Two-thirds of Americans think that "internal religious disputes" and decisions about who to employ in religious teaching positions should be up to religious organizations, not the state.

The failed attempt by NBC News to demonetize The Federalist puts to rest any idea that the legacy media cares about objectivity or free speech.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered removal of an ad campaign for 'Man In The High Castle,' an alt-history TV show about the dangers of fascism. //

The ad campaign had been approved by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, of course, but Amazon had agreed to pull the advertisements after pressure from government officials.

But you have to get to the very end of the Associated Press account to learn who actually “pulled” the ads from the subway. And for controversy about a show on the dangers of fascist totalitarianism, the answer may surprise you:

Officials confirmed Wednesday that Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered them removed. //

But the story couldn’t be more interesting. Fascism is so bad that the ruling authority needs to decide what commercial speech is acceptable in public spaces? The governor ordering the ads pulled is exactly the kind of government control the show warns about.

Why treat places of worship differently? //

Late last night, the Supreme Court handed down an Order in the case of South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom. The Church had sought injunctive relief from California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order limiting attendance in places of worship to the lesser of 25% capacity or 100 people.

In the Order denying the injunction, Chief Justice Roberts sided with the liberal wing of the Court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh penned a dissent, joined by the other three conservative justices.

The primary distinction drawn between the majority and the dissent is their characterization of places of worship in relation to other secular gathering places. The majority likens churches and other places of worship to such secular gatherings as “lectures, concerts, movie showings, spectator sports, and theatrical performances, where large groups of people gather in close proximity for extended periods of time.” Roberts draws a distinction between these gatherings/venues, such as “grocery stores, banks, and laundromats,” noting that in those are venues “in which people neither congregate in large groups nor remain in close proximity for extended periods.” //

Justice Kavanaugh notes that the State could simply impose the same (reasonable) occupancy caps across the board. But because it chose to impose stricter limits on certain venues, including houses of worship, while taking a looser approach with supermarkets, restaurants, and offices, the State appears to be discriminating against religion without providing a compelling justification for doing so

Instagram is claiming a children's book about a girl transporting back in time to learn about the history of women's suffrage might influence an election.

The mandates on the state's churches will be replaced by recommendations from the Illinois Department of Health.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is calling on the DOJ and Treasury Department to investigate whether Twitter is violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. //

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is calling on the Justice Department and the Treasury Department to conduct a criminal investigation into Twitter probing whether the tech giant is violating U.S. sanctions against Iran by providing Iranian leaders an online platform. //

“I believe that the primary goal of (the International Emergency Economic Powers Act) and sanctions law should be to change the behavior of designated individuals and regimes,” Cruz wrote. “But when a company willfully and openly violates the law after receiving formal notice that it is unlawfully supporting designated individuals, the federal government should take action.” //

Twitter did not respond when asked why it has failed to register as an agent of the foreign governments whose propaganda it publishes unfiltered.

On Tuesday, Twitter began censoring Trump's tweets less than a year after a federal court ruled that the president is barred from blocking other users. //

Hey Twitter, fact-check this…a member of my staff received THREE mail-in ballots, addressed to three different individuals, to the same address! And they say your claims of ballot-fraud are “unsubstantiated” @realDonaldTrump. //

In 2012, the New York Times headlined a piece, “Error and Fraud at Issue as Absentee Voting Rises.”

“There is a bipartisan consensus that voting by mail, whatever its impact, is more easily abused than other forms,” the Times wrote. “Votes cast by mail are less likely to be counted, more likely to be compromised and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth, statistic show. Election officials reject almost 2 percent of ballots cast by mail, double the rate for in-person voting.”

A 2005 commission chaired by former Democratic President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker III also found that “absentee ballots remain the largest source of voter fraud” and is “vulnerable to abuse in several ways.” Ballots can be sent to wrong addresses and “voting schemes are far more difficult to detect.”

Marc Thiessen points out in the Washington Post that there is a major difference between mailing ballots to a small fraction of the electorate that requests one rather than to every registered voter in the country, as Democrats have proposed. //

Trump therefore, under current circumstances can’t block other users from viewing his posts on a platform that censors his own content. Is that legal?

Of course the Trump administration is playing tough with the media — because the media has played tough with him before he was even elected. Nearly every question asked in the briefing room is usually in the loaded construction of, “As you know, things are terrible, and it’s your fault, care to comment?” McEnany has decided to hit back.

This isn’t about the First Amendment. The media in the United States can say whatever the hell it wants — and we, as the New York Post, thank heaven for that every day. But there’s nothing in the Constitution that says the press secretary has to be polite about it.

You know what word needs to be retired in the age of Trump? “Unprecedented.”

President John Adams signed a law making it a crime to criticize the government; 20 newspaper editors were imprisoned. Andrew Jackson not only had his own paper, edited by a member of his cabinet, but it got government subsidies. Kayleigh McEnany hurting your feelings is not a constitutional crisis.

You buy ink by the barrel, fill the airwaves 24 hours a day and get millions of clicks on your websites. Victims? Get over yourselves.

Churchgoers across the country are reasserting their fundamental rights of conscience—rights that too many political leaders have forgotten or denied. //

On Friday, President Trump said churches and houses of worship are “essential” and called on governors nationwide to allow them to open this weekend. If they don’t, Trump said he would “override” governors, citing forthcoming guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In remarks Thursday, the president criticized some governors who have “deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential” but not churches. “It’s not right. So I’m correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential.” //

At the end of Thomas Jefferson’s life, in typical Jeffersonian fashion he designed his own tombstone and wrote his own epitaph: “Author of the Declaration of American Independence / of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom / and Father of the University of Virginia.”

It’s easy to see why Jefferson included the Declaration, which gave birth to a new nation, and the University of Virginia, which was—and is—a monument to his genius. But why include a state statute for religious freedom?

Because Jefferson understood what Walz, Newsom, Murphy and others have forgotten or rejected: that “our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to God.”

There's defiance and then there's Defiance.

Lowering the boom.

The Department Of Justice recently expressed support for a Virginia church who is suing Gov. Northam over restrictive COVID-19 measures. //

The DOJ’s statement argued that treating churches differently from businesses could demonstrate that Northam is unfairly burdening churches by holding them to a different standard. In a press release, officials wrote:

“Because the executive orders prohibit Lighthouse’s sixteen-person, socially distanced gathering in a 225-seat church but allow similar secular conduct, such as a gathering of 16 lawyers in a large law firm conference room, the governor’s executive orders may constitute a violation of the church’s constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion.”

The statement also explained, “It will be difficult for the Commonwealth to justify having one set of rules that allows for secular gatherings — such as in-person operations for any non-retail business and various other exemptions permitting large-scale retail gatherings — while denying to Lighthouse the ability to worship in modest numbers with appropriate social distancing and sanitizing precautions.”

The Department of Justice announced it will aid a Virginia church suing Gov. Ralph Northam after a pastor was threatened with jail time or a $2,500 fine for hosting a 16-person church service on Palm Sunday. According to Northam’s shelter-in-place restrictions, churches cannot hold services with more than 10 people.

The DOJ filed a Statement of Interest in a Virginia federal court citing freedom of religion in support of Lighthouse Fellowship Church, a congregation in Chincoteague Island, Virginia. According to the DOJ’s statement, the congregation serves, among others, recovering drug addicts and former prostitutes. //

“The church held a sixteen-person worship service in its 225-seat sanctuary while maintaining rigorous social-distancing and personal-hygiene protocols. Northam’s executive order bans in-person religious services of more than 10 people, meanwhile it permits gatherings of more than 10 people in non-essential retail businesses such as liquor stores, dry cleaners, department stores, and more. //

The DOJ believes Northam’s executive order violates Lighthouse Fellowship Church’s constitutional right to exercise freedom of religion, and argue the order specifically attacks religious gatherings while permitting secular activities to take place without restrictions.

mid the coronavirus pandemic, authorities are shutting down churches, and pastors are being arrested. What does the law say about all of this?

The HHS rule is designed to protect the religious rights of health care providers and religious institutions by allowing them to opt out of procedures such as abortions, sterilizations and assisted suicide. But critics say that the broad scope of the policy will allow for discrimination against women and members of the LGBTQ community.

Abolishing group gatherings is fine if such limits apply to everyone, but if they only apply to churchgoers that’s a moral and legal problem.

The Michigan Conservative Coalition organized a protest against the state’s Governor, Gretchen Whitmer. They planned to create a traffic jam around the Michigan Capitol Building in Lansing, as a symbolic gesture of disagreement with Whitmer’s “Stay Safe, Stay Home directive” which they call #OperationGridlock.

A message found on the MCC’s website read, “We are all concerned for those afflicted with COVID 19. Yes, many of the personal behaviors we have been reminded to use are good practices. Wash your hands. Cover your cough. Stay home if you are sick. That said, Michiganders are fed up!”

Protestors carried signs that said, “Heil Whitmer,” “Open Michigan,” “End Crackdown” and “Impeach Whitmer.” ///

1st Amendment: the right to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for redress is a God-given right and cannot be restricted by the government.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it will take action in a religious liberty case involving churches in Greenville, Mississippi, where police officers issued $500 tickets to church members who refused to leave the parking lot for a drive-in Easter church service.

The DOJ told Fox News they believe the court filing “strongly suggests that the city’s actions target religious conduct.” The DOJ said the United States files in cases that have “important issues of religious liberty in courts at every level, from trial courts to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Attorney General William Barr issued a statement giving guidance on how the DOJ should work with religious-liberty cases.

“Religious liberty is a fundamental principle of enduring importance in America, enshrined in our Constitution and other sources of federal law,” Barr said. //

AG BILL BARR: "Government may not impose special restrictions on religious activity that do not also apply to similar nonreligious activity."

PROTECTING THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF ALL AMERICANS

The American Constitutional Rights Union (ACRU) is dedicated to defending the constitutionally-protected civil rights of all Americans.

While many other organizations, such as the ACLU, are intent on shifting court decisions and public opinion against American values, we work every day to safeguard the liberties enshrined in our Constitution