The Obama administration, through the US Justice Department, is drawing criticism for its plan to team up with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has been described as a "Christian-hating" group, in its newly launched campaign against domestic terrorism.
Tony Perkins, whose Family Research Council (FRC) has been accused as an extremist group by the SPLC, was quoted by WND.com as saying that it's ironic that SPLC was selected in determining violent extremists when SPLC provided the inspiration for a domestic terrorist attack on FRC.
WND reported that on Aug. 15, 2012, Floyd Corkins went to the FRC office in Washington, D.C. armed with a pistol and Chick-fil-A sandwiches and intended to kill.
Corkins later said he was prompted to act after reading on the SPLC website that Chick-fil-A and FRC were anti-gay hate groups.
"Don't look for justice to roll down like a river (Amos 5:24) at the DOJ here in Washington," said Perkins on Thursday. "Fueled by a radical agenda that heeds neither the law nor common sense, the Obama DOJ will stop at nothing to marginalise and silence the Americans it disagrees with — a goal it shares with the disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center."
Meanwhile, the WND reported that an appeals court sent back a case to a district court, which ruled that two groups should have an oversight over the operations of a Christian foster care facility in Kentucky.
The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a 2013 decision that allowed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State to monitor the Sunrise Children's Services, a Christian foster care home.
"This case has been going on for 16 years and Sunrise is ready to turn the page," Suttles said, according to Kentucky Today. "We have 750 kids who have faced some of the most terrible things imaginable. We need to focus instead on making a difference in their lives."
The appeals court questioned whether the settlement, agreed to by the two organisations and the state but left out Sunrise is fair.
"We feel good about the Sixth Circuit Court's decision," Suttles said. "Now we'll wait to see how the district court handles its decision."
In the 2013 ruling, it said that Kentucky "must provide the ACLU and Americans United [for Separation of Church and State] with information about the religious beliefs for all children in Sunrise's care, the completed exit surveys for those children, any reports that the state's caseworkers write about Sunrise, and records of any religious activities and Sunrise's group homes."
"Before entering a consent decree, a district court must determine, among other things, that the agreement is 'fair, adequate, and reasonable, as well as consistent with the public interest,'" the appeal court said. "Moreover, the court must allow anyone affected by the decree to 'present evidence and have its objections heard.'"
