Religion & Law

Norfolk officials: Christians welcome to express faith in public park during local celebration

Posted on May 12, 2009
"Christians are not required to request permission from the government before exercising their First Amendment rights. We are pleased that Norfolk officials have agreed to respect the constitutional rights of Christians citizens . . . "

Vaccinations debate: Fertile ground for religious freedom litigation, parental rights litigation and propaganda

Posted on May 11, 2009
Propaganda arising from the high dollar stakes and the relationship between big government and big industry can make it difficult to get reliable facts in the vaccinations debate.

When It Comes to Judges, ?Pragmatic? Means Unprincipled

Posted on May 11, 2009
David Lewis Schaefer writes at the Wall Street Journal: "In a front-page story this past Sunday the New York Times offered a laudatory account of President Barack Obama's likely approach to replacing Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. It was, the paper said, rooted in 'pragmatism...

Minnesota: Court Hears Petition To Force Teenager To Have Chemo Over Religious Objections

Posted on May 11, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: Today was the second day of a trial in a Minnesota state court on a petition filed by state child protection workers who want to force 13-year old Daniel Hauser to have chemotherapy and radiation treatments for his Hodgkins lymphoma-- a treatment that results in 95% survival rates...

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Two Amish Families Held In Contempt Over Sewage Code Compliance

Posted on May 11, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "In Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, at a contempt hearing on Friday, a state court judge ordered the homes of two Amish families padlocked, and the occupants evicted, until they complied with court orders to bring the homes into compliance with the county's building and sewage codes...

Monuments to Christian heritage

Posted on May 11, 2009
OneNewsNow: "Throughout history, nations have built monuments, usually to record victories in battle or to honor their gods. Every nation's monuments and national symbols reflect the heart of the people and identify what they believe is the source of their nation's greatness and achievements...

Indiana Atheist Group Sues Over Rejection of Bus Ad

Posted on May 11, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: However the Bloomington (IN) public transit system rejected IABC's ad, which read "You Can Be Good Without God."

Privy Council Holds Trinidad & Tobago?s Trinity Cross Unconstitutional

Posted on May 11, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "Great Britain's Privy Council Judicial Committee hears appeals of certain cases decided by Trinidad and Tobago's Court of Appeal. (Background.) In Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha of Trinidad and Tobago Inc. v. The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, (Privy Council, April 28, 2009) [Word doc), the Privy Council held that Trinidad and Tobago's Trinity Cross of the Order of Trinity, the country's highest award for meritorious service or gallantry, is unconstitutional under Trinidad and Tobago's Constitution as 'an infringement of the rights and freedoms of members of the Hindu and Muslim communities in Trinidad and Tobago...

?Souter leaves gay rights legacy on Supreme Court?

Posted on May 11, 2009
Bay Area Reporter: National gay groups had opposed his confirmation, ACT UP protesters disrupted his confirmation hearing, and Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) voted against him, predicting he would "solidify a 5 to 4 anti-civil rights, anti-privacy majority...

Souter?s Tribe: Justice?s legacy tied to the 72 lawyers who clerked for him.

Posted on May 11, 2009
Tony Mauro writes at the National Law Journal: "That is where Souter's 72 former law clerks, a "notoriously loyal tribe" in the words of one, have fanned out after their intense and deeply affecting year with the justice who announced his retirement plans on May 1 ...

?Gay marriage effort stalls in heavily Catholic RI?

Posted on May 11, 2009
'We don't see it as a civil rights issue,' [Bishop Thomas] Tobin said in a recent interview, 'because there's never a right to do something that's morally wrong.'

Talks held on altering ?don?t ask, don?t tell?

Posted on May 11, 2009
Reuters: "The Obama administration is holding 'preliminary discussions' about changing the military's prohibition against openly gay service members, national security adviser James Jones said yesterday."

Judge: Prayer ban OK

Posted on May 11, 2009
PNJ.com: "The ACLU and ACLU of Florida sued the district in August on behalf of two unnamed Pace High School students. The students claimed school officials regularly promoted religion and led prayers at school events. District officials admitted the allegations...

Victory: Calif. students observe National Day of Prayer after ADF provides assistance

Posted on May 11, 2009
ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman: ?The so-called ?separation of church and state? does not permit school officials to silence students who wish to advertise or observe the National Day of Prayer."

ACLU chief on same-sex ?marriage?: ?Nationwide legalization is a sure thing?

Posted on May 11, 2009
Gail Shister reports in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Given the recent flurry of states saying 'I do' to same-sex marriage, nationwide legalization is 'a sure thing,' says the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. 'Clearly, the momentum is on our side," says Anthony Romero, 43, the first openly gay person (and first Puerto Rican) to head the ACLU in its 89-year history...

Can There Be a Written Constitution?

Posted on May 11, 2009
Oxford Legal Studies: "The existence of unwritten constitutions, such as that of the UK, strikes some as puzzling. However the existence of unwritten constitutions turns out to be easier to explain than the existence of written constitutions, such as that of the US...

UK: Most teenage pregnancies now end with an abortion

Posted on May 11, 2009
Daily Mail: "Most pregnancies among girls under 18 ended in abortion last year. Out of around 40,000 pregnancies more than 20,000 were terminated - the first time more had chosen this option than become mothers."

Mike Adams: Perez Hilton?s Pet Emu

Posted on May 11, 2009
Mike Adams writing at Townhall: "The Alliance Defense Fund is handling the lawsuit. Their Senior Counsel David French summed the case up best by saying, 'When a public university has a prerequisite of affirming homosexual behavior as morally good in order to obtain a degree, the school is stepping over the legal line...

Alan Sears: In honor of Ed Meese

Posted on May 11, 2009
Alan Sears: "One of those organizations is the Alliance Defense Fund, which for more than 15 years has been fighting the insidious threat to our liberty that Mr. Meese did so much to expose. It's a threat epitomized not just by activists on the public payroll, but by organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, whose token defense of selected freedoms has long since been exposed as a thin mask for an often totalitarian political agenda essentially hostile to the Constitution as written...

New Book: The Seven Faith Tribes

Posted on May 11, 2009
In The Seven Faith Tribes, I provide a research-based profile of each of the faith tribes: Casual Christians, Captive Christians, Jews, Mormons, Pantheists, Muslims, and Skeptics."

ADF Attorneys to Defend Prop. 8, Federal DOMA

Posted on May 11, 2009
Lillian Kwon reports in the Christian Post: "'The people of California want marriage to remain as the union between one man and one woman; they made their voice clear last November at the polls,' said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Brian Raum in a statement released Friday...

Atlanta to lift unconstitutional ordinance, reviving beleaguered church

Posted on May 11, 2009
?Zoning restrictions should not be designed by a city to discriminate against churches,? said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman, who is serving as local counsel in the case.

Abortion Against State Lines

Posted on May 11, 2009

A Different Take on the Roberts court: The Court as an Institution, Ideology, and the Settled Nature of American Constitutional Law

Posted on May 11, 2009
Wayne Law Review: "In this article, I will be looking at the Roberts Court in a somewhat different way from that of Professor Chemerinsky and will be providing a somewhat different perspective on the Court. I will be looking to the operation of the Court as an institution, to departures by the individual Justices from traditional 'liberal' and 'conservative' positions, and to what I consider to be the essentially settled nature of American constitutional law at the present time...

Altruism and Intermediation in the Market for Babies

Posted on May 11, 2009
Washington and Lee Law Review: "However, the supposed and much-discussed baby selling ban does not, and is not intended to, eliminate commercial transactions in children. Instead, it is an asymmetric legal restriction that limits the ability of baby market suppliers to share in the full profits generated by their reproductive labor, insisting instead that they derive a large portion of their compensation from the utility associated with altruistic donation...

Hungary to allow same-sex domestic partnerships

Posted on May 11, 2009
Washington Blade: "Hungary's official government publication says gay couples will be able to register domestic partnerships beginning July 1."

NY Assembly to vote on marriage redefinition tomorrow

Posted on May 11, 2009
". . . the fate of Gov. David A. Paterson?s bill to legalize same-sex marriage, and lobbying is intensifying. The measure is expected to easily pass the State Assembly, which approved a similar bill in 2007 and has scheduled its vote for Tuesday."

California: Unions sue governor over schools funding

Posted on May 11, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle: "Two of California's smaller education unions, unwilling to wait for voters to decide May 19 whether to authorize more than $9 billion in education funds, sued the governor Friday to force the state to pay money they say is owed to schools and to clarify the law so schools can count on funds in the future...

Missouri: Family hopes reward will solve Lemay man?s killing outside strip club

Posted on May 11, 2009
St. Louis-Dispatch: "Police hope $16,000 in rewards will lead to arrest in the fatal beating and shooting of a Lemay man outside a strip club here."

Vatican Is Silent on Furor Over Obama, Notre Dame

Posted on May 11, 2009
Washington Post: "Observers say the difference in emphasis and tone may be a deliberate decision that allows the Vatican to remain above the domestic American fray in its diplomacy with Washington."

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