Religion & Law

Jordan Sekulow: Protecting students? rights to religious expression

Posted on May 28, 2010
ACLJ Chief Counsel Jordan Sekulow writing at the Huffington Post: "Thirteen year-old Raymond Hosier, a seventh grader at Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, New York, who has never been considered a rabble rouser, recently began wearing a rosary around his neck ...

Law Review: When Your Body is Your Business (Surrogacy)

Posted on May 28, 2010
Morgan Holcomb and Mary Patricia, When Your Body is Your Business (April 22, 2010). Washington Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 4, 2010; William Mitchell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-10. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1594348 "Surrogacy in the United States is a multi-million dollar industry in which well paid professionals seek out highly specialized women to fulfill the difficult job of being a surrogate...

SC: Abortion bill running short on time

Posted on May 28, 2010
The State: "Lawmakers are negotiating a compromise on a bill to extend the waiting period for an abortion from one hour to 24 hours, but they?re running out of time with only four days left in the regular session . . . The House version requires the wait to begin once an ultrasound test is performed and calls for a woman to be informed of the age of the fetus ...

Persecution in Egypt brings Coptic Christians to TN

Posted on May 28, 2010
The Pew Forum: "These days, when incense smoke rises at St. Mina Coptic Orthodox Church, it carries with it prayers of thanks from Nashville's Egyptian community, who lost furniture and carpets to the flood instead of lives . . . In Middle Tennessee, they've grown from about 100 in the early 1990s to about 4,000 people today...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

U.S. House passes DADT bill

Posted on May 28, 2010
The Underground: "The repeal had been opposed by chaplaincy organizations, many of which supply men for the chaplaincy corps and give official endorsement so they can serve as military chaplains, according to Advancing Religious Liberty (ARL) . . . A statement from the Alliance Defense Fund said, 'If chaplains with beliefs that contradict the proposed policy are removed from roles that generate conflict, then they, the faith groups they represent, and the service members whose religious beliefs they serve will all be marginalized...

Mom sues Tampa gentleman?s club and magazine that featured girl, 16

Posted on May 28, 2010
TampaBay.com: "The mother of a 16-year-old girl who ran away from home and worked as an adult dancer has filed a lawsuit against the club and a magazine that printed bikini-clad images of her."

Bishop laments demographic winter: 50% of Italian families are childless, only 5.1% have 3 or more children

Posted on May 28, 2010
Zenit: "More than 50% of Italian families today do not have children and among those that do, almost half have only one child, the rest have two. Only 5.1% of families have three or more children."

Erik Stanley: The history of politics from the pulpit

Posted on May 28, 2010
ADF Attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "Over at Dakota Voice, Bob Ellis has an interesting post that details the history of politics from the pulpit in America. Bob does a good job of detailing many of the stories where pastors in American history spoke forcefully and with great conviction from their pulpits about political matters ...

Casey Mattox: Progress on 5 university speech codes

Posted on May 28, 2010
ADF Attorney Casey Mattox writing at Speak Up Movement / University: "ADF allied attorneys Len Brown, Randy Wenger and Demetrios Stratis (with assistance from many more allies) sent letters to 5 schools ? Rutgers, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Westmoreland Community College (PA), Cheyney University (PA), and Delaware State ...

Pro-life Activists to Challenge Planned Parenthood Ban on the First Amendment in Washington, D.C.

Posted on May 28, 2010
Christian Newswire: "Planned Parenthood has put up a fence around public property and threatened to arrest members of the pro-life community who attempt to pray and counsel on the public sidewalk and property. For years, people were allowed to pray, counsel and maintain a pro-life witness on the public property and sidewalk surrounding Planned Parenthood ...

Anglican Head Reprimands U.S. Church over Lesbian Bishop

Posted on May 28, 2010
Christian Post: "In a Pentecost letter released by the Anglican Communion News Service Friday, the Archbishop of Canterbury proposed that The Episcopal Church play a lesser role in certain dialogues. He stopped short of asking the U.S. body to leave."

Discount Babies

Posted on May 28, 2010
The Economist: "THE market is not politically correct. It often assigns lower values to humans (their wages) based on their race or sex, even after controlling for education and experience. It's just as cruel to children. A few years ago I was disturbed to learn that it's cheaper to adopt black American children than white...

Ireland: Almost half of first births in 2007 outside marriage

Posted on May 28, 2010
Irish Examiner: "New data released today by the Central Statistics Office also reveals that 44% of all first births in Ireland in 2007 took place outside marriage."

Kenya?s draft constitution under fire for Islamic courts

Posted on May 28, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: "Kenya's efforts to pass a new constitution ? aimed at preventing a repeat of 2007 ethnic violence ? hit another hurdle this week, as judges ruled that it permits an Islamic 'khadi' court system that is discriminatory."

GLAD Files Amended Complaint in DOMA Challenge

Posted on May 28, 2010
GLAD: "GLAD filed an amended complaint this week in our lawsuit challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Gill v. OPM. The complaint updates the tax overpayments of three of the plaintiff couples due to their inability to file their federal income tax returns under the status 'married filing jointly...

ACLU Appeals Decision In Louisiana Public School Sex Segregation Case

Posted on May 28, 2010
ACLU: "The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Louisiana today filed an appeal brief in a case challenging the segregation of classes by sex in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana . . . "

Senate Committee OKs Amdt to Allow Abortions at US Military Hospitals

Posted on May 28, 2010
LifeNews: "A Senate committee yesterday approved an amendment to a bill that would turn U.S. military base hospitals into abortion centers."

Rees Lloyd: American Legion fight to preserve memorial began in Banning

Posted on May 28, 2010
Record Gazette: "What is at stake in the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross case, and the companion Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial Cross case (now pending in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal and is certain to go to the U.S. Supreme Court), is whether 300 million Americans will continue to have the right to choose how they will honor their war dead and other veterans, including by use of the cross or other symbols with a religious aspect; or whether the ACLU or single individuals who claim they are 'offended' by the sight of a cross at a veterans memorial will have a veto power over those decisions...

Protesters arrested for heckling Obama adviser in Israel: ?Jerusalem is not for sale?

Posted on May 27, 2010
AP: "Two ultranationalist Israeli activists have been arrested for shouting insults at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The two men approached Emanuel Thursday as he was touring Jerusalem's Old City with his family under heavy security."

American lawsuit against Vatican misconstrues nature of the Church, canonists say

Posted on May 27, 2010
CNA: "We often think of the church as being one monolithic structure. It starts in the Vatican, and goes all the way down to parochial vicar or deacon in the parish. 'Actually that?s not true. That?s not our ecclesiology.' He stated that the Catholic Church is a 'confederation' of many particular churches, referred to as dioceses or local churches...

Dale Schowengerdt: Churches vandalized, ransacked, and threatened with disruption

Posted on May 27, 2010
ADF Attorney Dale Schowengerdt writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "The past week produced more evidence that attacks against churches are on the rise?at least three churches suffered property destruction or threatened disruption. As usual, they were conservative churches that take a stand on moral issues that were abused...

Pakistan Says it Will Restore YouTube But Block Video Clips Muslims Find Offensive

Posted on May 27, 2010
CNSNews: "Pakistan will restore access to YouTube but will block videos offensive to Muslims that are posted on the video-sharing site, the government said Wednesday . . . "

Japan: Child porn victims write about their distress

Posted on May 27, 2010
AP: "Some Japanese women who in their childhood were victims of pornography have written about their fears and anguish in being betrayed by adults they had trusted, and in imagining that lewd images of themselves as young children could be still circulating around the world on the Internet ...

Former Sex Club Operator Sues Clark County in Federal Court

Posted on May 27, 2010
8NewsNow.com: "David Cooper is an admitted swinger. For three months, he ran Sextasy until the county shut him down. In June 2008, a letter from the county informed Cooper his license applications were denied. He appealed to the Clark County Commission, but lost...

Japan plans to block access to child porn sites swiftly

Posted on May 27, 2010
Breitbart (AP): "A Japanese government working group released a plan Thursday to have Internet service providers block access to child pornography sites as soon as they are found, without waiting for the operators of such sites to comply with requests to delete them...

Court upholds ban on gay pride parade in Moscow

Posted on May 27, 2010
Interfax: "Moscow's Tagansky Court has upheld a decision by the city's authorities to ban a gay pride parade planned for this Sunday, the parade's organizer Nikolay Alexeyev said."

UK: Street preacher suing Police over controversial arrest

Posted on May 27, 2010
The Christian Institute: "The Christian street preacher who was arrested for expressing his religious belief about homosexuality is to take legal action over the incident. Dale Mcalpine, who made no mention of homosexuality during his public sermon, was arrested last month after he described homosexual conduct as a 'sin' during a conversation with two Police Community Support Officers...

UK: NHS hiring ?hair removal expert? for transsexuals

Posted on May 27, 2010
The Christian Institute: "The NHS in Glasgow has been lambasted for offering almost £22k a year for a hair removal specialist for transsexuals. Health officials in Strathclyde placed an advert for a full-time 'Hair Removal Specialist ? Transgender Services', despite criticism that there may only be a handful of transsexuals in the area...

ADF to Congress: Imposing homosexual agenda on military will create legal, religious liberty chaos

Posted on May 27, 2010
"Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, working with the Family Research Council, sent letters to all 535 members of the U.S. Congress Wednesday, advising them regarding the legal and religious freedom implications associated with the proposed repeal of the military?s standing 'Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell' policy...

Oklahoma Voters May Nullify Fed Health Care Law in November

Posted on May 27, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Voters in Oklahoma will be given a chance in November to decide whether they want to reject the core of the recently-enacted national health care reform, which includes taxpayer-funded abortion and requires individuals to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, thanks to a legislative action that bypassed the objections of pro-abortion Democrat Gov...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.