Religion & Law

?In response to NYCLU lawsuit, Herkimer Co. School District agrees to measures to protect gay youth from harassment?

Posted on August 27, 2009
NYCLU Press Release: "A week after the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against the Mohawk Central School District in Herkimer County for failing to protect a gay student who does not conform to masculine stereotypes from vicious and relentless harassment, threats and physical abuse at school, the district has agreed to take immediate action aimed to ensure that student?s safety when classes resume next month...

NH mother wants to continue home-schooling

Posted on August 27, 2009
WCAX.com (AP): "A religious freedom group has taken up the cause of a New Hampshire mother who wants to keep home-schooling her daughter. The Alliance Defense Fund has asked a family court judge to reconsider a decision last month that sends the 10-year-old daughter of Brenda Voydatch to a public school in Meredith...

Wisconsin: Student mobility in Milwaukee could hamper the state?s latest attempt to evaluate voucher schools

Posted on August 27, 2009
Milwaukee J. Sentinel: "Student mobility in Milwaukee could hamper the state's latest attempt to evaluate voucher schools, warns a report from the Legislative Audit Bureau released Wednesday."

Town leaders change tune on discrimination when contacted by ADF attorneys

Posted on August 27, 2009
Evangelical Examiner: "Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have received a positive response to a letter they sent to the town of Elk River urging it to stop its discriminatory policies restricting the use of its public library and park for religious purposes...

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NH mom asks that daughter be allowed to continue home classes

Posted on August 27, 2009
The Citizen of Laconia: "In a potentially precedent-setting case, an attorney for a local woman is asking a Belknap County family court judge to reconsider a ruling that the woman's daughter attend public school in Meredith rather than continue with home-schooling ...

NY: Church group?s suit dropped against BCC

Posted on August 27, 2009
Press & Sun Bulletin: "An out-of-state legal defense fund has dropped its lawsuit against Broome Community College that was filed after administrators discontinued a rental lease with a fledging, non-denominational church that had met on campus ...

Judge: State position is contradictory in Florida homosexual adoption case

Posted on August 27, 2009
"The Department of Children and Families maintains having the half brothers, now 9 and 5, stay with Gill and his longtime partner would be best for the boys."

3rd Circuit Says Lawyer?s Plea Deal Properly Denied for Lack of Contrition

Posted on August 27, 2009
NJ Law Journal (Law.com): "What got Saint Preux in trouble were statements he made to the Probation Office that wound up in his pre-sentencing report. He tried to shift the blame to co-defendant Naranjan Patel for signing more than 400 fraudulent immigration applications...

Court Says No Establishment Clause Violation By Orthodox Jewish School Board Majority

Posted on August 27, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "In Incantalupo v. Lawrence Union Free School District, (ED NY, Aug. 24, 2009), a New York federal district judge issued an unusually strong opinion rejecting an Establishment Clause challenge to the Lawrence (NY) School Board's consolidation plan that would close one of the district's school buildings...

New York Releases 2008 Hate Crime Statistics

Posted on August 27, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "Last week, New York's Division of Criminal Justice Services released its 2008 report on hate crimes in the state. (Full text of report.)"

?Judge: Ky. can?t legislate dependence on God?

Posted on August 27, 2009
Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate said . . . that references to a dependence on 'Almighty God' in the law that created the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security is akin to establishing a religion. . .

New Hampshire Court orders Christian homeschooled girl to attend public school

Posted on August 27, 2009
OneNewsNow: "A Christian homeschool girl in New Hampshire has been ordered into government-run public school for having 'sincerely held' religious beliefs . . . Simmons contends that parents have a 'fundamental right to make educational choices for their children...

Jan LaRue: The Obama Clergy Call

Posted on August 27, 2009
Jan LaRue writes at the American Thinker: "'Thousands of religious leaders got a call from on high last Wednesday when Obama reached out to Jewish and Christian clergy, urging them to push health care reform from the pulpit,' according to Fox News. "We are God's partners in matters of life and death" Obama told rabbis in an earlier call Wednesday, according to Ben Smith at Politico...

Prospect of humans with 3 biological parents moves ?closer?

Posted on August 27, 2009
Times Online: "The prospect of a human baby with three biological parents has moved closer after scientists created monkeys using a technique that one day could stop children from inheriting severe genetic diseases."

Does Health Care Cover Abortion? Fact Checking the Fact Checkers

Posted on August 27, 2009
Steven Waldman writes at the Wall Street Journal: "We often think of abortion as a black-and-white issue. But when it comes to the question of whether health care reform bills 'cover' or provide 'taxpayer support" for abortion, there are many shades of gray...

Who Decides and What Difference Does it Make? Defining Marriage in ?Our Democratic, Federal Republic?

Posted on August 27, 2009
Kevin J. Worthen, Who Decides and What Difference Does it Make? Defining Marriage in "Our Democratic, Federal Republic" (August, 26 2009). BYU Journal of Public Law, Vol. 18, pp. 273-307, 2004. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1462325 "[This article] seeks to draw attention to the perhaps equally important-but often overlooked-issue of the proper form and forum for resolving the substantive issue...

Civil Court Resolution of Property Disputes Among Religious Organizations

Posted on August 27, 2009
Civil Court Resolution of Property Disputes Among Religious Organizations Patty Gerstenblith, 39 Am. U. L. Rev. 513 (2009) "[T]his Article advocates that courts, in their resolution of internal religious disputes, must apply a truly neutral set of legal principles...

Ontario: Strip club struggle

Posted on August 27, 2009
The Intelligencer: "A proposed strip club in Belleville's east end is causing problems for both those opposed to the bar and those planning to operate it. While the resident leading the fight against the bar has been intimidated into dropping his battle, the bar administrator can't find a local contractor willing to renovate the former Doc's Palace...

Preference for public school over homeschooling ? and maybe private schooling ? because it provides ?exposure to different points of view??

Posted on August 27, 2009
Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: "So the logic of this decision, if accepted, might well eventually carry over to decisions about intact families, too . . . The Alliance Defense Fund has more on this case, including pointers to its filings in the case...

Vermont: Transgender youth wants genderless bathrooms

Posted on August 27, 2009
Boston Globe (AP): "A transgendered South Burlington High School senior is asking the Vermont Human Rights Commission to back an effort to require the state's middle and high schools to offer genderless bathrooms."

Atheists on the march in America: ?Coming Out?

Posted on August 27, 2009
Google News (AFP): "Atheist groups are growing all over the United States, challenging stereotypes and confronting what they consider a big backslide in the separation of church and state . . . Taking a page from the playbook of the gay-rights movement, some atheists say 'coming out' will drive up membership all by itself, as other atheists realize they are not alone...

Van Jones: Obama?s ?Communist? Green Jobs Czar

Posted on August 27, 2009
Associated Content: "Who is Van Jones and why is Glenn Beck so cross with him? Van Jones is the co-founder of something called Color of Change. Van Jones is also President Barack Obama's Green Jobs Czar. And, according to Glenn Beck, Van Jones is a communist...

Memo to U.N. ? Stop Muslims from Killing Christians; Law Center Urges Prosecutions for ?Scores? of Deaths

Posted on August 27, 2009
WorldNetDaily at ACLJ: "'We have expressed in the strongest terms possible that the Pakistani government must prosecute acts of violence based upon religion,' said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the organization, as well as the U.S.-based American Center for Law and Justice...

Utah governor: No special rights for ?gay? people

Posted on August 27, 2009
Google News (AP): "'Where do you stop? I mean that's the problem going down that slippery road. Pretty soon we're going to have a special law for blue-eyed blondes ... or people who are losing their hair a little bit,' Herbert said."

?Victory Fund endorses eight more LGBT candidates?

Posted on August 27, 2009
GayPolitics.com: "A total of 76 openly LGBT candidates have been endorsed by the Victory Fund so far this year. The newly-endorsed candidates are . . . " Map of all currently endorsed candidates

Washington: R-71 signature count to be finished by Sept. 1

Posted on August 27, 2009
Washington Secretary of State: "State Elections Director Nick Handy is predicting that the signature check for Referendum 71 will be completed by September 1 . . . As of Wednesday afternoon, signature checkers had reviewed 117,069 signatures . . . The R-71 sponsors, Protect Marriage Washington, need 120,577 valid Washington voter signatures for the referendum to be placed on the November ballot...

Ohio: Partner registry foes sue city to have it closed

Posted on August 27, 2009
Gay People's Chronicle: "Foes of the city?s new domestic partner registry--joined by some familiar names from Cincinnati and Arizona--have sued to have it ended . . . Like the earlier suit, this one is a taxpayer action. It was filed by Cincinnati attorney David Langdon, who is being paid by the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund in Scottsdale, Arizona...

UN Committee Asserts Special Rights for ?Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity?

Posted on August 27, 2009
C-FAM (Volume 12, Number 37): "UN human rights committee recently told UN member states they must grant broad new human rights on the basis of 'sexual orientation and gender identity.' . . . The document, called ?General Comment 20,? was released on July 2nd by the committee responsible for monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights...

Student ?gay pride? group protests Family Foundation of Virginia on campus

Posted on August 27, 2009
The Collegian at the U. of Richmond: "The parking lot across from the Jepson Alumni Center was speckled with gay pride and anti-prejudice paraphernalia on Aug. 25, as the Student Alliance for Sexual Diversity led two protests opposing The Family Foundation of Virginia?s use of university facilities...

Momentum Builds for Temporary Kennedy Replacement

Posted on August 27, 2009
Washington Post: "Less than two days after the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D), momentum is building in Massachusetts behind a proposal to allow the governor to appoint a temporary replacement to fill his seat. Democrats in Washington, including Senate Majority Leader Harry M...

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