Reblogged on kommonsentsjane/blogkommonsents.

HAS AMERICA LOST THE WILL TO SURVIVE?

By Chuck Baldwin
May 20, 2016
NewsWithViews.com

The Barack Obama Justice and Education departments have declared that all public schools be required to institute gender-neutral bathrooms where boys can freely enter girls’ bathrooms and vice versa. Failure to comply threatens federal funding. But putting boys in girls’ bathrooms is NOT where the proclamation stops.

Writing for National Review, David French reports, “You may not have realized it yet, but the Obama administration just destroyed the traditional American public school. Without an act of Congress, without a ruling from the Supreme Court, and without even going through the motions of the regulatory rule-making process, the administration issued a letter drafting every single public educational institution in the country to implement the extreme edge of the sexual revolution.

“The Department of Justice and the Department of Education have declared that they now ‘interpret’ federal law to not only support the fantastical notion that boys can become girls but also to impose new legal requirements that impact every aspect of school life. The administration’s letter sweeps far beyond bathrooms–imposing a new speech code on school employees and even students, opening girls’ showers to boys, requiring schools to allow boys to sleep in girls’ rooms on overnight field trips, requiring boys to room with girls even in single-sex dorms, and putting boys on girls’ sports teams.”

See the report here.

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The Transgender Straw Broke the Camel’s Back: It’s Time to Declare Independence from Public Schools

By David French — May 13, 2016

You may not have realized it yet, but the Obama administration just destroyed the traditional American public school. Without an act of Congress, without a ruling from the Supreme Court, and without even going through the motions of the regulatory rule-making process, the administration issued a letter drafting every single public educational institution in the country to implement the extreme edge of the sexual revolution.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Education have declared that they now “interpret” federal law to not only support the fantastical notion that boys can become girls but also to impose new legal requirements that impact every aspect of school life. The administration’s letter sweeps far beyond bathrooms — imposing a new speech code on school employees and even students, opening girls’ showers to boys, requiring schools to allow boys to sleep in girls’ rooms on overnight field trips, requiring boys to room with girls even in single-sex dorms, and putting boys on girls’ sports teams.

Moreover, schools are prohibited from making any inquiry to ensure that the boys using girls’ facilities are, in fact, transgender. They can’t ask for medical documentation. They can’t ask for treatment information. They can’t ask for identification. They have to take the boy at his word.

And yet the administration’s letter isn’t significant just for what it says — it’s significant for what it means. The federal government can and will use extralegal means to override local control, the rule of law, and even the Constitution itself when social justice demands it. That principal you love? He’s not in control of your school. The great school board you just elected? They’re puppets. The teacher your child bonds with? She doesn’t run her own classroom.

And the political fights are only escalating, with local school boards exercising decreasing amounts of control over curriculum, textbook selection, and school policies. The progressive thumb is always on the scales, often nudging and sometimes shoving instruction in a comprehensively leftward direction: Islam is wonderful and peaceful. American history is a story of unrelenting repression and intolerance. Academic standards and in-school discipline matter less than social and racial justice. Orthodox Christians are bigots.

The majority of families are left with no meaningful choice. Only small minorities have either the time and ability to homeschool or the resources to send their children to private schools. So during the school year, Americans hand their children over to educators who often spend more waking hours with their kids than parents do.

RELATED: The Obama Administration Provokes a Legal Crisis — the War against North Carolina

Private-school families face a double burden — paying the property taxes that keep the public schools afloat while also paying private tuition. At my kids’ school — a very reasonably priced private school in Tennessee — parents make enormous sacrifices for the sake of independence and for the sake of teaching God-honoring values.

The stakes are now clear: We must fix our education system or slowly but surely lose our culture. Indeed, virtually every other conservative endeavor — whether it’s winning elections, transforming media, or infiltrating pop culture — will fail if the entire edifice of public education is arrayed against us. The system, however, can’t be reformed from within: It’s stacked top-to-bottom with progressive activists even in red states.

So that means creating a new model. States should consider rejecting federal education funding entirely (Texas is considering doing just that). At the very least, charter schools should be completely disentangled — and not just from public employees’ unions but also from federal funds (in order to insulate them from federal influence); voucher systems should be dramatically expanded — giving every family the option to spend their share of tax dollars at the school of their choice; and private institutions and philanthropists should step up to provide needed funding. Indeed, private citizens don’t have to wait for government reform. Scholarship funds can expand the ranks of tuition-paying private-school students immediately, and coalitions of churches can provide substantial support for their communities’ best private schools.

RELATED: Transgender Activism Has Produced a Legal Absurdity

America’s fractured Evangelical community still has enormous resources to allocate, but has traditionally showed little unity of purpose. However, in communities where pastors know and trust each other, joint effort isn’t just possible but arguably necessary.

Pastors and families often idealize the public-school experience, calling it a “mission field,” and holding out hope that their children can be “salt and light” in a difficult environment. But the process of education largely involves one-way communication, with the teachers and administrators seeing the students as their secular “mission field.” Isolated young children are more vulnerable than powerful, and I’ve seen many parents come to grief as fully indoctrinated, peer-pressured kids make mistakes with lifetime consequences.

It’s not enough to sue the Obama administration, to protest, or to vote. It’s time to create and sustain excellent, accessible, and fiercely independent alternatives to the government’s schools. If we don’t, we lose. It’s that simple.

— David French is a staff writer at National Review, and an attorney.

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Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant called the directive “outrageous” and directed his State’s education department to disregard the order. Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick called the order “blackmail” and also said, “This will be the end of public education. People will pull their kids out, homeschooling will explode, private schools will increase.” Both he and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have denounced the proclamation and have promised to fight it. Also saying they would fight the order are governors Asa Hutchinson (Arkansas) and Gary Herbert (Utah).

But for the most part, Republicans have been totally silent. In typical fashion, the GOP is too busy trying to not offend the media. And are we to take it that Democrats really want their sons and daughters going to the bathroom and taking showers with the opposite sex? Of course, Obama’s two daughters attend private schools that will not be affected by this perverse proclamation.

But even more disgusting is the fact that the vast majority of pastors and churches have said absolutely nothing. They are too busy trying to not offend the IRS and trying to figure out how to out-Hollywood Hollywood in order to draw bigger and bigger crowds.

The big question is: are the moms and dads of America’s public school children going to stand for this perversity that is going to directly affect their children? Are they really going to sit back and give their sons and daughters over to the government-mandated corruption of the innocence and moral purity of our nation’s schoolchildren? Lt. Gov. Patrick predicts the implementation of this order will be the “end of public education.” But will it? Will the parents of America actually resist this blatant attempt to invade not only the bathrooms and showers but also the moral conscience of their children? Or will they passively allow their children to be subjected to this grotesque and overt attempt to destroy their moral conscience?

If this order is allowed to be fully implemented, this nation is toast. In the entire history of the world, no nation has ever survived once it has given itself–and especially its children–over to universal moral corruption. Ever. And giving our children over to moral corruption is exactly what Obama’s proclamation does.

David French also correctly wrote, “First, the very act of teaching biology and human physiology will be hate speech unless it’s modified to conform to the new transgender ‘facts.’ Teachers will have to take great pains to note that chromosomes, reproductive organs, hormonal systems, and any other physical marker of sex is irrelevant to this thing called ‘gender,’ which, ‘factually,’ is a mere state of mind.

“Second, any statements of dissent–from teachers or students–will be treated as both ‘anti-science’ and ‘discriminatory,’ contributing to a ‘hostile environment’ that schools are legally bound to prohibit. This prohibition will go well beyond the use of pronouns and into discussions of what it means to be male and female. The argument that a ‘girl’ with a penis remains a boy will be treated exactly the same as an argument that blacks are inferior to whites or Arabs inferior to Jews.

“Third, public schools will now be even further opposed, doctrinally and legally, to orthodox Christianity. Christian parents who send their children to public schools need to be aware of the new ‘facts.’ They will be taught not only that their churches are factually wrong in their assessments of sex and gender but that they are actually bigoted and hateful–comparable to white supremacists.

“Fourth, the administration’s actions set a key political precedent. Federal funding–long seen as a boon to local schools–is now clearly and unmistakably an instrument of national control. The federal education bureaucracy is stocked with energetic and creative progressives, and last week’s letter represents just one more step in an ongoing effort to turn money into mandates.”

See the report here.

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President Obama’s Transgender Proclamation Is Far Broader and More Dangerous than You Think

By David French — May 16, 2016
On May 9, Vanita Gupta — the head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice — uttered these words:
Here are the facts. Transgender men are men — they live, work, and study as men. Transgender women are women — they live, work, and study as women.

In other words, according to the DOJ, it is a simple “fact” that a man can have a menstrual cycle, that a woman can have a penis, and that men can get pregnant.

Then, on May 13, the administration purported to transform these “facts” into law by issuing a letter that threatened every single public school in America with the loss of federal funds unless it adopts the administration’s point of view that gender is defined not by biology but instead by personal preference.

The administration’s edict is clear: It interprets federal law to require schools to create a “safe,” “nondiscriminatory,” and even “supportive” environment for transgender students. Creating gender-neutral access to bathrooms or showers represent mere examples of how schools comply with the edict. In other words, the broad principle is “nondiscrimination,” and bathroom access is but one narrow application. Thinking through the broad principles reveals the depth and breadth of the administration’s power grab. The consequences will be profound.

First, the very act of teaching biology and human physiology will be hate speech unless it’s modified to conform to the new transgender “facts.” Teachers will have to take great pains to note that chromosomes, reproductive organs, hormonal systems, and any other physical marker of sex is irrelevant to this thing called “gender,” which, “factually,” is a mere state of mind.

Second, any statements of dissent — from teachers or students — will be treated as both “anti-science” and “discriminatory,” contributing to a “hostile environment” that schools are legally bound to prohibit. This prohibition will go well beyond the use of pronouns and into discussions of what it means to be male and female. The argument that a “girl” with a penis remains a boy will be treated exactly the same as an argument that blacks are inferior to whites or Arabs inferior to Jews.

RELATED: The Transgendered Straw Broke the Camel’s Back: It’s Time to Declare Indendence from Public Schools

Third, public schools will now be even further opposed, doctrinally and legally, to orthodox Christianity. Christian parents who send their children to public schools need to be aware of the new “facts.” They will be taught not only that their churches are factually wrong in their assessments of sex and gender but that they are actually bigoted and hateful — comparable to white supremacists.

Fourth, the administration’s actions set a key political precedent. Federal funding — long seen as a boon to local schools — is now clearly and unmistakably an instrument of national control. The federal education bureaucracy is stocked with energetic and creative progressives, and last week’s letter represents just one more step in an ongoing effort to turn money into mandates.

Finally, because the administration’s edict is tied to funding, not even civil disobedience can block its enforcement. In other words, state officials can “defy” the edict all they want, but unless a court rules in their favor, the administration need merely stop a bank transfer to enforce its “guidance.” This would place citizens of dissenting states in the unenviable position of either complying — and sacrificing their kids’ liberty and safety — or defying and seeing cash-strapped schools lose millions of dollars in public support, all while they continue to pay taxes to fund progressive jurisdictions.

EDITORIAL: The Obama Administration Rewrites Title IX

Unless schools can declare their full and complete independence from federal funding, they will continue to face escalating pressure from the federal government to use their classrooms to transform American culture and values. Even federal dollars granted by a future Republican administration can be used as leverage by the next Democratic president. Funding always equals control.

In her remarks on May 9, Attorney General Lynch very deliberately compared the DOJ’s aggressive actions to guarantee male access to women’s restrooms (and vice versa) to the fight against Jim Crow. These words were an unmistakable declaration of political war against people of orthodox faith, against reason, and against any sense of moral proportion. In uttering those words, she didn’t just grotesquely exaggerate the plight of the transgendered, she minimized the reality and the memory of past discrimination. What’s next? Comparing a Twitter battle to Omaha Beach?

But the attorney general did at least do us the favor of signaling the seriousness of her intentions. It’s one thing to read the shrieking rhetoric on sites such as Salon, it’s quite another to hear the same substance uttered by the head of the most powerful law-enforcement agency in the land. If the stakes are that high, then be warned: The Left has barely begun to fight.

— David French is a staff writer at National Review and an attorney.

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“Turn[ing] money into mandates” seems to be the crux of the issue. In the same way that the federal government threatens to withhold funding from schools that refuse to implement this act of corrupting the morals of our nation’s schoolchildren, it threatens (through the IRS-created 501c3 tax-exempt status for churches) to withhold tax exemption from churches that dare to speak out on this or any other “political” issue.

Truly, for the sake of waking our pastors and churches out of their coma and getting them involved again in the fight to preserve the liberties and way of life of our nation, it would be better if churches were NOT tax-exempt at all. Let them start paying taxes and see how quickly and aggressively they would again engage the salient issues of our day. Again, in the same way that the federal government threatens to withhold funding for schools that will not comply, it threatens to withhold tax exemption from churches that speak out against compliance. Which is worse? School leaders and church leaders alike are groveling before the federal government for the scraps from the king’s table.

In addition to the immorality of Obama’s proclamation, constitutional attorneys Bill Olson and Herb Titus filed an amicus brief on May 10 in a Gloucester, Virginia, case that now falls under the Obama proclamation dated three days later. Here is a summary written by Olson and Titus:

“The Obama Administration has done it again. In an effort to strip school children of their modesty and morals, Obama has issued new instructions governing use of rest rooms, locker rooms, and showers in every government-funded school in the country. And, in predictably lawless fashion, Obama has violated not one, but two federal laws. First, he took a 1972 law, Title IX, which was designed to prevent sex discrimination in education, and says that as of today, the word ‘sex’ in the statute does not mean the ‘sex’ you were born with. It means whatever ‘gender’ you feel like on a given day. And, if that was not bad enough, the manner in which the Obama Administration acted was to legislate by letter, not just usurping legislative power, but Obama violating another federal law–the Administrative Procedures Act.

“Purporting to act according to what are known as official ‘good guidance’ practices, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education issued a transgender ‘good guidance’ letter, dated May 13, 2016. Such a ‘good guidance’ letter can only be issued if it does not add requirements to applicable law, but provides information and examples to inform recipients about how the Departments evaluate whether covered agencies are complying with their legal obligations.

“However, like a newly enacted statute or promulgation of a new regulation, the May 13 good guidance letter includes list of new terms, never previously adopted by Congress or the Administration. Not only that, but the letter contains rules governing the interpretation of those new legal terms. For example, the letter defines ‘gender identity’ to be ‘an individual’s internal sense of gender,’ but then forbids the use of any objective standard–such as ‘medical diagnosis or treatment’–to verify any individual claim. One’s gender identity is, thus, established solely by a person’s subjective claim. And that claim can change from day to day.

“Additionally, the good guidance letter indicates that the rules governing ‘sex segregated activities and facilities’ are not the same. As for restroom and locker use, ‘transgender students must have access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity,’ but with respect to ‘athletics,’ gender identity is not the sole determinant of access. That is, for athletics, a boy who feels he should be a ‘transgender girl’ could be excluded from the girls’ basketball team, but not put out of the girls’ locker room.

“None of these examples merely ‘provides information and examples’ of existing regulations–which is all that guidance letters may do lawfully. This letter presents brand new interpretations of the word ‘sex’ and new applications of new terms. And, they are binding.”

See the report here

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Obama’s Transgender Bathroom Decree Appears To Violate Multiple Federal Laws

The Obama Administration has done it again.

Herbert W. Titus and William J. Olson May 14, 2016 at 7:58am

The Obama Administration has done it again. In an effort to strip school children of their modesty and morals, Obama has issued new instructions governing use of rest rooms, locker rooms, and showers in every government-funded school in the country. And, in predictably lawless fashion, Obama has violated not one, but two federal laws. First, he took a 1972 law, Title IX, which was designed to prevent sex discrimination in education, and says that as of today, the word “sex” in the statute does not mean the “sex” you were born with. It means whatever “gender” you feel like on a given day. And, if that was not bad enough, the manner in which the Obama Administration acted was to legislate by letter, not just usurping legislative power, but Obama violating another federal law — the Administrative Procedures Act.

Purporting to act according to what are known as official “good guidance” practices, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education issued a transgender “good guidance” letter, dated May 13, 2016. Such a “good guidance” letter can only be issued if it does not add requirements to applicable law, but provides information and examples to inform recipients about how the Departments evaluate whether covered agencies are complying with their legal obligations.

However, like a newly enacted statute or promulgation of a new regulation, the May 13 good guidance letter includes list of new terms, never previously adopted by Congress or the Administration. Not only that, but the letter contains rules governing the interpretation of those new legal terms. For example, the letter defines “gender identity” to be “an individual’s internal sense of gender,” but then forbids the use of any objective standard – such as “medical diagnosis or treatment” — to verify any individual claim. One’s gender identity is, thus, established solely by a person’s subjective claim. And that claim can change from day to day.

Additionally, the good guidance letter indicates that the rules governing “sex segregated activities and facilities” are not the same. As for restroom and locker use, “transgender students “must have access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity,” but with respect to “athletics,” gender identity is not the sole determinant of access. That is, for athletics, a boy who feels he should be a ‘transgender girl” could be excluded from the girl’s basketball team, but not put out of the girl’s locker room.

None of these examples merely “provides information and examples” of existing regulations — which is all that guidance letters may do lawfully. This letter presents brand new interpretations of the word “sex” and new applications of new terms. And, they are binding. The guidance letter reads: “The Departments treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex for the purposes of Title IX and its implementing regulations. This means that a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.”

According to the federal government’s own rules for Agency Good Guidance Practices, guidance letters may not be used to establish “new policy positions that the agency treats as binding. Rather, the government agency must apply with the APA’s notice-and-comment requirements.” OMB Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices at 3.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has observed that such guidance letters can be abusive, for under them: “Law is made, without notice and comment, without public participation, and without publication in the Federal Register or the Code of Federal Regulations.” Appalachian Power Co. v. EPA, 208 F.3d 1015 (D.C. Cir. 2000). That is not law — it is “fiat.”

Moreover, the DOJ and DOE guidance letter misleads. Masquerading as a “Dear Colleague” letter, the two departments act as if they are just co-workers with the nation’s college presidents and university provosts, school superintendants and principals — laboring together “to make educational programs and activities safe, and inclusive for all students.” In fact, however, this “dear colleague” letter represents a threat, not an invitation. If it were collegial, it would have been penned and signed only by the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education, the federal co-worker. Instead, the letter is also signed by the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice — the federal enforcer.

Both signers pretend that the newly hatched transgender student policy is not worthy of public debate and decision by the people’s elected representatives in Congress. Rather, it is a done deal. It is time for the people to call on their elected state officials and representatives to fight for their rights not to be governed by two leftist unelected bureaucrats. Now, the only question is whether the supposedly sovereign states will cave to federal threats, and whether the federal courts will look the other way, as they have done all too frequently in the past.

Just Tuesday, we filed an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit case of G.G. v. County of Gloucester. This brief was filed for Public Advocate of the United States, the United States Justice Foundation, and Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund. Our brief was in support of an effort to have the Fourth Circuit reconsider its decision upholding the Obama Administration’s order that the boys’ restrooms in Gloucester County, Virginia schools be opened to girls, and, by the logic of the decision, would open the girls’ restrooms to boys. One would have thought that the Obama gang would have awaited a decision from the Fourth Circuit, but it was not to be. The Obama Administration sees that with each turn of the calendar there are fewer and fewer days to remake America, as President Obama promised in his inaugural address. So much damage to be done, and so little time to do it.

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Herbert W. Titus taught Constitutional Law for 26 years, and concluded his academic career as the Founding Dean of Regent Law School. William J. Olson served in three positions in the Reagan Administration. Together they have filed over 85 briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, and dozens more in lower courts, addressing important public policy issues. They now practice law together at William J. Olson, P.C. They can be reached at wjo@mindspring.com or twitter.com/Olsonlaw.

The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.

By: Herbert W. Titus and William J. Olson on May 14, 2016 at 7:58am

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I repeat what I said earlier: if this order is allowed to be fully implemented, this nation is toast. In the entire history of the world, no nation has ever survived once it has given itself–and especially its children–over to universal moral corruption. And giving our children over to moral corruption is exactly what Obama’s proclamation does.

William Wilberforce, the famed British statesman who was primarily responsible for ending the slave trade in Great Britain, astutely observed, “It is a truth attested by the history of all ages and countries, and established on the authority of the ablest writers, both ancient and modern . . . that the religion and morality of a country, especially of every free community, are inseparably connected with its preservation and welfare; that their flourishing or declining state is the sure indication of its tending to prosperity or decay. It has even been expressly laid down, that a people grossly corrupt are incapable of liberty.”

Sam Adams, The Father of The American Revolution, rightly said, “Public liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals.”

This is not a conservative or liberal issue. And at its core, it is not even a religious issue. This is an issue about the most fundamental duty that responsible adults have in a civilized society: the responsibility to safeguard their posterity. Failure at this level would mean that this country no longer has the will or reason to survive.

© 2016 Chuck Baldwin – All Rights Reserved

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Chuck Baldwin is a syndicated columnist, radio broadcaster, author, and pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America was founded. He was the 2008 Presidential candidate for the Constitution Party. He and his wife, Connie, have 3 children and 9 grandchildren. Chuck and his family reside in the Flathead Valley of Montana.

E-mail: chuck@chuckbaldwinlive.com

Website: ChuckBaldwinLive.com

I repeat what I said earlier: if this order is allowed to be fully implemented, this nation is toast. In the entire history of the world, no nation has ever survived once it has given itself–and especially its children–over to universal moral corruption. And giving our children over to moral corruption is exactly what Obama’s proclamation does

This is one fight we must have!

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