Religion & Law

Suit returns PA ?sexting? district to spotlight

Posted on May 20, 2010
ABC: "A Pennsylvania school district that was at the center of a highly publicized 'sexting' case was sued Thursday by a teenager who claims her principal confiscated her cell phone, found nude images she had taken of herself and turned it over to prosecutors...

MN: Edina one step closer to giving more rights to same sex couples

Posted on May 20, 2010
KSTP: "Edina's city council has unanimously approved to move forward with an ordinance aimed at giving more rights to same sex couples. If the ordinance passes, same sex couples could register as domestic partners."

The Case for Abolishing the Bluebook

Posted on May 20, 2010
Ilya Somin has this post at the Volokh Conspiracy arguing that the Bluebook has become counterproductive.

New Analysis Shows Childhood Family Structure Has Strong Influence on Rate of Homosexual Behavior in Adult Women

Posted on May 20, 2010
FRC: "Family Research Council released a new analytic report today showing that women who did not grow up with their biological mother and father are much more likely to engage in homosexual conduct as adults than are women who grew up in an intact family ...

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MD: ?Anti-abortion pregnancy center sues Montgomery?

Posted on May 20, 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 believes the law is unconstitutional, said the center's lead attorney [Casey Mattox]...

Dale Schowengerdt: Bold leadership in troubled times ? St. Leo?s legacy

Posted on May 20, 2010
ADF Attorney Dale Schowengerdt writing at the Speak Up Movement / church blog: "Some people claim that religious leaders somehow dilute the Gospel when they tackle important 'political' issues or candidates from the pulpit. But, in fact, Church history is chalk full with examples of religious leaders who combated secular leaders while also boldly proclaiming the Gospel...

Heather Hacker: Look for the Cross

Posted on May 20, 2010
ADF Attorney Heather Gebelin Hacker writing at the Speak Up Movement blog (via the Christian Post's Advancing Religious Liberty blog): "There was a compelling article in National Geographic last year that recently came to my attention. It is about the plight of North Korean defectors attempting to escape from the brutal regime and the Christian missionaries who come to their aid ...

Forsyth County?s lawyers file paperwork in appeal of federal judge?s injunction on prayer

Posted on May 20, 2010
Winston-Salem Journal: "Attorneys for the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners are arguing that a lower federal court erred when it banned the saying of sectarian prayers at the start of the board's meetings . . . 'There is no previous federal court in America that has determined that all sectarian references are unconstitutional,' said [Mike Johnson], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian organization active in church-state issues...

Idaho: Judge won?t allow school to use religious texts

Posted on May 20, 2010
CitizenLink: "[David Cortman] of the Alliance Defense Fund said options for an appeal are being discussed with Nampa Academy. 'We would be requesting that the 9th Circuit would prohibit the state from enforcing the order that stops all public schools including colleges, from being able to use any of these religious texts,' Cortman said...

MD: Montgomery County faces suit for passing law targeting pregnancy centers

Posted on May 20, 2010
LifeNews: "Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit Wednesday against Montgomery County on behalf of a Silver Spring pregnancy resource center . . . 'The government?s enforcement of policies against pro-life pregnancy centers and its refusal to apply the same rules to abortion facilities is an unconstitutionally discriminatory practice,' said ADF Legal Counsel Casey Mattox...

David Cortman on AFR Talk?s Focal Point: Idaho censors Great Works of Western Civilization from public charter schools

Posted on May 20, 2010
ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on AFR Talk's Focal Point with Bryan Fischer to discuss the Idaho textbook ruling. | MP3 14:14 mins | Related posts: ZZ: Nampa Classical Academy v. Goesling | ADF Media information page

Senate panel asks Clinton library to turn over documents on Elena Kagan

Posted on May 20, 2010
LA Times: "The Judiciary Committee asks for letters, memos, e-mails and more, before hearings on the Supreme Court nominee begin June 28. A library official says meeting the deadline would be 'very difficult.'"

Texas school spending tops $11k per pupil

Posted on May 20, 2010
NCPA Policy Digest: "As we close out this school year, taxpayers may wonder what kind of bang we're getting for our educational buck, asks Michael Quinn Sullivan, President and CEO of Empower Texans . . . "

Alan Sears, Tony Perkins, and Franklin Graham on Family Talk with James Dobson: Pentagon Censorship and The National Day of Prayer litigation

Posted on May 20, 2010
ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears appeared along with Franklin Graham and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council on Family Talk with James Dobson to discuss the Pentagon's censorship and the National Day of Prayer litigation. This was recorded in early May...

Refusal to Abort Leads to Suspension for Colombian Doctor

Posted on May 20, 2010
National Right to Life News: "Colombian authorities suspended the medical license of Dr. Germán Arango Rojas after he refused to abort the baby of a girl with Down syndrome. The country?s attorney general has now asked the Constitutional Court to reverse the conviction ...

Kagan papers shed light on nominee?s personality

Posted on May 20, 2010
AP: "Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan counted the days like a nervous student anticipating a tough oral exam before she made her first appearance last year at the court she's now seeking to join."

Pakistan blocks YouTube over unIslamic content

Posted on May 20, 2010
AP: "The Pakistani government blocked access to YouTube on Thursday because of 'sacrilegious' content in a growing Internet crackdown against sites deemed offensive to the country's majority Muslim population."

Alameda District Discontinues K-5 LGBT Curriculum; Parents Dismiss Opt-Out Suit

Posted on May 20, 2010
Pacific Justice Institute: "A group of parents who filed a lawsuit against Alameda Unified School District after the District denied their requests to excuse their young children from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) instruction are dismissing their suit...

Sen. Robert Byrd: The filibuster and its consequences

Posted on May 20, 2010
Sen. Robert Byrd writes at The Hill: "On September 30, 1788, Pennsylvania became the first state to elect its United States senators, one of whom was William Maclay. In his 1789 journal Senator Maclay wrote, 'I gave my opinion in plain language that the confidence of the people was departing from us, owing to our unreasonable delays...

Pelosi vows to normalize homosexual behavior in the military by the end of the year

Posted on May 20, 2010
The Hill: "The Pentagon?s 'Don?t ask, don?t tell' policy will be nothing but a memory by year?s end, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared Wednesday . . . But she made it clear ending ?Don?t ask, don?t tell? is at the top of her agenda."

Rat in the White House, rodents pretty common in Washington

Posted on May 20, 2010
Yahoo News (AP): "Obama had just begun an afternoon statement to reporters lauding the end of a Senate filibuster on his financial overhaul plan when some kind of rodent ? opinions differ on which ? dashed out of the bushes to his right, just outside the Oval Office ...

NY: Schenectady student defends ?religious rights?

Posted on May 20, 2010
CBS: "Raymond Hosier, a 13 year old student at Oneida Middle School in Schenectady, wants to wear his rosary where everyone can see it, around his neck. According to Schenectady School District rules Hosier can wear his rosary beads but they can't be seen...

Yale Lawyer Picked for 2nd Circuit

Posted on May 20, 2010
Blog of the Legal Times: "President Barack Obama has decided to nominate Susan Carney, who spent two decades as a Washington lawyer before going to work for Yale University, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, the White House said today...

National intelligence director resigning

Posted on May 20, 2010
AP: "Dennis Blair, President Barack Obama's national intelligence director, is resigning after a 16-month tenure marked by intelligence failures and turf wars among the country's spy agencies . . . "

David Cortman: Does AU favor banning works of Western Civilization from Idaho?s public school and college classrooms?

Posted on May 20, 2010
ADF attorney David Cortman writes at the Christian Post Advancing Religious Liberty Blog: ". . . The State of Idaho has ordered that 'no religious documents or text' may be used in any public school in the state, period. That not only includes the religious texts mentioned above, but also many canons of Western Civilization and great literary works, such as those written by Homer, Augustine, and Luther ...

FL: Moratorium set for adult businesses in Lauderhill

Posted on May 20, 2010
Sun Sentinel: "Lauderhill commissioners decided at their May 10 meeting to enforce a moratorium on adult entertainment businesses. There is only one such business in the city, and the one-year moratorium will prevent any new ones from joining it while city officials work to establish new guidelines for adult entertainment establishments that may open in Lauderhill in the future...

UK Home Secretary: ?I?ve changed my mind on gay adoption?

Posted on May 20, 2010
BBC: "Mrs May was challenged about her voting record on gay rights on BBC One's Question Time. She voted against gay adoption in 2002 and against the repeal of Section 28 - the law which banned councils from 'promoting' homosexuality - in 2000. But she said the votes were 'some years ago' and if held again she would vote differently...

Phoenix abortion flap widens

Posted on May 20, 2010
ModernHealthcare.com: "The Rev. Thomas Olmsted, bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix, said in written statements that Sister Margaret McBride was excommunicated from the church after she admitted to Olmsted that she approved of the abortion after the pregnancy was said to have threatened the life of the mother ...

Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission restates anti-online gambling stance

Posted on May 20, 2010
Baptist Press: "The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has reiterated its opposition to congressional efforts to legalize and tax Internet gambling . . . "

Constitution takes hit from Supreme Court

Posted on May 20, 2010
WorldNetDaily: "The fundamentals of the U.S. Constitution possibly have been shoved one step closer to irrelevance by the U.S. Supreme Court, which yesterday cited as support for its opinion an international treaty that has not been adopted in the U.S...

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