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**3 students are fighting back after being rejected by generally available grant program**
Three students are fighting back after they were refused permission to participate in a program that is generally available to students.
It's because of their studies include a look into their faith.
Cameron Johnson, Luke Thomas and Trace Stevens are challenging Virginia officials, in the state Department of Military Affairs and the state Council of Higher Education, because they were determined to be ineligible for college grants that are available to any others.
They, through their lawyers with the ADF, now are arguing before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the state has gone unconstitutional with its discrimination against religion.
State officials claim that right because the students' studies are for "religious training or theological education."
"Policies that treat religious students as second-class citizens have no place in our laws," said ADF lawyer John Bursch. "The First Amendment prohibits the government from excluding students from otherwise available grants solely because they picked religious programs that they believe God called them to pursue. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled three times in the last nine years that these kinds of public benefits can’t be withheld because of the recipient’s religious character, exercise, and use of the benefits."
State officials run the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant Program and the National Guard Tuition Assistance Grant Program.
Both are available to "Virginia college students."
But both discriminate based on the subjects of study chosen by the students at Liberty University.
The case before the appellate judges charges Virginia is "blatantly" violating the First Amendment.
"An injunction is needed to prevent further irreparable harm while this case proceeds…. A few thousand dollars is life-changing for students. But it’s of no consequence to Virginia, which pours millions into [its grant programs] each year," the case argues.
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**Student who rejected anti-Semitism facing scrutiny from Ivy League institution**
Standing up for the recognized rights of others should not be an offense on campus.
But it apparently has become just that as a student who responded to an offensive display of anti-Semitism on an Ivy League campus is facing possible discipline.
It is the American Center for Law and Justice that is working on behalf of a student, unidentified, who is facing formal disciplinary actions.
He had spoken out in response to a classmate's public attack on Israeli students.
The case developed when a student posted a video on a public social media account of a complaint that there was an Israeli student in one of her classes.
That radical contended that "Israelis who had served in the Israel Defense Forces should not be 'freely roaming' the campus," the report said.
The attack functioned as a public targeting of that lone student, the report said.
"Our client – another Israeli student and IDF veteran and a friend of the student who had been singled out – responded on his own social media to that public statement that was directed, in effect, at him, as well. He did not threaten anyone. He did not harass anyone. He did not abuse the original poster. He simply expressed pride in his identity and his people. He said what he believed," the legal lteam said.
As is too common, the student who posted the hostile video approached the student who responded and "initiated an aggressive, hostile conversation."
An exchange followed, including the attacker's "offensive and inflammatory" comments.
Shortly later, the "hostile poster" filed a complaint, after the second student already had filed a concern, and that created the appearance that the school's complaint structure was being used in retaliation.
"This case reflects something we at the ACLJ have been seeing with increasing frequency on American university campuses: the attempt to exclude, stigmatize, harass, and incite against Israeli students and to abuse university disciplinary systems to attack or punish those who have the courage to respond," the team said.
"No student should have to choose between defending himself and facing punishment for doing so."
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**School for Christian students drops lawsuit after state changes law to make attack stick**
An elementary school that supporters have described as "Colorado's first public Christian school" is dropping a religious discrimination lawsuit against the state.
According to a Chalkbeat Colorado report it is Riverstone Academy and a public education co-op that have given up claims in federal court because changes made to the state's laws made the case moot.
That happened, the report said, when Colorado lawmakers put limits on how and where public education co-ops can run schools, and as the restrictions appear to have been deliberately set up to exclude Riverstone, there's not even any assurances it can remain open now.
Lawsuit backers had hoped the fight would end up before the Supreme Court and result in a precedent for religious schools inside the public education system.
According to the report, Riverstone got state funding this year, but the Colorado Department of Education already has warned the no more public funding might come because it was a religious school.
State officials right now are auditing Riverstone’s authorizer — Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services – and could cancel any future grants.
The school, in its case, had claimed the state's actions violated the First Amendment's free exercise requirements by forcing Riverstone to EITHER be a religious school or get funding.
State officials said the school's legal action wasn't valid since the school had no "imminent harm," and a funding decision wasn't final.
There also were questions about the organization's board.
Colorado, being a far-left state that has instituted a number of formal state assaults on Christians because of their faith, only to be bashed by the U.S. Supreme Court over and over, insisted on new rules for school co-ops.
The agenda effectively puts the Riverstone management at odds with state law, and state officials continue review what they will demand.
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