Friday, June 04, 2010

Update: High School Graduation To Be Held In A Church

Last night the Board voted 5-4 not to appeal the court decision. Much to the disappointment of the American Center for Law & Justice lawyer...
Vincent McCarthy, the board's attorney, said after the vote that he was shocked that the board will not appeal the ruling. He said he intended for the board to file an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York.
Hartford Courant
My question is why would he be disappointed? If he were truly representing the school board then I would think he would acquiesce to their decision. Did he have some other agenda besides representing the school board, like having a test case to bring to the Supreme Court?

Update June 4 10:20AM
There is an excellent article by Rick Green in the Hartford Courant’s blog CtConfidential today…
Family Institute Supported Enfield Graduation Plan
Rick Green
June 4, 2010

The story here is the cozy relationship between the Family Institute of Connecticut, the American Center for Law & Justice and Enfield Board of Education Chairman Gregory Stokes and how they engineered a behind-the-scenes power play to move graduation and create a priceless public relations opportunity.

Enfield, you're just a side player in the Family Institute and Pat Robertson's American Center for Law & Justice's campaign to win more attention — and fundraising money — through this First Amendment misadventure. A blog post by Peter Wolfgang, the institute's executive director, titled "Enfield Victory: The Inside Story," explains what this is all about.

From the beginning of the Family Institute's campaign to get the board to change its mind early this year, this was about the ACLU, gay marriage and "the enemies of the Catholic church in Connecticut." E-mail fundraising alerts to Family Institute supporters throughout the state describe the fight as "an attack on religious liberty … all of Connecticut now has a stake in the ACLU's attack on one of Connecticut's largest protestant churches."

In another e-mail — coupled with more pleas for money — the Family Institute described the Enfield drama as "the beginning" of "the battle" with "the cultural Left."

Working behind the scenes with Stokes, American Center for Law & Justice lawyer Vincent McCarthy and First Cathedral Archbishop LeRoy Bailey, Wolfgang orchestrated a plan to get board members to support the church graduation.

This was never about merely where to hold high school graduation ceremonies. The Family Institute and its opportunistic friends used a small town to further a half-baked campaign against religious freedom.

The tragedy isn't merely about a trampling of the First Amendment. Two high school graduations have been hijacked.
You hear the religious right talk about the “Gay Agenda” but what is their agenda?

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