To no surprise during the age of Trump, anti-Muslim and xenophobic attacks have factored in to several elections around the country.

President Donald Trump has been claiming that he did away with the Johnson Amendment, but this yet another of his falsehoods. He issued an executive order full of verbiage that didn’t really do anything. The Johnson Amendment is a federal law. It would take an act of Congress to overturn or modify it.

Another court delivered a victory this week for those striving to make public meetings more inclusive to people of all religions and the nonreligious: The Alaska Superior Court ruled that Kenai Peninsula Borough is violating the state constitution’s religious freedom protections by restricting the faith traditions from which residents may offer invocations during public meetings.

“Separation of church and state is under sustained attack by the Trump-Pence administration. I believe this vital constitutional principle deserves nothing less than a full-throttle defense, and I look forward to joining the fight," said Tali Israeli, AU's new strategic communications director.