Religion & Law

?Religion vs. bias back in Supreme Court?

Posted on April 06, 2010
Bay Windows ("GLBT Newspaper"): "In Christian Legal v. Martinez, a Christian law students? group contests a decision by the University of California?s Hastings College of Law, headed currently by acting chancellor Leo Martinez. The case also includes a gay student group, Outlaw, at the same school as a party to the defense ...

Florida: ?ACLU Seeks Order to Protect Right to Form a Gay-Straight Alliance at Yulee Middle School?

Posted on April 06, 2010
ACLU: "The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed a motion for summary judgment today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the School Board of Nassau County, Fla. in 2009 on behalf of plaintiff Hannah Page...

Sexting and texting teens need parental controls

Posted on April 06, 2010
Wired: "The real question isn?t about having a smart phone or not, the real question is what are you as a parent doing to ensure your child?s security and/or appropriate behavior? Whether parents want to accept this fact or not is up to them, but teens are still children and their security and well-being is the responsibility of not only themselves and their school - but primarily of their parents ...

Warrants served on polygamous towns in Utah, Ariz.

Posted on April 06, 2010
AP: "Utah and Arizona authorities are serving search warrants on government offices in a pair of border towns dominated by a polygamous sect . . . "

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Military?s refusal to discharge lesbian a new Catch-22

Posted on April 06, 2010
LA Times Blog: Her commander at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, Lt. Gen. Robert R. Allardice, could have discharged her under the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Instead, he determined in February that she should remain in the Air Force because she acknowledged her sexual orientation for the purpose of 'avoiding and terminating military service...

Canadian researchers reveal online spy ring based in China

Posted on April 06, 2010
Daily Globe and Mail: "Canadian researchers have uncovered a vast 'Shadow Network' of online espionage based in China that used seemingly harmless means such as e-mail and Twitter to extract highly sensitive data from computers around the world."

America, 2010: Protestants underrepresented at the U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on April 06, 2010
Razib Khan writing at Gene Expression: "If Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens retires, and is replaced by Elena Kagan (the favorite), then the Supreme Court of the United States of America will have no Protestants on the bench. This in a nation which is 50% Protestant ...

April 15th Deadline for William Pew Religious Freedom Scholarship Competition

Posted on April 06, 2010
The deadline for entry in this year’s William Pew Religious Freedom Scholarship Competition is April 15th. This is a writing competition for law students. The winner will receive a cash award in the amount of $2,500. More information is available here.

Republicans Slam Obama Judicial Nominee Over 117 Omissions From Record

Posted on April 06, 2010
FoxNews: "Senate Republicans on Tuesday slammed one of the Obama administration's most controversial judicial nominees for failing to initially disclose more than 100 of his speeches, publications and other background materials -- an omission the Republicans called unprecedented and a possible attempt to 'hide his most controversial work...

Nevada Personhood Amendment on Abortion Heads to State Supreme Court for Hearing

Posted on April 06, 2010
LifeNews: "Backers of the personhood amendment in Nevada are appealing in front of the Nevada Supreme Court today to make their case for the measure that could ban abortions . . . "

Alaska Pro-Abortion Groups Appeal Ruling on Parental Notification Prop

Posted on April 06, 2010
LifeNews: "Two pro-abortion groups in Alaska have appealed a judge's decision saying the language of the parental notification proposition on abortion should be rewritten . . . "

Truth overcomes silence

Posted on April 06, 2010
North Carolina Family Policy Council: "Students in North Carolina are encouraged to join thousands of young people nationwide in countering the promotion of homosexuality in schools by participating in the sixth annual 'Day of Truth' sponsored by Exodus International...

TN Gov. Gets Bill to Help Stop Forced Abortions

Posted on April 06, 2010
LifeNews: "Tennessee Governor Phil Bredensen received a bill the state legislature gave final approval to that helps stop forced abortions. The Freedom from Coercion Act will require abortion facilities to prominently post non-coercion policies and impose penalties against facilities which do not comply...

MI: Grad student takes stand for faith, denied degree

Posted on April 06, 2010
OneNewsNow: "A Michigan woman [Julea Ward] denied a Master's degree in counseling will have her day in court . . . 'The school said, 'Well, you have to.' And Julea said, 'Well, that would violate my fundamental religious beliefs to do that' -- and they said, 'Sorry, you're dismissed from our program,'' [recounts] Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney [Jeremy Tedesco]...

At-home Bible study ban lifted in Arizona city

Posted on April 06, 2010
The Underground: "The city of Gilbert, Arizona is now allowing in-home Bible studies that were banned from taking place earlier this year . . . On March 22, the Gilbert Town Council held a meeting to discuss changes to the Land Development Code which disallows religious assemblies in private homes...

National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week will reach young Americans against abortion

Posted on April 06, 2010
LifeNews: "Tens of thousands of pro-life students will wear pro-life t-shirts to their middle school, high school and college campuses later this month. As they wear shirts with messages against abortion, they will be educating and informing their peers about the way abortion has killed 52 million Americans ...

3rd Circuit: Defective Sperm Can?t Be Basis for Products Liability Suit

Posted on April 06, 2010
"Genetic defects in sperm from a sperm bank cannot form the basis for a products liability suit, a federal appeals court has ruled, because allowing such a claim would be tantamount to recognizing a claim of 'wrongful life.'

?Race To the Top? Is Great ? Unless You?re a Charter School

Posted on April 06, 2010
Candace de Russy writes at Breitbart Big Journalism: "Liberal pundits are racing to heap praise on the Obama Administration?s award of hundreds of millions of dollars in education grants to Delaware and Tennessee ? the result of the first round of the Race to the Top competition among states ...

UNLV academics study Nevada?s brothel industry

Posted on April 06, 2010
Las Vegas Sun: "In their new book, The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex, and Sin in the New American Heartland, UNLV academics Barbara Brents, Crystal Jackson and Kathryn Hausbeck examine Nevada's brothel industry through the lens of history, economy and sociology, drawing their conclusions from a decade of research...

SCOTUS Blog: Notable petitions include commerce clause and taxpayer standing case

Posted on April 06, 2010
SCOTUS Blog has posted its notable petitions which includes a commerce clause case and this: Title: Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, Inc. v. Pedreira Docket: 09-1121 Issues: (1) Whether the ?legislative enactment? nexus test?requiring a nexus between a taxpayer?s status and the type of ?legislative enactment? he is challenging?applies to state taxpayers as it does to federal taxpayers; and (2) whether Article III confers upon federal courts broader authority to address alleged Establishment Clause violations by state legislatures than to address such violations by Congress...

Federal Abstinence-Only Sex Ed. Program Revived

Posted on April 06, 2010
Education Week: "Although overshadowed by other issues in the health-care debate, a controversial abstinence-only approach to sex education that recently saw its federal support severed is getting a new lease on life?a five-year lease worth $250 million, to be precise?under the final legislative package signed by President Barack Obama ...

A Strategy for the Next Supreme Court Abortion Battle? Pending Nebraska Legislation Focuses on Fetus Pain and Viability

Posted on April 06, 2010
ABC: "Activists on both sides of the abortion debate are carefully eyeing a Nebraska bill that's wending its way through the legislature this week. They wonder if a proposed ban might end up as the subject of the next Supreme Court abortion battle."

DA: Texas father endangered daughters with porn

Posted on April 06, 2010
Boston Globe (AP): "A prosecutor has filed child endangerment charges against a Texas man accused of forcing his two daughters to watch online pornography . . . "

No benefits money for same-sex partners

Posted on April 06, 2010
Citizen Link: "Congress has ordered the president's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to find a way to pay for the $63 million a year in new spending for benefits of sex-sex partners of federal employees."

John Jay researcher: No link between homosexual abuse, homosexuality

Posted on April 06, 2010
Catholic Culture: "'The majority of the abusive acts were homosexual in nature,' notes Margaret Smith. 'That participation in homosexual acts is not the same as sexual identity as a gay man.'?

BBC TV show on marginalized Christians

Posted on April 06, 2010
The Christian Institute: "Christians feel marginalised and pushed out of public life while other faiths are handled with kid gloves, according to a flagship BBC documentary aired on Easter Sunday. The film was fronted by Nicky Campbell and featured two cases backed by The Christian Institute: Lillian Ladele, the registrar disciplined for her stance on civil partnerships, and Ben & Sharon Vogelenzang, the Christian hoteliers charged with a crime for criticising Islam...

Top Tory: allow Christian B&Bs to act on conscience

Posted on April 06, 2010
The Christian Institute: "A top Tory MP has been slammed by Labour and the Lib Dems for saying Christians who run B&Bs in their own homes should be allowed to exercise their conscience over who is allowed to stay. Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, was 'secretly' recorded making the comments at a mainstream think tank and the Observer newspaper splashed the story on its front page on Sunday...

Why the Great Books aren?t the answer

Posted on April 06, 2010
Patrick Deneen, Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University, writing at Minding the Campus: "It's not enough to state that higher education should consist of an exposure to the Great Books and leave it at that: students will need some way of negotiating their way through the philosophical thicket into which they are being thrown ...

Taiwan?s sinking birth rate threatens productivity

Posted on April 06, 2010
Reuters: "Taiwan is scrambling to raise its birthrate, among the world's lowest, before the sinking number of newborns threatens productivity for its export-driven $390 billion economy. Taiwan fears it will lack the manpower or brainpower in 10 to 15 years to keep up with industrialized Asian peers and the blooming economies of some Southeast Asian countries...

Doug Napier: Gilbert does the right thing in lifting worship ban in homes

Posted on April 06, 2010
This commentary by ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared in the Gilbert Edition of the Arizona Republic. It was not made available online.

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