Religion

Pierce County Jail inmates filed a class action lawsuit on September 20, 2010 challenging jail officials’ illegal treatment of Muslim inmates. As the suit alleges, jail officials routinely treat Muslim prisoners worse than others when it comes to accommodating religious dietary needs, allowing for group prayer, and providing access to religious resources.  The jail also operates a special unit known as the “God Pod,” where Christian inmates enjoy housing and programming privileges that are denied to prisoners of other faiths. 

The mayors of Kent and Seattle overstepped the line separating religion and government when they issued official proclamations designating November 22-29, 1998 as "Bible Week," said ACLU-WA Legislative Director Jerry Sheehan, when he learned of the actions.

The Islamic Education Center of Seattle (IECS) will be able to use a residential property to gather and worship, following arguments by the ACLU that the city did not have a compelling interest to deny the group a permit.

The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed the decision by the Supreme Court to let states decide for themselves whether to grant scholarship money to theology students, which the ACLU said undermines one of the core legal arguments in the President’s so-called "faith-based initiative."

The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the Washington Supreme Court today to uphold a 1999 ruling by the Thurston County Superior Court which said that state-funding of students to attend religion-affiliated schools violates the Washington Constitution.

For several years the ACLU has worked with parents to keep creationist teachings out of the science classroom in Burlington-Edison High School. Responding to advocacy by the ACLU and concerned parents, the school board in 1998 backed a decision by the superintendent that the science teacher could no longer teach creationism in the guise of "intelligent design theory" in biology lessons.

Responding to advocacy by the ACLU-WA and local parents, Burlington-Edison School District has directed a teacher not to teach creationism in his science class. At its September meeting, the school board backed a decision by Superintendent Rick Jones that a science teacher could no longer teach creationism in the guise of "intelligent design theory" in biology lessons.

The state supreme court in April ruled by a 5-3 vote that the Pierce County Sheriff's Department chaplaincy program does not violate the separation of church and state. The ACLU-WA had filed a lawsuit in 1991 challenging the program for violating constitutional prohibitions on government sponsorship of religious activities.