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Supreme Court Must Protect Religious Freedom From Abuse of Power Amid Pandemic: Kelly Shackelford

Lin Wood Plans Supreme Court Petition After Appeals Court Rejects Georgia Appeal

Attorney Lin Wood said Sunday he plans to file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court denied his appeal in a case seeking block the certification of the 2020 election in Georgia. “The stakes are high as the case deals with a disputed Presidential election. I intend to timely file a petition with the United States Supreme Court,” Wood said in an email to The Epoch Times. A panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Saturday upheld a Nov. 19 ruling by judge Steven Grimberg, a Trump appointee, who said that Wood lacked legal standing as an individual voter to challenge Georgia’s election procedures. “We agree with the district court that Wood lacks standing to sue because he fails to allege a particularized…

Supreme Court Must Protect Religious Freedom From Abuse of Power Amid Pandemic: Kelly Shackelford

The U.S. Supreme Court is now the focus a battle about whether government officials can put places of worship under their control using emergency powers they gained amid the CCP virus pandemic, said Kelly Shackelford, who has been leading legal efforts to defend religious freedom for three decades.

Shackelford, during an interview with The Epoch Times’ “American Thought Leaders,” said it is “very disturbing” to see governors and mayors across the country start to target religious communities in abusing their new powers. “In state after state with some of these abusive leaders, they’re clearly treating churches, synagogues, houses of worship differently than similarly situated secular activities.”

Shackelford is the president and CEO of the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, the nation’s largest legal firm that solely focuses on cases involving religious freedom. In November, First Liberty joined a lawsuit on behalf of Danville Christian Academy, a Kentucky K-12 school, against Gov. Andy Beshear for his in-person class restrictions.

Citing a surge in CCP virus infections, the Democrat governor signed an executive order on Nov. 18 requiring all public, private, and religious-based schools to cease in-person classes from Nov. 23 until at least Jan. 4, 2021.

The Danville Christian Academy was ordered to close despite keeping only a small number of socially distanced young children in each classroom and uses “every precaution imaginable,” Shackelford told host Jan Jekielek. “I mean, all the religious schools across the state are being banned while at the same time it’s okay to have 3,000 people at the Kentucky basketball game. It’s okay to have strip clubs open, to have gambling parlors open, to go into a movie theater.”

Days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld Beshear’s executive order, First Liberty and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to nullify the appeal court’s ruling.

Shackelford said that with the recent addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the solid conservative majority will protect the parents’ right to choose a religious upbringing for their children, which he called “the most fundamental right in the First Amendment.”

“I understand judges wanting to be deferential to government officials to some extent, but we’re at a point now where if they don’t stand in for the people, then people have no freedoms, because it’s the court’s job to protect and to speak for the Constitution,” Shackelford said. “If they don’t, nobody will.”

“You really have officials across the country with unfettered power, and the Constitution really kind of鈥攁s Justice [Neil] Gorsuch said鈥攐n vacation, and that’s not how this country is supposed to work,” he continued. “So that was a really important decision that said, ‘No, the Constitution is not on vacation. The First Amendment applies, and is alive and well.’”

With interview by Jan Jekielek.

Follow Jan on Twitter: @JanJekielek

Focus News: Supreme Court Must Protect Religious Freedom From Abuse of Power Amid Pandemic: Kelly Shackelford

WA State Government Will Use Iron Ore Proceeds to Fund a New Maternity Hospital

A stunning surge in the iron ore price has propelled Western Australia’s budget further into surplus, with the government promising it will use the proceeds to fund the construction of a long-awaited new maternity hospital. A surplus of $2.2 billion this financial year will be forecast in the mid-year economic review to be released in the coming fortnight. It is an increase of $1 billion from what was projected in October’s state budget and a stark contrast to the deficits forecast in every other state. Premier Mark McGowan on Sunday announced the government will use the surplus proceeds to fund the construction of a new $1.8 billion women and babies hospital to replace the century-old King Edward Memorial Hospital in Subiaco. Construction will start in 2023 at the QEII medical…