Texas Values and Family Policy Alliance File Legal Brief in Support of Football Coach Fired for Praying

Texas Values, along with Family Policy Alliance and other state family policy councils filed a legal amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Coach Joseph Kennedy, ahead of the April 25 Supreme Court oral argument in his case.  Coach Kennedy was fired from a public school in Washington State after he exercised his religious freedom by praying briefly at the 50-yard line. 

Kennedy began saying a brief prayer following games years ago. Initially, he did so alone, but some students asked him what he was doing. When they asked if they could join, he responded, “This is a free country,” and “You can do what you want.” The school demanded he stop, but he refused. As a result, he lost his job. An issue before the Supreme Court is whether the First Amendment speech and religious rights protect Kennedy’s brief prayer following games and whether the Establishment Clause justifies his dismissal. 

The clear message sent by the school district is that of hostility toward religion.  The Establishment Clause and First Amendment rights have always protected against this type of hostility by governmental entities against religious activity. 

Idaho is the First State to Pass Texas-Style Heartbeat Bill

This week, Idaho became the first state to pass a heartbeat bill with private enforcement modeled after the successful Texas Heartbeat Law.  The bill passed the Idaho House 51-14 on Monday and it passed the Idaho Senate 28-6 earlier this month. It is now headed to Gov. Little’s desk and he is expected to sign it.  Once signed, the law will go into effect after 30 days. The bill bans abortions starting at six weeks when the heartbeat of an unborn baby can be detected.  
Last year Texas led the fight by passing the Texas Heartbeat Law, the first of its kind in the nation to go into effect. There are some differences with the Idaho legislation. While Texas allows any citizen to sue anyone who is involved in committing an illegal abortion, Idaho’s bill modifies existing law and only allows a family member of the preborn child to sue the abortionist who commits an illegal abortion after the heartbeat is detected. With the Idaho bill, lawsuits against abortionists can be brought for up to four years after the abortion takes place.

Mind Polluters will be screening on March 22nd in Kaufman, TX and March 24th in Dallas, TX. Mind Polluters is about how the left is trying to pollute the minds of schoolchildren with inappropriate sex-ed material.  The documentary details the efforts of grassroots volunteers, legislators, and Christian academics to expose and stop the efforts of corrupt organizations and groups that seek to infiltrate the nation's school systems with pornographic and pedophilia materials.  Sen. Bob Hall will be hosting the March 22nd screening and Richardson ISD Families First will be hosting the March 24th screening. 

Texas Values already hosted a first screening on March 8th at Great Hills Baptist Church with 75 parents and community persons in attendance.  Texas Values hosted the public viewing with the organizations It Takes A Family and Concerned Parents of Texas.  At the event on March 8th, special guest speaker Steve Munisteri, senior advisor to Governor Greg Abbott gave opening remarks and there was a special video presentation from State Board of Education Member Tom Maynard.