 Urgent Update in Boyertown Student Privacy Case The Boyertown student privacy case, which has been petitioned to the United States Supreme Court, will be "conferenced" on Friday, February 22nd. What this means is that all nine Supreme Court Justices will meet and decide which cases to grant, which to deny, and which to push off to another date. Pray for the Boyertown Six: We would greatly appreciate your prayers for this case before and on Friday, February 22nd. Please pray that the Supreme Court grants this case to be heard and ruled upon. "Differences between boys and girls matter in places like locker rooms, restrooms, and showers. Schools shouldn't force students to pretend that those differences don't exist," said Randall Wenger, Chief Counsel for Independence Law Center The Independence Law Center and ADF attorneys filed the petition with the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled against the students in July, 2018. They are seeking court action to reinstate the school's prior and longstanding policy so that only biological girls use the girls' facilities and only biological boys use the boys' facilities. "A girl's privacy doesn't spring into existence or cease to exist based on what a boy thinks about his gender," said Jeremy Samek, Senior Counsel for Independence Law Center. ———————— Will Pennsylvania finally end the targeting of children with Down syndrome? Down Syndrome Protection Act reintroduced. This week, Speaker Mike Turzai and State Representative Kate Klunk announced they have reintroduced the Down Syndrome Protection Act and are circulating a co-sponsorship memo to all State Representatives asking for their support. (To point out: last year, State Rep. Judy Ward was one of the lead sponsors and she is now in the State Senate. We greatly appreciate her continued support of this legislation in the State Senate where Senator Scott Martin is again taking the lead, as he did last year, and announced he was reintroducing it last December.) Please contact your contact your State Senator and Representative to co-sponsor and support this important legislation. To send an email, use our action alert at pafamily.org/protect.  ———————— Submit your comments to Governor Wolf on the problems with legalizing recreational marijuana. A major threat to families this year is the growing interest by the Governor's administration to legalize recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania. Right now, Governor Tom Wolf is requesting comments by the general public on the issue of legalization. We encourage you to submit comments that highlight the many problems with legalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania - click here to submit your comments. One only has to look at Colorado, the first state to legalize marijuana, to see the many problems that come from full legalization. Dan Bartkowiak, Communications Director for Pennsylvania Family Institute, spoke out about this at the first tour stop in Harrisburg for Lt. Governor John Fetterman's "Weed Tour" that started this week. Dan's comments centered at highlighting several of the problems that exist now in Colorado. Click here to read his public comments. In addition, there are four takeaways from this first tour stop that are now shared on our blog: "In my view, this tour is an effort by Lt. Gov. Fetterman to provide cover for Governor Wolf if and when — perhaps in budget negotiations — he comes out in support of legalizing recreational marijuana. Shavonnia Corbin-Johnson, a spokeswoman for Lt Gov. Fetterman, says he intends to have his 67-county tour wrapped up by mid-June — just in time to coincide with the state's June 30th budget deadline." The next "Weed Tour" stops are Saturday, February 16th in Erie and Warren. ———————— Applications still being accepted for our Summer Internship Program We have already had a number of students apply for our 2019 Summer Internship Program and look forward to what our internships bring to enhance the quality of our work. The program provides students the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in nonprofit government relations and participate in the daily operations of a policy organization. Interns will become familiar with the intricacies of the Pennsylvania legislative process and the philosophy behind and methodology of implementing pro-family public policies by working side-by-side with PFI's policy staff. These internships are paid. Interested students should forward a resume and pre-interview letter or direct questions to Emily Kreps at ekreps@pafamily.org or call (717) 545-0600.  |
