Religion & Law

NC: New Sex Ed Law Implementation Underway

Posted on September 03, 2009
North Carolina Family Policy Council: "The North Carolina State Board of Education was briefed yesterday about the Department of Public Instruction?s (DPI) preparations for implementation of the state?s new sex education law. Governor Beverly Perdue signed the 'Healthy Youth Act' (HYA) into law in June 2009, and the new curriculum requirements for all public school students in grades 7?9 will go into effect beginning with the 2010-11 school year...

Students Borrow More Than Ever for College

Posted on September 03, 2009
Wall Street Journal: "Students are borrowing dramatically more to pay for college, accelerating a trend that has wide-ranging implications for a generation of young people."

Big Pharma Paying Doctors to Promote Drugs, But What About Politicans?

Posted on September 03, 2009
Findlaw: "While much of yesterday's news regarding the Pfizer fines concentrated on 'off-label' marketing, the other area of large concern in the Pfizer case was its payment of doctors to promote and prescribe a whole host of drugs. As discussed in a recent New York Times article, pharmaceutical companies often pay doctors to speak about their drugs, or sponsor continuing medical education events which incorporate promotion of specific drugs...

From home schooling to ?unschooling?

Posted on September 03, 2009
Baltimore Sun: "A byproduct of home schooling, unschooling incorporates every facet of a child's life into the education process, allowing a child to follow his passions and learn at his own pace, year-round. And it assumes that an outing at the park - or even hours spent playing a video game - can be just as valuable a teaching resource as Hooked on Phonics...

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Originalism and the 14th Amendmenet

Posted on September 03, 2009
Professor Kurt Lash writing at PrawfsBlawg: "In terms of the Fourteenth Amendment. An originalist investigation of the Privileges or Immunities Clause would look for patterns of usage regarding the words and phrases of the Clause, beginning with how those words and phrases were understood in the years leading up to the Civil War...

Bob Casey Claims No Abortion Funding in Senate Health Care Bill, Draws Rebuke

Posted on September 03, 2009
LifeNews: "One of the two Democrats in the U.S. Senate to claim a pro-life position on abortion is drawing fire from pro-life advocates today for a comment he made in a recent town hall. Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey told constituents that the Senate version of the government-run health care bill doesn't fund abortions...

The Decider

Posted on September 03, 2009
John O. McGinnis writes at the Wall Street Journal: "The Supreme Court's newest member, Sonya Sotomayor, has been getting all the press ­recently, and for good reason. But she will probably not shift the court decisively in one direction or another. The 'decider' role remains with Anthony Kennedy: He sits dead center in a court still polarized between four conservative justices and four liberal ones...

Web Simulcast: ?Keeping Faith and Looking Forward: A Discussion on Constitutional Interpretation?

Posted on September 03, 2009
The Constitution Society is sponsoring this simulcast: "On Wednesday, September 16, ACS will host a web-based simulcast from UC Berkeley School of Law on the Constitution and methods of interpretation that apply the text and broad principles to the changing needs and conditions of our society...

Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: Defending Marriage in Troubled Times

Posted on September 03, 2009
Harry R. Jackson, Jr. writes at Townhall in part to answer this question: ". . . what are the consequences of repealing DOMA?"

Legal Scholars React to UN Committee?s Homosexual Rights Recommendation

Posted on September 03, 2009
C-FAM: "This week leading conservative legal experts condemned a United Nations (UN) human rights committee's recent inclusion of 'sexual orientation and gender identity' as a protected category under a cornerstone human rights treaty."

Q&A On Faith Healing and the Law Posted

Posted on September 02, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "The Pew Forum on Monday posted a Q&A interview on Faith Healing and the Law featuring George Washington University Professor Robert W. Tuttle."

Justice Stevens Slows His Hiring at High Court, Fueling Retirement Speculation

Posted on September 02, 2009
Law.com (AP): “Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has hired fewer law clerks than usual, generating speculation that the leader of the court’s liberals will retire next year. If Stevens does step down, he would give President Barack Obama his second high court opening in two years...

Supreme Court Asked to Hear Case of the Florida Bar?s Involvement in Divisive Issues

Posted on September 02, 2009
Liberty Counsel: "Liberty Counsel filed a Petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting review of a ruling that permits the Florida Bar?s involvement in controversial issues unrelated to the practice of law. In this case, the issue is homosexual adoption, but the Bar should remain neutral on matters outside the regulation of attorneys and the legal profession ...

Give us this day our daily? Catholic church issues prayer for faithful to say before sex

Posted on September 02, 2009
Daily Mail: "Roman Catholic couples are being encouraged to pray together before they have sex. A book published by a prominent Church group invites those setting out on married life to recite the specially-composed Prayer Before Making Love."

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal: Hate speech law unconstitutional

Posted on September 02, 2009
"The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that Section 13, Canada's much maligned human rights hate speech law, is an unconstitutional violation of the Charter right to free expression because of its penalty provisions."

California Assembly passes anti-DOMA resolution

Posted on September 02, 2009
California Progress Report: "On Monday the California Assembly approved a resolution urging the United States Congress and President Barack Obama to repeal the nation?s Defense of Marriage Act following a contentious, partisan debate."

NY: With Senate astir, Paterson will delay same-sex ?marriage? bill

Posted on September 02, 2009
New York Times: "Gov. David A. Paterson will delay his plan to force a vote on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage until early September because the Senate is too unsettled now to take it up, his spokesman said on Friday."

3rd Circuit upholds internet gambling ban

Posted on September 02, 2009
Bloomberg: "A 2006 federal law that prohibits gambling over the Internet was upheld by a U.S. appeals court after a challenge from a New Jersey-based nonprofit corporation that promotes electronic betting."

Massachusetts: Industrial Park strip club zone rejected

Posted on September 02, 2009
Herald News: "The five City Council subcommittee members addressing a decade-long impasse unanimously removed siting an adult entertainment district within the Industrial Park from further consideration."

Obama hosts dinner for Islamic holy month

Posted on September 02, 2009
AP: "President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised American Muslims for enriching the nation's culture at a dinner to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. 'The contribution of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalog because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country,' Obama said ...

Dutch to prosecute Arabs over Holocaust cartoon

Posted on September 02, 2009
Yahoo News (AP): "Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday they will charge an Arab cultural group under hate speech laws for publishing a cartoon that suggests the death of 6 million Jews during World War II is a fabrication."

Greg Baylor: Summary of the ruling in Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (6th Cir.)

Posted on September 02, 2009
On August 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a decision in Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children. The Sixth Circuit: (1) affirmed the district court's dismissal of Alicia Pedreira's and Karen Vance's statutory employment discrimination claims against the Home; (2) affirmed the district court's ruling that the plaintiffs' status as federal taxpayers did not give them standing to assert that the financial relationship between the Commonwealth and the Home violated the Establishment Clause; (3) but reversed the district court's ruling that plaintiffs' status as state taxpayers did not give them Establishment Clause standing...

Should public schools teach religion?

Posted on September 02, 2009
The Washington Post On Faith blog is hosting a panel discussing whether and how religion should be taught in public schools, particularly in light of American history. Panelists include Jim Daly, Daniel C. Dennett, Brad Hirschfield, J. Brent Walker, Brian D...

Viewing the Alert Email Digest in Gmail?s web interface using Firefox

Posted on September 02, 2009
We have received a few reports from ADF Alliance Alert subscribers indicating that the content of their Email Digest version of the Alert is not displaying. Usually, this is a matter of setting security filters appropriately. However, we have discovered that there seems to be a problem viewing the Alert Email Digest using [...

Charter school takes legal action against Idaho over the Bible

Posted on September 02, 2009
Idaho Statesman: "The Nampa Classical Academy has filed a lawsuit against the state after it ruled the public charter school cannot use the Bible as an instructional text. The Academy, represented by the Alliance Defense Fund . . . claims the state has ?decided that the Bible is now a banned book in every public school throughout the State of Idaho...

Idaho school sues state over Bible plan

Posted on September 02, 2009
The Olympian (AP): "A public charter school sued Idaho officials in federal court Tuesday, saying the state illegally barred use of the Bible as an instructional text . . . 'I've never seen such a broad-reaching ban on using the Bible at all as an educational resource in public schools,' said David Cortman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund...

CFACT files suit to reclaim funds

Posted on September 02, 2009
The Badger-Herald: "Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow, a conservative campus group, is suing the Associated Students of Madison and various other University of Wisconsin parties on the basis of being denied funding unjustifiably . . . 'The goal of the case is to ensure that America?s colleges and universities give conservative students the same rights as other students,' said David French, senior counsel for ADF...

Idaho school sues state over Bible plan

Posted on September 02, 2009
New York Times (AP): "A public charter school is suing Idaho officials, saying the state illegally barred use of the Bible as an instructional text. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund filed suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boise on behalf of Nampa Classical Academy in Idaho...

Video: Dr. Kevorkian talks about euthanasia in FOX interview

Posted on September 02, 2009
My FOX Detroit: "In one of his first in-depth interviews since spending more than eight years in prison for his role in numerous assisted suicides, Dr. Jack Kevorkian talks to Detroit's FOX 2 about the best way to kill someone." [Click through to the FOX site for video]

Islamic Politics and Secular Politics: Can They Co-Exist?

Posted on September 02, 2009
Mohammad Fadel, Islamic Politics and Secular Politics: Can They Co-Exist? (August 18, 2009). Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1457176 "I argue that using the resources of Islamic theological and legal tradition in support of the idea of a secular state is more likely to win traditionalist Muslim support for a secular state than Islamic arguments that rely on controversial theological propositions that are not necessarily required for at least certain kinds of secular states, e...

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