Civil Liberties

Lynne Torgerson is for animal rights and alternative energy, against gay marriage and embryonic stem-cell research — and very wary of Islam’s influence in America.

The eight people facing felony conspiracy charges from their pre-emptive arrests ahead of last year’s Republican National Convention will go to trial together, not separately.

Flow charts can simplify any contentious issue, domestic or international. Take the gay marriage debate and Afghan war strategy  … please.

News of now-abandoned plans for Sarah Palin’s appearance at the Mall of America that would have banned non-English-language media and required reporters to call Palin “governor” rekindles questions about free speech rights at the mall.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann broke House rules by using her taxpayer-funded website to urge people to attend her Nov. 5 “Super Bowl of Freedom” rally, according to a complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Last July, the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed suit to prevent the words “In God We Trust” and “one nation under God” from being engraved on a wall in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. Today, 41 U.S. House members — including Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann — and three senators filed an amicus brief asking a federal [...]

A controversial ministry that says it preaches in public schools held a fundraiser in Bloomington Thursday night, drawing a crowd of about 400 attendees. You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International offered attendees a preview of their new documentary, an appearance by Rep. Michele Bachmann and a fiery sermon by front man Bradlee Dean that called liberals “criminals” and urged attendees to fight a “war” for the faith against liberals.

By any reasonable standard the Minnesota Sex Offender Program has been an unmitigated failure. In its nearly two decades, it has failed to rehabilitate a single patient. The only people who have graduated from the program have done so in body bags. Yet, since 2003, the program’s budget has ballooned by nearly 400 percent, from $18.5 million annually to $71.6 million.

The American Legion Post 550 in Bloomington says it will withhold up to $30,000 in scholarships because the public school district won’t allow the group to lead the student body in prayer, the Star Tribune reported Wednesday.

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is urging the Internal Revenue Service to fix problems with its enforcement of laws against churches endorsing political candidates. In January, a Minnesota District Court judge ruled that the IRS did not have the proper procedures in place to investigate Living Word Christian Center, an investigation [...]