The Gazette
A former Lewis-Palmer High School student is pressing on with what she sees as a fight for free speech, after she was disciplined by her alma mater for encouraging others to get to know “Jesus Christ” during her graduation speech.
Erica Corder filed an appeal on Thursday with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver after a Denver district court judge dismissed her suit against Lewis-Palmer School District 38 in July. The court has not yet accepted the appeal.

The brief was filed by Liberty Counsel, a legal advocacy group dedicated to defending “religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family,” according to its Web site. Liberty Counsel is representing Corder at no cost.

The dispute began at Corder’s 2006 graduation when she stood before the school and said, in part, “…his name is Jesus Christ. If you don’t already know him personally I encourage you to find out more about the sacrifice he made for you so that you now have the opportunity to live in eternity with him.”

Those words came as a surprise to then-principal Mark Brewer, because Corder had delivered a different speech to him for his approval before the graduation ceremony. After the ceremony, Corder was told she would not receive her diploma unless she apologized to the school community, said the lawsuit.

Corder complied, and her apology - “I realize that, had I asked ahead of time, I would not have been allowed to say what I did” - was e-mailed to the high school community.

Corder graduated and received her diploma. But 15 months later, in August 2007, she sued the school district, saying that her coerced apology and the pre-screening of the speeches were unconstitutional. Her family also accused the district of treating religious and nonreligious speech differently as a violation of the equal protection clause.

U.S. District Court Judge Walker D. Miller dismissed the lawsuit on July 30, writing that the graduation speech “was not private speech in a limited public forum but rather school-sponsored speech.”

He also found the case was moot, since Corder graduated and is no longer subject to the district’s authority. She is now a junior at Wheaton College in Illinois.

In a press release issued Friday, Liberty Counsel founder Mathew Staver said: “The school district had no right to coerce Erica to speak against her will when she was no longer a student. The school district compounded its unconstitutional censorship of religious viewpoints by forcing an exemplary alumnus to ‘confess’ to the school’s own crime. … Students do not shed their right to free speech when they stand at the graduation podium.”

But D-38 spokeswoman Robin Adair said Friday the judge’s ruling in July was on point.

“The school district’s actions were constitutionally appropriate, and the judge confirmed that when he dismissed the suit on all counts,” Adair said.

Corder could not be reached for comment, and her father Steven Corder declined to talk about the case.

Recipe courtesy Sandra Lee

Ingredients
Muffins:
Canola oil cooking spray
1 (14.5-ounce) box honey cornbread mix (recommended: Krusteaz)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles
1 (11-ounce) can Mexi-corn
2 teaspoons fajita seasoning
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar
Butter:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Chipotle Hot Sauce (recommended: Tabasco Brand)
2 tablespoons Southwest chipotle seasoning (recommended: Mrs. Dash)
Muffins:
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray 2 (24-count) mini-muffin pans with canola oil cooking spray; set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl stir together all ingredients until blended. Using a tablespoon, spoon batter into mini-muffin tins, filling to the rim. Bake in preheated oven 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Butter:
Combine all ingredients in small bowl; beat until light and fluffy. Serve with corn muffins.

NOTE: For standard 2 1/2-inch muffins: spoon batter into 18 to 20 muffins cups; fill 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven 16 to 18 minutes.

Associated Press
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Evangelist Billy Graham was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon after tripping and falling over one of his dogs at his North Carolina home Friday night, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The 89-year-old Graham was brought to Mission Hospital in Asheville with discomfort and bruising. He was listed in fair condition Saturday morning and his physicians report that X-rays showed no broken bones, spokeswoman Merrell Gregory said in a news release.

For six decades, Graham led a worldwide crusade-based ministry that packed stadiums with believers and allowed him to counsel every U.S. president since Harry Truman.

The Southern Baptist minister fell late Friday at his home in Montreat, N.C.

The hospital offered to let Graham go home after the X-rays, but the evangelist decided to stay overnight because it was so late, Graham spokesman Larry Ross said.

“He had a good night’s rest. Nurses said he was able to sleep. He was sitting in a chair eating full meals this morning,” Ross said early Saturday afternoon.

Earlier this year, Graham had elective surgery to update a shunt that controls excess fluid on his brain. The shunt was first installed in 2000 and drains fluid from through a small tube, relieving excess pressure that can cause symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease.

Graham has also suffered from prostate cancer and macular degeneration. He was hospitalized last year for nearly two weeks after experiencing intestinal bleeding.

Graham turns 90 on Nov. 7.

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaragua’s leftist President Daniel Ortega, a U.S. foe since the Cold War, said God was punishing the United States with the financial crisis for trying to impose its economic principles on poor countries.
“It’s incredible that in the most powerful country in the world, which spends billions of dollars on brutal wars … people do not have enough money to stay in their homes,” former Marxist guerrilla Ortega said in a speech late on Thursday.

“God is punishing the United States,” for imposing flawed economic policies on developing countries around the world, said Ortega, who first governed Nicaragua in the 1980s when his Sandinista government was locked in a war with U.S.-backed Contra rebels.

The Sandinistas were voted out of office in 1990 but Ortega returned to power in a 2006 election. Since then, the ex-rebel has spoken out against U.S. “tyranny” in Latin America and irked Washington by allying himself with anti-U.S. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Many Latin American countries adopted pro-market economic policies promoted by Washington in the 1990s but they have done little to reduce poverty.

Ortega said the current crisis would hit remittance flows to Nicaragua, as immigrants sending money home to relatives lose their jobs in the United States due to the slowdown.

Nicaraguans abroad send home between $800 million and $1 billion dollars (472 million and 590 million pounds) a year, according to the country’s central bank.