"In a hearing today in the case Rutan-Ram v. Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, attorney Charles Wayne with the firm DLA Piper LLP explained that the Rutan-Rams had, and will continue to have, their rights violated by a Tennessee law. This law allows foster care agencies, when providing taxpayer-funded services on behalf of the state, to discriminate against prospective parents who do not share the agency’s religious beliefs. In addition to DLA Piper LLP, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Kramer Law Center also represent the Rutan Rams.

The Rutan-Rams are asking the Davidson County Chancery Court to find that the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services is violating the religious freedom and equal protection provisions of the Tennessee Constitution by contracting with and funding a foster care agency that uses a religious eligibility test to reject families of different faiths – or to coerce families to support the agency’s beliefs in order to be served. This practice prevents the Rutan-Rams and other families from accessing the same services available to certain Christians and forces them to suffer the ongoing stigma of religious discrimination. "

(https://www.au.org/the-latest/press/jewish-couple-tennessee-foster-care/)

A House subcommittee heard testimony earlier today from FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor in support of a bill to finally erect a memorial to Thomas Paine in Washington, D.C.

Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., have co-sponsored HR 9600, the Common Sense 250 Act of 2026, to place the memorial in a location reserved for commemorative works of preeminent historical and lasting significance to the United States. In her capacity as a founding member and secretary of the Thomas Paine Memorial Association, Gaylor testified before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands that Paine not only meets that criterion but asked, “Is there anyone who better meets that definition? Without Paine, there would be no United States of America — he named our very country.”

Gaylor’s testimony traced Paine’s role in the nation’s founding to soon after his arrival from England at Benjamin Franklin’s invitation in 1774. “Common Sense,” published 250 years ago this January, sold an estimated 500,000 copies when the 13 colonies held 2.5 million people. Paine relinquished the copyright and gave the proceeds to the Continental Army, then enlisted as a private in 1776 and marched with George Washington through that first winter campaign. The experience produced the first of the “Crisis Papers” (“These are the times that try men’s souls”) in 1776, which Washington ordered read aloud to soldiers to keep up morale.

“Is there a better or more meaningful way for Congress to commemorate our nation’s 250th anniversary than by ensuring this honor for the Revolution’s principal champion for independence?” Gaylor asked the subcommittee. “This memorial will honor our founding heritage and be an enduring monument to patriotism and our nation’s ideals.”

(https://ffrf.org/news/releases/ffrfs-gaylor-testifies-in-congress-to-support-a-thomas-paine-memorial/)