JOHN LEO'S BLOG

Americans United filed suit, on grounds that some of the missions still hold religious services. The Becket Fund, a religious liberties group, is fighting the suit, arguing that the group scheduled to receive the funds is a private, nonsectarian charitable organization. Americans United withdrew the suit because Congress hasn't appropriated the funds yet. It will most likely sue again when Congress acts.

The Becket Fund is also defending a Roman Catholic school's right to fire a teacher for advertising in a newspaper her opposition to the Catholic Church's stance on abortion. The case, Michele Curay-Cramer v. Ursuline Academy of Wilmington, is being heard in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. The teacher is very likely to lose the case. The First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of religion includes the right of a religious group to designate who will speak for it.

This means clerics and all who teach in the group's name. If itthe group can't do this, then its religious message is corrupted. This is the same point at stake in the many cases of universities trying to force Eevangelical groups to accept gay officers who disagree with the religious group's stance on homosexuality. The Eevangvelicals get to decide what their religious message will be, not the universities or non-Eevangelical students.