Latest Breaking News

onehandle

(51,122 posts) Mon Jun 9, 2014, 04:06 PM Jun 2014

Chris Christie Hammered By ACLU For D+ Record On Civil Liberties

Source: Huffington Post

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) overall support for 12 civil liberties issues during his first term in office, including LGBT rights, government transparency and judicial independence, received a D+ rating from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, according to a report card the group released Monday.

Christie received the lowest score, an F, on the issue of separation of church and state, for his administration’s decision to approve more than $650 million in state funding to two sectarian religious institutions, Beth Medrash Govoha and Princeton Theological Seminary.

The governor’s 2012 veto of a bill that would have required greater transparency and accountability from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and his administration’s resistance to complying with basic open records requests, also earned him an F in transparency.

Christie also failed to uphold economic justice and the separation of powers in the Garden State, the report concluded, citing budgets that reduced women’s health funding and eliminated funding for an after-school program for low-income children.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/09/chris-christie-civil-liberties_n_5473227.html

Just another reason Governor Traffic Cones will never be President.

3 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Chris Christie Hammered By ACLU For D+ Record On Civil Liberties (Original Post) onehandle Jun 2014 OP

I would gather a D+ from the ACLU is a blessing for a rightie. Atman Jun 2014 #1

Ah, the myth of Christie being a moderate who has fiscally sound policies... EEO Jun 2014 #2

More. proverbialwisdom Jun 2014 #3

Atman

(31,464 posts)

1. I would gather a D+ from the ACLU is a blessing for a rightie.

Reply to onehandle (Original post)

Mon Jun 9, 2014, 04:10 PM

Jun 2014

After all, the only think the ACLU defends criminals, atheists, sexual deviants and foreign terrorists. This rating probably helps him more with his base than it hurts him.

EEO

(1,620 posts)

2. Ah, the myth of Christie being a moderate who has fiscally sound policies...

Reply to onehandle (Original post)

Mon Jun 9, 2014, 04:17 PM

Jun 2014

proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)

3. More.

Reply to onehandle (Original post)

Mon Jun 9, 2014, 05:34 PM

Jun 2014

http://www.northjersey.com/news/aclu-seeks-records-tied-to-11-million-in-state-grants-to-religious-schools-1.642509

ACLU seeks records tied to $11 million in state grants to religious schools

MAY 9, 2013, 7:51 PM
BY JIM NORMAN, STAFF WRITER, THE RECORD

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey filed a public records request on Thursday demanding the disclosure of guidelines that the Christie administration followed when it granted $11 million to two religious schools, almost all of it to an orthodox Jewish rabbinical school.

The money was included among in $1.3 billion in publicly funded higher education projects that the Christie administration approved last week, to be funded in part with the proceeds of a $750 million capital construction bond that voters approved last fall.

The controversial grants are $645,000 to the Princeton Theological Seminary for technology projects and $10.6 million to Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township to help pay for a new library and an academic center.

“State funding of some of these projects raises constitutional concerns that must be addressed,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Udi Ofer.

<>

Princeton Theological Seminary, a divinity school affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, trains men and women to be Christian ministers. Beth Medrash Govoha is an all-male Orthodox religious institution that trains rabbis in its tradition.

A Christie spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said earlier this week that the state’s grant to the seminary was being reviewed but he defended the decision to award money to Beth Medrash, noting that language in the legislation authorized granting money to religious schools.

“Beth Medrash Govoha is an important and prestigious school with full accreditation and licensure in New Jersey,” he said.

Beth Medrash’s chief executive officer, Rabbi Aaron Kotler, is part of a group of Orthodox Jewish rabbis who recently endorsed Christie for re-election. He also accompanied the governor on his trip to Israel last year.

The school, with 6,500 students, is one of the largest yeshivas, or Jewish religious schools, in the world. It was founded with 15 students in 1943 by Aharon Kotler, a Lithuanian rabbi in the Heredi tradition, which normally shuns daily contact with outsiders. When the founder died in 1962, the school had 250 students.

Reply to this discussion