Religion & Law

?Historic Prop 8 trial opens with emotional testimony from gay couples?

Posted on January 12, 2010
Mercury News: "For the most part, lawyers for the Prop. 8 campaign left the plaintiffs alone, declining to cross-examine all but Katami. Brian Raum, a lawyer for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, grilled Katami on one issue: his testimony that the Prop...

German State Checks IDs of All Attending Mosques

Posted on January 12, 2010
Religion Clause Blog: "A 2003 law in the German state of Lower Saxony allows police to question and search individuals in public places regardless of suspicion of wrongdoing when done to prevent crimes of 'grave and international concern.'"

?Weber Shandwick and Gill Foundation Release ?Business of Change? ? A Resource Guide for Effective Corporate-Nonprofit Collaboration on LGBT Equality?

Posted on January 12, 2010
Weber Shandwick: "Weber Shandwick and the Gill Foundation have released 'Business of Change,' a resource guide focused on corporate-nonprofit collaboration to promote equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The 104-page guide, available free to download, is a first-of-its-kind collection of best practices with actionable and practical ideas to help nonprofits and corporations advance LGBT equality ...

Texas: TCC, ACLU head to court today over free-speech policy

Posted on January 12, 2010
Star-Telegram.com: "The trial in U.S. District Judge Terry Means? court in Fort Worth will deal with TCC?s restrictions on students who tried to stage 'empty-holster' protests on campus in support of allowing licensed concealed-handgun owners to bring their weapons on campus...

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Obama Going on Six Months Without a Press Conference

Posted on January 12, 2010
Fox News: "President Obama is preparing for his State of the Union address, expected sometime in the next month, but some in the White House press corps are getting antsy for him to hold a news conference with reporters, something he hasn't done since July 22, almost six months ago...

Missouri Lawmaker Takes Stand for Life

Posted on January 12, 2010
Citizen Link: "State Sen. Scott Rupp filed a bill attempting to protect his state from abortion mandates in health care reform."

Phyllis Schlafly: The Marriage Penalty in Health Care

Posted on January 12, 2010
Phyllis Schlafly writes at Townhall: "The House staffer told the Wall Street Journal reporter that the Democratics can't make the subsidies neutral toward marriage because that would give a traditional one-breadwinner married couple a more generous subsidy than a single parent at the same income level...

Prop. 8 trial begins today: ?Roe v. Wade? of marriage battle

Posted on January 12, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Although Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Attorney General Jerry Brown are named as defendants in the suit, both have refused to defend the constitutionality of the amendment. Private citizens, therefore, have had to step up to defend California's own constitution; attorneys with the pro-family Alliance Defense Fund and ProtectMarriage...

Prop. 8 trial Day 1: Live coverage from the courtroom

Posted on January 12, 2010
The Oakland Tribune's "Inside Bay Area" live-blogs: "The afternoon session in the Proposition 8 trial is under way with Katami taking the stand under questioning from Brian Raum, lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, one of the conservative groups aligned against gay marriage...

Prop 8: Trial starts that could be ?gay marriage? Roe v. Wade

Posted on January 12, 2010
Baptist Press: "'This is the first serious case where the federal constitution has been invoked as the basis for a right to same-sex marriage,' Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund and one of the attorneys involved in defending Prop 8, told Baptist Press...

Marriage Is Not the Same Around the Globe, Says Advocate for Same-Sex Couples

Posted on January 12, 2010
CNSNews: "Testimony in a groundbreaking legal challenge to California's same-sex marriage ban resumes Tuesday with testimony from two Ivy League historians who will discuss the nation's experience with matrimony and anti-gay discrimination."

Iowa: Marriage takes center stage on legislature?s second day

Posted on January 12, 2010
Iowa Independent: 'We expect the members of the Iowa legislature to listen to their constituents and not to stand in the way of our constitutional right to vote on the Iowa marriage amendment,' said IFPC President Chuck Hurley. 'Any member who stands between the people and our right to vote is risking their political future...

?Marriage isn?t just for procreation, expert testifies?

Posted on January 12, 2010
Fresno Bee: "A historian testifying in the Proposition 8 trial this morning disagreed with attorneys for the measure who argued that marriage's fundamental purpose through the ages has been procreation and child-rearing by one man and one woman . . . Charles Cooper ...

Judge Walker?s gambit to bamboozle the Supreme Court?Part 3

Posted on January 12, 2010
Ed Whelan writing at National Review Online Bench Memos: "Some time on Sunday, Kozinski sent a six-page letter to Judge Anthony Scirica, chairman of the executive committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and to James C. Duff, secretary of that body...

The weakened state of religious liberty

Posted on January 12, 2010
Doug Carlson writes at the The Ethics and Religious Liberty Comission blog: "Our nation will give special emphasis this week to a constitutional protection and timeless right conferred to us by God: religious liberty. President Obama will set aside Jan...

Pro-Abortion Obama Pick Dawn Johnsen Gets 60th Vote From Arlen Specter

Posted on January 12, 2010
LifeNews: "In a flip-flop that could provide her the 60th and final vote she needs to overcome a pro-life filibuster, pro-abortion Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter has changed his mind and decided to support Dawn Johnsen."

Another killing in Mosul: violence against Iraqi Christians continues

Posted on January 12, 2010
Catholic Culture: "A Christian merchant was shot and killed, execution-style, outside his home in Mosul, as the campaign of 'ethnic and religious cleansing' directed at Christians there continues."

?Gay marriage on trial: The relevance of slavery?

Posted on January 12, 2010
Eve Conant writing at Newsweek's The Gaggle: With the two gay couples off the stand for now, attorneys for the plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger are turning to experts and historians to dissect the meaning and progress of the institution of marriage...

WV Legislature Fails to Provide Legitimate Reason NOT to Let West Virginians Vote

Posted on January 12, 2010
Engage Family Blog: "After a year of studying whether or not the Legislature should allow West Virginians to vote on the definition of marriage, members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary have failed to advance a reason against letting the people of West Virginia vote on the definition of marriage...

?Will LDS Church documents surface at California Gay Marriage trial??

Posted on January 12, 2010
ABC 4 News: ABC 4 News is being told that some of the LDS Church's activities could be brought up at the California federal trial on the future of gay marriage. According to our sources, the San Francisco City Attorney has shown interest in and is expected to soon receive hundreds of documents about the LDS Church's opposition to gay marriage.

Jordan Lorence on Fox News: Efforts to air the Prop. 8 Trial on TV

Posted on January 12, 2010
ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appears in this Fox News video (just over 4 minutes) to discuss efforts to air the Proposition 8 trial on TV.

Jordan Lorence on Democracy Now: Courts should leave the peoples? decision alone

Posted on January 12, 2010
ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appears in this DemocracyNow! video (just over 1:30) discussing Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

?Children no requirement for marriage, trial told?

Posted on January 12, 2010
AFP: "Nancy Cott, a Harvard professor and expert on the history of marriage in America, told the federal court in San Francisco that the ability to have children is not a factor in determining whether a union is legal."

Mexican cardinal says Church cannot be silent in face of attacks on marriage

Posted on January 12, 2010
CNA: "Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera reiterated this week that leaders of the Church cannot be silent in the face of attacks on marriage and the family - such as those by Mexico City lawmakers who approved same-sex unions and granted them the right to adopt children...

Final Exit Network Activist Pleads Guilty to Killing Woman in Assisted Suicide

Posted on January 12, 2010
LifeNews: "A member of the Final Exit Network assisted suicide ring that resulted in the deaths of multiple people from illegal assisted suicides had pleaded guilty in one case . . . Now, according to a Phoenix New Times report, Hale-Rowe struck a plea deal with county prosecutors and agreed to testify against the three remaining defendants in the case ...

UK police search powers illegal: human rights court

Posted on January 12, 2010
UKPA: "Police stop and search powers under UK terrorism laws have been declared illegal by human rights judges after two Londoners questioned their legality. The right to question people without grounds for suspicion - granted by the Terrorism Act of 2000 - violates the Human Rights Convention, said the European Court of Human Rights...

Video: key US trial on marriage starts

Posted on January 12, 2010
The Christian Institute: "Jordan Lorence, one of the lawyers defending the traditional definition of marriage, said the case 'potentially could be used to challenge all the state marriage amendments, all the state laws that define marriage as a man and woman, as well as the federal Defense of Marriage Act...

UK: Christian prayers at Helston Town Council are ?non-PC?

Posted on January 12, 2010
This is Cornwall: "Town council members have been criticised for holding Christian-only prayers at the beginning of meetings. Pat Woodhouse, who has attended a number of recent Helston Town Council meetings as a member of the public ? and is considering standing for a seat ? asked if the practice was now politically correct...

UK Parliament: The government?s secret prayers

Posted on January 12, 2010
Guardian: "There's a ritual that takes place every day at the Houses of Parliament which is said to have been common practice since 1567. Not that many outsiders would know about it, though, because it is conducted behind closed doors out of view of the public...

Iowa lawmaker wants religious element in oath

Posted on January 12, 2010
WXOW (AP): "A Republican member of the Iowa Legislature is proposing lawmakers should be required to say "so help me God" when being sworn into office."

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