Religion & Law

Human Rights Campaign Releases Comprehensive State-By-State Legislative Report

Posted on January 26, 2010
HRC: "The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the nation?s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today released a comprehensive state-by-state report detailing LGBT-related legislation in 2009 and an outlook for 2010...

Robust Legal Research on Your iPhone

Posted on January 26, 2010
The Blog of the Legal Times reports on various new apps that promise to revolutionize legal research.

ACLJ: Delay in Seating Senator-elect Brown ?Outrageous? as Top Democrats Plot to Push Health Care Reform

Posted on January 26, 2010
ACLJ: "The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), focusing on constitutional law, said today it?s ?outrageous? that Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts has not yet been seated ? nearly one week after his election victory."

Russia: Teaching religion in school distances Russians from Orthodoxy

Posted on January 26, 2010
Spero News (Asia News): "The compulsory teaching of religion in Russian schools is not bringing the results expected from the Patriarchate of Moscow. Many, instead of choosing a course of 'Fundamentals of Orthodox culture' have chosen the more generic 'religious cultures' and 'secular ethics'...

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French report wants limits on Muslim face veil

Posted on January 26, 2010
AP: "Mass transport, hospitals, post offices - these and all public services in France would be off-limits to Muslim women wearing face-covering veils if a parliamentary panel's recommendations, released Tuesday, become law."

Rights group: Russian religious freedom in danger

Posted on January 26, 2010
Washington Post: "In its annual report on religions freedoms, the independent Moscow-based Liberty of Conscience Institute expressed concern that growing state support for the Russian Orthodox Church is coming at the expense of minority denominations...

Death with Stupidity: The Tortured Reasoning of Montana?s High Court

Posted on January 26, 2010
E. Christian Bugger writes at the Culture of Life Foundation: In late December, Montana became the third state (behind Washington and Oregon) to permit physician assisted suicide to terminally ill patients. The State Supreme Court in Baxter et al. v...

China: Same-sex couple wants official marriage certificate

Posted on January 26, 2010
China Daily: "China's first gay couple, who openly 'got married' on Jan 3, want more understanding from society and hope to get an official marriage certificate, the Beijing News reported today."

Why is National Cancer Institute Covering up Link?: Abortion Breast Cancer Coalition Letter to Congress

Posted on January 25, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The US National Cancer Institute (NIC) has again denied the link between abortion and breast cancer to a Globe and Mail reporter, despite one of their leading researchers being named as co-author on a study that admitted up to a 40 per cent increased risk of breast cancer associated with induced abortion ...

March for Life: Pro-Life Strength Grows in Congress and Coming Election

Posted on January 25, 2010
"The growing strength of the pro-life position in Congress became apparent . . . when a group of 64 Democrats joined most Republicans in the House . . . The vote 'shocked' . . . Democratic leaders . . . "

Brazilian President Seeks to Secure Abortion as ?Right,? Ban Crucifixes in Government Buildings

Posted on January 25, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva has introduced a massive legislative reform package in the last year of his term that would secure abortion as a 'human right,' impose socialist and homosexualist ideology in the schools and media, and ban crucifixes from government facilities, among other measures...

South Dakota Right to Know abortion bill gets backing from pro-life legal group

Posted on January 25, 2010
LifeNews: "A pro-life legal group filed a friend-of-the-court brief Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit asking the court to reject Planned Parenthood?s attempt to block a South Dakota law. The informed consent law is designed to help persuade women to consider positive alternatives to abortion ...

Islamists new weapon: Libel law

Posted on January 25, 2010
FrumForum: "Libel suits are not normally associated with national security, but a case the Texas Supreme Court ruled on January 15 carries just such implications. The suit against internet journalist Joe Kaufman is a prime example of how libel law can be manipulated to stifle dissemination of information about terrorism and radical Islam...

Abortion and ideology

Posted on January 25, 2010
Raymond Dennehy, writing at Ignatius Press: "A survey of the justifications advanced by scientists, philosophers, and other members of the elite class, such as judges, to justify the legalization of induced abortion reveals that they have abandoned rational inquiry in favor of ideology...

Hundreds of Thousands Join 37th March for Life

Posted on January 25, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "A sea of youth dominated the massive crowd, one of the largest ? if not the largest - in the history of the 37 years of the annual March for Life. Organizer Nellie Gray told the press that the numbers of marchers this year far exceeded last year, which was estimated at well over 300,000 ...

Status of Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill Uncertain as Senate, House Democrats Meet

Posted on January 25, 2010
LifeNews: "The status of the pro-abortion health care bill in Congress is uncertain as House and Senate Democrats spent the weekend planning their next step in the wake of a key election loss in Massachusetts that leaves them without a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate ...

Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California

Posted on January 25, 2010
Wall Street Journal: "Approximately 85% of the state's 235,000 employees (not including higher education employees) are unionized. As the governor noted during his $83 billion budget roll-out, over the past decade pension costs for public employees increased 2,000%...

Deluged with Clerkship Apps, Some Federal Judges Don?t Look at All of Them

Posted on January 25, 2010
ABA Journal: " . . . a number of judges prefer to look only at applications from individuals who come recommended by others they know or review mailed applications only . . . "

ACLU: ?Schoolyard Equality? in Rapid City, SD

Posted on January 25, 2010
ACLU: "Extremist rhetoric was in full force as they made their arguments against protecting LGBT students and staff in one of the largest school districts in South Dakota. But the story doesn't end there. The ACLU of South Dakota and Equality South Dakota rallied our supporters, asking them to contact their school board members with accurate information instead of the tired old rhetoric of those who oppose the rights of LGBT citizens...

French call for veil ban in public buildings

Posted on January 25, 2010
AP: "The head of a French parliamentary panel says it will not recommend banning face-covering veils in the street."

Activists see threat to Roe precedent in campaign finance decision

Posted on January 25, 2010
Politico: "'Yesterday?s Roberts court decision, which exhibited a stunning disregard for settled law of decades' standing, is terrifying to those of us who care deeply about the constitutional protections the court put in place for women?s access to abortion,' said Nancy Northup of the Center for Reproductive Rights...

UK Schools secretary: Faith schools should be forced to teach that homosexuality is normal and harmless

Posted on January 25, 2010
Telegraph interview with the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls: "His other stipulation is community cohesion. Does he agree with Nick Clegg that faith schools should be forced to teach that homosexuality is normal and harmless? The answer is yes...

Video: Pastors say Prop. 8 could lead to polygamy

Posted on January 25, 2010
AP: "The federal trial concerning California's same-sex marriage ban has resumed with lawyers showing videotape of a simulcast in which pastors supporting the ban say gay marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality."

Poverty rate hits 17.5 percent in Nashville

Posted on January 25, 2010
Tennessean: "A study released last week by the nonprofit Brookings Institution says that while times are tough all over, Nashville has fared worse than the suburbs that surround it. The city of Nashville added about 32,110 people living below the poverty line between 2000 and 2008, a gain of 4...

AZ: State board to vote on new charter schools

Posted on January 25, 2010
Arizona Republic: "The Arizona State Board for charter schools votes today on 19 applications for new charter schools, including one from Mesa Public Schools, the state's largest district, which is looking for new ways to compete in the face of declining enrollment...

Prop. 8 Trial Court Transcripts Online

Posted on January 25, 2010
ADF Media has posted transcripts and other legal documents from the Proposition 8 trial through Friday, January 22, 2010. Scroll down this page to the legal docs section on the lower right.

AZ: Hayworth to challenge McCain

Posted on January 25, 2010
Politico: "Former GOP Rep. J.D. Hayworth told the Arizona Daily Star that he will be challenging Arizona Sen. John McCain in the Republican primary ? one day after announcing he was quitting his conservative talk radio show."

?Ask Obama about Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell?

Posted on January 25, 2010
Wall Street Journal: "Gay Americans have been among the president's most ardent supporters. Their enthusiasm, and that of their families and friends, could be crucial in this year's elections. The president's action?or inaction?on Don't Ask Don't Tell will be noticed...

Book Review: The gift of the West

Posted on January 25, 2010
Robert Louis Wilken reviews The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West by Tom Holland at First Things: "Although Gregory VII is not as well known as the reformers of the sixteenth century or the philosophes of the eighteenth century, a case can be made that Gregory?s studied rebuff of royal power in ecclesiastical affairs worked far greater changes in European political and religious life than did the upheavals of the Reformation or the Enlightenment ...

Doug Napier on the Michael Medved Show: Conscience, Scott Brown, Cindy McCain, Marriage, and the Abortion Distortion

Posted on January 25, 2010
ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the battle for conscience in the medical field. The MP3 runs approximately 15 minutes.

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