FIC Blog

(Below is a slightly edited version of yesterday’s FIC e-mail alert -PW)

Second Circuit Denies Expedited Appeal

When Enfield changed its mind last week and voted to appeal a temporary injunction against holding graduations at First Cathedral, FIC noted that

according to The Courant, the BOE is still not seeking to move this month’s graduations back to First Cathedral. This undercuts Enfield’s own case and raises questions as to why the appeal is “expedited.”

The Second Circuit Court has denied the expedited appeal on precisely those grounds. From a Courant story no longer available online: 

A short court order issued Monday said the request was denied “as the Enfield Board of Education has decided to hold the 2010 graduations on school grounds regardless of how this appeal is decided.”

This is just the latest development in a fight that likely will not be won until the Second Circuit–or perhaps even the U.S. Supreme Court–rules on the ACLU’s lawsuit itself, rather than this temporary injunction.

And the fight has many twists and turns. Last week, we dealt with one purveyor of liberal media hostility to FIC’s role in the Enfield graduation fight. Today, we recommend our analysis of a recent Courant editorial and we especially recommend Don Pesci’s column on the media and FIC:

Just now, Big Media is interested in preventing Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC) from engaging in politics, the birthright of every American, theist or atheist.

The good news going forward is that the Second Circuit denied the expedited appeal on a technicality, not because it agreed with Judge Hall’s ruling–and many commentators believe that Judge Hall’s ruling is so flawed that Enfield will be able to use First Cathedral for graduations next June.

Watch your in-box for further updates.