Religion & Law

Napolitano meets with Muslim Brotherhood leaders

Posted on February 17, 2010
Pajamas Media: "Although there is no evidence of an exchange of classified information, this meeting was the beginning of an Obama administration program aimed at devising a new information-sharing framework with the Muslim organizations ? some of them regarded as extremist because of their ties to the Muslim Brotherhood...

Is White House education policy a summons to a social agenda?

Posted on February 17, 2010
Frederick M. Hess writing at The American Enterprise Institute's Enterprise Blog: "The Obama administration is aggressively pushing an effort to create common national standards in math and language arts. The current effort, coordinated by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers and involving 48 states, is backed by $350 million in federal Race to the Top (RTT) stimulus funds ...

Florida man sues two libraries for religious discrimination

Posted on February 17, 2010
American Libraries: "A Florida man has filed a religious-discrimination lawsuit against Volusia County and Library Director Lucinda Colee . . . 'Public libraries should not be posting what amounts to ?No Religious People Allowed Here? signs on their public meeting-room doors,' said Joel Oster, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian-rights advocacy group that is representing Verdugo...

U.S. Supreme Court to hear Referendum 71 case April 28

Posted on February 17, 2010
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP): "The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled an April 28 hearing on whether Washington state can release more than 138,000 names on petitions supporting a domestic partnership referendum."

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Could Maryland AG?s opinion on same-sex ?marriage? law lead to impeachment?

Posted on February 17, 2010
Maryland Statehouse Examiner: "In a letter sent to state prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh (and published concurrently on his Facebook page), Maryland Delegate Don Dwyer (R ? Anne Arundel County) writes that he is considering bringing impeachment charges against the Attorney General for violations of his oath of office as well as his circumvention of the court?s opinion and his usurping the authority of the General Assembly...

Middle East Christians face uncertain future

Posted on February 17, 2010
New American Media: "Christians in the Arab world who played an important role in developing pan-Arab movements in the 1950s and enriched its culture have serious concerns about their future in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have left and many Christian communities were uprooted...

France moves closer to unprecedented internet regulation

Posted on February 17, 2010
Spiegel Online: "The lower house of the French parliament has approved a draft bill that will allow the state unprecedented control over the Internet. Although the government says it will improve security for ordinary citizens, civil rights activists are warning of a 'new level' of censorship and surveillance...

Albania outlaws homosexual discrimination

Posted on February 17, 2010
UPI: "Human Rights Watch congratulated the government of Albania on its new anti-discrimination law in a letter to the prime minister Tuesday."

Ohio needs rigid trafficking laws

Posted on February 17, 2010
Salem News: "A disturbing report was issued out of Columbus last week. It revealed that a task force investigating human trafficking in Ohio has determined that nearly 800 immigrants are forced into sex trade or sweatshop-type jobs annually . . . Ohio's weak laws on human trafficking, its growing demand for cheap labor and its proximity to the Canadian border are key contributors to the illegal activity, according to the report...

UK: ?Commitment to equality for gay people is an essential element of modern conservatism?

Posted on February 17, 2010
The Independent: "Nick Herbert ['a member of David Cameron's shadow cabinet'], who is openly gay, admitted that the party had made 'mistakes' in the past - such as imposing the Section 28 law barring the promotion of homosexuality in schools - but insisted Mr Cameron had made that a thing of the past...

ADF attorney to debate at Stanford Law School on IRS religious speech restrictions

Posted on February 17, 2010
"Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley will participate in a debate Thursday at Stanford Law School on the constitutionality of Internal Revenue Service restrictions on the free speech of pastors. The debate is being co-sponsored by ADF and The Federalist Society at Stanford...

Personhood initiative filed in Mississippi

Posted on February 17, 2010
WXVT 15 (AP): "Abortion opponents who want life defined in Mississippi as beginning at fertilization have filed an initiative petition with the secretary of state's office to get the issue on a statewide ballot."

Greece loses EU voting power in blow to sovereignty

Posted on February 17, 2010
Telegraph: "The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own tax and spend policies altogether. It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126...

OK: House committee passes anti-abortion bill

Posted on February 16, 2010
Associated Press: "A state House panel has approved legislation that further regulates the practice of abortion in the state."

?Unprecedented? Threat to Parental Rights in Poland

Posted on February 16, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Incorporated into the bill, titled "On the Prevention of Family Violence," which deals with a variety of issues, is a clause that says, 'It is forbidden for persons holding parental power over children to implement corporal punishment, cause psychological pain or to humiliate them in any other form ...

Obama Gives Planned Parenthood Abortion President Frequent White House Access

Posted on February 16, 2010
LifeNews: "A controversial bill that critics say would significantly infringe on the rights of parents to bring up their children according to their values has passed first reading in the Polish parliament."

El Paso: Family values at core of group?s push to overturn city benefits vote

Posted on February 16, 2010
El Paso Times: "In August, the City Council voted 7-1, with Rep. Carl L. Robinson dissenting, to give health benefits to the gay and unmarried heterosexual partners of city employees. Ever since, a group calling itself El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values has been trying to overturn that decision...

Abortion Cartel Continues to Implode as Number of Abortion Clinics Drops

Posted on February 16, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "That trend, says the pro-life group, is evident in data collected in the past two months since Operation Rescue released a report that showed that over two-thirds of the nation's abortion clinics have closed in the past 18 years . . . When Project Daniel 5:25 was released last December listing every abortion clinic in the United States, records showed 713 locations...

NJ: An Advisory Recall of U.S. Senators?

Posted on February 16, 2010
Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: "There?s a move afoot to recall Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). New Jersey law authorizes such recalls, but it seems likely that the U.S. Constitution does not allow a state to force the removal of a senator based on a recall vote...

Virginia Legislature Strips Planned Parenthood Funding From its License Plate Bill

Posted on February 16, 2010
"In what pro-life advocates are hailing as a brilliant legislative move, Virginia lawmakers stripped Planned Parenthood funding from its own bill to sponsor pro-abortion license plates. The plate bill now sends the proceeds from sales of the plate to a state fund that actually helps pregnant women ...

Conservative, Pro-Life Leaders to Sign Mount Vernon Statement of Principles

Posted on February 16, 2010
LifeNews: "'The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant,' the statement will say. 'Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead ? forward or backward, up or down? Isn't this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?'"

Natural law? not the state? affirms human dignity, Pope insists

Posted on February 16, 2010
Catholic Culture: "Pope Benedict stressed that the dignity of the person must be anchored in natural law, which is not subject to change. He noted that 'history has shown how dangerous and damaging a state can be when it proceeds to make laws that touch the person and society, while itself claiming to be the source and principle of ethics...

Dutch pro-euthanasia lobby gathers signatures to legalise assistance of killing those who are ?tired of living?

Posted on February 16, 2010
CCFON: "As a result of the 'expanding' law, Eugéne Sutorius, a leader of NVVE (Nederlandse Vereniging voor een Vrijwillig Levenseinde), a euthanasia lobby group in the Netherlands, is leading a new group of academics who are demanding the legalisation of euthanasia for people who are simply 'tired of life...

?Malawi: Police say man arrested in anti-gay sweep?

Posted on February 16, 2010
AP: "Police in Malawi say they have arrested a man in what they describe as a sweep against homosexuals. There is a debate over gay rights in this conservative southern African country, sparked by the trial of a gay couple charged with unnatural acts and gross indecency, felonies for which they could be imprisoned for up to 14 years ...

Texas: ?Gay divorce case draws attorney general?s attention?

Posted on February 16, 2010
Austin American Statesman: "Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has intervened in a first-of-its-kind Travis County same-sex divorce case, arguing that the women involved, who were married in another state, may not be legally granted a divorce because Texas law defines marriage as between a man and a woman ...

Fighting abortion: From Mexico to the U.S.

Posted on February 16, 2010
The Americano: "In Mexico, amidst protests from pro-abortion groups in that country over recent initiatives to protect the unborn at the state level, Carmen Alba, director of the Institute for the Rehabilitation of Women and the Family (IRWF), cautioned that abortion is neither a ?solution? nor a definitive end to a woman's 'problem...

Justice Breyer analyzes rule of law in Yale talk

Posted on February 16, 2010
New Haven Register: "But with emotions running high on both sides in a close election, Breyer said there never was a worry there would be mobs in the street or a revolution after the Supreme Court made its ruling [Bush v. Gore]. 'That characteristic is a national treasure,' Breyer said...

AZ: Panel OKs end to ?merit selection? for judges

Posted on February 16, 2010
East Valley Tribune: "The problem, he said, is that the screening panels are sometimes top-heavy with people who have donated funds to electing lawmakers who support abortion rights or 'far-left appointees' of the State Bar of Arizona."

Welcome to UC Islam

Posted on February 16, 2010
Mike Adams writes at Townhall: "Muslim students are not always cowards. But the Muslim Student Union (MSU) is often the least tolerant and most cowardly student group on a given college campus. The gulf between the speech they prevent and what they practice with administrators' consent is enormous...

Iowa: Chief Justice says retention vote will be a test of the system

Posted on February 16, 2010
"The Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme court says this fall?s retention election for three of the state?s seven justices will be the test of a generation. The state?s high court has faced heavy criticism after striking down the law that banned on same sex marriage...

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