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The days are getting shorter, the leaves are changing color, and the average number of new Covid-19 cases being reported across the United States is now double what it was in June, the latest figures showed Friday.

The U.S. is logging an average of more than 45,000 new infections per day and its trending upward, according to statistics compiled by NBC News.

The worrisome development comes a month after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading expert on infectious diseases, urged the nation to hunker down because the number of new coronavirus cases was likely to rise as summer gave way to fall and the flu season started.

And this week, Fauci said he will be celebrating Thanksgiving via Zoom with his three daughters to avoid infection.

We would love for them to come home for Thanksgiving, Fauci, who lives in Washington, D.C., said during a webinar. They have said themselves, Dad, you know youre a young, vigorous guy, but youre 79 years old.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump declared himself "healed" during a radio interview with Rush Limbaugh, and later the White House announced he would be doing an in-person event Saturdayfrom the Truman balcony, even though it's been just a week since the president was diagnosed with Covid-19.

Earlier, a White House spokesman hedged on whether Trump would attend a Saturday campaign rally in Florida.

Trump won't go unless hes medically cleared that he will not be able to transmit the virus, deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern said Friday on MSNBC.

But later Friday, the Trump campaign announced the president would be heading to Sanford, Florida, on Monday for a campaign rally.

Sanford is where 17-year-old Black teenager Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012 by a neighborhood watchman named George Zimmerman, whose acquittal on murder charges sparked nationwide protests.

More than a dozen other Trump aides and allies have also come down with infections, along with four White House residence staffers. And many of these infections have been tied to a Sept. 26 event Trump held in the Rose Garden to introduce Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

"We had a super spreader event in the White House and it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks," Fauci said Friday in a CBS Radio interview.

Dr. David Shulkin, Trumps former secretary of Veterans Affairs, said nobody really knows how infectious Trump is because there hasnt been enough information out there.

The recommendations are that it should be 10 days from the onset of the infection, but you have to know whether someones on symptom-relieving medication and whether they have symptoms when theyre off those medications, Shulkin told MSNBCs Stephanie Ruhle on Friday. But Stephanie, Im more worried, not about the president, but more worried about him putting people at risk at these rallies. We know that these rallies consist of people who dont social distance, who dont wear masks.

Since being sprung from the hospital, Trump has resumed downplaying the dangers of the virus that has killed 213,830 people and infected more than 7.6 million just in the U.S., and sowing doubt on the effectiveness of wearing masks and social distancing to slow the spread of the disease.

Trump also offended the loved ones of many Covid-19 victims by cavalierly declaring upon his release from Walter Read Medical Center "Don't be afraid of Covid" and quickly removing his mask when he returned to the White House.

Wary of antagonizing the president, Fauci has been pushing back carefully.

The examples of people not wanting to wear masks, or not believing that if you just go in a crowd you're not going to get infected or if you do get infected it's going to be meaningless because it's a trivial outbreak, Fauci said Thursday at a virtual University of California, Berkeley, forum. Well, how could it be a trivial outbreak if it's already killed 210,000 people in the United States and a million people worldwide?

This was two days after Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, contradicted Trumps resurrected false claim that the coronavirus was as deadly as the flu.

"You don't get a pandemic that kills a million people and it isn't even over yet with influenza," Fauci told NBC News Kate Snow.

Fauci over the summer survived a White House attempt to discredit him after he publicly countered Trumps false claims about the progress of the pandemic.

Corky Siemaszko is a senior writer for NBC News Digital.

Continued here:
Coronavirus cases on the rise again in the U.S. now that summer has given way to fall - NBC News

Three local artists explain how the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired their work. Salisbury Daily Times

In June, Mural Arts Philadelphia established the Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists to help fund, foster and elevate the important work of local Black artists.

Taj Posc, 25, one of 20 fellows in the program, describes his work as optimistic and reflecting the idioms every cloud has a silver lining and being on cloud nine.

But on his Instagram account, youll also spot artwork that reflects our troubled times.

He painted Misunderstood: Black Angel, a week before Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man was shot and seriously injured by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August. Posc's painting included the same number of bullet wounds seven as Blake suffered.

It is strange to me that it amounted to the same number of bullets in his body, Posc said of his painting. It almost feels like being a Black male, it doesnt matter how good or excellent you are or how good of a person you are. These kinds of things can happen to you at any moment of time.''

Traffic stops, walking home from the store, going for ajog and many other things people do every day have ended with the fatal shootings of unarmed Black people all across the country.

Such incidents birthed the Black Lives Matter movement and inspire not just protests, riots and counter-demonstrations, but some of the most urgent art being made today.

George Floyd died in May after a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes after detaining him, sparkingworldwide protests.

More protests came in September when news broke thattwo of the three Louisville police officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, 26,would not be charged and the third was indicted for shooting into neighboring apartments, but not Taylors death.

Like Posc, artists across the country responded the way knowbest, not with signs and slogans, but with paintbrushes and acrylics, cameras and film, ink and paper.

A portrait of Trayvon Martin, made using Skittles by local Collingswood artist Courtney Newman.(Photo: Photo courtesy of Courtney Newman)

In this time of reckoning over racial injustice, we asked artists actors, musicians, poets and others from throughout the Mid-Atlantic regionto reflect on how the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired their work and how they use art to pay homage to those whose lives have been cut short.

A Black mother cradles her dead son on her lapas she stares sadly and blankly ahead. They are on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, a busy, beautiful place, seated near a bed of flowers. His shirtless body appearslifeless and his long legs hang down over hers.

Brooklyn, New York, resident Jon Henry, a visual artist working with photography and text, had his work Stranger Fruit,depicting contemporary Black mothers and their sons in poses reminiscent ofMichelangelo's "The Pieta, in an exhibit last month at Big Day Film Collectivein Collingswood.

Visual artist Jon Henry is shown at his "Stranger Fruit" exhibition which ran from Sept. 1-30 at Big Day Film Collective, a new gallery art space in Collingswood. His project depicts the modern day African American mother and child echoing the form of The Pieta and was created in response to the killing of unarmed Black men by police.(Photo: 2020 Jackie Neale @jackiephotog)

Begun in 2014, Henry'sproject was created in response to the senseless murders of Black men across the nation by police violence, Henry says. Even with smart phones and dash cams recording the actions, more lives get cut short due to unnecessary and excessive violence. Who is next? Me? My brother? My friends? How do we protect these men? Lost in the furor of media coverage, lawsuits and protests is the plight of the mother. Who, regardless of the legal outcome, must carry on without her child.

The spark that ignited the project was lit much earlier.

I was very affected by this as it was happening throughout the years, but really in 2008, was the verdict with the Sean Bell murder. Sean Bell was the young man who was murdered at his bachelor party in Jamaica Queens (in 2006).

All three police officers indicted in the Bell killing were acquitted on all counts.

Henry photographed mothers with their sons, some of them young men, in their own environment, reenacting what it must feel like to endure this pain. The mothers in the photographs have not lost their sons, but understand the reality, that this could happen to their family.

Jackie Neale, who is White, is director and lead photographer at Big Day Film Collective, a new gallery art space she opened in Collingswood, after moving back to New Jersey from Brooklyn in December.

Cardboard cutouts in the seats: In these days of COVID, we salute the unsung heroes of showbiz: The audience

A Cherry Hill native, Neale speaks to the emotional power of Henry's referencing of Michelangelo's iconic work, which depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of Mary after the Crucifixion. This is very familiar imagery and hes using this as a device to connect with people and how people revere the iconic graphic nature of that positioning, said Neale, who will host more exhibits and other events inher gallery.

Photographer Jon Henry is shown at his "Stranger Fruit" exhibit at Big Day Film Collective, a new gallery art space in Collingswood. His work was created in response to the senseless murders of black men across the nation by police violence, he says.(Photo: 2020 Jackie Neale @jackiephotog)

Henry said after these tragedies, protests, sometimestrials, what comes next for the families? Thats where the project really gets its legs from and really focuses on the mothers," he said.

Theres this big message and that is that law enforcement is saying you dont have any rights to fight back when youre being confronted,'' reflected Neale. "Theres an impotence there. If our work can be that vehicle that can cross that impotence, then that has to be available and its very powerful.

Keisha Finnie was roughly 30 miles east of York, Pennsylvania, and immersed in a protest after Floyds death.

The self-taught artist in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was bouncing around ideas with other creatives and the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design about what they could do to shed light on the situation.

More: Young South Jersey activists lead the way in protests, fight for racial justice

When words cant be spoken, art is there to create a visual, Finnie said.

A collaborative effort produced the Say Their Names piece, a collage that features cutouts of the faces and names of Black people whose lives were taken at the hands of law enforcement. The artwork is a mobile workFinnie says will migrate to different Lancaster businesses like a silent protest.

George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and more photos make up the "Say Their Names" art piece.A collaborative effort, the collage features cutouts of the faces and names of Black people whose lives were taken at the hands of law enforcement. The mobile artwork will migrate to different Lancaster, Pa., businesses like a silent protest.(Photo: Michelle Johnsen)

Finnie didnt stop there, though. Her latest projects surrounding the Black Lives Matter Movement have helped her grow as an artist, she said.

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She also asked local photographers to donate their imagesof protesters, and those faces, signsand people make up Ampersand. The life-sized symbol is in PCAD Park,only steps away from the Lancaster City Bureau of Police Department.

Diversity.

Resilience.

Las Vidas.

These words are plastered on the sculpture and are surrounded by cropped photos of chanters, demonstrators and activists who have dedicated their time rallying for Black lives.

The "Ampersand" sculpture is not only a tribute to protesters, but it also on steps away from the Lancaster City Bureau of Police Department.(Photo: Jasmine Vaughn-Hall)

[The movement] has made me more conscious of the work that Im putting out and [Im] creating work that means something to me or that I know other people will resonate with, Finnie said.

Eileen Berger, 67, owner and director of Just Lookin Gallery in Hagerstown, Maryland, opened her business specializing in original art by Black American artists 25 years ago. Through Nov. 3, she is presentingThe Challenge of Change: Civil Rights in America,featuring25 artists and roughly 70 works.

Preston Sampsons Losing My Religion, a piece made of shell casings, is gaining attention at Just Lookin' Gallery's exhibit, "The Challenge of Change: Civil Rights in America." Tje exhibit opened Aug. 22 at the Hagerstown, Maryland gallery and runs through election day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.(Photo: Photo provided)

Berger said the exhibit is a history lesson and political statement.

I think now is the right time to get people to understand a little bit more. I like political statements; I wont pretend I dont, Berger said. This is probably my 12th or 13th Civil Rights show.

Berger said the show, which includes pieces by Charly Palmer, Preston Sampson, Eli Kince, Wesley Clark and Evita Tezeno, was planned to open in November. That was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and beforeFloyds death. I moved it up because sometimes you have to be topical about whats going on in the world, Berger said. The show is historical, but it is also right now.

Berger, who is white, grew up in Washington, D.C., in a neighborhood full of people with different colors, races, nationalities than me. That was my whole life. I was part of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 60s, she said.

More: Going dark: South Jersey's arts groups fight to survive impact of COVID

Response to the exhibit has been encouraging.To people who already have an affinity for art, they have more time to explore, she said of the pandemic-restricted times we are living through.

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But Berger believes the greatest support for the exhibit has nothing to do with a virus.

Just Lookin' Gallery's exhibit, "The Challenge of Change: Civil Rights in America", opened on August 22 at the Hagerstown, Maryland gallery and runs through election day on Tuesday, Nov. 3. This piece is called "Vote Any Way."(Photo: Eileen Berger)

There is a huge increase in awareness of disparity between Black and white right now, she said. Art is a way of hopefully opening up more peoples eyes. I always say, Lets start a dialogue.

"We have a really ugly history in this country,'' she said."At this age, I am not so disillusioned that I dont think we cant have a more beautiful future. Let me do what I can do.

Philadelphia native Courtney Newman, 31, has been creating art since he was in elementary school.

The Collingswood artist uses interesting objects to create his art, which he lets speak for him.

Newman incorporated about 3,600 Skittles to create a piece of art of Trayvon Martin, the teen killed in Florida by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in 2012. Martin had had an iced tea and a pack of Skittles on him when he was fatally shotafter a scuffle with Zimmerman.

That was just a three-dimensional thing, Newman said. I used Skittles because of that situation. Then I did Malcolm X and Martin Luther King with bullet casings.

Courtney Newman poses with two of his art pieces depicting Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. in Pennsauken, N.J. on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. Newman used bullet shell casings as a medium for the pieces.(Photo: JOE LAMBERTI/COURIER POST-USA TODAY NETWORK NJ)

I do art, thats what I do,'' said Newman, who also has done more straight-forward work to honor George Floyd. "I have epilepsy, so the working thing is a little slow. Art was my thing since when I was little.I do it for me and still try to make money off of it.

Rochester, New York,nativeShawn Dunwoodystarted his career in fine art, creating assemblage pieces thatdepicted the struggles of theAfrican American community.

But heset a new course.Hemoved backtothe citysNortheastside, which has a high concentration of poverty, and began creating colorful murals with positive messages. Hisgoalwas to bea role modelforBlack youth.

"I think it's important," he said. "The intent and the heartiscoming from aBlack man in America."

The City of Rochester often seeks outDunwoodywhen itneedsan artist.After Washington, D.C., painted a street with Black Lives Matter,Rochester officialsapproached Dunwoody about doingsomething similar . He agreed to take on theproject, butproposed takingit a step further. Thecity agreed with his vision.

Local Rochester, N.Y. artist Shawn Dunwoody and volunteers, paint the amphitheater at Martin Luther king Jr. Park, to allow visitors to write messages as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.(Photo: JAMIE GERMANO/ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE)

His canvas was Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.MemorialParkat Manhattan Squaredowntown, the focal point of many Black Lives Matter events. During two summer days he, along with some volunteers,paintednearlyeverysurface of the sunken concrete amphitheater withmatte black paint. In the middle he painted the Black Lives Matterfist symbol.

It was the largest art installation inacitythathas a thriving public art scene.Dunwoody called it, The Empire StrikesBlack.

More: How Daniel Prude suffocated as Rochester police restrained him

He placed bucketsofchalk for people to express themselves. Peopledrawpictures,write messages andpoetry. Theypost their creationson social media.Music videos have been shot in the space.

Local artist Shawn Dunwoody directs some volunteers who are helping him paint the amphitheater at Martin Luther king Jr. Park, black, to allow visitors to write messages as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. (Photo: JAMIE GERMANO/ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE)

Its almost like looking at theworld itself, Dunwoody said. It may look chaotic andcrazy but ifyou take your time andindividuallylook at each one, you can find deep meaning and connections to people.

The space is anamphitheater, he explained. Itismeanttoamplify voices.

Posc, who has family in law enforcement and the military, was raised with the notion to look after his siblings, which he still does, including a younger brother who is a postal worker and one who is incarcerated.

Taj Posc is among 20 artists in the Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists, a program established by Mural Arts Philadelphia.(Photo: Photo provided)

"I talk to them the same, whether its in a letter or on the phone, he said. I think I have a pretty good head on my shoulders as a young man, but my parents still have the same conversations with me. They constantly check on me, ask me, Did you get in the house?' "

One of his most recent works features a Black baby dressed as an angel soaring in the clouds. Its something he was inspired to paint while reflecting on a trip studying abroad in Rome.

I saw a lot of supernatural afterlife and these ideas of life after and what we experience. But all the pictures that I saw were pictures of white cherubs or Caucasian people, he said.

He sees progress within the arts in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement, but believes more can be done.

There has been a lot of growth in the last few years in terms of Black artists and representation and what is exposed and whats not. But I think it is up to the artists of the time just to continue to create truthfully, he said.

Shanel Edwards, 25, is a queer, non-binary, dancer, photographer, directorand poet.

Edwards, whose work centers on Black Queer Femme-hood,learnedabout the history of the Black Lives Matter Movement while at Temple University.

Artist Shanel Edwards is among 20 fellows in the Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists, a program established by Mural Arts Philadelphia.(Photo: Photo provided)

There was a lot that I was learning about myself and the world. It was really painful, it was really disgusting, but also beautiful and life changing. So I think in that way the more visible Black experience isBlack pain, Black joy, all of those thingsthe more its changing Black people in particular. I think with that, my artwork became more centered in who I was and who I am and who I am becoming and evolving into every day.

"Black folks have lived through incredible trauma and upheaval. Thismay be the wildest time of our lives. Our lineage and our ancestors have experienced things that we can never imagine....And all of our Black artists are doing what we can to survive and that shows in our work.

In Asbury Park, New Jersey, Alexander Simone, grandson of music legend Nina Simone, released the song Fight the Fight, and helped lead a Floyd protest in the city in June.

The track was originally written four years ago with things going on in Baltimore, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, that's when the track originated but its like a timeless track, Simone said. When all this started happening again, it resurrected the lyrics. I felt it was time.

Alexander Simone in Asbury Park on June 1, 2020.(Photo: Leon Fields)

Nina Simone's Civil Rights songs, including Mississippi Goddam and To Be Young, Gifted and Black, are classics.

So PROUD of my son, said mom Lisa Simone on Instagram. His grandmother is nodding in approval, too!! The family legacy continues.

Also at the Jersey Shore, hip-hop musician Chill Smith re-released his track Reverse Racism, and shot a new video for it, too.

I think what's happening is people are tired, everybody's tired of this, said Smith in June. I think a lot of allies have reached out to people in the community they know to try to uplift their voices. That's why the song has resurfaced, which makes sense.

National acts in the region are speaking up, too. Bronx rhymer Kemba laid out the conflicting nature of today's world, specifically when it comes to policing, on his Kill Your Idols, released three days after the Floyd death. Philly's Meek Mill reported from the Otherside of America in a powerful track that includes a sample of a Trump speech.

Cisco Soto and Miles Murdaugh were at a crossroads following George Floyds death. The Washington Winnona Images partners were uncertain about attending and photographing a protest forming in downtown York, Pennsylvania.

Murdaugh saw fire trucks along the streets and unraveled fire hoses spread along the sidewalks earlier in the day.

He thought, "Have we learned nothing?''

Cisco Soto and Miles Murdaugh are happy they captured an iconic event in York, but they know more can be done to put the narratives of minority communities at the forefront.(Photo: Washington Winnona Images)

The thoughtreferencedthe racial turmoil that boiled over in York in the late 60s, claiming two lives.

Continued here:
Black Lives Matter movement has impact on artists - and they have our attention - Courier Post

Updated: October 11, 2020 9:39:21 am

Written by Malini Bhattacharjee

The story of Indian politics is one of continuities more than ruptures contrary to the popular imagination, bolstered by arguments by several mainstream political analysts that the period since 2014 has paved the way for a new regime that has jeopardised democracy and tarnished the idea of India. Singhs book, which narrates the story of the passage of the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution by the Jawaharlal Nehru government in June 1951, provides an important interruption to this narrative.

The book draws attention to the enormous impact of this legislation on the fundamental rights of the citizen. Some of the major modifications introduced included increased restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression in the name of public order, the interests of the security of the state and relations with foreign states. The Act also enabled caste-based reservations by restricting Article 15 from applying to government provisions for the advancement of backward classes; it circumscribed the right to property and validated zamindari abolition by allowing the state to acquire property without paying equitable compensation and ensuring that any law providing for such acquisition could not be deemed void even if it violated the right to property. The final nail in the coffin was the introduction of the Ninth Schedule, where laws could be parked to make them immune to judicial challenge even if they violated the fundamental rights.

Singh foregrounds the discussion by drawing attention to the political climate of the years soon after Independence and the build-up to the passage of the amendment. There is a detailed analysis of how the governments imposition of policies relating to press censorship, enabling caste-based reservations in educational institutions and re-distribution of land were challenged by the affected stakeholders in courts. In all cases relating to press censorship, most notably Brij Bhushan v State of Delhi (1950) and Romesh Thappar v The State of Madras (1950), the judiciary struck down statutes which imposed restrictions on free speech. In Champakam Dorairajan v State of Madras (1951), the Madras High Court, and, later, the Supreme Court declared the Government Order providing caste-based reservations to be unconstitutional.

With elections looming ahead and most of his new schemes being thwarted by the courts, Nehru was convinced that the legal process of testing legislation against the Constitution was delaying his partys social reform agenda. He introduced the First Amendment Bill to the Parliament on May 12. After two weeks of stormy discussions, it was passed on June 2.There are fascinating accounts of the parliamentary debates that raged between Nehru and stalwarts like SP Mookerji, HN Kunzru and Hussain Imam that the author eloquently describes as the first battle of Indian liberalism. These highlight how despite protests by public luminaries, including incumbent governors, jurists and even senior Congress members, the government remained undeterred. The final chapter dwells on the aftermath of the amendment, the most important being that it set a precedent for amending the Constitution to either overturn judicial pronouncements or to suit government agenda.

The book makes it evident that the First Amendment provided the DNA of a Hobbesian state in postcolonial India and laid the foundation of the Nehruvian state. It also lays bare the schisms within the Congress party, the pressure applied on the presidents office to bend to the will of the government, and the ways in which the judiciary was subordinated by the executive. Most importantly, the story also blurs the dichotomies that political analysts slip into: the liberal Nehruvian vision of India versus the RSSs authoritarian one, between progressive and reactionary politics. It leaves us wondering why this story was never told before; is it a mere coincidence or a part of a deliberate political project? The book maintains a dignified restraint in answering this question.

Malini Bhattacharjee is assistant professor, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru

Sixteen Stormy Days: The Story of the First Amendment to The Constitution of India By Tripurdaman SinghPenguin Random House

The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Books And Literature News, download Indian Express App.

Read more:
Did the First Amendment to the Constitution lay the foundation for an authoritarian state? - The Indian Express

As bars and restaurants began to reopen this summer, so did religious institutions. The operation of churches posed the issue of remaining in close quarters for extended periods of time in the midst of a pandemic. Last month, Opinion Writer Nicole Chebili argued that the University should cease unconstitutional exemptions for religious gatherings. However, the United States Constitution enshrines the right to free speech, press, assembly, petition and religion. Supreme Court precedent has clearly established that public universities have no exception to these fundamental freedoms.

The freedom of religion has an essential role in United States history, given that the country was founded on that very ideal. This underscores why its so important for the government to uphold religious freedom, especially in times of political unrest and uncertainty. Universities serve to educate the next generation of leaders and must act to protect rather than restrict these freedoms. The First Amendment is often referred to as the first liberty because freedom of thought and belief is thought to be of utmost importance. Diversity of thought and belief should be at the forefront of the learning community at the University.

In this column, Chebili claims that the University should continue to restrict students from going to religious services in Charlottesville. It is important to note that as long as they are not directly affiliated with the University, religious institutions must already follow city ordinances, which require gatherings to remain under 50 people. It is not the Universitys job nor is it the Universitys right to interfere with students' ability to worship. It sets a dangerous precedent to restrict the freedom of religion by any means. The freedom of religion was a founding pillar of our American Democracy and it must be upheld.

Chebili also mentions that online services provide the same quality sermons, community building and worship. This statement lies in direct contradiction to the religious beliefs of many Christians, for example, who place a great importance on worshiping in person. It is indeed not the same to worship online, as in-person fellowship is essential to Christian life, as well as many other religions. Furthermore, it is not the governments right to dictate the means by which its citizens practice religion.

Next, the column claims that protesting is essential and protected under the Constitution, but religious gatherings are not. The right to assemble dually covers protests and gathering for religious reasons. Under her own line of reasoning, religious gatherings are in fact equally essential, and should be regarded as such by the University. Calling for the University to restrict student attendance of any religious service without applying the same standards to protests is blatantly hypocritical.

Recently, students and the University alike have repeatedly called for restrictions to the religious clause of the First Amendment. In another article, students called for the Fellowship of Chiristian Athletes to be disbanded at the University. This is based on the fact that the Fellowship requires students who wish to hold a leadership position to sign a statement of faith that includes the traditional definition of marriage. No matter how some students feel, the University should not restrict religious freedoms and should reject calls to do so. Disagreement with the beliefs of a particular religion does not suddenly grant the University the power to restrict its practice.

Religion is critical to many students on Grounds. There is great diversity in religious organizations, and they provide an essential space for students to practice their religious beliefs. For many, religion is sacred and the opportunity to practice that religion on Grounds is paramount.

It can be difficult to see CIOs promote ideals that one disagrees with. There exist groups like the College Republicans or the University Democrats who highly encourage their members to affiliate with the party. The University is supposed to be a place for intellectual growth and discovery, groups with different opinions on Grounds contribute to and diversify the learning community. The University must not shut down an individual or groups ability to speak or assemble simply because others dont agree with them, on any matter from political speech to religious expression.

Historically, the University has protected and upheld the First Amendment, while other schools have fallen behind the curve, restricting speech with free speech zones. U.Va must continue to lead in this area. It is fitting that the University was founded by Thomas Jefferson, the very man who inspired the Bill of Rights, drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and led the charge against the restriction of the church by the state. In keeping with the ideals set forth by Thomas Jefferson, the University must reject calls to restrict the freedom of religion.

Devan Coombes is a Viewpoint Writer for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.

The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Cavalier Daily. Columns represent the views of the authors alone.

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COOMBES: Put the First Amendment first - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily

Freedom of and from religion are equally important in our culture and under our constitution to secure the blessings of liberty for all of our citizens.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett needs to be questioned extensively at her confirmation hearings about her legal views on the relationship of the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment. Will she continue the dangerous trend the Supreme Court has exhibited recently?

This past term, in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, the court held that the Little Sisters could not be compelled to provide employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives, on the ground that doing so would infringe upon the Little Sisters right to practice its religious beliefs free from state interference.

Fulfilling a legal obligation to provide contraceptive insurance coverage is not practicing religion. It does not compel anyone to buy and use contraceptives. Nor does it imply approval of contraceptive use. Taking the coverage away from employees does do one thing for certain: It penalizes them financially if they decide to exercise their liberty interest and legal right to obtain and use contraceptives.

Also this past term, the court held in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berry that the government may not interfere with religious schools decisions to hire or fire their lay teachers, that the schools decisions are outside of the protections afforded by fair employment laws, even though these laws are designed to protect the liberty interests of the public-at-large regardless of their religious beliefs.

Read more:
Another Voice: Coney Barrett should explain First Amendment views - Buffalo News