Religion & Law

Conservatives say ballot is key to winning marriage fight

Posted on June 09, 2009
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: "Stunned by four states legalizing same-sex marriage in just two months, social conservatives are working hard to stop it, often through the avenue where they've had their greatest success: the ballot box. 'The integrity of our most fundamental institutions is in question and needs to be in question,' says Mike Heath, executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council, an evangelical Christian lobbying group...

ADF attorney available to media following hearing on DC marriage referendum

Posted on June 09, 2009
lliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Brian Raum will be available for media interviews after testifying before the Board of Elections at a hearing Wednesday. Raum will join pastors and others in support of allowing citizens of the District of Columbia to vote on whether to accept or reject the decision of the D...

Washington: ?Drive to stop gay partnership law is dividing conservatives?

Posted on June 08, 2009
LA Times: "A campaign to roll back gay rights that kicked off in Washington state over the weekend has split the Christian conservative community, with some wondering whether it is the right time for a fight and others arguing that time may be running out...

Court Refuses To Dismiss Challenge To Illinois Drivers License Rules

Posted on June 08, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "In Baer v. White, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46412 (ND IL, June 3, 2009), plaintiffs challenged as too narrow the Illinois provisions protecting some religious objectors from furnishing their social security number in order to get a drivers' license...

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Next frontier? Polygamists demand multi-sex marriage

Posted on June 08, 2009
WorldNetDaily: "A polygamy advocacy organization says the New Hampshire law that is intended to assure 'equal access to marriage' for all instead specifically embeds in state statutes bigotry against polygamists."

Liberty Counsel Files Brief at Supreme Court Supporting World War I Memorial in Mojave Desert

Posted on June 08, 2009
Liberty Counsel: "Today Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a 75-year-old National World War I Memorial with an 8-foot cross, located in the Mojave Desert of California. In Salazar v. Buono, the ACLU filed suit to remove the cross...

Japan bans ?sexual torture? software

Posted on June 08, 2009
Brisbane Times: "A Japanese software industry body has decided to ban computer games in which players simulate sexual violence against females, a spokesman said."

NC: Court documents allege sex, drugs at strip club

Posted on June 08, 2009
Keren Rivas reports in the North Carolina Times-News: "During that time, the affidavit said, the undercover officers documented about 288 violations of the county ordinance that regulates sexually oriented businesses, at least 349 violations of conduct in a licensed premise, and 17 drug violations...

Lack of due process in English family courts? Parents losing kids due to government adoption quotas?

Posted on June 08, 2009
Andrew Alderson reports in the Telegraph: "However, within 24 hours of the birth of their daughter on Thursday, weighing 7 lbs 10 ozs at Wexford General Hospital, the baby was instead seized by Irish social workers in the town. Tomorrow her parents must begin what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle in Ireland for their right to bring up the child...

Poll: ?Michigan voters shifting views on gay couples?

Posted on June 08, 2009
Dawson Bell reports in the Detroit Free Press: "In October 2004, a Glengariff poll showed 24% of Michiganders supported marriage rights for same-sex partners, and only 42% supported legal recognition of civil unions. In the new poll, support for same sex marriage was 46...

?Gay rights? strategy of donor exposure raises privacy concerns

Posted on June 08, 2009
Lornet Turnbull writing in the Seattle Times: "Patterned after online sites in Massachusetts, Arkansas and Florida, the idea behind WhoSigned.org is generating debate inside and outside the gay community and raising questions about privacy in the democratic process and whether such tactics amount to intimidation...

Alaska: ?Homosexual agenda runs roughshod over civil liberties?

Posted on June 08, 2009
Jim Minnery, president of Alaska Family Council, writes in the Anchorage Daily News: "This is about a movement among activists promoting the homosexual legal agenda to persecute and prosecute anyone who won't be coerced into fully and openly endorsing their agenda...

ACLU talks about Prop. 8, court

Posted on June 08, 2009
Marcel Honore reports in The Desert Sun: "Rifkin said she worried about the timing of a federal lawsuit filed recently in California that contends Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution. The suit, she said, could do more harm than good if heard by the U...

Bishop punished for ringing church bells

Posted on June 08, 2009
OneNewsNow: "But Dale Schowengerdt of the Alliance Defense Fund says a local television station conducted an independent test to see how loud the bells were. 'A local TV station did a story on it, checked the level, said it was barely above road noise, the sound of road noise -- so we're talking about just normal church bells,' he points out...

Students, legal groups stand against anti-religious court order

Posted on June 08, 2009
Eric Young reports in the Christian Post: "'While we appreciate the District?s concern for abiding by the recent Consent order ... treating FCA and CWO equally with other student clubs in no way violates this Order,' wrote David A. Cortman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, in a letter last month to the principal of Jay High School, the superintendent of the Santa Rosa County School District, and members of the Santa Rosa County School Board...

Minn. regulators drop bid to block online gambling

Posted on June 08, 2009
AP: "Minnesota regulators have withdrawn a request that Internet service providers block access to hundreds of online gambling sites."

UK: Poll finds 57% think faith schools are divisive

Posted on June 08, 2009
"State-funded faith schools undermine community cohesion, according to 57% of more than 2,000 people questioned in a poll released today."

President?s Faith-Based Council Holds Its First Official Meeting; Abortion added to the agenda

Posted on June 08, 2009
The Religion Clause Blog reports: "Originally it was reported that the White House had created six task forces (see prior posting); however yesterday's report suggests that a seventh has appeared: Reducing Teen Pregnancy and Abortion."

Swiss Senate Urges Defeat of Ban on Minarets

Posted on June 08, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "In Switzerland last Friday, the country's Senate voted 36-3 to recommend that voters defeat an initiative to ban minarets."

Repressive new Religion Law and new punishments enter into force

Posted on June 08, 2009
Forum 18: "Azerbaijan's repressive new Religion Law, and amendments to both the Criminal Code and the Administrative Code came into force on 31 May, Forum 18 has learned. New 'offences' - such as more severe censorship - and new punishments are introduced for religious activities and organisations the government does not like...

Ministry for Finance seizes Church funds. Holy See-Israeli negotiations at stake

Posted on June 08, 2009
AsiaNews.IT: Only weeks after Benedict XVI?s visit to Israel, Tax Chief Yehezkel Abrahamoff, has seized church funds to force ecclesial institutions to pay tax, instead of waiting for the outcome of negotiations on the fiscal statute of the Church in Israel...

Battle heats up: ACLU working to silence abstinence advocates in California public schools

Posted on June 08, 2009
PressDemocrat.com: "A battle over sex education is under way in Sonoma County, pitting a longtime abstinence-only group against California Department of Education officials who say the group breaks state law when it teaches in the classroom."

Alaska: Revised Sexual Orientation Ordinance

Posted on June 08, 2009
KTVA.com: "The city is revising its gay rights proposal and clarifying what it would mean if the assembly decides to pass it. The controversial ordinance looks to add sexual orientation to the city's anti-discrimination laws, making it illegal for employers and landlords to discriminate against gays, lesbians and bisexuals...

Sotomayor Failed to Disclose to Senate Memo in Which She Argued Death Penalty Is ?Racist?

Posted on June 08, 2009
CNSNews: "The Judicial Confirmation Network (JCN) says Judge Sonia Sotomayor failed to disclose to the Senate Judiciary Committee a controversial document arguing that the death penalty is ?racist? and a violation of the present 'humanist' thinking of society...

ACLU threatens, students still recite prayer

Posted on June 08, 2009
One News Now: "Despite threats from the ACLU, 400 students in Florida broke protocol during a graduation ceremony." WorldNetDaily: Graduating students defy ACLU: Seniors stand and recite Lord's Prayer

Court sentences bishop for ringing church bells

Posted on June 08, 2009
Drew Zahn reports at WorldNetDaily: "'It's ridiculous to be sentenced to jail and probation for doing what churches have traditionally done throughout history,' said a statement from Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which has been retained by Painter...

Conservatives score wins in EU parliament voting

Posted on June 08, 2009
Yahoo News (AP): "Conservatives scored victories in some of Europe's largest economies Sunday as voters punished left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and other nations."

Fla. school district agrees to grant Christian clubs equal treatment

Posted on June 08, 2009
Aaron J. Leichman reports in the Christian Post: "'Christian student groups shouldn?t be discriminated against for their beliefs,' said David Cortman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. 'Further, it is unconstitutional to prohibit school district employees from attending a private religious service on their own time and in their individual capacities...

Georgia lawyers pursue family values vision with abortion case

Posted on June 08, 2009
Andy Peters reports at Law.com: Little and Crumly took the case on contingency and are seeking unspecified punitive damages against the clinic. They've also been promised funds to finance discovery from an Arizona nonprofit group, the Alliance Defense Fund, that supports litigation opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage...

Proposition 8 battle heads to two new fronts

Posted on June 08, 2009
Eric Resnick reports at Gay People's Chronicle: "A day after the suit against Proposition 8 was filed, the Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, Arizona, an anti-LGBT legal advocate involved in the effort to pass Proposition 8, asked Judge Walker to allow it to oppose Olson and Boise...

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