5.1 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Humanist Association | 2/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Humanist_Association | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T10:20:07.356116+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Disaster Recovery === In 2014, the American Humanist Association (AHA) and Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) merged their respective charitable programs, Humanist Charities (established in 2005) and Humanist Crisis Response (established in 2011). AHA's Executive Director Roy Speckhardt commented, "This merger is a positive move that will grow the relief efforts of the humanist community. The end result will be more money directed to charitable activities, dispelling the false claim that nonbelievers don't give to charity." Now Foundation Beyond Belief's Disaster Recovery program serves as a focal point for the humanist response to major natural disasters and complex humanitarian crises worldwide. The program coordinates financial support and trains humanist volunteers to help impacted communities. The Disaster Recovery program is sustained through the ongoing partnership between FBB and AHA, and ensures that our community's efforts are centralized and efficient. Between 2014 and 2018, Humanist Disaster Recovery has raised over $250,000 for victims of the Syrian Refugee Crisis, Refugee Children of the U.S. Border, Tropical Cyclone Sam, the Nepal and Ecuadoran Earthquakes, Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, and Hurricanes Irma and Maria. In addition to grants for recovery efforts, volunteers have also helped rebuild homes and schools in the following locations: Columbia, South Carolina, after the effects of Hurricane Joaquin, in Denham Springs, Louisiana and Houston, Texas, after the flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
=== Appignani Humanist Legal Center ===
The association launched the Appignani Humanist Legal Center (AHLC) in 2006 to ensure that humanists' constitutional rights are represented in court. Through amicus activity, litigation, and legal advocacy, a team of cooperating lawyers, including Jim McCollum, Wendy Kaminer, and Michael Newdow, provides legal assistance by challenging perceived violations of the Establishment Clause.
The AHLC's first independent litigation was filed on November 29, 2006, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Attorney James Hurley, the AHLC lawyer serving as lead counsel, filed suit against the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections on behalf of Plaintiff Jerry Rabinowitz, whose polling place was a church in Delray Beach, Florida. The church featured numerous religious symbols, including signs exhorting people to "Make a Difference with God" and anti-abortion posters, which the AHLC claimed demonstrated a violation of the Establishment Clause. In the voting area, "Rabinowitz observed many religious symbols in plain view, surrounding the election judges and directly above the voting machines. He took photographs that will be entered in evidence." U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks ruled that Jerry Rabinowitz did not have standing to challenge the placement of polling sites in churches and dismissed the case. In February 2014, AHA brought suit to force the removal of the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a war memorial honoring 49 residents of Prince George's County, Maryland, who died in World War I. AHA represented the plaintiffs, Mr. Lowe, who drives by the memorial "about once a month," and Fred Edwords, former AHA Executive Director. AHA argued that the presence of a Christian religious symbol on public property violates the First Amendment clause prohibiting the government from establishing a religion. Town officials feel the monument to have historic and patriotic significant to local residents. In March 2014, a Southern California woman reluctantly removed a roadside memorial from near a freeway ramp where her 19-year-old son was killed after the AHA contacted the city council, calling the cross on city-owned property a "serious constitutional violation". AHLC represented an atheist family who claimed that the equal rights amendment of the Massachusetts constitution prohibits mandatory daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance because the anthem contains the phrase "under God". In November 2012, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court permitted a direct appeal with oral arguments set for early 20th but, in May 2014, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a unanimous decision that the daily recitation of the phrase "under god" in the US Pledge of Allegiance does not violate the plaintiffs' equal protection rights under the Massachusetts Constitution. In February 2015, New Jersey Superior Court Judge David F. Bauman dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Pledge of Allegiance, ruling that "...the Pledge of Allegiance does not violate the rights of those who don't believe in God and does not have to be removed from the patriotic message." In a twenty-one-page decision, Bauman wrote, "Under (the association members') reasoning, the very constitution under which (the members) seek redress for perceived atheistic marginalization could itself be deemed unconstitutional, an absurd proposition which (association members) do not and cannot advance here."