Former cadet sues Air Force for alleged religious intolerance News
Former cadet sues Air Force for alleged religious intolerance

[JURIST] Mikey Weinstein, a graduate of the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) [official website] filed a lawsuit in federal court on Thursday claiming senior academy officials illegally forced Christianity upon him. Weinstein, who is Jewish, said the USAFA violated cadets' right to worship as they choose. Specifically, his complaint maintains that Christians at the Academy coerced his attendance at religious services, and otherwise attempted "to involuntarily convert, pressure, exhort or persuade" Weinstein to accept their own religious beliefs. In May, the Pentagon investigated [JURIST report; USAFA press release] religious activities at the Academy to determine if the climate there violated the First Amendment [LII backgrounder]. The report [PDF text] issued in June, however, found no overt acts of religious discrimination. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.