Religion & Law

Senate Democrats, GOP Squabble Over Pro-Abortion Obama Pick Dawn Johnsen

Posted on December 28, 2009
LifeNews: "Dawn Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University who is a former legal counsel for the pro-abortion group NARAL, is Obama's selection to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel."

ABA Presses the Case for Loan Relief for Law Graduates

Posted on December 28, 2009
Law.com (National Law Journal): "Neither the Obama administration nor Congress has gone along with a proposal from the American Bar Association to help some recent law school graduates defer their student loans. But that doesn't mean the ABA has stopped pushing...

Tiger Woods? father: marriage is unnecessary

Posted on December 28, 2009
Tim Worstall writes at Examiner.com: "So if marriage is not necessary to have and to raise children and marriage isn't necessary to have sex then marriage isn't necessary at all then, is it? This doesn't mean that marriage isn't desirable, or enjoyable, or even good for society and children...

National Religious Broadcasters: Don?t Reallocate Broadband Spectrum To Wireless

Posted on December 28, 2009
Multichannel.com: "Religious broadcasters have asked the Federal Communications Commission not to reallocate any broadcast spectrum for wireless, saying it will disproportionately impact Christian TV broadcasters . . . NRB also maintained that if spectrum reclamation were to significantly impact religious broadcasters, it could well violate the Religoius Freedom Restoration Act ...

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Rhode Island football field fight highlights church-state issues

Posted on December 28, 2009
USA Today: "Parents of public school students accuse the city of favoring Saint Raphael Academy ? a prominent Catholic school and alma mater of city and state power brokers ? by granting its football team exclusive use of a public field. They say it's unconstitutional to give a religious school priority access to a field meant for public use...

Catholic Health Association: We Agree With Bishops on Abortion, Health Care

Posted on December 28, 2009
LifeNews: "The president of the Catholic Health Association is saying in a new interview today that her organization agrees with the bishops on banning abortion funding in the health care bill. However, the organization released a statement recently that made it appear otherwise ...

San Diego?s Campaign Finance Law Challenged in Federal Court

Posted on December 28, 2009
Last week, a coalition of plaintiffs asked a federal court to grant a preliminary injunction to keep San Diego from enforcing campaign finance laws that violate the First Amendment.

Jewish Christian in Israel Seeks Protection from Repeated Attacks

Posted on December 28, 2009
Compass Direct: "Jerusalem resident Yossi Yomtov said police have been slow to investigate hate crimes against him by youths wearing kippahs, cloth skullcaps typically worn by observant Jews. In two of the attacks a youth plied him with pepper spray and stun gun shocks, he said...

Latest test for church, state

Posted on December 28, 2009
Karl Felsen writes at the Albany Times Union: "Brian Raum's lawyerly Dec. 16 commentary, 'Preserving marriage requires restricting it,' is a good primer on why we find it so difficult as a society to sort out issues such as abortion and gay marriage. We are a nation of laws, and the most basic governmental reform our Founding Fathers created in defining what is unique about America is the separation of church and state...

?Sex and the City? star joins ACLU campaign to end Florida ban on homosexual adoption

Posted on December 28, 2009
Miami Herald: "Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon will join U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, state Sen. Nan Rich and state Rep. Mary Brandenburg to help the ACLU of Florida launch its new campaign to end Florida?s gay adoption ban."

NJ: ??Eternal optimist? Weinberg leads gay marriage push in state Senate?

Posted on December 28, 2009
NorthJersey.com: "Len Deo, founder and president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, suggested that the bill would fail despite shepherding by two of the state's most prominent Democrats."

Iran Opposition Claims Widespread Arrests, Condemns Sunday Violence

Posted on December 28, 2009
Wall Street Journal: "Iranian opposition Web sites reported Monday the arrest of several prominent reformists, including aides to opposition leaders and a former foreign minister, a day after clashes killed at least eight, the deadliest day of protests since the summer...

Roger Kiska on CBN: Swedish government removes homeschooler from parental custody

Posted on December 28, 2009
ADF attorney Roger Kiska appeared on CBN to discuss this: Swedish government seizes child from home-schooling family. The MP4 runs just over 4 minutes.

LUV Iowa: Marriage rallies to open legislative session

Posted on December 28, 2009
"'Any member who stands between the people and our right to vote is risking their political future,' said Chuck Hurley, the family policy center's president."

?Senate confirms in Minn. 1st openly gay US marshal?

Posted on December 28, 2009
Chicago Tribune: "Minneapolis assistant police Chief Sharon Lubinski has become the first openly gay U.S. marshal. The U.S. Senate last week confirmed the Green Bay, Wis. native . . . "

Belief and nonbelief are not equal

Posted on December 23, 2009
S.E. Cupp writes at the NY Daily News: "I don't need "inclusion" alongside a Nativity scene or a menorah, and it's an insult to demand it. My lack of faith doesn't belong in the same category as your faith."

Charleston Restores Shelved Nativity Scene: Display will now include a Menorah, a Kinara and Santa Claus with elves and reindeer

Posted on December 23, 2009
Firehouse.com: "The nativity scene was removed just days before Christmas after the department received a complaint from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation saying the display supports Christianity."

Appeals court set to rule on fate of Soledad Cross

Posted on December 23, 2009
San Diego News: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard the case on Dec. 9, but no decision is imminent since the three judges are waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the Mojave cross case Salazar vs. Buno' . . . 'My impression is that the panel was attempting to reconcile its old views with the Supreme Court precedent, which is now very favorable to the cross,' Infranco said...

Home school parents face losing son to state

Posted on December 23, 2009
CBN News: "'Parents have the right and authority to make decisions regarding their children's education without government interference,' ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska said."

Temporary site found for Ten Commandments

Posted on December 23, 2009
Southwest Times Record: "A planned Ten Commandments monument has found a home, at least until it can be placed at the LeFlore County Courthouse in Poteau, the planners announced by e-mail Monday . . . In October the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit alliance of Christian attorneys based in Arizona, asked the U...

David French: Christmas ?Over There?

Posted on December 23, 2009
David French, Director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, writing at National Review Online: "Especially for the men on the line, there is no weekly or even monthly rhythm of life like we have in the States. You just do what you do, day in and day out, until you go home...

Court endorses ?kidnapping? of 7-year-old

Posted on December 23, 2009
WorldNetDaily: "'What you have here is a socialist country trying to create a cookie cutter kid,' said Roger Kiska, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney based in Europe. 'This kind of thing happens too often where social workers take a child and then just keep him...

Christian Photographers to Appeal N.M. Court?s Discrimination Ruling

Posted on December 23, 2009
Christian Post: Attorneys with Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund announced last week their plan to appeal the ruling, insisting that Christians in the marketplace should not be subject to ?predatory legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs.? ?The Constitution prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience,? commented ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence...

Illinois: Superintendent Garrett Suggests ?Monitoring? of Homeschoolers

Posted on December 23, 2009
HSLDA: "The remarkable scores of homeschooled students would need to come down 33 percentile points to equal the scores of students already being monitored by public school teachers."

Abortion looms as possible health bill deal killer

Posted on December 23, 2009
AP: "Democrats are close enough to taste victory in their quest to remake the nation's health care system, but differences between the House and Senate on abortion could still blow it all up."

Russian church: Homosexuality is personal choice

Posted on December 23, 2009
The AP carries this extraordinarily sloppy report that begins: "The head of the Russian Orthodox Church said Wednesday that although the church views homosexuality as a sin, gays should not face discrimination."

Callers give Nelson an earful

Posted on December 23, 2009
Omaha.com: "The phone lines were jammed and busy signals greeted callers to Sen. Ben Nelson's offices today in Washington and throughout Nebraska . . . The Democrat was also at the center of attention at a rally in downtown Omaha on Sunday that drew about 1,800 people...

Last Minute FRC Campaign Urges Opposition to Legislation Fit for King Herod Himself

Posted on December 23, 2009
FRC Action: "Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins released the following statement: 'Isn't it a little ironic that as we celebrate Christmas and the birth of a baby in a manger that the health care bill hinges on unborn babies? The Senate is preparing to vote on a pro-abortion, pro-rationing, pro-tax, pro-death law fit for King Herod himself...

Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves

Posted on December 23, 2009
Houston Chronicle: "Poverty has forced at least 225,000 children in Haiti's cities into slavery as unpaid household servants, far more than previously thought, a report said Tuesday."

Senate Ends Filibuster on Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill, Sets Christmas Eve Vote

Posted on December 23, 2009
"The decision to end debate sets up the final vote on passage of the bill on Christmas Eve -- allowing the funding of abortions as millions of Christians prepare for Christmas . . ."

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