Religion & Law

Kathleen Parker: ?Those ignorant, right-wing, Bible-thumping rednecks are ruining the party?

Posted on August 05, 2009
Kathleen Parker, writing in the Washington Post: "The curious Republican campaign of 2008 may have galvanized a conservative Southern base -- including many who were mostly concerned with the direction Democrats would take the country -- but it also repelled others who simply bolted and ran the other way...

Groups defend prayer at city?s meetings

Posted on August 05, 2009
EWTN (CNA): "'America?s founders opened public meetings with prayer. Public officials today should be able to do the same,' Johnson said. 'Those who oppose invocations are essentially arguing that the Founders were violating the Constitution as they were writing it...

Health-care overhaul creates dilemma for some Catholics

Posted on August 05, 2009
Wall Street Journal: "Federal law currently prohibits tax funding of abortion except in the rare cases of rape, incest or threat to the woman's life. Many private insurance plans offered by employers also exclude abortion coverage. That could change, though...

MA: Stoneham pols speak on transgender anti-discrimination bill

Posted on August 05, 2009
Wicked Local: "Stoneham?s State Rep. Jason Lewis has signed on as a co-sponsor of a bill that would add protection for transgender people, which is a general term most often associated with a person whose gender identity ? his or her self-identification as a particular gender ? does not match the person?s physical or genetic gender...

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The State of the Same-Sex Union: Part Three in a Three-Part Series

Posted on August 05, 2009
Joanna L. Grossman & Edward Stein write at Findlaw: "In this part, we will consider a thorny but important question that arises from such a checkered national landscape: Will same-sex marriages that are validly celebrated in one state also be recognized in other states? That question of interstate recognition is governed by an entirely new and unprecedented set of laws that states have enacted primarily in the last decade...

Amnesty International Calls Protection of Unborn in Nicaragua a ?Great Horror?

Posted on August 05, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "Amnesty International (AI) has launched an international campaign against the government of Nicaragua, claiming that its law protecting the unborn from abortion is 'cruel,' and 'cynical.'"

GOP Sen. Bond says he?ll vote for Sotomayor

Posted on August 05, 2009
AP: "Republican Sen. Kit Bond says he'll support Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, breaking with the vast majority of the GOP."

New Iqbal Pleading Standard Leads To Dismissal of Part of School-Music Lawsuit

Posted on August 05, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "The suit alleged that three Florida public school music teachers chose songs that were religious in nature for students to perform." S.D. v. St. Johns County School District, (MD FL, July 29, 2009)

The European Court of Human Rights is in crisis?

Posted on August 05, 2009
European Union Law: "A new report by Chatham House claims that the European Court of Human Rights is in real crisis, with over 50000 cases filed in 2008, as compared to 43000 cases for the first 43 years of existence of the Court."

Poll: 75% of Poles against same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on August 05, 2009
Angus Reid: "Three quarters of people in Poland are against allowing homosexual couples to wed, according to a poll by GfK Polonia. 75 per cent of respondents oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage, while 87 per cent reject allowing same-sex couples to adopt children...

IRS Officially Grants Tax Exempt Status to New Non-Profit Group, Coalition for Life of Iowa

Posted on August 05, 2009
Christian Newswire: "The IRS had long delayed approval of the Coalition's request for the exemption, pressing it for "details" about the content of its members' prayers at a Planned Parenthood abortion facility and demanding that it refrain from activities at Planned Parenthood that could be construed as protesting or picketing by police or harassing or being confrontational with abortion-bound clients...

Criminal Contempt Charges Unsealed In Santa Rosa School Prayer Case

Posted on August 05, 2009
". . . a federal judge on Monday unsealed criminal contempt charges against a high school principal and its athletic director who are charged with ignoring an injunction against faculty-led prayer."

C-SPAN: Majority of Senators to vote ?yes? on Sotomayor

Posted on August 05, 2009
SCOTUS Blog: "C-SPAN reports that by its tally of public statements and direct reporting, a definite majority of Senators (52) have committed to support Judge Sonia Sotomayor?s nomination to the Supreme Court."

Groups pledge to help defend Virginia city?s customary prayer at public meetings

Posted on August 05, 2009
Catholic News Agency: "'America?s founders opened public meetings with prayer. Public officials today should be able to do the same,' Johnson said. 'Those who oppose invocations are essentially arguing that the Founders were violating the Constitution as they were writing it...

Church wins lawsuit over park use

Posted on August 05, 2009
OneNewsNow: "'A Christian church was kicked out of a public park, a park that's been a public park since before the founding of the nation. They were kicked out of this public park because theywere attracting undesirables,' [Blomberg] explains. 'What was happening was that the church was holding picnics there as part of a Bible study they were doing, and some homeless people were coming and participating in the picnics because the picnics were open to the public...

Field Poll: ?Attitudes shift on abortion, same-sex marriage?

Posted on August 05, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle: "In 1977, a Field Poll found that Californians opposed same-sex marriage, 62 to 31 percent; three decades later, the Field Poll shows they now support it, 49 to 44 percent."

Minnesotans Challenge Hotel Porn

Posted on August 05, 2009
Citizen Link: "Commissioners in Olmsted County, Minn., are planning to ask area hotels to stop offering pay-per-view pornography."

Battle Lines Set, Senate Debates Sotomayor

Posted on August 05, 2009
Law.com (AP): "The Senate held a history-making debate Tuesday on confirming Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice, with Republican opponents asserting she would bring bias to the bench and Democratic supporters saying she was a mainstream moderate...

Pakistani Christians express anger over killings

Posted on August 05, 2009
AP: "Hundreds of Pakistani Christians staged a protest Wednesday over the killing of eight of their community members by a Muslim mob, with some demonstrators smashing the windows of public buses."

Obama to announce $2.4 billion in electric vehicle grants

Posted on August 05, 2009
USA Today: "President Obama is headed for Indiana this morning where he will announce $2.4 billion in funding for electric vehicle manufacturing."

Another Epic Battle in the American Culture Wars?

Posted on August 05, 2009
"Ordinarily the Solicitor General is expected to defend federal laws against such challenges. But the Solicitor General works for President Obama, who has signaled that he does not wish to defend laws that restrict same-sex marriage."

Gov?t insurance would allow coverage for abortion

Posted on August 05, 2009
"Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue."

The Role of Tradition in Establishment Clause Jurisprudence

Posted on August 05, 2009
New York University Annual Survey of American Law: "This Note examines these different possible uses of tradition as a way of interpreting the Establishment Clause. Part II introduces the subject and its terminology. Part III discusses the legitimacy of these approaches and the difficulties that confront each of them...

Assessing RLUIPA?s Application to Building Codes and Aesthetic Land Use Regulation

Posted on August 05, 2009
Albany Government Law Review: "Building codes and, to a lesser degree, aesthetic or historic regulations, may not only be established at the local level, but may also be identified under uniform state and even international laws designed to ensure that buildings are safe, habitable, and appropriate for the community environment...

The Availability of Damages and Injunctive Relief with RLUIPA

Posted on August 05, 2009
Albany Government Law Review: "There should be no argument as the text, context, and legislative history of the Act all indicate that 'appropriate relief' includes, among other things, relief in the form of money damages, and I opine that such a reading of the statute is in accord with Congress's intent when it originally drafted the statute...

Rick Garnett: ?Rights? language does not help health care debate

Posted on August 05, 2009
Rick Garnett writing at Mirror of Justice: "That a proposal is called a 'health-care reform' proposal does not make it worthy of support. To question 'reform' proposals is not to question the responsibilities of a political community or to deny that (basic) health care is a human good and its (efficient) provision an aspect of the common good...

ACLU: ?Bill Introduced In Senate Today To Ban Workplace Discrimination Based On Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation?

Posted on August 05, 2009
ACLU: "The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), would become the first-ever federal ban on employment discrimination of LBGT people in most workplaces."

Washington: Signature error rate for ?anti-gay rights? measure increasing

Posted on August 05, 2009
"The secretary of state's office said Tuesday it had checked another 5,815 signatures for Referendum 71, rejecting 14.4 percent . . . R-71 proponents turned in 137,689 signatures - 14 percent more than the minimum needed . . ."

DC ?Children Should Be Screened but Not Heard??

Posted on August 05, 2009
Family Research Council Washington Update: "A new program in the D.C. public schools has the potential to rile parents--that is, if they aren't already angry about the government's growing role in their kids' health care decisions. Today's Washington Post unveiled the District's plans to test children as young as 12 for sexually transmitted diseases without their parents' permission...

Fredericksburg ruling cited in Chesapeake prayer fight

Posted on August 05, 2009
City Beat (Fredericksburg.com): "Then earlier this week, the Alliance Defense Fund and the Family Foundation wrote their own letter to Chesapeake. They argued that it is unconstitutional to tell somebody how to pray. That is the same argument that was rejected by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Hashmel Turner's prayer case here...

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