Bevin Demands Forced Indoctrination for Foster Children

Violations of the Establishment Clause forbidding government from promoting religion rarely gets as blatant as this. Not that Governor Lying Coward gives a shit about the Constitution, genuine religion freedom or the well-being of foster children.

From the AP:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's administration has asked a judge to throw out a legal settlement made under former Gov. Steve Beshear that was meant to ensure church-run foster care programs don't sway children to their religious beliefs.

Executive branch lawyers said this week that the court should undo the settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Courier-Journal reported (http://cjky.it/2atVLI1 ). The state's position and all-around "philosophy" has changed now that Bevin is in office, the lawyers said in court filings.

Bevin is a Republican, while Beshear is a Democrat.

Alex Luchenitser, an attorney for Americans United, said the state must stick to the agreement.

"It's a binding agreement and there is no basis for the state to get out of the agreement," Luchenitser said.

The state agreed in 2014 to let Americans United and the ACLU access surveys and exit interviews with children under certain conditions to ensure foster programs aren't trying to proselytize to children. According to the settlement, the two organizations can access the information only if a state inspector general investigation has been initiated.

Now We Find Ot Just How Freakazoid Ky Courts Are

This decision will choose a definite winner between the anti-Constitution, un-American freakazoids in the Governor's Office who threw $40 million to the frauds at Stupidity in Genesis, and the Separation-of-Church-and-State patriots in the Tourism Cabinet who said no fucking way.

Dylan Lovan at the Herald:

The Christian ministry building a Noah's Ark theme park sued Kentucky tourism officials Thursday, saying they violated the group's free speech rights by denying them an $18 million tax incentive.

The incentive was meant for the Ark Encounter, a theme park plan that will be built in phases around a 500-foot-long wooden ark modeled after the Bible's story of Noah. State officials said in December that the project's mission had changed from tourist attraction to ministry, and denied the benefit.

In the lawsuit, the Answers in Genesis ministry said religious beliefs should not prohibit the group from participating in the tax incentive plan. The suit names the tourism cabinet and Gov. Steve Beshear.

SNIP
Critics of tax incentives for the ark park have also cited potential constitutional violations, saying the state should not be giving money to a group that will practice discrimination in hiring. The Washington-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State had threatened its own lawsuit before the state withdrew the tax benefit.

The ministry is asking a federal judge to compel tourism officials to place the ark project back into the incentive program.

Kentucky Tourism Secretary Bob Stewart said in a December letter that the state could not provide incentive money to an attraction that would screen hires for religious preference and proselytize to visitors.

The 48-page lawsuit argues that Answers in Genesis can do just that. It says "a ban on religious proselytizing would be unlawful, as well as impossible to enforce." And due to a change in structure that put it under the ownership of a non-profit, the theme park has the right to show a preference for applicants who share the ministry's strict beliefs, the suit says.

In 2013, the Kentucky General Assembly overrode Gov. Beshear's veto of the Hateful Freakazoids Get to Break All the Laws bill, which allows anyone to do anything they goddamn well please in the name of "personal beliefs."

So I fully expect the Kentucky Supreme Court, when it eventually hears this case, to rule against the Tourism Cabinet, Kentucky taxpayers, the state and federal Constitutions, the principle of separation of church and state, secularism, law and order, and any hope of escaping full-on Dominionism.

Yes, We. Are. Completely. Fucked.

Flintstone Truthers Still Demanding KY Taxpayers Subsidize Discrimination

The surprise here is not that the creation museum assholes are violating the law - given that the Supreme Court has ruled that freakazoids are above the law, they'll probably get away with it - but that Kentucky officials are actually calling them on it.

Linda Blackford at the Herald:

A controversial plan to award $18 million in state tax incentives to a religious-themed amusement park in Grant County that plans to feature a life-size Noah's Ark could be in jeopardy because of potential hiring discrimination.

In a series of letters with Ark Encounter LLC, Kentucky's top tourism official said the preliminary tax credits are stalled because of language in the park's job application that requires "salvation testimony" and a "Creation belief statement."

SNIP

The state was notified of the posting by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

And you should be giving money to Americans United right now, because they're the only ones keeping both eyes on the arkpark motherfuckers.

"The commonwealth does not provide incentives to any company that discriminates on the basis of religion, and we will not make any exception for Ark Encounter LLC," Stewart wrote.

The over-under on the number of Kentucky General Assembly candidates who will be condemning that policy in loud voices between now and November 4 is all of them.