Religion & Law

Bill Bennett?s new history education project: Roadmap to America the Last Best Hope

Posted on May 27, 2009
Learn more about Bill Bennett's latest project here: www.roadmaptolastbesthope.com/home

California Supreme Court upholds Proposition 8 and existing same sex ?marriage? licenses

Posted on May 26, 2009
The California Supreme Court has issued a ruling upholding CA Proposition 8--"Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."--but refrained from invalidating same-sex "marriages" contracted before voters approved the measure in November 2008.

Countering the jihad in prisons

Posted on May 26, 2009
Hugh Fitzgerald writing at Jihad Watch: "For Muslim missionary activity goes on unmonitored and unchecked all because the Bureau of Prisons, and the FBI and the CIA and others whose duty it is to recognize and thwart dangers to this country, dangers to its legal and political institutions and physical dangers to its citizens, are afraid to recognize that what Islam inculcates in these prisoners gives them an ideological framework, a justification, for their hostility to the circumambient 'Infidel' society...

Wisconsin: ?Attorney: City, religion entangled?

Posted on May 26, 2009
Jason Cox reports in the Keizertimes: "The city was contacted one day before the breakfast by a representative of the Alliance Defense Fund, which is fighting the Freedom from Religion Foundation on the prayer breakfast issue, offering free legal services and assuring city officials that the event 'appears to us to be a constitutionally-defensible exercise...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: ?Mainline Clergy Like Church-State Separation?

Posted on May 26, 2009
Americans United for Separation of Church and State press release: "These results are interesting because for so many years, it seems the public discourse has been dominated by fundamentalist religious leaders who oppose church-state separation. Last year, a band of clergy, prodded by the Alliance Defense Fund, went so far as to deliberately violate federal tax law by endorsing U...

Ohio students get arrested for envangelism

Posted on May 26, 2009
OneNewsNow reports: "A group of young Christian evangelists ran into trouble with the law while trying to evangelize on an Ohio campus . . . Storms adds they were handing out Christian literature and witnessing peacefully and says there was no justification for violating their constitutional rights...

CA Awaits Ruling on Prop 8 Marriage Amendment

Posted on May 26, 2009
Heather Sells reports at CBN News: "The California Supreme Court rules today on whether voters illegally revised the state constitution last fall when they approved an amendment limiting marriage to a man and a woman . . . 'The court seemed to indicate that the position put forth by the challengers of Prop 8 was a radical legal position that they were not going to adopt,' Jim Campbell, with the Alliance Defense Fund, said...

Churches, taxes and politics

Posted on May 26, 2009
Ron Cassie reports in the Frederick News-Post: "The Sept. 28 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday' was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that advocates for conservative causes. The event challenged Internal Revenue Service rules that forbid partisan politicking by institutions accepting tax-deductible contributions...

?Is New York?s New Archbishop Anti-Gay??

Posted on May 26, 2009
Scott Murphy writing at Catholic.net: "In September of 2005, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, 1st Department, said in its 4-1 ruling that the government has a 'strong interest in fostering heterosexual marriage.' The court went on to explain, 'We find it even more troubling that the [Manhattan] court, upon determining the statute [in favor of traditional marriage] to be unconstitutional, proceeded to rewrite it and purportedly create a new constitutional right...

ADF on Supreme Court nomination: Judges should always rule according to the law

Posted on May 26, 2009
ADF President Alan Sears: ?If confirmed, we pray that Judge Sotomayor will heed the magnitude of Jefferson?s concern and respect the limits of her judicial office, ruling according to the Constitution, and not legislating from the bench.?

YouTube Video of Sotomayor: ?Court Of Appeals Is Where Policy Is Made?

Posted on May 26, 2009
You Tube Video shows the Supreme Court nominee saying that "the Court of Appeals is where policy is made."

Obama picks Sotomayor for high court: Reports, Background, and Commentary

Posted on May 26, 2009
President Barack Obama named federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, praising her as "an inspiring woman" with both the intellect and compassion to interpret the Constitution wisely.

UK: Bishops fight for right to criticise homosexual lifestyle

Posted on May 26, 2009
CCFON: "The Coroners and Justice Bill passed its Second Reading Debate in the House of Lords on 18 May 2009. In this bill, the Government, is seeking to remove the free speech clause from the 'homosexual hatred' . . . A coalition of Anglican bishops, Conservative, Labour and cross-bench peers have united to block the proposals in order to safeguard the freedom of speech in this country...

Police investigating sex trafficking of teenage girls in Wichita

Posted on May 26, 2009
Associated Press: "Wichita police say the cases of teenage girls being forced into sexual slavery are increasing in the city."

?Gay issues may splinter churches?

Posted on May 26, 2009
Duke Helfand reports in the Los Angeles Times: "The nation's mainline Protestant denominations have quarreled for years over the role of gay men and lesbians in church life, but those debates promise to grow even more intense and acrimonious this summer...

?Gay-marriage fight to persist in California?

Posted on May 26, 2009
Jim Carlton and Geoffrey A. Fowler report in the Wall Street Journal: "Gay-rights groups and organizations that support traditional marriage have plans in place to press their case no matter how the court rules. Should the gay-marriage ban stand, some gay-rights groups are planning a ballot initiative to once again legalize gay marriage in either 2010 or 2012...

South Carolina: Bills to legalize gambling scuttled

Posted on May 26, 2009
Preston Sparks reports in the Augusta Chronicle: "One of the bills, presented by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, would have updated the state's more-than-200-year-old gambling laws by allowing gambling in homes among friends as long as the homeowner didn't profit by charging people a fee to play...

Clinton to extend benefits to ?gay partners? in Foreign Service

Posted on May 26, 2009
Glenn Kessler reports in the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce that the partners of gay U.S. diplomats are eligible for many benefits currently denied them and allowed to spouses of heterosexual diplomats, according to lawmakers and others advocating the change...

Stanley Fish: Empathy and the law

Posted on May 26, 2009
"Law would be autonomous if its operations proceeded without reference to norms that reside elsewhere ? in religion, morality, economics, social justice, etc."

Abortion and Ideology

Posted on May 26, 2009
Raymond Dennehy writing at Ignatius Press: "A survey of the justifications advanced by scientists, philosophers, and other members of the elite class, such as judges, to justify the legalization of induced abortion reveals that they have abandoned rational inquiry in favor of ideology...

Homosexual Group?s IRS Complaint is ?Bogus,? Maine Catholic Diocese Says

Posted on May 26, 2009
CNSNews: ?The problem is, Marc Mutty, who is the public affairs director for the Catholic diocese of Portland, Me., went onto public television stating that the church itself would be behind ? and this is his own quote, ?the largest grassroots movement in Maine?s history,? to overturn same-sex marriage in Maine,? Davis said.

?Equality California Vows to Restore Marriage at Ballot Box in Wake of Prop. 8 Ruling?

Posted on May 26, 2009
Equality California: "Despite today?s setback, Equality California is committed to restoring the freedom to marry. We believe, as do the majority of our members, that 2010 is the best time to return to the ballot to repeal Prop. 8. We must take full advantage of the momentum and commitment people now have to do the work required on the ground

Nevada Gov. vetoes domestic partner legislation

Posted on May 26, 2009
Las Vegas Review Journal: "As promised, Gov. Jim Gibbons on Monday vetoed the bill that would allow same- and opposite-sex couples to become legal domestic partners with many of the rights and privileges of married couples."

Focus On Rise In Teen Pregnancy ?Obscures More Fundamental Problem? Of Out-of-Wedlock Births, Opinion Piece Says

Posted on May 26, 2009
Medical News Today: "The 'intense focus' on teenage pregnancy in the U.S. 'has obscured a more fundamental problem in childbearing trends,' W. Bradford Wilcox, a senior fellow at the Institute for American Values and a professor of sociology at theUniversity of Virginia, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece...

Wisconsin Jury Convicts Mother Who Relied on Faith Healing of Homicide

Posted on May 26, 2009
The Religion Clause Blog: "The Chicago Tribune and the Wausau Daily Herald report that yesterday in Wausau, Wisconsin, a state court jury found Leilani Neumann guilty of second-degree reckless homicide in the death of her 11-year old daughter, Kara, whose diabetes went untreated...

Court Upholds Montana Law School?s Refusal To Fund Christian Legal Society

Posted on May 26, 2009
Religion Clause: "In Christian Legal Society v. Eck, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42980 (D MT, May 19, 2009), a Montana federal district court accepted a magistrate's recommendations and upheld the University of Montana Law School's non-discrimination and open-membership policies for recognized student groups...

Scientology and Its Leaders In France Go On Trial For Fraud

Posted on May 26, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: Scientology's lawyer says: "It's a trial for heresy: this could only happen in France..." If convicted, the individual defendants each face a possible 1 million Euro fine 10 years in prison. The Celebrity Centre and bookshop could be fined $5 million Euros and closed down in France.

New York?s Hate Crime Provisions Upheld In Recently Released Opinion

Posted on May 26, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "In People v. Ivanov, (NY Sup. Ct., Sept. 12, 2008)-- decided several months ago but posted online for the first time last Friday-- a New York trial court upheld New York's hate crime statute."

Lawsuit filed after ?sexting? suicide

Posted on May 26, 2009
OneNewsNow reports: "'She sent one picture of herself to a guy. She had no thought that that one guy would send it to many others," he notes. "So he turned on her, and then others sent it to their friends.' Trueman says students at her school started harassing her and calling her filthy names...

Florida: Students, parents protest ACLU restrictions

Posted on May 26, 2009
Bill Gamblin and Jeni Senter report in the Northwest Florida Daily News: "Frustrated by restrictions stemming from an ACLU lawsuit, about 200 students and parents gathered to pray and protest outside Pace High School on Monday."

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.