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July 2008 -- The Superior Court in Anchorage found in Coonrod v. Alaska that a state law granting tax exemptions to schools for teachers’ residences at religious institutions also applies to secular schools.

The ACLU originally filed a lawsuit to ensure that the law – which did not clearly include a tax exemption for private secular nonprofit educational institutions – was applied fairly and equally to religious and non-religious groups alike. Judge Spaan's ruling, though a denial of our motion for summary judgment, confirms our legal argument and clarifies that a tax exemption cannot constitutionally favor religious organizations. The ACLU will continue to defend the principle that exemptions for religious organizations can only be constitutional if they are part of a broad neutrally-applicable exemption that neither favors nor discriminates against religious groups.

A copy of the decision is available here.

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Season Two of the series premieres with a slate of nine programs on the death penalty, same-sex marriage, same-sex parenting, voting rights, immigrants’ rights, surveillance, sex education, the school-to-prison pipeline, and unlawful imprisonment, torture and habeas corpus.

Filmmaker and political activist Robert Greenwald, whose ground-breaking political films include Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, is the executive producer of the series. Richard Ray Perez, an award-winning documentary filmmaker (Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election), will lead the production team for Season Two.

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