Religion & Law

Florida: School district to pay $196,500 to the ACLU in prayer suit

Posted on September 23, 2009
Pensacola News Journal: "The ACLU and the School District crafted a consent degree, a 12-page document that establishes guidelines for teachers and staff. The ACLU, its attorneys and the Liberty Counsel ? which represents Lay ? remained locked in a dispute over the consent decree...

N.J. colleges borrow billions; students stuck with the tab

Posted on September 23, 2009
EdNews: "Credit crunch? Not at New Jersey's public colleges and universities, which have racked up huge debt loads while expanding over the past decade. The dozen four-year schools have taken on a record $3.86 billion in debt. And students are paying the bill...

School backs down: Christian ministry fliers now allowed for school distribution

Posted on September 23, 2009
Evangelical Examiner: "Yesterday, Sept. 22, 2009, an agreement was reached with the School District of Haverford Township, which agreed to allow a local Christian ministry to participate in its flier distribution program. Alliance Defense Fund voluntarily dismissed the suit because the school did the right thing...

Anti-abortion groups target suits challenging new laws

Posted on September 23, 2009
Arizona Republic: "The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund and Center for Arizona Policy are seeking to be named as defendants in one state and one federal case. In separate lawsuits, Planned Parenthood and the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights have challenged the enactment of House Bill 2564 and Senate Bill 1175 before they take effect Sept...

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Arizona pro-life groups, legislators seek to protect comprehensive abortion law

Posted on September 23, 2009
LifeNews: "Last week, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a slate of new pro-life laws that Gov. Jan Brewer signed in July . . . 'Everyone deserves full and accurate information before undergoing any medical procedure,' ADF senior legal counsel Steven Aden told LifeNews...

?Gay groups defend Wisconsin domestic-partner law?

Posted on September 23, 2009
Advocate: "Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union are seeking to intervene on behalf of Fair Wisconsin and five same-sex couples in a lawsuit attempting to end newly enacted domestic-partnership protections for same-sex couples in the state ...

Look out, Harvard: Seton Hall grad makes it to clerk status

Posted on September 23, 2009
"In April, Justice Antonin Scalia did what he does best. To put it bluntly, he put it bluntly: If you want to be a clerk and you?re not from Harvard or Yale, he?s just not interested in hiring you."

Paper Says Minnesota?s Funding of Drug Program Raises Church-State Issues

Posted on September 23, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "Yesterday's Minnesota Independent features an investigative article on state funding of Minnesota Teen Challenge's faith-based drug treatment centers."

Today Is 20th Annual ?See You At The Pole?

Posted on September 23, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "Today is the 20th annual See You At the Pole event at schools around the country. The event's website describes its purpose: "See You at the Pole? is all about prayer. "

Religious, women?s groups allowed to back prostitution laws

Posted on September 23, 2009
"The groups were the Christian Legal Fellowship, REAL Women of Canada and the Catholic Civil Rights League."

Polish magazine fined over anti-abortion piece

Posted on September 23, 2009
AP: "A Polish court on Wednesday ordered a Roman Catholic magazine to pay a fine and apologize to a woman for likening her to a killer for wanting an abortion and equating the practice with Nazi crimes."

?See You at the Pole? Celebrated by Millions of Students and the World?s Largest Evangelical University

Posted on September 23, 2009
Liberty Counsel: "Today millions of students are celebrating the twentieth annual ?See You at the Pole? ("SYATP") event, where students gather to pray for their school, their community and America. This year the largest gathering of students for this annual event will be at Liberty University ...

Nurse Hits Union Brass with Unfair Labor Practice Charges for Illegal Forced Dues Scheme

Posted on September 23, 2009
"With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Kent Hospital nurse has filed federal unfair labor practice charges against a local nursing union for illegally attempting to coerce her and other employees into formal, full-dues paying membership...

?The average British man or woman has slept with 2.8 million people?

Posted on September 23, 2009
Breitbart (AFP): "'When we sleep with someone, we are, in effect, not only sleeping with them, but also their previous partners and their partners' previous partners, and so on,' said Clare Kerr, head of sexual health at Lloydspharmacy."

NY Times: ?Coming Out in Middle School?

Posted on September 23, 2009
Benoit Denizet-Lewis writes at the NY Times: "I heard similar accounts from those who work with gay youth all across the country. Though most adolescents who come out do so in high school, sex researchers and counselors say that middle-school students are increasingly coming out to friends or family or to an adult in school...

ADF attorney available to media after hearing over blocked funding for pharmacy school, scholarships

Posted on September 23, 2009
"Funding of private institutions or facilities based solely on their religious affiliation has never been prohibited under Kentucky law, which instead focuses on whether such appropriations serve a non-religious purpose, and in this case, they do."

British Columbia: Polygamy charges against Bountiful leaders dropped

Posted on September 23, 2009
"The judge said the province's attorney general did not have the jurisdiction to appoint a second special prosecutor to consider charges . . . "

Pitfalls Ahead: A Manifesto for the Training of Lawyers

Posted on September 23, 2009
Anita Bernstein, Pitfalls Ahead: A Manifesto for the Training of Lawyers (August 2009). Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 161. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1432461 "But before they represent a client, newcomers need to be informed about pitfalls, the complement to power: how lawyers lose their licenses, face liability for malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty, see their work performance deemed not competent or not 'effective' under the Sixth Amendment, struggle against judges, become disqualified from representing particular clients, and forfeit some freedoms of speech and association...

UK: Ad watchdog censures ?misleading? religious poster campaign

Posted on September 23, 2009
a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/sep/23/asa-religious-poster-blessed-oil">Guardian: "A poster for a religious group that implied that "blessed oil" could help cure serious medical conditions has been censured by the advertising watchdog after a protest from the British Humanist Association...

Ohio couple giving up baby after clinic mix-up

Posted on September 23, 2009
"A doctor, they said, had given Savage the wrong embryo, and now she was carrying the other woman's child."

Zbig Brzezinski: Obama Administration Should Tell Israel U.S. Will Attack Israeli Jets if They Try to Attack Iran

Posted on September 23, 2009
ABC: "The national security adviser for former President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, gave an interview to The Daily Beast in which he suggested President Obama should make it clear to Israel that if they attempt to attack Iran's nuclear weapons sites the U...

Pastor: San Bernardino council ultimatum is unconstitutional

Posted on September 23, 2009
Contra Costa Times: "Responding to a demand that First Church of the Nazarene ban registered sex offenders or to stop receiving city money to host a youth facility there, the church's pastor contended the ultimatum is an unconstitutional violation of his religious freedom...

Lutheran bishop warns about withholding donations over ?gay clergy? vote

Posted on September 23, 2009
AP: "The presiding bishop of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination warned Wednesday that withholding financial support to protest a recent gay clergy vote would be "devastating" to the church."

The abortion debate: Updates, experts and organizations

Posted on September 23, 2009
ReligionLink: "Two pending developments are contributing to an escalation of the nation?s long-standing debate over legalized abortion: health care reform and the anticipated release of proposals, developed by a White House task force, aimed at reducing abortion...

Open Letter to Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., President, University of Notre Dame

Posted on September 22, 2009
Ignatius Insight: "Notre Dame is ordinarily an open campus. Those 88 persons, 82 of whom are represented by Tom Dixon, ND ?84, ND Law School ?93, were arrested not because they were there, but because of who they were, why they were there and what they were saying...

Wisconsin: Groups seek to defend domestic partner law

Posted on September 22, 2009
Winona Daily News (AP): "A gay rights group will ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to reject a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the state?s new domestic partnership law . . . Jim Campbell, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the plaintiffs, said he is not surprised by the attempt to intervene...

Wisconsin: ?Gay rights group fights lawsuit to invalidate domestic partnership law?

Posted on September 22, 2009
TMJ 4 (AP): "A gay rights group will ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to reject a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the state?s new domestic partnership law . . . Jim Campbell, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the plaintiffs, said he is not surprised by the attempt to intervene...

Wisconsin: ?State group seeks to defend domestic partner law?

Posted on September 22, 2009
The Northwester (AP): "A gay rights group will ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to reject a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the state?s new domestic partnership law . . . Jim Campbell, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the plaintiffs, said he is not surprised by the attempt to intervene...

U.S. to push for new economic world order at G20

Posted on September 22, 2009
Reuters: "The United States will urge world leaders this week to launch a new push in November to rebalance the world economy, but there are doubts national governments will bow to external advice."

Obama: Climate Change May Lead to ?Irreversible Catastrophe?

Posted on September 22, 2009
Voice of America: "U.S. President Barack Obama says inaction on climate change could leave future generations with an 'irreversible catastrophe.' Mr. Obama called on global leaders Tuesday to move 'boldly, swiftly, and together' to combat the problem...

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