Tag Archives: ACLU

Civil Rights

Preaching state trooper could be in hot water

Lost in all of the marriage equality hullabaloo was this post over at ILB from Sunday night. It seems a state trooper pulled a woman, Ellen Bogan, over for making an illegal pass and used the opportunity to talk to her about Jesus.

According to the complaint, filed in the US District Court for Southern Indiana (read it at ILB), after the officer took her license and brought it back to her along with a warning ticket, “there was no reason to further prolong the stop.” However, the trooper, one Brian Hamilton, remained at the car and proceeded to inquire whether Bogan was from the area and whether she was a Christian. He then gave her religious literature and explained that Jesus had died for her sins.

At each stage, he asked her permission before continuing, but according to Bogan, because of the situation, she did not feel free to refuse.

Bogan is being represented by the ACLU of Indiana.

Civil Rights

Same-sex marriage movement today

The excellent Indiana Law Blog has distilled today’s developments on the challenges to Indiana and Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage bans in the 7th Circuit today.

Long story short, the Appellants (in this case, the states) had requested a hearing en banc, which has now been denied. Instead, the appeals from both states will be heard together before a three-judge panel on August 26th, 2014.

As things move along, there doesn’t seem to be anything to be done about the people who have already been married during the “window” in which same-sex marriages were briefly legal. Governor Pence has instructed the state to treat those marriages as invalid. The ACLU doesn’t feel like they can do much about it at the moment.