Religion & Law

9 Calif porn agencies targeted in labor complaints

Posted on April 15, 2010
AP: "An AIDS advocacy group is bringing labor complaints against nine porn talent agencies for promoting actors willing to have unprotected sex on camera."

ADF on striking down of National Day of Prayer statute: ?It?s America?s heritage, and this day belongs to Americans?

Posted on April 15, 2010
"Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund are urging President Obama to appeal a federal judge?s decision in Wisconsin that struck down a federal statute that sets a day for the National Day of Prayer . . . "

6th Circuit: Ohio anti-porn law is constitutional

Posted on April 15, 2010
"Ohio Revised Code § 2907.31(D)(1), which criminalizes sending juveniles material that is harmful to them . . . "

UK: ?Christian Victims? of English Judicial System to Challenge Master of the Rolls ? today in Court

Posted on April 15, 2010
CCFON: "Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and several high-profile Christian ?victims? who say that have lost confidence in the independence of the judiciary in England, will urge senior judges to stand down from future Court of Appeal hearings because of "disturbing" and "dangerous" rulings they issued in recent religious discrimination cases ...

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Gov. Charlie Crist bows to teacher?s unions, vetoes Florida teacher pay bill

Posted on April 15, 2010
Miami Herald: "After weeks of protest and a deluge of messages, Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday vetoed a bill that would link teacher pay to student test scores and wipe out tenure for new teachers."

WI: Federal Court declares National Day of Prayer unconstitutional

Posted on April 15, 2010
"A federal district court in Wisconsin has issued a decision declaring the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional. "

More U.S. Pro-Life Gains on the Horizon with State Opt-Out of Abortion Mandate

Posted on April 15, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "With Tennessee having become the first state to opt-out of the abortion funding mandate in the national health care reform, several more states are poised to follow suit this year, with many more to follow when their legislatures again reconvene...

Jesuit U. of Detroit Mercy Criticized for Keeping Pro-Abort Nun Board Member

Posted on April 15, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The University of Detroit Mercy, a Jesuit Catholic institution, has come under fire for failing to remove links to pro-abortion groups on its website, as well as for keeping a renowned pro-abortion, pro-same-sex "marriage" nun on its Board of Trustees...

Lancet Study Shows Abortion Advocates Wrong on Worldwide Maternal Mortality Claims

Posted on April 15, 2010
LifeNews: "A new study out this week by the leading British medical journal shows maternal mortality rates have been significantly overestimated by United Nations (UN) agencies. The Lancet reports that maternal deaths worldwide in 2008 totaled 342,900 rather than the 500,000+ used by the World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in recent years ...

Senators Keep Up Sparring Over Nominee?s Questionnaire

Posted on April 15, 2010
Blog of the Legal Times: "A day before Goodwin Liu goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, senators traded barbs over whether the federal appellate nominee has provided them with enough information."

Millennials do faith and politics their way

Posted on April 15, 2010
Stephen Prothero writes at USA Today: "The core finding of Pew's 'Religion Among the Millennials' report is that young Americans are 'less religiously affiliated' than their elders. In fact, one in four of Americans ages 18 to 29 do not affiliate with any particular religious group...

Fiscal conservatism is not enough: What social conservatives offer the party of Lincoln

Posted on April 15, 2010
Robert W. Patterson writing in The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy: "Indeed, nothing separates the professional class of Republican thinkers and players from the voting public more than the issue of how the party should position itself vis-à-vis the 'social issues...

Another federal lawsuit filed over Christian fliers in public school

Posted on April 15, 2010
Evangelical Examiner: "In October 2009 . . . a Pulaski County Special School District (Arkansas) [student] and her mother requested permission to distribute fliers inviting friends and classmates to a church-sponsored swimming event . . . Sherwood Elementary School?s principal ...

Campus ?speech codes? restrictive, unconstitutional

Posted on April 15, 2010
OneNewsNow: "Five universities and colleges in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are being urged to revise their policies that may restrict the free-speech rights of Christian students . . . ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco tells OneNewsNow that the Third U...

Is Marriage Good for Your Health?

Posted on April 15, 2010
Tara Parker-Pope writes at the NY Times: "Contemporary studies, for instance, have shown that married people are less likely to get pneumonia, have surgery, develop cancer or have heart attacks. A group of Swedish researchers has found that being married or cohabiting at midlife is associated with a lower risk for dementia...

High court mulls speech rights ? and more

Posted on April 15, 2010
Joan Biskupic writes at USA Today: "Larry Stickney speaks passionately as he tries to explain why the names of people who signed a 2009 Washington state ballot measure against gay rights should be kept secret . . ."

President Obama Nominates Edward C. DuMont for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Posted on April 15, 2010
White House: "Today, President Obama nominated Edward C. DuMont to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. DuMont is currently a partner in the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr (WilmerHale)." Eugene Volokh writing at the Volokh Conspiracy: Ed DuMont Nominated for the U...

Ark. adoption act may be altered

Posted on April 15, 2010
OneNewsNow: "The constitutional amendment has to do with placement of foster children, and attorney [Byron Babione] with Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) reports that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is challenging Act 1, a measure passed by voters in 2008...

Judge rules academic writings not protected

Posted on April 15, 2010
Washington Times: "Mike Adams isn't exactly the most popular guy on campus. He's an outspoken conservative Christian who cried discrimination when his department refused to promote him to full professor and slapped the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a lawsuit ...

Religious student group case heads to Supreme Court

Posted on April 15, 2010
Pew Forum (RNS): "The case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, pits a campus chapter of a Christian legal group against the Hastings College of the Law and its 20-year-old nondiscrimination policy. 'Our main argument is that Christian student groups shouldn't be forced to deny their faith in order to receive equal treatment on campus,' said [Gregory Baylor], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is helping represent the CLS chapter before the high court...

George F. Will: ?For high court nominee, no (political) experience necessary?

Posted on April 15, 2010
George F. Will writes at the Washington Post: "So conservatives should rethink their rhetoric about 'judicial activism.' The proper question is: Will the nominee be actively enough engaged in protecting liberty from depredations perpetrated by popular sovereignty?"

Gregory Kane: Banning prayer in schools hurts public morality

Posted on April 15, 2010
Gregory Kane writes at the Washington Examiner: "I got the most pleasant of surprises at a funeral. The service had reached the point where an Old Testament passage had to be read. The one selected was the 23rd Psalm. As the woman reading it pronounced each word, I found myself following along...

New ?Church Project? Aims At Protecting Churches From Government Intrusion

Posted on April 15, 2010
Religion Clause Blog: "ADF's Pulpit Initiative has been integrated into the broader Church Project. A new website set up for the project is aimed at educating pastors and religious leaders, and furnishing them with resources to defend their religious freedom ...

CT: Groups Vow To Help Enfield Against ACLU Legal Threat Over Graduations in Cathedral

Posted on April 15, 2010
Hartford Courant: "A First Amendment battle might be looming after the board of education's decision Tuesday night to hold high school graduations at First Cathedral in Bloomfield."

No audio on student rights argument

Posted on April 15, 2010
SCOTUS Blog: "The cable network, C-SPAN, reported Monday that Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., had turned down a request to provide same-day release of the audiotapes of the argument set for 10 a.m. Monday in a students? rights case, Christian Legal Society v...

?Gay rights activists protest Turkish minister?

Posted on April 15, 2010
AP: "Activists have protested a Turkish minister for her recent remark that homosexuality is a disease."

Ark. school district: All fliers OK?except ?church-related? ones

Posted on April 15, 2010
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Pulaski County Special School District on behalf of a student and her mother, who were both prohibited from participating in Sherwood Elementary School?s literature distribution program because their fliers were ?church-related...

Conference transcript: Have the Culture Wars Gone Global? Religion and Sexuality in the Global South

Posted on April 15, 2010
At EPPC, Michael Cromartie served as the moderator for this panel: Philip Jenkins, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities at Pennsylvania State University and Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion.

Obama admin wants warrantless email access: Google, Yahoo put up a fight

Posted on April 15, 2010
CNET: "In a brief filed Tuesday afternoon, the coalition says a search warrant signed by a judge is necessary before the FBI or other police agencies can read the contents of Yahoo Mail messages--a position that puts those companies directly at odds with the Obama administration...

Jan LaRue: Obama?s ?Mainstream? Nominee

Posted on April 15, 2010
Jan LaRue writes at the American Thinker: "When Sen. Chuck Schumer says, 'It's just about a certainty that the president will nominate someone in the mainstream,' think left bank. The refrains 'mainstream,' 'moderate,' and 'balance' will be repeated ad nauseam because big lies and irrelevancies take on the appearance of truth when hammered relentlessly...

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