Religion & Law

The Audacity of Debt: Comparing today?s deficits to those in the 1980s.

Posted on December 16, 2009
Wall Street Journal: "It's a sign of how deep the fiscal pathologies run in this Congress that $2 trillion will buy the federal government only one year before it has to seek another debt hike?conveniently timed to come after the midterm elections. Since Democrats began running Congress again in 2007, the federal debt limit has climbed by 39%...

John of Salisbury ? Natural Law Must Inspire Positive Law

Posted on December 16, 2009
Vatican Information Service on EWTN:  "Benedict XVI focused his catechesis during this morning's general audience on the figure of John of Salisbury, a philosopher and theologian born in England towards the beginning of the twelfth century . . .  'The question of the relationship between natural law and positive law, as mediated by equity, is still of great importance', said Benedict XVI...

Charter school submits plan to fix problem areas

Posted on December 16, 2009
Associated Press: "One of the largest public charter schools in the state has drafted a plan to fix several problem areas identified by Idaho officials last month."

15% of teens ?sexting? on cells, study says

Posted on December 16, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle: "About 15 percent of American teenagers have received nude or sexually suggestive photos on their cell phones, and that percentage doubles as teens get older, according to a study released Tuesday about the tech-fueled trend called 'sexting...

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Britain?s new Supreme Court

Posted on December 16, 2009
Law.com (National Law Journal): "Justices are now independent of Parliament, so they may well become more activist."

Democracy Under Arrest: ?Universal? human ? rights law never seems to apply to the likes of Kim Jong Il.

Posted on December 16, 2009
"Universal jurisdiction" sounds like a term plucked from obscure international law journals, but it has pernicious and profoundly antidemocratic consequences in the real world."

Missionary activity still targeted in Russia

Posted on December 16, 2009
Adventist News Network: "Religious liberty advocates in Russia say proposed amendments to a national law seek to regulate free religious expression in the country and endanger profession of faith provisions in the Russian constitution. The amendments to the 1997 law called 'On Freedom of Conscience and Association' specifically target so-called 'missionary activity' in the country, experts say...

Analyst warns EU against admitting Turkey due to militant Islamic influence

Posted on December 16, 2009
Assyrian International News Agency: "Turkey's increasingly militant Islamic influence should prompt the European Union to reject its efforts to join the organization out of hand, according to Jonathan Racho, an analyst with International Christian Concern...

Patriarch Kirill blames Strasbourg Court for infringing on religious rights

Posted on December 16, 2009
Interfax: "The European Court of Human Rights often does not properly consider the church's rights, said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. 'In our view, the court sometimes lopsidedly uses different interpretations of individual rights to the detriment of collective rights of traditional religious organizations rooted in the history and culture of European peoples,' Patriarch Kirill said in a letter to Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland whose text the patriarchal press service made public on Wednesday...

Swiss minaret appeal goes to European Court

Posted on December 16, 2009
"An appeal against last month's decision by Swiss voters to ban minarets has been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg."

France retreating on burqa ban

Posted on December 16, 2009
Times of India: "France is moving towards outlawing full Islamic veils in certain public buildings, stopping short of a broader ban that could violate the right to religious freedom, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Wednesday."

Single-payer health care plan dies in Senate

Posted on December 16, 2009
AP: ". . . but Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont vowed it will return when the realization dawns that private insurance companies 'are no longer needed.'"

Pennsylvania Catholic university cites ?partnership? with Planned Parenthood

Posted on December 16, 2009
Catholic Culture reports on the situation at Duquesne University.

?House Speaker Pelosi Knows There Is No Price To Pay For Ignoring Gays?

Posted on December 16, 2009
Richard Grenell writes at CBS: "The answer, of course, is and has always been that America is not ready for gay marriage. Nearly every public poll taken has shown that the electorate, albeit the public at large, is not ready. "

Imperial Co. asks to help defend Proposition 8

Posted on December 16, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle: "The Imperial County Board of Supervisors voted in favor of an emergency motion Tuesday to intervene in the case."

NY ?Governor Paterson Signs Gender Identity and Expression Executive Order?

Posted on December 16, 2009
NY Governor: "Governor David A. Paterson today signed Executive Order No. 33 that will prohibit New York State agencies from discriminating against any individual on the basis of gender identity and expression in any matter pertaining to employment by the State...

Air Force Academy says religious climate improving

Posted on December 16, 2009
Boston Globe (AP): "The academy superintendent, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, says the improvements are the result of a topdown campaign to foster respect and a commitment to accommodate all cadets, even nonbelievers and an 'Earth-centered' religious group that needed a place for a stone circle so it could worship outdoors...

ACLU Sues Neb. Over Petition Signature Laws

Posted on December 16, 2009
KETV.com: "The ACLU said changes to Nebraska law are keeping independent candidates and ballot initiatives off ballots, violating protected political speech."

ADF to appeal court decision against NM photographer

Posted on December 16, 2009
"Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund will appeal a New Mexico judge?s decision to uphold a ruling by the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission against an Albuquerque photography company . . . "

Efforts to Boost Birth Rate Failing in China

Posted on December 16, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "The city of Shanghai's efforts to reverse more than 30 years of anti-child government propaganda, and boost the city's flagging birth rate are not being well received by the public, a report in the Washington Post says."

Cop Cited for Intimidating Pro-Life Advocate at Chicago-Area Planned Parenthood

Posted on December 16, 2009
LifeNews: "A Chicago police officer was cited in a report for intimidating a pro-life advocate helping counsel women outside a Planned Parenthood abortion business in Aurora . . . "

Quebec?s new state religion is cultural relativism

Posted on December 16, 2009
National Post: "To bundle superstitions and cults together with authentic religions, then demand deference to all, is to discourage actual respect for any but the state religion of 'normative pluralism,' the real aim of the program. In its indifference to objective knowledge, in its crusade to hallow cultural relativism and a strictly Charter-of-rights based identity, ÉCR stimulates heritage students? detachment from their own cultural touchstones, and chills critical thinking in all students...

UK Decision Concluding that Dutch MP Geert Wilders (a Harsh Critic of Islam) was Wrongly Excluded from the UK

Posted on December 16, 2009
Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: "The decision was made two months ago, but I think the written opinion has just become available, as GW v. An Immigration Officer. Note that the decision rests in considerable measure on internal European Union regulations having to do with freedom of movement among European states ...

Rifqa Bary?s Parents Ask Court to Order Bary?s Lawyers Not To Give Her Messages from Third Parties

Posted on December 16, 2009
Rifqu Bary's case made headlines earlier in the year when it is was reported that she had converted to Christianity and was attempting to escape her Muslim parents, who she claimed might kill her. She ran away to Florida from Ohio. Eugene Volokh reports at the Volokh Conspiracy on the latest round in this litigation and includes excerpts from the text of the motion in question...

?Sexting? and Suicide

Posted on December 16, 2009
Psychology Today: "The Pew Internet & American Life Project is nonprofit research group, who surveyed 800-teens, and reported that 15% of cell-owning teens (ages 12 to 17) had "received nude or nearly nude photos by phone. 4% of the teens said they had sent out sexually explicit photos or videos of themselves...

Entrepreneurs Take On Sexting and Child Safety Online

Posted on December 16, 2009
US News and World Report: "Parents' concern for their children's risky behavior with new technologies is an untapped market."

Va. panel refuses to recommend legislation regarding ?sexting?

Posted on December 16, 2009
Washington Post: "Members of the Virginia State Crime Commission refused Tuesday to recommend legislation concerning sexting, but the issue is likely to come before lawmakers next month."

India Shuts Its Doors on Foreign Firms

Posted on December 16, 2009
Law.com: "One of India's highest courts has banned foreign law firms from all forms of practice in India, a major victory for a trade group of Indian lawyers and a defeat for firms that opened liaison offices in India during a brief window in the 1990s, according to the blog Legally India...

New Mexico Trial Court Upholds Sanctions Based on Wedding Photographer?s Refusal to Photograph a Same-Sex Wedding Ceremony

Posted on December 16, 2009
"The decision was handed down last Friday, but the opinion wasn?t distributed until yesterday . . . "

Volokh replies to French: Should access to public university property and funding be treated differently from access to other public property and funding?

Posted on December 15, 2009
Law Professor Eugene Volokh has written this response to ADF attorney David French: "This brings us to David?s last point: 'What conceivable state interest exists in requiring open membership by expressive organizations?' The answer, I think, is a variant of what President Kennedy set forth as a justification for Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: the desire that 'public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races contribute, not be spent in any fashion which ...

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