April, 03 2009, 02:01pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
(202) 466-3234,Joe Conn,Rob Boston,Sandhya Bathija
Iowa Supreme Court Ruling on Marriage Upholds Religious Liberty, Says Americans United
Decision Reiterates That Religion Does Not Drive Public Policy, Says Church-State Watchdog Group
WASHINGTON
Today's Iowa Supreme Court decision striking down a state law
banning same-sex marriage is a welcome reaffirmation of religious
liberty, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
In its unanimous ruling,
the Iowa high court makes it clear that religious denominations have a
constitutional right to set their own rules about marriage but that
civil law should reflect equal protection for all citizens and not be
anchored in religious dogma.
"The court has reaffirmed religious liberty," said the Rev. Barry W.
Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "The justices reminded us
that religious groups are free to marry whomever they choose, but civil
law cannot be based on any group's theology.
"The court has recognized that civil marriage is the province of
government and religious marriage is the province of the faith
community," Lynn said. "That's what our constitutional principles
mandate, and that's the way it should be. Clergy are free to perform or
decline to perform marriage ceremonies, while the government treats
everyone equally when it comes to civil marriage."
Observed the court in its Varnum v. Brien ruling, "[C]ivil
marriage must be judged under our constitutional standards of equal
protection and not under religious doctrines or the religious views of
individuals. This approach does not disrespect or denigrate the
religious views of many Iowans who may strongly believe in marriage as
a dual-gender union, but considers, as we must, only the constitutional
rights of all people, as expressed by the promise of equal protection
for all. We are not permitted to do less and would damage our
constitution immeasurably by trying to do more."
The court also made clear that its decision protects the rights of religious groups that oppose same-sex unions.
"In the final analysis, we give respect to the views of all Iowans
on the issue of same-sex marriage religious or otherwise by giving
respect to our constitutional principles," the justices asserted.
"These principles require that the state recognize both opposite-sex
and same-sex civil marriage. Religious doctrine and views contrary to
this principle of law are unaffected, and people can continue to
associate with the religion that best reflects their views."
Added the court, "A religious denomination can still define marriage
as a union between a man and a woman, and a marriage ceremony performed
by a minister, priest, rabbi, or other person ordained or designated as
a leader of the person's religious faith does not lose its meaning as a
sacrament or other religious institution."
Lynn said this aspect of the ruling is important, as it debunks the
common Religious Right argument that houses of worship will be forced
to perform same-sex ceremonies.
"Religious Right scaremongers are trying to frighten clergy with
bald-faced lies," said Lynn. "The Iowa ruling makes clear just how
wrong this charge is."
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
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Humanitarian Groups Dread 2025 Aid Shortfall as Trump Term Looms
"At a time when the richest people on Earth can go to space as a tourist," said one advocate, "it is incomprehensible that we as an international community are unable to find the necessary funding to provide displaced families with shelter."
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As the United Nations humanitarian agency and its partner organizations launched the annual Global Humanitarian overview on Wednesday to appeal for aid ahead of 2025, officials shared sobering numbers: 305 million people in dire need of assistance, 190 million people the agencies believe they can help next year if funding demands are met, and $47 billion that's needed to help the people facing the greatest threats.
Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said governments, particularly those in wealthy countries like the United States, face "a choice" as the world bears witness to starvation, increasingly frequent climate disasters, and other suffering in Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
"We can respond to these numbers with generosity, with compassion, with genuine solidarity for those in the most dire need on the planet—or we can carry on," said Fletcher at a news briefing. "We can choose to leave them alone to face these crises. We can choose to let them down."
Fletcher and other humanitarian leaders noted that as of last month, just 43% of the $50 billion funding appeal made for 2024 had been met.
Food assistance in Syria has been cut by 80% as a result of the large funding gap, while protection services in Myanmar and water and sanitation aid in Yemen have also been reduced.
Fletcher said that with another major funding shortfall expected in 2025, OCHA and its partners are expecting to be forced to make "ruthless" decisions to direct aid to those most in need—likely leaving out 115 million people.
Fears that funding needs will be far from met in 2025 are arising partially from the election last month of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who pursued significant cuts during his first term to agencies including the U.N. Population Fund, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
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Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Secretary-General Jan Egeland, who led OCHA for three years, toldAl Jazeera that U.S. funding under the Trump administration is "a tremendous question mark."
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The U.S. is the largest humanitarian donor in the world, contributing $10 billion last year—but its donations pale in comparison to its military spending, which was budgeted at more than $841 billion in 2024, and the earnings of its top corporations.
As NRC noted, Facebook parent company Meta earned $47.4 billion—about the same amount humanitarian agencies are requesting this year—before income taxes in 2023.
Without naming billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk—a Trump ally and megadonor who's expected to have a role in his new administration—Camilla Waszink, director of partnership and policy at NRC, called out the widening gap between the world's richest people and those in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
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Fletcher noted that in addition to conflicts like Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the civil war in Sudan, the climate crisis is a major driver of growing humanitarian needs.
"2024 will be the hottest year on record," said Fletcher. "Presumably 2025 will then be the hottest year on record. Floods, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires affecting millions. We're on the brink of surpassing the 1.5°C in warming, and that will hit hardest in the countries that have actually contributed least to climate change. It wipes out food systems. It wipes out livelihoods, it forces communities to move from their homes and land. Drought has caused 65% of agricultural economic damage over the last 15 years, worsening food insecurity."
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Frontline communities along the Gulf Coast were granted a "temporary reprieve" last week when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moved to pause its approval of the controversial Calcasieu Pass 2 liquefied natural gas export terminal while it conducts an assessment of its impact on air quality.
FERC approved Venture Global's CP2 in late June despite opposition from local residents who say the company's nearly identical Calcasieu Pass terminal has already wracked up a history of air quality violations and disturbed ecosystems and fishing grounds in Louisiana's Cameron Parish, harming health and livelihoods.
"This order reveals that FERC recognizes that CP2 LNG's environmental impacts are too great to pass through any real scrutiny" Megan Gibson, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), said in a statement on Monday.
"FERC's pause on construction may give us some temporary reprieve, but this project never should have been authorized in the first place."
FERC's decision follows a request for a rehearing of its June decision filed by frontline residents and community groups including For a Better Bayou and Fishermen Involved in Sustaining Our Heritage (FISH) as well as the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In their request, the groups and individuals pointed to errors the commission had made in its approval decision.
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FERC's decision comes over four months after the D.C. Circuit Court remanded the commission's approval of Commonwealth LNG, also in Louisiana, over concerns that it had not fully assessed the impacts of that project's air pollution emissions. Now, frontline advocates are urging FERC to do its due diligence as it weighs the environmental impacts of CP2.
"Through the lenses of optical gas imaging, we've seen massive plumes of toxic emissions, undeniable proof that these projects poison the air we breathe," James Hiatt, director of For a Better Bayou, said of LNG export facilities. "Modeling must use the latest data from the most local sources to fully capture the harm these facilities inflict on Cameron Parish. Anything less is a betrayal of our community. FERC must choose justice over profit and stop sacrificing people for polluters."
Gibson of SELC said that FERC had already repeated some of the errors in its CP2 approval in its new order.
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FERC's decision comes as the fate of the LNG buildout itself hangs in the balance. The Biden administration's Department of Energy is currently rushing to complete its renewed assessment of whether or not LNG exports serve the public interest. Environmental and frontline groups have argued that they do not because of local pollution, the fact that they would raise domestic energy bills, and their contribution to the climate emergency. CP2 alone would spew 8,510,099 metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent per year, which is about the same as adding 1,850,000 new gas cars to the road.
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