Religion & Law

Study finds condom use is increasing

Posted on May 27, 2010
The Gainesville Sun: "Women and their partners in the United States are increasingly using male condoms when they have premarital sex for the first time, which may explain why teenage birth rates have declined in recent decades, according to a new government survey of contraceptive methods...

Cal. Senate passes bill for new class of marriage ? ?civil? marriage

Posted on May 27, 2010
The California Family Council reports: "This morning, the California Senate ? on a party-line vote ? passed legislation, authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), which creates a new ?class? of marriage ? ?civil? marriage. (Article to be posted tomorrow...

Research shows homosexuality more common among children of broken families

Posted on May 27, 2010
Catholic Culture: Patrick Fagan of the Family Research Council-- whose 'Mapping America' project has provided a steady stream of revealing statistical insights into the connections between religious faith and social stability-- has found that lesbian relationships are disproportionately common among women raised in broken families ...

US bishops oppose ENDA, call ?gay rights? bill a ?threat to religious liberty?

Posted on May 27, 2010
Catholic Culture quoting the USCCB letter: "These rulings also reflect a legal strategy that gay rights advocates have repeatedly and publicly explained in scholarly articles and other media?first, secure the passage of sexual orientation antidiscrimination laws, such as ENDA, and then invoke the principle embedded within those laws as a basis for same-sex 'marriage...

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Christian Anthropology, Libertarianism, Freedom, and the Privatization of Religion

Posted on May 27, 2010
". . . negative freedom is American, and is the basis of our Bill of Rights. I do not see how a polity premised on negative freedom can keep from issuing in a privatization of religion . . . "

CT: Judge Visits Church At Center Of ACLU vs. Enfield Graduation Battle

Posted on May 26, 2010
Hartford Courant: "A federal judge Tuesday toured First Cathedral, the mega-church at the center of a church-state legal battle prompted by Enfield's plans to rent the church for two high school graduations next month."

NYers wage jihad vs. WTC mosque approved by community board

Posted on May 26, 2010
NY Post: "Angry relatives of 9/11 victims last night clashed with supporters of a planned mosque near Ground Zero at a raucous community-board hearing in Manhattan. After four hours of public debate, members of Community Board 1 finally voted 29-1 in support of the project...

GOP to oppose normalization of homosexual behavior in the military

Posted on May 26, 2010
The Hill: "House Republicans are preparing to mount a vigorous defense of the ?Don?t ask, don?t tell? policy President Bill Clinton implemented in 1993. GOP lawmakers in the lower chamber are poised to vote en masse against the defense authorization bill if it includes an amendment to repeal the law barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U...

Mike Johnson on the Frank Pastore Show: AZ tuition tax credit case and Idaho censors the Great Works of Western Civilization in public charter schools

Posted on May 26, 2010
ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on the Frank Pastore Show to discuss the AZ tuition tax credit case and Idaho's censorship of the Great Works of Western Civilization in public charter schools. | MP3 - 20:47 mins | ADF Media information in the AZ case | ADF Media information in the Idaho case

Society of American Law Teachers calls for US News rankings boycott

Posted on May 26, 2010
Society of American Law Teachers Press Release: "Chief among the rankings' ill effects is their impact on admissions decisions in general, and on diversity in admissions in particular. Because LSAT scores figure so prominently into the computation of a school's rank, few schools are willing to compromise their ranking by accepting 'nontraditional' students whose merit is measured in ways other than a single test score ...

Charles J. Chaput: Suing the Church

Posted on May 26, 2010
Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. writing at First Things | On The Square: "In O?Bryan v. Holy See, currently being heard in the U.S. district court in Kentucky, plaintiffs' attorneys are seeking to depose Vatican officials?including, potentially, the pope himself?to determine what they allegedly ignored or covered up about the handling of clergy sex-abuse cases by American bishops...

India: Surrogacy bill looks to protect child?s interest

Posted on May 26, 2010
Times of India: "Having emerged as the hottest destination for surrogacy, it is but natural for India to take the lead in evolving a law that safeguards the interests of all the parties concerned, including the child born through assisted reproductive technology (ART)...

Divided 8th Circuit upholds 121 month sentence for North Dakota mom who killed her day old infant

Posted on May 26, 2010
"This case concerns the crime of neonaticide, which is the killing of a newborn child on the first day of life. This crime is practically unknown in the federal courts. Neonaticide is a crime relating to family and domestic concerns and, thus, federal courts do not generally deal with these crimes...

Daniel Blomberg: Religious liberty for me, but not for thee

Posted on May 26, 2010
ADF Attorney Daniel Blomberg writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "The battle over whether chaplains? and Service members? First Amendment rights to religious liberty will be sacrificed to make room for normalized homosexuality in the military is reaching a critical phase this week ...

Daniel Blomberg: Notice to small ministries: The IRS would like to talk with you

Posted on May 26, 2010
ADF Attorney Daniel Blomberg writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "While churches need not fear, hundreds of thousands of small non-profits groups nationwide, including para-church ministries, may find their tax-exempt status at stake come next year...

Court removes crosses from schools, ADF steps in

Posted on May 26, 2010
OneNewsNow: "Italy wants to keep crucifixes in public schools -- and in its fight for that right before the European Court of Human Rights, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed a motion to intervene . . . 'The Italian courts had decided that they were a symbol of the history and culture of the country, and they went to Strasbourg to the European Court of Human Rights where they ruled that the presence of the crosses indoctrinated the children,' [Roger Kiska] reports...

?Anti-abortion pregnancy center sues county over disclaimer law?

Posted on May 26, 2010
Gazette.net: "An anti-abortion pregnancy center has sued Montgomery County over a law requiring it to post information about the care it provides . . . Centro Tepeyac Women's Center in Silver Spring says the law is unconstitutional, said [Casey Mattox], the center's lead attorney...

Ten Commandments monument to return to front of courthouse

Posted on May 26, 2010
WHIO: "The Alliance Defense Fund, a national organization, has volunteered to cover any litigation that may occur from putting the monument back."

AZ: Church?s path to God blocked by Glendale?s zoning code

Posted on May 26, 2010
Arizona Republic: "The Potter's House Christian Fellowship Center has been shut down by the city of Glendale. Under a cease-and-desist order issued April 26, the church's pastor, the Rev. James Martinez, could be cited and thrown into jail if he returns to the sanctuary...

Court to rule on school choice tax credits

Posted on May 26, 2010
Baptist Press: "The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) appealed the opinion to the Supreme Court on behalf of ACSTO. It denied Arizona's program violates the establishment clause, since it deals with private choices and donations. ADF asked the high court to overturn the Ninth Circuit decision because the foes of the program have suffered no injuries and have no legal standing to challenge it...

Kagan?s Public Service Commitment Touted By Harvard Law Grads

Posted on May 26, 2010
Blog of the Legal Times: "But it was a former Harvard Federalist Society president, now a Republican political consultant, who captured most of the spotlight. Sarah Isgur, a 2008 graduate of the law school, had high praise for Kagan?s assistance in 'helping me get the Federalist Society to the level I felt was needed...

Group Urges States Not To Contract To Send Inmates To Planned Christian Prison

Posted on May 26, 2010
Religion Clause Blog: "In a press release yesterday, Americans United said that it has written officials in the three states urging them to refuse to send prisoners to Corrections Concepts. The identical letters argue that state funding for prisoners in religious facilities would violate the Establishment Clause...

Foreigners use the pill more, sterilization less

Posted on May 26, 2010
AP: "Sixteen percent of U.S. married women say they use the pill. That compares to 29 percent in the United Kingdom and more than 40 percent in the Netherlands and France."

Ranking Member of House Armed Services: Rush to Repeal Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell an Insult to Military Personnel and Their Families

Posted on May 26, 2010
"The Ranking Member on the House Armed Services Committee today called the rush by the White House and Congressional Democrats to repeal the Clinton-era 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law and policy as an affront to military personnel and their families."

Mikey Weinstein?s Crusade: Meet the man who?s trying to purge evangelical Christianity from the Pentagon.

Posted on May 26, 2010
Foreign Policy: "Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein shares his hate mail with both friends and strangers the way elderly people show off photos of their grandkids. He has plenty of it to share. For the past four years, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has been doing battle with a Christian subculture that, he believes, is trying to Christianize the U...

Arizona election subsidy challenged

Posted on May 26, 2010
SCOTUS Blog: "The law provides that those who opt for public funding get escalating subsidies if their non-subsidized candidates raise significantly greater amounts of private money. The candidates without subsidies contend that this curbs their First Amendment right to raise and spend money, penalizing them by turning their added campaign efforts into further underwriting for their opponents...

U.S. Admiral: Chain?s growing influence in Asia is positive

Posted on May 26, 2010
Financial Times: "Adm Willard said the US viewed China?s growing influence in Asia as positive . . . "

U.S. Debt Clock

Posted on May 26, 2010
Drudge linked to this site this morning which offers detailed statistics on government debt. Learn about the site here.

Transexual Loses Bid For State-Paid Breast Enlargements

Posted on May 26, 2010
MYFoxDC.com: "A 58-year-old British transsexual Tuesday lost her court battle over the state-funded health service's refusal to pay for a breast enlargement, which she claimed violated her human rights."

Law Review: How Public Universities May Constitutionally Enforce Policies Limiting Student Speech at College Basketball Games

Posted on May 26, 2010
Keep It Clean: How Public Universities May Constitutionally Enforce Policies Limiting Student Speech at College Basketball Games Jonathan Singer, 39 U. Balt. L. Rev. 299 (2010) "This Comment will approach the issue from a different angle. A consideration of the university's basic educational mission will be necessary to provide the appropriate context under which potential policies must be analyzed...

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