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The Center for Inquiry is the only organization working to advance reason, science, secularism, and humanist values in public policy, and oppose the influence of religion, dogma, pseudoscience, and superstition. As a leading advocate in these areas, we have assembled a wide network of experts who can address the public policy issues related to our agenda. We bring that network and expertise, and the energy and passion of our grassroots supporters, to have an impact on policy at the state, national, and international levels.
Evidence, facts, and the scientific method are being challenged in the United States today as never before, and the secular foundations of government are being uprooted in favor of religious privilege. While a number of organizations lobby and work to defend science politically, only one organization works to defend reason in all important areas of human endeavor: the Center for Inquiry.
Homeopathy
The ultimate medical con, where billions of dollars each year is fleeced from an unsuspecting public; CFI is battling the countries biggest retailers to protect consumers from this scam.
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Vaccines
Vaccination is among the greatest medical advances in history; CFI campaigns for broader uptake, and against the lies and pseudoscience that lead to vaccine hesitancy.
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Naturopathy
Naturopaths aren’t real doctors, they deal out pseudoscientific nonsense; CFI works to make sure states don’t give them undue credibility and support.
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Secular Celebrants
Few states allow celebrants to perform weddings unless they claim to be religious; CFI has won the right for truly secular celebrants in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, and is looking to expand that nationwide.
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School Vouchers
Every dollar given to religious schools is a dollar for indoctrination, and a dollar taken from where it is needed, the secular public school system; CFI is fighting to prevent your tax dollars going to church schools.
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Equality for Nonbelievers
People shouldn’t be deprived of their rights because they don’t believe in a god; CFI is working across the world and in the United Nations to defend equal legal protections for the nonreligious.
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Office of Consumer Protection from Pseudoscience
The Office of Consumer Protection from Pseudoscience seeks to fight back against the harms caused by quacks, crooks, and charlatans, big and small. Through this new part of CFI, we will be bringing legal action and issuing warning letters, seeking to educate and inform the public and legislators and pressuring regulators, both state and federal, to properly protect the public from the harms of scam products and “treatments.”
Legal Department
The Legal Department furthers the Center for Inquiry’s mission through investigation, litigation, by filing amicus briefs in cases involving First Amendment rights, reproductive freedom, assistance in dying, consumer protection, and other issues of importance to the Center and its supporters. Where appropriate, the Center or its affiliates will file their own lawsuit.
CFI is putting a particular focus on consumer protection lawsuits. Billions of dollars every year are fraudulently extracted from unwitting consumers across the country to line the pockets of those who peddle snake oil and pseudoscientific nonsense. CFI legal department stands ready to file suit against sellers of homeopathy, psychics, naturopaths, and faith healers where their claims run contrary to the basic laws of science, and their flimflammery fleeces the general public.
CFI seeks to use the legal system to establish precedent that can then create fundamental change in society. Winning secular celebrant cases creates momentum to pressure other states to permit secular celebrants. Winning consumer protection lawsuits against retail behemoths like Walmart and CVS not only forces those companies to change their policies across the nation, or face multiple suits from the plaintiffs’ bar, it also sends a message to every other retailer that they must change too. Winning the right for mature minors to be vaccinated in one state will quickly lead to all mature minors in the United States having that option.
Staff
Nicholas J. Little
Legal Director
Aaron Green
Staff Counsel
Contact Us
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: (202) 734-6494 ext. 203
Fax: (202) 733-5292
Refer a Case
If you have experienced discrimination because you are nonreligious or you believe that your constitutional rights are in jeopardy, or if you have suffered harm or been deceived by pseudoscience at any level, please contact us here. Be aware that submission of this information to the Legal Department does not guarantee that we can assist you. Contact a private attorney promptly as well as asking us. CFI does not undertake representation of individuals involved in employment disputes.
Lawsuits
Updates
The Scientific Standard and Homeopathy’s Book of Secrets
March 13, 2023Supporting and defending science-based medicine isn’t always easy. Periodically, the evidence doesn’t square with your preconceptions or your preferred outcome. When that happens, you have to change your view. That’s much easier in “alternative medicine,” where a failure to work is written off as Mercury being in retrograde or the patient simply not believing hard …
The McCaul Is Coming from inside the House: Congressional Chairman Revives Urban Legend about State Department Program
February 22, 2023Mark Twain famously said, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is disappointed to see that Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX), the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, evidently has taken that message to heart. As one of his first orders of business in …
Missing the Point: CFI Calls Congressional Takeover of National Prayer Breakfast ‘A Backward Step’
February 1, 2023In a January 17 letter, the Center for Inquiry (CFI) joined twenty-nine other secular, religious, and activist organizations to urge the president, vice president, and members of Congress not to attend the National Prayer Breakfast on February 2. The letter warned that “history has proven that this event is an attempt to bait members of …
Amicus Briefs
303 Creative Case a “Cynical Ploy” for Discrimination, CFI Tells SCOTUS
August 19, 2022The Center for Inquiry joined with our friends and allies to submit an amicus brief to the Supreme Court Thursday in the case of 303 Creative LLC vs. Elenis. The brief can be found here. 303 Creative is a case out of Colorado that seeks to subordinate LGBTQ rights to the concept of “religious liberty.” …
Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right, Secular Groups Tell SCOTUS in Case of Muslim American Persecution
January 13, 2020Muslim Americans persecuted by law enforcement deserve justice, the Center for Inquiry told the Supreme Court in a joint amicus brief, but warned that providing financial restitution through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is misguided, dangerous, and unconstitutional. Today the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and American Atheists (AA) filed a jointly written amicus brief with …
CFI Tells Supreme Court: Church Facilities Must Not Be Funded By Taxpayer Dollars
July 6, 2016The Center for Inquiry yesterday joined with our friends and allies to submit an amicus brief to the Supreme Court yesterday in the case of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Pauley.
Prominent Scientists Urge Supreme Court: Reject Pseudoscientific Testimony for Texas Abortion Case
January 5, 2016Steven Pinker, Eugenie Scott, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, and more than 40 other eminent scientists and public intellectuals are backing the Center for Inquiry in a brief to the Supreme Court criticizing the state of Texas’s onerous restrictions on abortion providers. CFI’s brief argues that t
Office of Public Policy
The Center for Inquiry’s Office of Public Policy serves as liaison to our nation’s government, to see that every available means is used to defend and promote science, reason, and secular values. We work with lawmakers to effect legislative responses to attacks on science and reason. We submit white papers, solicited from our network of fellows and scientists. We provide rapid response via public statements and action alerts directed at public policy. We bring experts to testify in legislative hearings. We also delve into upcoming legislation, undertake appropriate research on bills that relate to our agenda, and coordinate press, legal, and scholarly responses to legislation.
The Office of Public Policy also regularly submits written testimony to state legislatures and Congress, in order to weigh in on bills involving science, religion, and other CFI issues.
Take Action
Get updated via email whenever there’s important legislation or news related to our community.
New York: Urge Governor Hochul to Sign Secular Recovery Bill Into Law
December 16, 2022
Urge Your Senator to Pass the Federal ‘Respect for Marriage Act’
September 15, 2022
Arizona: Add Your Signature to Support Referendum to Overturn Pro-School Voucher Bill
August 18, 2022
Indiana: Tell Your Representatives to Say No to Near-Total Abortion Ban
August 3, 2022
Updates
Center for Inquiry, Allies Call on Senate to ‘Take Rapid and Effective Action’ Toward Supreme Court Reform
December 15, 2022America’s trust and confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court is at a fifty-year low. In 2022, the Supreme Court has been rocked by leaks, allegations of inappropriate contact between justices and political actors, an undeniable disregard for precedent, and an undisguised rightward trajectory. This has created a crisis that, if allowed to stand, could undermine …
Center for Inquiry Lauds Final Passage of ‘Respect for Marriage’ Act
December 9, 2022The Center for Inquiry (CFI) celebrated Thursday’s U.S. House of Representatives vote to pass the Respect for Marriage Act. Following the 258-169 vote, CFI Director of Government Affairs Azhar Majeed said, “We’re very pleased to see the House of Representatives pass the Respect for Marriage Act so it can proceed to President Biden’s desk.” “Marriage …
‘Forcing Taxpayers to Fund Religious Schools’: Center for Inquiry Decries Oklahoma AG’s Opinion on Charter School Funding
December 2, 2022On Thursday, December 1, Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor issued an opinion that clears the way for public funding of charter schools operated by religious entities. The Center for Inquiry (CFI) condemns this new opinion, which summarily upends existing state law prohibiting charter school programs from being “affiliated with a nonpublic sectarian school or religious …
United Nations
The Center for Inquiry is an active non-governmental organization (NGO) at the United Nations, and has held special consultative status under the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2005. CFI has a presence at both the UN headquarters in New York City, and the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
CFI’s mission to the UN works to protect and advance universal human rights from a secular, science-based perspective, focusing mainly on three interrelated areas of human rights: freedom of religion, belief, and expression; women’s rights; and LGBT equality.
Updates
Center for Inquiry Calls for Renewed International Support of Iranian Protesters
December 19, 2022
Threats to the Nonreligious in Libya: CFI at the U.N. Human Rights Council
March 18, 2021
The Rights of Nonbelievers and Iran’s Abuses: CFI at the UN Human Rights Council
March 9, 2020
Blasphemy and Apostasy Laws in Qatar and Brunei: CFI at the UN Human Rights Council
September 24, 2019
CFI’s UN Advocate Takes on Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Record
July 9, 2019
CFI at the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
April 2, 2019
CFI Welcomes New UN Advocate: Andreas Kyriacou
February 20, 2019
Joint Statement on Mauritania: Death Penalty for Blasphemy and Journalist’s Imprisonment
June 29, 2018
CFI Hosts Visit of UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief to Washington, D.C.
April 6, 2017
Center for Inquiry Spotlights Freedom of Conscience at 34th Session of UN Human Rights Council
March 27, 2017