Religion & Law

Law Professors Line Up Behind Sotomayor

Posted on July 08, 2009
Blog of the Legal Times: "More than 1,100 law professors have signed a letter supporting the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court."

NC: Private schools emphasize choice

Posted on July 08, 2009
The North Carolina Family Policy Council reports on a John Locke Foundation survey of private schools: "A new policy report from the John Locke Foundation shows that while most private schools in the state support expanded school choice options for North Carolinians, such as voucher programs or tuition tax credits, most express concern about any programs that expand the state?s control over private schools...

Obama Wants to Repeal Defense of Marriage Act, Says General Counsel for Office of Personnel Management

Posted on July 08, 2009
CNSNews: "President Barack Obama wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and abolish the 'Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell' policy concerning homosexuals in the military, according to Elaine Kaplan, general counsel of the White House Office of Personnel Management...

Is There Hope for the American Marriage?

Posted on July 08, 2009
Caitlan Flanagan writes at TIME: "And so two more American families discover a truth as old as marriage: a lasting covenant between a man and a woman can be a vehicle for the nurture and protection of each other, the one reliable shelter in an uncaring world ? or it can be a matchless tool for the infliction of suffering on the people you supposedly love above all others, most of all on your children...

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?Lab-made sperm could make men redundant??

Posted on July 07, 2009
"Women who say they don't need a man may well be right ? after human sperm was created in the lab."

?ACLU Urges Federal Appeals Court To Require Louisiana To Issue Birth Certificate To Adopted Child Of Gay Couple?

Posted on July 07, 2009
ACLU: "The American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief today urging a federal appeals court to uphold an earlier decision requiring Louisiana to issue a birth certificate with the names of both parents to a boy who was adopted by a gay couple in New York...

ACLU: ?House Committee To Vote On Lifting DC Abortion Funding Ban?

Posted on July 07, 2009
ACLU: "The House Appropriations Committee is expected to vote this evening on a financial services appropriations bill that includes a provision lifting a 20-year-old ban on the use of local funds for abortions in the District of Columbia. The American Civil Liberties Union urges Committee members to lift the DC abortion funding ban and opposes any attempts to reinstate this restriction...

Lords to debate assisted suicide

Posted on July 07, 2009
Christian Institute: "Vulnerable patients will be at risk if the House of Lords votes to weaken the law on assisted suicide when it debates the matter later today, critics say. Euthanasia groups are backing amendments to the Coroners and Justice Bill which will allow assisted suicide in some circumstances...

Queen?s best wishes to Christians ?insult gays?

Posted on July 07, 2009
Christian Institute: "Gay activist Peter Tatchell has accused the Queen of ?colluding with prejudice? by offering her good wishes to a new grouping of Anglicans who uphold the Bible?s teaching on marriage."

?Do not say God bless? council sacks Christian

Posted on July 07, 2009
Christian Institute: "A London council that bans staff from saying 'God bless' at work has sacked a Christian employee for discussing his faith."

MD Governor on Marriage Redefinition

Posted on July 07, 2009
The HRC Backstory Blog quotes Maryland's governor who made the the following comments: ?I think that it?s very difficult to deny equal rights to people when it comes to rights that are dispersed by government rather than a faith or a church and so I think if a person has these rights under another state than I think we?re sore pressed to deny those rights, so yes, I think we probably should respect those rights...

Boehner Statement on Administration?s New Embryonic Stem Cell Regulations

Posted on July 07, 2009
Rep. John Boehner press release: "These final regulations represent a troubling development for those who believe that taxpayer funds should not be used to destroy human life."

Las Vegas Strip Club Bust Results in 13 Arrests

Posted on July 07, 2009
Las Vegas Now: "A major bust at a local adult strip club has resulted in 13 dancers being arrested for soliciting prostitution. Police allege the dancers were doing much more than dancing."

School bullying, once a silent battle, now a crime

Posted on July 07, 2009
AP: "'The reason it's picking up momentum is not necessarily the frequency of the bullying, but the manner in which people are engaging in bullying,' said Joe Braun, a Cincinnati attorney who sued on behalf of the family of a high school basketball player attacked by three teammates while waiting for a bus to take them to practice in Milford, Ohio...

Franken to Replace Lawyer on Senate Judiciary Committee

Posted on July 07, 2009
ABA Journal: "Al Franken, who was sworn in this morning as the junior senator from Minnesota, will be replacing Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who is a lawyer, on the Senate Judiciary Committee."

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

Posted on July 07, 2009
Joanna L. Grossman and Edward Stein write at Findlaw: "In this three-part series, we will deliver a 'state of the nation' report on the rights of same-sex couples in the United States. In this column, we offer a brief history of the battle over the same-sex marriage ...

Seventh Grader Sues School Over Right to Wear Pro-Life T-Shirt

Posted on July 07, 2009
FoxNews: "A California mom says her public school administrators violated her daughter's First Amendment rights when they ordered the seventh-grader to take off her pro-life T-shirt."

Uzbekistan: Banned from meeting fellow-believers

Posted on July 07, 2009
Forum 18: "When Baptists complained, the home told them to talk to the NSS secret police. Asked by what authority the home did this, its director Tahir Gaziev replied: 'We have asked the Baptists to show us an official document that says they are allowed to invite people to their meetings...

Georgia Law First in Nation to Govern Embryo Adoption

Posted on July 07, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "A state bill that came into effect July 1 has made Georgia the first in the nation with a law governing the adoption of embryos produced by in-vitro fertilization (IVF)."

Spain: Socialist party hiding homosexual agenda of Education for the Citizenry

Posted on July 07, 2009
Catholic News Agency: "The organization Professionals for Ethics in Spain has denounced the Socialist Party for attempting to delete a paragraph from its website that clearly states that the school course Education for the Citizenry is intended to promote the homosexual agenda...

California considers anti-family bills in the midst of budget crisis

Posted on July 07, 2009
CitizenLink reports: "One bill (SB 54) requires California to validate out-of-state same-sex marriages performed before the passage of Proposition 8, which defined marriage in the state Constitution as solely the union of one man and one woman. Another (SB 543) would permit children as young as 12 to receive mental-health treatment without the knowledge or consent of their parents...

TX: San Marcos Council to look at prayer practice

Posted on July 07, 2009
Newsstreamz.com reports: "The council, particularly Mayor Susan Narvaiz, has come under fire in the last several months for opening meetings with sectarian prayers. Among the most vocal opponents of the practice is former City Attorney Lamar Hankins."

Robert P. George on the state of marriage and family life

Posted on July 07, 2009
At Fathers for Good, Robert P. George discusses the state of marriage and family life.

Constitutional Disorder in the Era of Judicial Supremacy: The Founders? Understanding of the Court

Posted on July 07, 2009
Matthew J. Franck writes at Public Discourse: "If the Court that gave us Cooper was right about Marbury v. Madison, then we would be entitled to hope that Marbury was wrong about the Constitution. And if Marbury, understood as the Cooper justices put it, was right about the Constitution, we would be entitled to grave misgivings about the goodness of our constitutional order...

?Mass. state senator describes self as gay man?

Posted on July 07, 2009
Boston Globe (AP): "State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg says he's gay."

$100k ?Rights-information campaign launched by Colo. GLBT advocates?

Posted on July 07, 2009
DenverPost: "The campaign was launched last week by the GLBT Community Center of Colorado, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. Denver marketing firm Peak Creative Media conceived the superhero characters and is coordinating the rollout of the $100,000 campaign with a series of online...

?Time to review policy on gays in U.S. military: Powell?

Posted on July 07, 2009
Reuters: "American attitudes have changed and the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy toward gays serving in the U.S. military should be reviewed, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Colin Powell said on Sunday."

ABA: ?Lawyers? group: Sotomayor well qualified for court

Posted on July 07, 2009
How Appealing links to this AP report and the ABA ratings of judicial nominees.

Suit Challenges Ten Commandments On Display In Kentucky Courthouse

Posted on July 07, 2009
A federal lawsuit was filed last week challenging the display of the Ten Commandments in the courthouse in yet another Kentucky county.

IRS Demands that Coalition for Life of Iowa Swear It Will Not Oppose Planned Parenthood

Posted on July 07, 2009
Thomas More Law Center has issued this press release on the Christian Newswire: "Today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was put on notice that the Thomas More Society in Chicago stands ready to defend the Coalition for Life of Iowa against the prejudicial questioning by the IRS, which has delayed granting tax exemption to the non-profit religious organization...

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