Wingnuts in the Courts

It seems that the fringe right is not having a good year in the courts. I noted earlier their losses in Oregon and New York*, and now the scene moves the California. From Pam's House Blend, first a report on "freedom of conscience" as a reason to deny medical treatments from Autumn Sandeen:

Do the rights of religious freedom and free speech, as guaranteed in both the federal and the California Constitutions, exempt a medical clinic's physicians from complying with the California Unruh Civil Rights Act's prohibition against discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation? Our answer is no.

This is one I can agree with wholeheartedly. My position has always been that you're perfectly free to observe your religion any way you want, but if you start dragging the state into it -- for example, if you are a pharmacist, stated-licensed and regulated, who refuses to dispense birth control -- then you are wrong.

And another report from Sandeen: the courts have found that the UC system does not have to accept courses in faith-based science as fulfilling entrance requirements:

The federal judge ruled that it's neither religious discrimination or the stifling of free expression for the UC system to have academic standards by which the system evaluates high school courses -- the judge cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts.

* Well, I thought I had posted about Oregon, but I can't find it now. Anyway, they lost their suit to have the domestic partnership law overturned. Assholes.