Religious Liberty

Neas Calls Law "Cruel Shell Game" That Shifts Funds Away From Poor

Effort Seen as Largest Outreach Ever Geared to African American, Hispanic Parents; Research on Parents, Recent Test Scores Underscore Campaign's Urgency

John DiIulio's announced departure as director of the White House Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives opens the door for the program to be led by someone even less concerned with the constitutional and civil rights issues raised by the administration's push to divert billions of dollars in social service spending to religious groups, said People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas today.

Ruling permits "Corpus Christi" performance in Indiana as scheduled

In a move that could erode free speech and the freedom that our nation’s flag symbolizes, the United States House of Representatives voted 298 to 125 today in support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to make it a crime to desecrate an American flag.

At the start of this Fourth of July week in which many will commemorate our Founding Fathers’ generation and its bloody struggle to attain our inalienable rights, People For the American Way joined U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other civic leaders in a public study and discussion of the Bush administration’s religious-based domestic initiative that could, if enacted, greatly harm the First Amendment.

Coalition: McCain Amendment Tramples on Home Rule

This afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on two amendments to the reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act that would have permitted federal tax dollars to be used for private school vouchers. The first amendment, which failed by a vote of 155-to-273, would have created vouchers through the Title I program for children in public schools that are deemed "failing." The second amendment, which failed 186-to-241, would have created voucher demonstration projects in five public school districts.

New Report Reveals Creationism-Evolution Conflicts in 28 States