WASHINGTON – A statement from government lawyers that health plans could be modified to provide contraceptive care for women under special circumstances may bring an end to a Supreme Court fight over whether organizations that object to providing such services on religious grounds must offer coverage anyway, advocates for religious groups said Wednesday.
"The government, in its brief, admitted that it did have less restrictive ways to get the coverage to people," Mark Rienzi, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said during a briefing for reporters Wednesday. "Under federal civil rights law, that's really the end of the case, once the government admits it has less-restrictive approaches available that can work."
BOSTON – Three prestigious Massachusetts colleges were singled-out for stifling free speech on campus over the past year, earning them "muzzles" from the Thomas Jefferson Center.
Amherst College, Harvard University and Williams College were among 50 U.S. schools that curtailed students' First Amendment rights in 2015, drawing Jefferson Muzzle Awards from the Charlottesville, Virginia-based organization. The offenders weren't just administrators, organizers behind the tongue-in-cheek awards said. In some cases, students themselves blocked the free expression of ideas.
