Religion & Law

UW?s ties to abortion clinic questioned

Posted on April 26, 2010
OneNewsNow: "Alliance Defense Fund has asked Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to determine if it is legal under Statute 20.927 (1m) for the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority (UWHCA) to pay resident physicians while they are being trained to be doctors to perform abortions at Planned Parenthood...

AR: School blocks flyer, lawsuit follows

Posted on April 26, 2010
OneNewsNow: "An Arkansas school district is prohibiting a mother and her daughter from participating in a school literature distribution program because their flyers were 'church-related' . . . 'Groups like the 4-H Club, the Boy Scouts, youth sports, summer camps -- all those groups are allowed to pass out flyers,' notes ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman...

Hundreds of parents sue over anti-Christian school curriculum

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Bulletin: "More than 300 parents have filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights challenging a compulsory anti-Christian curriculum in Spain?s public and private schools that promotes liberal sexuality with graphic imagery while openly bashing the Catholic Church ...

Washington?s battle over petitioner signatures goes to Supreme Court

Posted on April 26, 2010
Everett Daily Herald: "On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear lawyers argue why those names should be kept secret forever . . . In its filing, the Alliance Defense Fund, whose lawyers focus on civil liberties and religion cases, contends that 'fear of harassment at the hands of pressure groups ? discourages people from signing petitions...

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Shirley Dobson: Heritage of faith, freedom is under attack

Posted on April 26, 2010
Shirley Dobson writing in the Spartanburg Herald Journal: "My team and I are grieved that a day honoring our country's heritage of faith and freedom has come under such blatant and unfounded attack. As [Joel Oster], senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, explained: 'It's important to remember this about the National Day of Prayer: It's America's heritage, and this day belongs to Americans ? the court should not have struck down this statute...

Federal court says NJ school board can?t abort student pro-life event

Posted on April 26, 2010
ADF attorneys filed suit against Bridgeton Board of Education for student?s right to participate in Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity

?Cushy? Job, or ?Isolated? Hell? Life as a Supreme Court Justice

Posted on April 26, 2010
ABC: "When President Obama picks his nominee to become the nation's 112th Supreme Court justice, he'll bestow one of the highest honors a U.S. lawyer or judge can receive. But appointment to a seat on the country's highest court can be both a blessing and a curse, court insiders say ...

?Liberal? Reputation Precedes Ninth Circuit Court

Posted on April 26, 2010
NY Times: "When President Obama earlier this year nominated Goodwin Liu, a liberal Berkeley law professor, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, conservatives did not just criticize Mr. Liu ? they also attacked the circuit court he hopes to join ...

Supreme Court takes up Wash. case involving disclosure of petition signatures

Posted on April 26, 2010
Seattle Times: "The case could decide whether signing a petition for a ballot measure is private or whether the names of signers can be made public." SCOTUS Wiki: Doe v. Reed

States seek new ways to restrict abortions: Nebraska law leads way as ?free-for-all? erupts

Posted on April 26, 2010
USA Today: "Dozens of states are passing or debating new restrictions on abortion, a trend fueled in part by passage of the nation's new health care law. Both sides of the hot-button issue are seeing new approaches to reduce abortions."

Suit In Botswana Challenges Authority of Territorial Chief Over Churches

Posted on April 26, 2010
Religion Clause Blog: "The church was accused of disrespecting Kgatla law, and Paramount Chief Kgafela Kgafela II's regiments whipped two of the church's pastors. An order was issued banning the church from worshiping in Mochudi. The lawsuit seeks a court order declaring that the Bakgatla paramount chief has no legal authority to expel the churches ...

MI: Lawmakers want university explanation for expulsion of Christian

Posted on April 26, 2010
WorldNetDaily: "Now members of the Michigan Senate have approved legislation that includes a provision calling on university counseling programs to evaluate and affirm how they can accommodate the religious beliefs of students . . . According to a column posted by David French of the Alliance Defense Fund, the lawsuit is over the fact that Eastern expelled Ward 'not because she harmed anyone but simply because she was unwilling to express support for things she did not believe...

Group Complains about Honolulu prayers

Posted on April 26, 2010
Religion Clause Blog: "Yesterday's Honolulu Advertiser reports that Hawai'i Citizens for Separation of State and Church has filed a complaint with Honolulu City Council contending that since January 2008, 25 out of 27 Council meetings have been opened by Christian prayer or sermonizing...

Truth breaks the silence

Posted on April 26, 2010
OneNewsNow: "Thousands of Christian students found alternative ways to counter the Day of Silence that took place April 16 on school campuses across the country . . . This was the first year Exodus International sponsored the Day of Truth since it was started by the Alliance Defense Fund in 2005...

Court challenge dogs official day of prayer

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Columbus Dispatch: "The National Day of Prayer Task Force has launched a petition and fundraising campaign to "save" the event. Members are appealing to Obama to appeal the ruling, task-force spokesman John Bornschein said. The money raised will go to the task force's legal firm, the Alliance Defense Fund, to try to mount legal challenges and gain congressional support, he said...

UK: ?The right hand of God?

Posted on April 26, 2010
New Statesman: "Cameron is not oblivious to his party's uneasy coalitions, and has stealthily started to unveil policies designed to shore up its increasingly loud, ultra-conservative Christian base. Recently, he told the Catholic Herald that he was a "big supporter" of faith schools and that there should be a review of the legal time limit for abortion...

Atheists, religious groups lobby on Day of Prayer

Posted on April 26, 2010
Associated Press: "The ruling can't take effect until all appeals are exhausted, but that's not stopping atheists and prayer advocates from firing off letters, e-mails and even planning to put up billboards to convince state and local leaders across the country to see things their way ...

State Supreme Court blocks public funding of Baptist University

Posted on April 26, 2010
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Wall of Separation: "The religious school subsidies were successfully challenged by the Fairness Alliance, the Jefferson County Teachers Association and two clergy. Forces defending the grant to UC included the Alliance Defense Fund and the Christian Legal Society...

U.S. Supreme Court to rule on violent video games

Posted on April 26, 2010
"The Supreme Court agreed Monday to rule on the constitutionality of a state law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors."

Muslims a ?protected class? in U.K.

Posted on April 26, 2010
One News Now: "Spencer adds that more and more ordinary people in Britain are growing concerned and angry about the 'Islamization' of the country, which they clearly do not want."

ADF Allied Attorney Success Stories: April 2010

Posted on April 26, 2010
Congratulations to allied attorneys Jim Bopp, Simon Calvert, Jason Craddock, Brad Dacus, Kevin Snider, Matt McReynolds, Steve Fitschen, Barry Hodge, and Demetrios Stratis for their recent successes listed below. Please take time to congratulate them!

Churches deemed as important as ice cream trucks, court rules

Posted on April 26, 2010
Phoenix Religion & Society Examiner: "[Erik Stanley], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund which worked on the legal challenge on behalf of three churches that combined efforts to defeat the conviction, said that 'Churches shouldn't be targeted and punished for ringing their bells as a public expression of faith that's been done for centuries...

?Elite colleges thawing on ROTC?

Posted on April 26, 2010
Boston Globe: "Administrators at Harvard, Brown, and other elite universities are softening their resistance to the Reserve Officers? Training Corps more than four decades after the military scholarship programs were driven from campus in the face of fierce antiwar sentiment...

Accused polygamist says cheating French lifestyle

Posted on April 26, 2010
AP: "A Muslim Frenchman at the center of a firestorm over polygamy said Monday that keeping mistresses is the French way of life."

Public Sector Unions Bankrupting America

Posted on April 26, 2010
NCPA Policy Digest: "By 2013, the amount of retirement money promised to employees of these public entities will exceed cash on hand by more than a trillion dollars, says the Washington Times."

New lawmaker rating service

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Hill has launched a new lawmaker rating service available here.

Long-hated one-child rule may be eased in China

Posted on April 26, 2010
AP: "Now the long-sacrosanct policy may be on its way out, as some demographers warn that China is facing the opposite problem: not enough babies."

Law Review: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Freedom of Choice Act and Its Potential Fallout on Abortion Jurisprudence and Legislation

Posted on April 26, 2010
When It Rains, It Pours: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Freedom of Choice Act and Its Potential Fallout on Abortion Jurisprudence and Legislation Kristen L. Burge, 40 Cumb. L. Rev. 181 (2010) "Throughout this comment, FOCA will be analyzed on the premise that women's rights established in Roe are normative...

Law Review: A Proposed Methodology for the Resolution of Conflicts Over Whether a Brain Dead Pregnant Woman Should be Maintained on Life-Sustaining Treatment

Posted on April 26, 2010
Post-Mortem Pregnancy: A Proposed Methodology for the Resolution of Conflicts Over Whether a Brain Dead Pregnant Woman Should be Maintained on Life-Sustaining Treatment Alexis Gregorian, 19 Annals Health L. 401 (2010) "Part I of this article endeavors to directly refute the Piazzi court's first holding by demonstrating that interests are not extinguished upon death; in fact, multiple legal premises rely on the legal fiction that the dead have interests deserving of posthumous protection...

2nd funding ban on abortions passes Miss. House

Posted on April 26, 2010
Sun-Herald (AP): "The Mississippi House fought briefly Saturday before passing passed a bill to ban public funding of abortions under health exchanges that will be created under a new federal law . . . The bills are Senate Bill 3214 and House Bills 1627 and 1644...

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