joy-killing fundamentalism of the Southern Baptists with the joyfulness of Broadway, as exemplified by the recent Tony Awards.
“After taking some joy and succor from the arts, let’s flex our walking muscles by peacefully demonstrating this Saturday at ‘No Kings Day of Action,’ a nationwide protest against regressive policies and for individual liberties,” she states. “Then, we need to flex our electoral muscle in 2026 and 2028 to rescue individual liberties in these United States and share the technicolor.”
It’s only with your backing and participation that we’re able to legally defend our constitutional liberties.
