A Christian business selling dog tags with Bible verses won a legal victory this week in its long fight to overturn a government ban on its business.

The business in question, Shields of Strength, is run by Kenny and Tammie Vaughan and sells an array of Christian-themed inspirational jewelry. The business created military dog tags for U.S. service members, selling two million and donating another 2 million to inspire and encourage American troops.

However, after one group complained about the effort, the U.S. Department of Defense in 2019 ordered Shields of Strength to stop distributing the dog tags, saying they engaged in trademark infringement.

The Vaughns argue that the DOD is violating their First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech.

This week, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division refused to fully dismiss Shields of Strength’s lawsuit against the government, meaning it will proceed in court.

“The First Amendment claims survive that test,” the ruling said. “Because the Constitution itself provides judicially manageable standards, a claim that agency action violates the Constitution is reviewable unless Congress’s intent to bar review is ‘clear.’ And nothing establishes such a ‘clear’ bar to review of constitutional claims here.”

The U.S. Army in 2012 had granted a trademark license to the business for its work, but later the Department of Defense changed course. In fact, the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps all previously gave trademark licenses for the business.

Kenny Vaughn said his business supports American troops and veterans and should not be targeted.

“Shields of Strength has been a source of strength and encouragement for our military heroes for over 25 years,” he said in a statement. “Every dog tag we ever made was at the request of the troops and their families and it was our honor to do so. The hardest part has been declining requests for the last several years. We look forward to the day we no longer have to say no to a Solider, Marine, Sailor, or Airman who is asking for a reminder of God’s promise.”

First Liberty Institute, a group involved in the case, welcomed the ruling as a win for Shields of Strength.

“The decision by the court is a victory not only for Shields of Strength and its owner, Kenny Vaughan, but also for the brave men and women of our armed forces and their families who gain divine inspiration from Shields’ replica dog tags containing biblical scripture and military insignia,” Senior Counsel and Chair of the Military Affairs practice group for First Liberty Institute Danielle Runyan said in a statement.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_b1494554-2357-11ef-9111-ab3f6cba93b6.html

The WEF has announced that $104 billion was syphoned out of the pockets of taxpayers globally via carbon taxes last year to pay for environmental schemes.

In an article, the WEF brags that this is a new record and that carbon taxes and emissions trading systems now account for 24% of the world’s emissions, up from 7% in 2013.

“Carbon pricing can be one of the most powerful tools to help countries reduce emissions. That’s why it is good to see these instruments expand to new sectors, become more adaptable and complement other measures,” said World Bank managing director Axel van Trotsenburg.

However, according to the report, it’s not enough. Less than 1% of global emissions are being subject to a direct carbon price at the target rates, meaning there’s still plenty of room for more taxes.

No evidence that carbon taxes work

Of course, there’s no evidence carbon taxes change the weather or affect emissions. If there was, Canada, a world-renowned champion of it, would be able to provide evidence of this.

As Newfoundland’s Premier, Andrew Furey, pointed out, the carbon-taxed fisherman still needs to fill up his tank and drive his truck to go do his job. Now, he’s just paying more.

And after years of increasingly severe carbon taxes, protests against them, and heightened pressure to prove that a tax on driving has changed the weather, Liberal politicians in Canada haven’t been able to give any figures that show that emissions have fallen as a result of the carbon tax.

In fact, there’s probably evidence to the contrary, i.e., that not only has the carbon tax not changed the weather, it’s made life significantly worse for Canadians for no good reason—as is likely the case everywhere else there’s a carbon tax.

Indeed, PM Trudeau recently put a gag order on data from the PBO on the impact of carbon pricing.

During a finance committee earlier this week, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux told MPs, “The government has economic analysis on the impact of the carbon tax itself and the [output-based pricing system] (OBPS). We’ve seen that, staff in my office, but we’ve been told explicitly not to disclose and reference it.”

When asked if the Trudeau government has “put a gag on you saying you can’t talk about it,” Giroux responded, “That is my understanding.”

https://thecountersignal.com/wef-brags-over-100-billion-in-carbon-taxes-revenue/

A former Yale University student who was accused of sexual assault but acquitted at trial is suing 15 women’s organizations he says defamed him after the verdict.

Saifullah Khan was found not guilty in March 2018 but was subsequently expelled from Yale anyway. He sued the university and his accuser – and is now suing women’s organizations he says defamed him in post-verdict filings.

While suing Yale and his accuser, who has not been named in court or the media, the 15 organizations applied to file an amicus brief with the Connecticut Supreme Court. The filing included a proposed brief, which Khan says included “several false and defamatory statements.”

Those statements include the opening sentence, which stated as fact, “When Jane Doe was in college, the Plaintiff raped her,” even though Khan was acquitted. The brief also claimed that “her rapist invented an ambiguity in Connecticut law and subjected her to years of costly and traumatic retaliatory litigation.”

Throughout the brief, the organizations referred to the accuser as a “victim” and noted in a footnote that “Jane Doe was raped…”

When Khan and his attorney objected to the organizations’ application to file the amicus brief, the groups defended their claims as “supported by the record.”

The Connecticut Supreme Court disagreed with the claim, denying the application but allowing them to refile. In its denial, the court argued that any refiling must be “shorn of all facts not supported by the record.”

When the organizations refiled their brief, the opening sentence was changed to say: “Jane Doe, while a student at Yale University, engaged in Yale’s legally-obligated reporting and disciplinary procedures to report that plaintiff had sexually assaulted her.”

As Khan notes in his lawsuit, the original proposed brief is still permanently available on the Connecticut Supreme Court website.

Khan filed professional ethics complaints against Jennifer Becker, an attorney associated with the initial brief. When answering the complaint, Becker apologized for the language, saying, “I first want to acknowledge and apologize for the offending language that was included in the draft amicus brief.” She added that her language “was over-zealous and unnecessarily forceful.” She also directly addressed the use of the word “rape,” saying it was used “without qualification that it was an allegation…”

She claimed, however, that “any overzealousness on my part was ameliorated by the Court’s order and there is no resulting harm to Mr. Khan.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/acquitted-former-yale-student-suing-15-womens-organizations-for-defamation

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part 2

Khan disagrees and is suing Becker and 15 women’s organizations who signed on to the amicus brief: Jewish Women International, Legal Momentum, The Fierberg National Law Group, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Futures Without Violence, Advocates For Youth, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, National Crime Victim Law Institute, National Network to End Domestic Violence, National Women’s Law Center, Network for Victim Recovery, Sanctuary for Families, and the Women’s Law Project.

The Daily Wire previously reported on the details of Khan’s case. In March 2018, a jury found him not guilty in a court of law. While some could argue that “not guilty” does not mean “innocent,” some jurors said they perceived him as innocent after the trial.

“He’s innocent, and the facts prove it,” said Elise Wiener, an alternate juror who saw the same evidence as the other jurors. “He was acquitted because he deserved to be acquitted and the prosecutor should never have brought the case in the first place.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/acquitted-former-yale-student-suing-15-womens-organizations-for-defamation

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https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%203%3A5&version=NIV

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