This case involves a state constitutional challenge to a type of school vouchers program in Georgia called the Qualified Education Tax Credit Program. ADL joined an amicus brief opposing the Department of Revenue’s assertion of a sovereign immunity defense and supporting the merits of the appellants’ constitutional claim. Georgia’s Constitution provides its legislature with broad sovereign immunity on which the lower court dismissed the constitutional challenge. The brief…

This case involved allegations of racial bias on the part of a juror in a 2010 sexual assault trial in Colorado. Following a guilty verdict at trial, two jurors reported that a third juror had expressed racial bias against the defendant, who is Latino, during jury deliberations. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion for a new trial and refused to consider those statements of racial bias, finding that a Colorado rule of evidence barred their admission as evidence. ADL joined with…

In 2013, Texas passed a law that created substantial obstacles to accessing abortion by including medically unnecessary requirements for clinics and health care providers. This case challenges those provisions. ADL joined with the National Women’s Law Center and 47 other organizations on an amicus brief that highlights the negative impact that the restrictions at issue in this case have on women’s economic security and equal participation in social and economic life. These include…

Arlene’s Flowers’ owner Barronelle Stutzman refused to sell flowers to a gay couple, Ingersoll and Freed, for their wedding. A Washington Superior Court ruled that the florist violated the state’s anti-discrimination law when she denied service to the couple and said that the defendants’ refusal based on her religious opposition to same sex marriage is, as a matter of law, a refusal based on Ingersoll and Freed’s sexual orientation in violation of the Washington…

This case involves a second challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, which generally requires employers to provide employee health insurance inclusive of prescription contraception coverage. Religiously-affiliated organizations challenged a provision of the mandate, which actually accommodates their free exercise of religion by allowing them to opt out of providing contraception coverage. Under the accommodation, such organizations are required to file a one-page…

In this case, set against a backdrop of strong anti-Muslim sentiment and incidents in Bernards, New Jersey, a Muslim congregation claims that the municipality adopted a land use ordinance to block construction of its mosque. The Interfaith Coalition on Mosques (ICOM)—formed by the Anti-Defamation League in 2010 to assist Muslim communities confronting opposition to the legal building, expansion or relocation of their mosques—joined a brief filed on behalf of a coalition of nearly…

Missouri’s constitution prohibits direct or indirect public aid to houses of worship and other religious institutions. Based on this provision, the State excludes houses of worship, including the petitioner—a church, from a program that provides direct grants to pay for outdoor resurfacing materials. ADL joined with American United for Separation of Church and State, other civil rights groups, and religious organizations on a friend-of-the court brief. It argues that the First…

Real Alternatives, Inc. is an admittedly secular, non-profit organization that provides "life-affirming alternatives to abortion services throughout the nation." The organization and its three full-time employees are morally opposed to abortion and certain forms of contraception. They brought a challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate ("Mandate") under 5th Amendment equal protection principles and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA") contending that similar…

This case involves a lesbian couple that was turned away by an Oregon bakery whose owners refused to make a cake for the couple’s wedding. The Oregon Labor Commissioner found that the bakery owners had violated Oregon law by discriminating against the women on the basis of their sexual orientation. The bakery and its owners appealed the Commissioner’s ruling to the Oregon Court of Appeals citing their Christian beliefs against marriage equality. In their opening brief, they…

The Birdville Independent School District School Board has a practice of inviting students to give invocations at the beginning of Board meetings. Other students regularly attend such meetings to participate as "student ambassadors," receive awards or recognition, or give musical or other performances. ADL joined an amicus brief arguing that this practice is unconstitutional. Specifically, it does not fall within a narrow historical exception to the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause…

At issue in this case is whether excluding an individual from jury service based on the color of her skin violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In this case the appellant asserted that the prosecutor improperly used his peremptory strikes to exclude all dark-skinned women from the jury. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Batson v. Kentucky, held that when a prosecutor uses a peremptory strike that raises an inference of racial discrimination, she must provide a race-neutral…

This case involves the constitutionality of Mississippi HB 1523 — the so-called "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act." HB 1523 provides sweeping, legal exemptions and immunities to public officials, individuals or business who or that hold one of three religious or moral beliefs: marriage should be limited to opposite sex-marriage; sexual relations should be limited to opposite-sex marriage; and "Male (man) or Female (woman) refer to an individual’s…

This case challenges Puerto Rico's Marriage Ban, a state constitutional amendment that defined marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. ADL filed a brief on behalf of a coalition of 25 organizations arguing that overturning the marriage ban would not only ensure that religious considerations do not improperly influence which marriages the state can recognize, but would also allow religious groups to decide the definition of marriage for themselves.

At issue in these cases is the constitutionality of a North Carolina school vouchers program called the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Although secular and religious private schools are eligible to receive vouchers under the program, close to three quarters of participating schools are religious. As a result, the program effectively diverts millions of public-education-fund dollars to religious schools, many of which infuse religion into their curricula; discriminate in admissions and…

The complainants in this case, a gay couple, were denied the opportunity to order a cake for their wedding reception by a Denver-area bakery with a policy and history of refusing to sell baked goods for occasions celebrating same-sex relationships. The Colorado Civil Rights Division held that this constituted sexual orientation discrimination in violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission upheld this finding and ordered the Cakeshop to change its…

These cases challenge Ohio's, Tennessee’s, Michigan’s, and Kentucky’s Marriage Bans, state constitutional amendments that define marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. ADL filed a brief on behalf of a coalition of 25 organizations that recounts how discriminatory laws targeting disadvantaged groups have long been justified by religious and moral disapproval, an argument that has been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. The brief also argued that overturning…

At issue in this case is whether a person violates the Massachusetts stalking statute by posting threatening comments or photographs on social media. ADL's brief argues that true threats—whether online or in person—fall outside First Amendment protections. The brief further argues that, in the Internet age, threats online can be just as damaging as threats issued face-to-face, and that a defendant need not necessarily specifically draw the victim’s attention to threatening…

Liberty Ridge Farm owners Cynthia and Robert Gifford refused to allow the complainants in this case, a lesbian couple, to hold their wedding at the Farm. The New York State Division of Human Rights and the Administrative Law Judge determined that owners of a wedding venue that operates as a place of public accommodation under New York's anti-discrimination law cannot discriminate on the basis of customers' sexual orientation because of the owners' religious beliefs. Liberty Ridge Farm…

In this case, the Texas Supreme Court will consider whether the display of bible verses and religious symbols on run-through banners prepared by public high school cheerleaders is unconstitutional. The content of these banners is approved by school officials and the district provides the cheerleaders with a field to display the messages prior to the football team running through the banners. ADL joined a coalition of faith-based and civil rights groups in arguing that the school sponsored…

At issue in this case is whether states may use total population—as opposed to number of registered voters or number of citizens of voting age—to draw district lines. Following the decennial census in 2010 the Texas Legislature adopted a redistricting plan that created roughly proportionally-sized state senate districts with regard to total population, including registered voters, eligible voters, and people who are ineligible to vote. While the districts had roughly the same total…