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ANN ARBOR, MI – In one of the most despicable and immoral acts of any president in the history of the United States, President Obama, the Commander in Chief, is playing politics over the dead bodies of American soldiers killed in action during the government shutdown. These soldiers were killed following his orders.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, “I cannot conceive of any other president in our history doing what Obama is doing in this situation.  As Commander in Chief, he signed the orders sending these young men and women into harm’s way.  They died following his orders.  Now he is denying their families the military’s “death gratuity” normally given within 3 days of the death, which covers funeral expenses and travel to Dover Air Force Base to receive the flag draped casket that holds their fallen hero. President Obama is callously adding to the unimaginable grief and the heavy burden these surviving loved ones carrying just to score some political points.”

Thompson continued, “The generals in the Pentagon and the combat generals in the field also share in the moral responsibility to our troops. How could they allow this to happen?”

The recently passed Pay Our Military Act should allow for these death gratuity payments.  If the lawyers in the Obama administration say otherwise, Congress must act to quickly overturn this outrageous injustice to our fallen warriors. See if he will veto the bill.  Or he could issue his oft-used Executive Order as Commander in Chief to allow those payments.”

This is the latest optic in the “make it painful policy” his administration is using in his battle with Republicans over the government shutdown.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time the Obama Administration has played politics with the lives of those serving our Nation. Obama and his administration already showed total disregard for the WWII Veterans attempting to visit the WWII Memorial.

In Benghazi, for the sake of Obama’s re-election rhetoric, the Obama Administration issued “stand down” orders, offered no intervention and no reinforcements; actions that resulted in the death of 4 Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens and 2 former Navy SEALS. A year later, the administration is still wrapped up in the politics of that incident.

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities.  It does not charge for its services.  The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

ANN,  ARBOR, MI – In one of the most disgusting displays of political grandstanding over the government shutdown argument with Republicans, President Obama has chosen to shut down open air, minimally maintained war memorials including the WWII War Memorial in Washington D.C. and Arlington National Cemetery.

An angry Park Service Ranger in Washington was quoted in the press as saying, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.  It’s disgusting.” The actions of the Obama administration are nothing more than petty attempts to provide optics that will pressure the Republicans to cave in on the government  shut-down argument.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm located in Ann Arbor, MI, commented:  “Our Law Center has fought for and continues to fight for the display of veterans’ memorials, crosses and national symbols memorializing the sacrifices of American soldiers. As an organization dedicated to a strong national defense and the rights of veterans, the Law Center finds these actions on behalf of the White House and the Obama administration to be deeply repugnant, degrading and disrespectful to our veterans and Our Nation.

It should not be surprising that President Obama shows so little respect for our WWII veterans and our fallen warriors buried at Arlington Cemetery.

President Obama has a long history of association with some particularly anti-American figures, beginning with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Reverend Wright was Obama’s pastor for over twenty years. Reverend Wright is the same man who argued that America deserved the 9/11 terror attacks and expressed his belief that God should damn America.

He also had a friendship with Bill Ayres of the Weather Underground whose goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the overthrow of the US government and even perpetrated bombings of government buildings in the 1970’s.

Even more telling, are Obama’s own anti-American actions including the infamous “apology tour” that he embarked upon in 2010 which consisted of apologies and criticisms of America in speeches in France, England, Turkey and Cairo; at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and the United Nations in New York City.

President Obama spent the first part of his presidency apologizing for America and, by association, apologizing for our Veterans. Now, he is just showing them one more level of disrespect by attempting to deny them the right to visit the memorials they paid for through personal sacrifices for our great Nation.

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities.  It does not charge for its services.  The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

ANN ARBOR, MI—The Olmsted Falls City School District, located in Olmsted Falls, Ohio has agreed to remove the video “30 Days: Muslim and America” from the 7^th grade World History Curriculum.  The action was taken to avoid a constitutional challenge by the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which filed a series of requests for public records concerning the video on behalf of Jenny McKeigue, a mother of three children who attend schools within the district.

McKeigue first became concerned about the history curriculum in 2011 when her son, then in 7^th grade, was required to memorize the 5 Pillars of Islam (the requirement was later discontinued).   After a deeper look into the 7^th grade history curriculum, McKeigue became concerned about the content of the “Muslims and America” video to which the school had exposed her son.   She asked the School District to remove the video from the curriculum and replace it with an objective video relevant to the history of Islam, not one that taught children how to become a Muslim. Her request was denied.  Subsequently, Mrs. McKeigue began the escalation process to the Superintendent and the School Board.

After over a year and a half of denied requests for information, including requests for the class syllabus, from the School District, McKeigue reached out to the Thomas More Law Center for assistance. TMLC agreed to help.  Ohio attorney Michael S. Goldstein acted as an affiliated local counsel.

The questionable video features a Christian (Dave) agreeing to embrace the religion of Islam and the Muslim culture by living with a Muslim family for 30 days in Dearborn, Michigan.  Dave was required to live, dress and eat as a Muslim, study the Koran daily and participate in Muslim prayer. The video features several instances of Muslim prayer and even a look at a “how to pray in Islam” sheet complete with Dave practicing how to pray and reciting lines such as “I testify that there is no God other than the Almighty” and “I testify that Mohammad is the messenger of God.”

The video is also set up in a manner that portrays non-Muslims as uneducated bigots and Muslims as persecuted victims. At one point in the video, 7^th grade students are told that if they hear someone say something wrong about Islam, it is their responsibility to fix it.

The video was being used as a part of the Ohio 7^th Grade Social Studies Standards Expectations for Learning which requires students to “describe achievements by the Islamic civilization and how these achievements were introduced into Western Europe in the time period between 750 BC – 1600AD.” As such, “Muslims and America” is clearly irrelevant to Ohio Social Studies Standards.

Mrs. McKeigue felt the video, in addition to being irrelevant, also violated several Board Policies with regard to the promotion of religion in the classroom and the fair representation of all ethnic and religious groups. Additionally, she questioned the accuracy of the video as well as the applied double standard as no other video was shown nor instruction given demonstrating how to perform the religious exercises of other religions.

In response to McKeigue’s criticism, the school district invited Olmsted Falls pastors to review the video.  To the school district’s chagrin, several pastors agreed with McKeigue and also questioned the accuracy of the video.  Dr. Todd Hoadley, school superintendent at the time, disregarded their concerns.  At a March 2013 Board meeting, and in private conversations, he defended the video with the astonishing argument that the inaccuracies of the video proved its value.

Richard Thompson. President and Chief Counsel of the TMLC commented: “Teachers may not constitutionally show video tapes that violate the neutrality they must maintain toward religion or that engages in religious instruction. Showing “Muslims and America” violated those principles and the Establishment Clause of our Constitution.  Under the guise of teaching the history of Islam to seventh graders, history teachers were proselytizing students to the Islamic faith.  Although I applaud the school district for resolving this issue without litigation, I was disappointed to discover internal communications from one history teacher ridiculing and disparaging Mrs. McKeigue, and even suggesting she should be fired from her part time job as alumni director for the school because of her criticism of the video.”

Thompson continued, “Teachers may provide instruction about a particular religion, but they are not constitutionally permitted to provide religious instruction. The education of our children is too important to be left to teachers and school administrators alone.   Parents have a duty to be personally involved as well.  Mrs. McKeigue was exercising her constitutional right to free speech in fulfilling her crucial duty and responsibility as a parent.”

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities.  It does not charge for its services.  The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.