Last week, Jackson Mayor Scott Conger opened a minor can of worms when he shared a Christmas card quality photo of himself and his family in Downtown Jackson.

He opened the post by asking how we can honor the birth of Christ and then posted James 1:19-20 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

He then wished everyone reading a Merry Christmas.

By the time Christmas was over, there were more than 400 comments on the post with many of them wishing Merry Christmas back to the mayor and some even acknowledging their appreciation that he would mention Jesus Christs birth in his holiday message, something that many government officials opt not to do for varying reasons.

But among the more than 400 comments were a few that accused him of violating the First Amendment, specifically the part about freedom of religion.

Conger actually replied to a couple of them defending his statement with another part of the First Amendment, freedom of speech.

Now Im all for constructively criticizing Jacksons mayor as much as the next person when its warranted, but I dont think this is one of those times.

A lot of people seem to misunderstand the freedom of religion part of the First Amendment.

They seem to expect that when a person is elected to office or hired for a job within the government that theyre expected to leave their religion outside City Hall or the Courthouse or the White House or wherever theyre serving.

But thats not the case.

When the nations founding fathers wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they were trying to make a nation that was the exact opposite of the nation they were breaking free from in England.

And that country imposed a national religion and expected all citizens to follow that religion if they wanted to be a part of that country or its empire.

So freedom of religion keeps the United State of Americas federal government and every state and local government within its borders from forcing a certain religion or any religion for that matter on its citizens.

It doesnt keep religion out of government.

It doesnt mean that a person who claims to be a Christian and runs for mayor is to refrain from praying or going to church or reading the Bible or anything like that while he or she is in office for four years every time he or she is elected.

If were to use Conger in this example, he just cant make any executive orders or push the City Council to pass any resolutions forcing or prohibiting one particular religion on Jacksons citizens.

I can tell you that one of Congers early executive orders during the pandemic had a line that was difficult to decipher regarding churches meeting, and I had conversations with city officials on a specific Friday in the spring of 2020 letting them know we at The Sun were prepared to do appropriate reporting that weekend and the following week if the executive order did restrict gatherings at church and law enforcement did enforce it before I was assured that the order was not prohibiting religious gatherings.

Faith may play a role in decisions he makes. At the state level, Gov. Bill Lee isnt shy about how his Christianity influences him to make some of the decisions he makes. And of course that brings out similar accusations against Lee that Congers Merry Christmas post did.

Of course a Merry Christmas wish from a city mayor and a policy declaration by a state governor are two different things with different ramifications.

But the checks and balances system of our government is in place for when that gray area of religion in government tends to get too dark on the side of religion if a policy affects a person or group of people too much.

But checks and balances do not affect whether or not someone can say Merry Christmas. And no ones First Amendment rights were violated last week with Congers post.

Save that argument for when it matters.

Brandon Shields is the editor of The Jackson Sun. Reach him at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.

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First Amendment is freedom of religion, not from it | Opinion - The Jackson Sun

Omicron is still raging across the country, but this holiday season it was houses of worship, not the state, that decided whether to gather or move celebrations online.

Governors and mayors are still issuing restrictions in the name of safeguarding the public, like requiring vaccine passports. But they are not shuttering houses of worship the way they did early in the pandemic.

That may be because last year, the U.S. Supreme Court erected a firewall around religious liberty. And that firewall appears to be holding.

In Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Andrew M. Cuomo, the court schooled the executive branch: (T)he Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten.

The high court overturned restrictions in California, Nevada and New York that regulated worship more harshly than economic activity. For instance, Nevada capped religious services at 50 people, while casinos could operate at 50% capacity. California even encroached on in-home worship, prohibiting more than three families from worshipping in a persons home or backyard.

Many people reflexively side with public health, for good reason. The coronavirus has yet to relinquish its grasp on society. But we cannot overlook the degree to which worship was relegat(ed) to third-class citizenship, as charged by the South Bay United Pentecostal Church, which twice reached the Supreme Court in challenging Californias orders.

In early 2020, South Bay simply wanted to open. California said no one could safely worship, even in the most cavernous cathedral. In May 2020, California allowed 100 worshipers. South Bay wanted to serve more. The church pointed out that California permitted factories and restaurants to reopen with safeguards; why couldnt the church?

That same month, the Supreme Court narrowly sustained Californias 100-person cap on worship gatherings, citing a century-old case holding that (o)ur Constitution principally entrusts (t)he safety and the health of the people to the politically accountable officials of the States.

But by February 2021, with vaccines becoming available, the court lost patience. Lacking sufficient justification, it struck the cap. Deference, though broad, has its limits, Chief Justice John Roberts noted.

Many ascribe the Supreme Courts intolerance of worship restrictions in 2021 to the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, but the justices were simply applying precedent.

Singl(ing) out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment draws strict scrutiny, the Supreme Court held in 1993. This means that the government must show a compelling interest and no less restrictive means to achieving exceedingly important ends. Yet these orders read like edicts, Justice Neil Gorsuch would later say, because almost no explanation was given.

Californias orders are a prime example. In press conferences about the states 100-person cap, Gov. Gavin Newsom cited stock CDC guidance about the need to contain the contagion given spiraling case numbers. When asked by reporters why he was applying specific and different caps on places of worship and not schools, Newsom said, Perfects not on the menu.

He did not explain what factors guided Californias categories or why people mixing from far and wide in an enclosed space was a problem in church, but not in factories. The Constitution and the First Amendment were nowhere mentioned.

Two Californians sued over the restrictions on in-home worship. They challenged why they could watch John Legend sing outdoors ... (but not) host their faith community in their backyard.

True, worship gatherings had acted as super-spreaders early on. But so had factories, meatpacking plants and nursing homes. According to California, factories were safe because entry could be staggered. But the litigants offered to stagger the congregants entry and implement requirements for social distancing and masks.

Calvary Chapel in Nevada sued Gov. Steve Sisolak twice, asking to host worship services on the same terms as casinos at 50% capacity, not just 50 people.

Gorsuch skewered the disparity: (T)here is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel.

Later, the federal courts struck Nevadas scheme as discriminatory, violating the First Amendment.

New York also violated a cardinal First Amendment rule. It created cluster zones, with the tightest restrictions in the center and looser ones moving outward. On CNN, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo blamed the ultra-Orthodox community for creating clusters. Catholic schools happen(ed) to be in the zone, too.

In red zones, houses of worship could accommodate 10 or fewer people, yet essential businesses like warehouses faced no caps. In yellow zones, places of worship were capped at 50% capacity; restaurants in yellow zones at that time had no cap on the total number seated.

Agudath synagogues and Brooklyns Roman Catholic Diocese both sued Cuomo, charging that he was targeting religion.

During litigation, the governors experts could cite no evidence of spread from the Orthodox community and admitted that the Brooklyn diocese was in fact taking the necessary precautions, just as essential businesses do.

The Supreme Court struck New Yorks policy, finding that it discriminated against people of faith.

Adding insult to injury, all three states permitted places of worship to reopen only after services deemed essential, like liquor stores and bike shops.

These ill-constructed orders were expensive. All three states paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees. Thankfully, during this holiday season, governments have not retread these orders.

If omicron or another variant forces more restrictions, governors and mayors would do well to construct coherent policies and transparently explain them from the beginning. Asking people to forego worship, an important source of support during crisis, should only happen when governments articulate the criteria for restricting core liberties in such a way that all of us can understand the need.

Robin Fretwell Wilson holds the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois College of Law and is a Public Voices fellow with The OpEd Project.

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COVID and churches: Can the government force churches to close? - Deseret News

(Red Oak) -- Resident's hopes of making Montgomery County a second amendment sanctuary will have to wait.

Meeting in regular session Tuesday morning, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors discussed the potential of making Montgomery County a second amendment sanctuary. The discussion comes after county resident Jerald Palmquist introduced a resolution passed by Page County in October to declare their county a second amendment sanctuary. The board heard from those in favor and against the idea during the public comment period, including resident Glenn Mason, who says he's against the idea of any "sanctuary."

"My thing has nothing to do with the second amendment, mine is only that I do not think that local (governments) should pick and choose which laws they're going to obey, and which ones they're not going to obey," Mason said. "You know if you don't like a law and say it infringes your rights, take it to court."

However, resident Michael Luna says he feels the second amendment can protect the others under attack, including the first amendment.

"It's not of matter of if, it's a matter of when because of what they're doing to the first amendment, they're going to do it to the second amendment, they're going to come for your guns," Luna said. "I'm not necessarily a gun nut, but I believe in the right to keep and bear arms. It's up to the local and state governments to stand up to government overreach by the federal government. It has to start here, it has to start in this room, and start in this town."

Currently, at least 28 other counties in Iowa have signed on to the ordinance, including Page, Mills, Adams, Taylor, Ringgold, and Union counties in KMAland.

Montgomery County Attorney Drew Swanson also advised the board that, as of right now, the sanctuary resolution appears to carry little weight if challenged.

"It hasn't been challenged at the federal level at all yet from what I can see, so there's really no precedent to go by," Swanson said. "However, what I have found is that the legal community is likely seeing this as not really enforceable if push should come to shove. So you can do it, but it's questionable how much weight it would carry if it were challenged at some level."

Montgomery County Sheriff Jon Spunaugle and several board members felt more research was needed to determine whether the resolution was even necessary.

Thus, the Board of Supervisors took no formal action on the topic Tuesday and will bring the discussion of making the county a second amendment sanctuary back to their agenda on their January 11th meeting at 8:30 a.m.

At KMA, we attempt to be accurate in our reporting. If you see a typo or mistake in a story, please contact us by emailing kmaradio@kmaland.com.

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Montgomery County holds off on 'second amendment sanctuary' resolution - KMAland

Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and thats what this is all about. And we fight, we fight like hell.

Former President Donald Trumps speech on January 6 may have set off a violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, but it also framed the mission.

In 2021, the Southern Poverty Law Center entered its fifth decade standing up for the powerless and exploited, focusing on impact legislation in Childrens Rights, Economic Justice, Immigrant Justice, LGBTQ Rights, Voting Rights and Criminal Justice Reform. | SPLC's Top Cases of 2021

While more than a dozen U.S. states, including Florida and Georgia, implement laws that make it harder for citizens to vote we fight.

While migrants continue to be turned away at the Southern border we fight.

As verdicts continue to render signs of systemic racism we fight.

Here are some of the most memorable events in the fight for justice that occurred in 2021.

A mob breached the halls of Congress on January 6 to prevent U.S. lawmakers from certifying the Electoral College vote.

Five people died. About 140 police officers were assaulted during 187 chaotic minutes.

The siege of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., pointed to a troubling trend: While the Southern Poverty Law Center tracked a variety of extremists and far-right and anti-government groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, a large number of those arrested in the aftermath were not affiliated with a specific hate or anti-government group.

Some of the accused insurrectionists include individuals aligned with QAnon, an umbrella term for a spiderweb of right-wing conspiracy theories.

While a Select Committee of Congress attempts to make sense of the mayhem that transpired, federal prosecutors have charged almost 700 people with violent crimes that range from conspiracy to destruction of property.

On Jan. 14, Kelvin Silva one of many Black men held at a remote immigrant prison in Georgia faced deportation because of an archaic and racially inequitable law known as the Guyer Rule that prevented him from becoming a U.S. citizen as a child, even though his father was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Were it not for the Guyer Rule, Silva who was born in the Dominican Republic but grew up in the United States would have automatically gained citizenship when he was just 11-years-old.

The SPLC and its co-counsel continue to represent Silva in a federal court challenge that claims the Guyer Rule which since 1940 has prevented U.S.-citizen fathers, but not U.S.-citizen mothers, from passing their citizenship status to foreign-born, nonmarital children is unconstitutional because it discriminates based on gender and race.

The SPLC, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Georgia, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), and law firms WilmerHale and Davis Wright Tremaine filed a federal lawsuit against Georgias sweeping new law that makes it much harder for all Georgians to vote, particularly voters of color, new citizens and religious communities.

The lawsuit challenges multiple provisions in Georgia law S.B. 202 signed by Gov. Brian Kemp following record turnout of voters, particularly Black voters, for the 2020 presidential vote and 2021 runoff elections.

A federal court in December rejected three motions filed by the State of Georgia, county defendants and intervenor defendants which include the Republican National Committee and other campaign arms of the Republican Party to dismiss the case.

The litigation is scheduled to proceed.

More than three decades after first introduced, a U.S. House committee voted and approved legislation to create a commission to study slavery reparations for Black citizens in the U.S.

The legislation would establish a 13-person commission to study the effects of slavery and racial discrimination throughout U.S. history and recommend potential remedies, including compensation. It awaits movement in the Senate.

Reparation efforts have made progress at the local level, including in Evanston, Illinois, which in March became the first U.S. city to institute a reparations program.

A jury on April 20 found the former Minneapolis Police officer, who knelt on George Floyds neck for more than nine minutes, guilty on three counts of murder and manslaughter.

The death of Floyd, a Black man, at the hand of a white police officer in May 2020 sparked a national racial reckoning to fundamentally transform policing and end police violence against Black people.

Derek Chauvin, 45, was sentenced to serve a prison term of 22 years, six months. A federal civil rights trial for three other Minneapolis police officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao charged in connection with Floyds death is expected to begin in January 2022. Chauvin pleaded guilty on Dec. 15 to the federal charge, possibly extending his imprisonment by 2 years.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which bans chokeholds and ends qualified immunity the legal protection that limits victims ability to sue police officers for misconduct awaits further action in the Senate after gaining approval in the House in March.

People continue to lay flowers on April 6, 2021, at the George Floyd Mural in Houstons Third Ward, where Floyd grew up. (Credit: Sipa USA/Alamy Live News)

About 15 months after Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, was chased and gunned down while jogging through a neighborhood in south Georgia, state lawmakers repealed a Civil War-era law used to defend the white men charged with his murder.

The law allowed any citizen to arrest another if a crime was committed within his immediate knowledge. It was replaced by a new law, with specific language for citizen detainment under specific circumstances and prohibits the use of deadly force unless in self-defense.

Gregory McMichael; his son, Travis; and their neighbor William Roddie Bryan were convicted in November of killing Arbery, who was not armed. A graphic video showing how the three men followed Arbery and caused his death was made public following prosecutors initial dismissal of the case under the citizens arrest law.

One former prosecutor, Jackie Johnson, was indicted in September on charges she violated her oath of public office.

Small oil on canvas portraits, like this one of Ahmaud Arbery in Detroit, are part of the Healing Wall installation created by artist Carol Morisseau for the Soul of Black Folks exhibition, curated by the artist Donna Jacksons partnership with Scarab Club in Detroit. The photograph of the oil painting was taken on Feb. 4, 2021. (Credit: USATNSYNDICATION)

Following a rise in violence and discrimination against people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent amid the coronavirus pandemic, Congress on May 20 passed a bill that creates grants for state and local governments to combat hate crimes and supports a national incident-based reporting system. It also provides for additional penalties for hate-crime offenses.

The bill incorporated portions of the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer National Opposition to Hate, Assault, and Threats to Equality (NO HATE) Act, which was previously introduced in response to high-profile attacks on the LGBTQ, Jewish, Muslim and other communities.

The bill was named in honor of Khalid Jabara, who was killed in 2016 after months of racially charged animus directed at him and his Lebanese-American family; and Heather Heyer, who was killed in 2017 while protesting the Unite the Right white supremacist gathering in Virginia.

In 2021, the SPLC identified more than 300 public schools named for Gen. Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders the majority in the South. But that is changing.

More than a year after Montgomery, Alabama, officials moved to rename three public schools linked to members of the Confederacy, a committee made up of community leaders and students took on the daunting effort of narrowing the chosen favorites from nearly 2,000 public submissions. That may be the simplest task.

The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017 forbids public schools 20 years or older from being renamed without a waiver from the attorney general, with violations incurring a $25,000 fine.

The three schools in Montgomery were named for Lee, Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Sidney Lanier, a Confederate soldier.

Upstate in Huntsville, city school officials have sought guidance from the state for renaming a high school named for Lee that was relocated in 2012.

Similar efforts have taken place across Georgia, Florida and Louisiana.

In November, however, Georgias public university system ignored the recommendations by an advisory group convened by the Board of Regents to rename 75 buildings and colleges that bear the names of Confederate leaders, segregationists and proponents of slavery.

In a statement rejecting the proposal, the board said, The purpose of history is to instruct. History can teach us important lessons, lessons that if understood and applied make Georgia and its people stronger.

Like in Alabama, a 2019 law in Georgia outlaws the removal or defacing of monuments to the Confederacy.

Fair Elections Center and the SPLC filed a lawsuit to challenge Florida Senate Bill 90, an omnibus voting rights bill that, among other things, requires civic organizations engaged in voter registration activities to provide misleading information to voters that the organization might not submit their registration application on time and to direct voters to the online registration portal.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Harriet Tubman Freedom Fighters Corp., a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that focuses its registration efforts on new voters, particularly youth, communities of color and returning citizens.

The complaint challenges the new laws misleading disclaimer and disclosure requirements and alleges that the new law is void for vagueness under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, compels speech in violation of the First Amendment, and prevents organizations from exercising their First Amendment expressive and associational rights.

Spurred by advocates and the Congressional Black Caucus, on June 15, the Senate unanimously passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing Juneteenth (June 19) as a federal holiday.

It was the first national holiday established since Martin Luther Kings Birthday in 1983.

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Its name stems from June 19, 1865, when more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally received word that they were free from bondage.

Amy Donofrio a 13-year, nationally recognized educator was banned from her Jacksonville, Florida, classroom in March after declining to remove a Black Lives Matter flag above her classroom door at Riverside High School, which until recently was named Robert E. Lee High School in honor of the Confederate States Army leader who was an enslaver and white supremacist.

In April, the SPLC and Scott Wagner and Associates, P.A. filed a lawsuit against the Duval County Public Schools seeking to reinstate Donofrio to her teaching position and requested a court order banning school policies that prevent educators from exercising their First Amendment rights. The district settled in August, but Donofrios contract was not renewed.

Teacher Amy Donofrio stands outside Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida. (Credit: Evac Movement)

A 12-ton statue of Confederate States Army leader Robert E. Lee that was erected in Richmond, Virginia, in 1890 was removed to the celebratory cheers of activists.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam had ordered the statues removal a year earlier amid the nationwide protest movement, but litigation halted plans until a state Supreme Court ruling allowed its removal.

The statue, listed since 2007 in the National Register of Historic Places, was one of the largest Confederate monuments remaining in the United States. Symbols of the Confederacy have been identified in 36 states and the District of Columbia as well as Puerto Rico. See our map.

The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Aug. 24 would have updated the Voting Rights Act (VRA) to strengthen sections of the 1965 law that were gutted by the Supreme Courts 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision that required the U.S. Justice Department preclearance before some states could change voting laws.

This year, 19 states have passed 33 laws making it harder to vote.

On Nov. 3, U.S. Senate Republicans voted to block debate on the bill and prevent it from receiving a floor vote.

Kyle Rittenhouse, armed with an AR-style automatic rifle, said he went from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to protect property during a night of protesting there in the summer of 2020 over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer. But Rittenhouse, then 17, said he came under attack, and fearing for his life, shot three men.

Rittenhouse, now 18, was charged with homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangerment for killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, 27. Rittenhouse, like his victims, is white.

After nearly 3 1/2 days of deliberations, a jury on Nov. 19 cleared Rittenhouse of all charges.

The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse will add fuel to the fire of armed radicalization of America, said SPLC president and CEO Margaret Huang. That a while male youth can travel across state lines, armed with an assault rifle, and engage in armed confrontation resulting in multiple deaths without facing criminal accountability, is the all-too-familiar outcome in a country where systemic racism continues to rot the system.

People react to the verdict in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, outside the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Nov. 19, 2021. (Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

A jury in Virginia found organizers of Unite the Right, a 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, liable for damages and ordered them to pay more than $25 million to victims.

The nonprofit organization Integrity First for America (IFA) brought the lawsuit against 24 individuals and organizations, who unapologetically acknowledged their racist and antisemitic beliefs but denied a conspiracy. A few cast the trial as a referendum on First Amendment rights.

Unite the Right, a planned protest over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee that was to feature one of the largest gatherings of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and alt-right adherents in decades, never got off the ground.

Among those held accountable was James Alex Fields, a neo-Nazi, who was found guilty in 2018 of murdering 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer by driving his car into a crowd of counterprotesters following the rally. Serving a sentence of 419 years plus life, he was ordered to pay $12 million in damages.

Soon after taking office in January, President Joe Biden ended the Trump-era policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) in an attempt to take a more humane approach to immigration. In August, a federal judge ruled the administrations efforts did not follow proper procedure and ordered the policy's reinstatement, forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. immigration hearings.

The SPLC and immigration advocates filed an amended complaint in a class action lawsuit challenging the continuing effects of the Remain in Mexico policy, which restarted on Dec. 6 at one border location and will eventually be adopted at seven entry points, including San Diego and the Texas cities of Laredo, El Paso and Brownsville.

Photo at top: Cutouts of activists and protestors combined along with the victims of injustice they supported throughout 2021. (Credit: SPLC)

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The Year in Review: Events that shaped 2021 - Southern Poverty Law Center