Religion & Law

Abortion Health Screening Law Get Final Nod in Nebraska

Posted on April 13, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Nebraska lawmakers in the Unicameral gave final approval to legislation that requires abortionists to give extensive prescreening for potential physical and mental health problems to women seeking an abortion, or face civil lawsuits from women harmed by their failure to obey the law...

AR: ACLU wants end to NLR City Council prayers

Posted on April 13, 2010
Arkansas News: "The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has asked the city to stop opening City Council meetings with prayer. ... The City Council typically meets twice a month and either Mayor Patrick Hays or a member of the council opens each session with prayer, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance...

AR: ACLU wants end to NLR City Council prayers

Posted on April 13, 2010
ArkansasNews.com: "NORTH LITTLE ROCK ? The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has asked the city to stop opening City Council meetings with prayer."

Is the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church a ?gay? scandal?

Posted on April 13, 2010
"To be specific, homosexuals are indeed overrepresented?for whatever reason?as child molesters . . . To the extent that practicing homosexuals find it more difficult to enter the priesthood (and this has been true for some time), the sexual abuse scandal will check itself...

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Baffled by Health Plan? So Are Some Lawmakers

Posted on April 13, 2010
Robert Pear writes at the NY Times: "In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the 'personal health insurance coverage' of senators, representatives and their staff members . . . The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?"

White House Floats Diverse List for Court

Posted on April 13, 2010
Wall Street Journal via Google News: "The latest name to emerge was federal Judge Sidney R. Thomas of Montana, 56, who sits on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and would bring geographic diversity to a tribunal dominated by East Coasters. If nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate, he would be the only justice who did not attend an Ivy League university...

Evangelicals Urge Christian Approach To Nuclear Reduction

Posted on April 13, 2010
Religion Clause Blog: "Evangelical leaders, including Rick Warren, have sent a statement (full text) to the President, Vice President, Secretaries of State and Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all members of Congress."

Phyllis Schlafly: America Becomes a Two-Class Society

Posted on April 13, 2010
Phyllis Schlafly writes at Townhall: "The percentage of Americans who will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009 has risen to 47 percent. That isn't the worst of it. The bottom 40 percent not only pay no income tax, but the government sends them cash or benefits financed by the taxes dutifully paid by those who do pay income tax ...

California Senator Says ?Heresay? Is a Reliable Indicator of Child Abuse

Posted on April 13, 2010
The California Family Council reports on a dangerous bill pending in the California legislature. "AB 2380 (Lowenthal, D-Long Beach) would allow ?hearsay? statements to be included in the definition of ?reasonable suspicion? in child abuse cases."

Becket Fund: Luke Goodrich to debate merits of CLS v. Martinez

Posted on April 13, 2010
Becket Fund: The Federalist Society's Religious Liberties Practice Group, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and The Cato Institute Present: Christian Legal Society v. Martinez on Wed. April 14, 2010, 12:00 noon - 2 pm. at the National Press Club in Washington D...

12 dead as Muslim militants attack Philippine city

Posted on April 13, 2010
AP: "Muslim militants disguised as policemen and soldiers detonated bombs and opened fire Tuesday in a series of coordinated attacks in a southern Philippine city, triggering clashes that killed at least 12 people . . . "

Ed Feulner: Give it Arrest ? criminal law has become a vehicle for social change instead of social order

Posted on April 13, 2010
Ed Feulner, President of Heritage Foundation, writes at Townhall: "As the American Bar Association reported a few years ago, there are now so many laws (at least 4,000 by one expert estimation) 'that there is no conveniently accessible, complete list of federal crimes...

USCCB: Legal Analysis of the Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Corresponding Executive Order Regarding Abortion Funding and Conscience Protection

Posted on April 13, 2010
Anthony Picarello, General Counsel to the USCCB, and Michael Moses, Associate General Counsel to the USCCB, have prepared this legal memo that begins: "The purpose of this legal memorandum is to identify the problems of the recently-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub...

Texans to choose Republican Supreme Court nominee

Posted on April 13, 2010
Dallas Morning News: "Longtime family law judge Debra Lehrmann, who lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville, faced ex-legislator Rick Green ? an evangelical speaker and tea party favorite from Dripping Springs ? in a race for the Republican nomination to the Texas Supreme Court, the only statewide office on Tuesday's ballot ...

Abortion split shades Michigan race

Posted on April 13, 2010
CQ Politics: "The Democratic primary in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) appears destined to highlight the same internal party fissures that dogged the lawmaker during his battle over abortion funding in the health care bill."

Pope Benedict?s German Birthplace Vandalized, Police Say

Posted on April 13, 2010
Bloomberg: "The house in which Pope Benedict XVI was born in the southern Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn was vandalized overnight with an 'obscene' phrase spray- painted above the main door, police said."

9th Circuit panel dismisses California Equality and ACLU appeal of order compelling them to disclose Prop. 8 campaign communications

Posted on April 13, 2010
"Yesterday a 9th Circuit panel dismissed the appeal of the latest discovery order in the Perry case. California Equality, the ACLU, and other No on 8 groups brought the appeal because they claimed that the order would compel them to disclose private campaign communications protected under the First Amendment ...

Kentucky Attorney General says parents can inspect all of kids? records

Posted on April 13, 2010
Courier-Journal: "Parents have an 'absolute right' to inspect all educational records relating to their children, including e-mails exchanged between teachers and administrators, the Kentucky attorney general's office concluded in an opinion released Monday...

Neb. gov. signs landmark abortion bills that could weaken Roe v. Wade

Posted on April 13, 2010
"Republican Gov. Dave Heineman signed both bills, one barring abortions at and after 20 weeks of pregnancy and the other requiring women to be screened before having abortions for mental health and other problems. Both sides of the abortion debate say the laws are firsts of their kind in the U...

Gov. Patrick signs bill to outlaw ?sexting? to minors

Posted on April 13, 2010
Boston Herald (AP): "Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a bill outlawing the sending of sexually graphic instant messages to minors. The new law closes a loophole in Massachusetts law that led the state?s highest court earlier this year to overturn the conviction of a man accused of sending explicit instant messages to a 13-year-old girl...

Understanding illegitimacy: The demise of marriage

Posted on April 13, 2010
Robert Rector writing at National Review Online: "The disappearance of marriage in low-income communities is the predominant cause of child poverty in the U.S. today. If poor single mothers were married to the fathers of their children, two-thirds of them would not be poor...

Canada: Homosexual altar server?s complaint against Peterborough bishop goes to mediation

Posted on April 13, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The human rights complaint filed against Bishop Nicola De Angelis of Peterborough, Ontario over his decision to disallow an open homosexual from acting as an altar server in the diocese will now go to mediation, with a hearing scheduled in Toronto for May 11th...

Hawaii retreat center revenue challenged on tax-exempt status

Posted on April 13, 2010
HonoluluAdvertiser.com: "The city and state have launched investigations into whether two religious organizations running O'ahu retreat centers are paying appropriate taxes on those operations. Both tax-exempt organizations, the Roman Catholic Church of Hawaii and the Sisters of Sacred Hearts, use the centers for internal purposes, including housing for religious personnel and staff offices ...

Steve Aden on the Georgene Rice Show: Oral arguments in embryonic stem cell funding suit

Posted on April 13, 2010
ADF attorney Steven H. Aden appeared on the Georgene Rice Show to discuss this: ADF providing support to lawsuit defending law that prohibits federal funding of embryo destruction | The MP3 runs approx. 11 minutes.

Alan Sears on KFUO with Roland Lettner: Religious Freedom

Posted on April 13, 2010
ADF president Alan E. Sears appeared on KFUO with Roland Lettner to discuss the Alliance Defense Fund's battle for religious freedom. | The mp3 runs just over 22 minutes.

Planned Parenthood Guide denounces laws on disclosure of HIV/AIDS to sexual partners

Posted on April 13, 2010
CNSNews: "In a guide for young people published by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the organization says it opposes laws that make it a crime for people not to tell sexual partners they have HIV. The IPPF's 'Healthy, Happy and Hot' guide also tells young people who have the virus that they have a right to 'fun, happy and sexually fulfilling lives...

Nebraska First to Allow Women to Sue for Psychological Injury After Abortion

Posted on April 13, 2010
Elliott Institute: "A new Nebraska law will allow women to sue doctors for psychological injuries related to unwanted, coerced or unsafe abortions, according to the Stop Forced Abortions Alliance."

Jordan Lorence on AFR Focal Point: Complaints dismissed against Maine counselor who supported marriage

Posted on April 13, 2010
ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on AFR Focal Point with Bryan Fischer to discuss this: Complaints dismissed against Maine counselor who supported marriage | The mp3 runs about 13 minutes.

What congregations are more political?

Posted on April 13, 2010
Mark Chaves, Professor of Sociology, Religion, and Divinity at Duke University and Director of the National Congregations Study, writes at the Duke Divinity Call & Response Blog: "First, notwithstanding extensive media coverage of political mobilization within conservative churches, conservative white Protestant churches do not stand out in their level of political activity...

Italy: Constitutional Court to rule on same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on April 13, 2010
Virgilio: "The Constitutional Court had postponed consideration of the action [until] this week [and] will meet tomorrow afternoon in closed session. [There are] a large number of appeals, including one on gay marriage, and [the court] is not expected to decide the order in which to examine them...

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