Religion & Law

Harvard Crimson: Harvard Law is cutting staff to trim budget

Posted on May 08, 2009
Elias J. Groll reports in the Harvard Crimson: "Harvard Law School will lay off staff members in response to budgetary constraints imposed by University administrators, acting Dean Howell E. Jackson said Monday."

?Dr. Dobson disappointed by Obama?s lack of emphasis on prayer?

Posted on May 08, 2009
CitizenLink: "'Thankfully, the Alliance Defense Fund has come in at no cost to us,' Dr. Dobson said today. 'It's an effort to silence people like you and me. ? I don't think we're going to cooperate with that.'"

Craigslist CEO could face prosecution

Posted on May 08, 2009
CitizenLink: "Pat Trueman, special counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, said Craigslist should face prosecution. 'Craigslist is certainly making it easier for sexual traffickers who want to traffic children and adults in America,' he said."

Americans United for Sep. of Church and State: Why Supreme Court appointments are so important

Posted on May 08, 2009
Americans United for Separation of Church and State: "Because of Thomas? decision, Good News Clubs can be excluded from public school campuses after hours only if all outside groups are barred. To top it off, Alliance Defense Fund, the leading Religious Right legal organization, threatens litigation for every school district that doesn?t comply with the Milford decision...

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The Eugenicist Structure of U.S. Family-Planning Policy

Posted on May 08, 2009
Daniel Patrick Maloney writes at Public Discourse: From the Clinton Administration to Nancy Pelosi, American family-planning policy continues to preserve the eugenicist principle that America would be better off if poor children were never conceived. In fact, Clinton tied Medicaid funding to state promises that it would save the government money in the long run by ?averting births? of children who were likely to be a drain on the welfare system...

California: ?Vote for Equality? communication campaign

Posted on May 08, 2009
365Gay.com: "Vote for Equality is the organizing arm of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, and with the help of dozens of volunteers, they are organizing a '1,000-hour conversation' ? one-on-one conversations with California residents to find out what people really think about gay marriage through door-to-door canvassing and phone banking...

Obama?s High Court List Is Led by Women Judges and Politicians

Posted on May 08, 2009
Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama?s first U.S. Supreme Court appointment probably will be drawn from a group of women who have achieved prominence in the law or politics, ensuring more diversity and possibly more real-world experience for the high court...

Maine: ?Ballot to test gay marriage: Public could vote one year from now?

Posted on May 08, 2009
Concord Monitor: "The deadline for opponents to collect at least 55,087 signatures will probably fall in mid-September, about the time the same-sex marriage law is due to take effect. However, the law would be stayed as soon as the signatures are submitted for review by election officials...

Using Health Care ?Reform? to ?Mainstream Abortion?

Posted on May 08, 2009
National Right to Life News and Views: "The pro-abortion movement sees federal 'health care reform' legislation as a golden opportunity to force-feed abortion into every nook and cranny of the health-care delivery system,' explained NRLC Federal Legislative Director Douglas Johnson...

AG Holder Says Getting Office of Legal Counsel Nominee Confirmed Is His Top Priority

Posted on May 08, 2009
National Law Journal: "Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said Thursday that getting Dawn Johnsen confirmed to head his department's Office of Legal Counsel is 'probably my top priority.'"

Religious Accommodation Dispute Over Mock Trial Schedule Resolved

Posted on May 08, 2009
Fulton County Daily Report: "The National High School Mock Trial Championship's board reluctantly agreed to alter a computer-generated mock trial schedule to accommodate the religious observance of the Saturday Sabbath by the Maimonides School team of Brookline, Mass...

Polygamy and Mixed Marriage in Indonesia: Islam and the Marriage Law in the Courts

Posted on May 08, 2009
: "This article considers the Indonesian state's attempts to regulate Islamic law on polygamy and mixed marriages, and to reform Indonesia's Islamic courts, and the resistance that some Muslim groups have put up in response. It shows that the contest between the state and Muslim groups over the extent to which the state should enforce Islamic law is ongoing and is unlikely to end in the foreseeable future, but that the state clearly has the ?upper hand?...

Thomas Berg: Religious-School Financing and Educational Pluralism in the American Tradition

Posted on May 08, 2009
Rivista Antonianum: "This article, written for a European audience, reviews two explanations for the American tradition of no financing. One is ?pluralist,? asserting that religious primary and secondary schools can better maintain their independence and identity without state aid because aid brings state regulation; and the second ?cohesionist,? asserting that while nonsectarian religion is socially valuable, schools of particular denominations undercut social unity by separating children in their formative years and therefore should not be encouraged with government support...

Keeping the Government?s Religion Pure: Pleasant Grove City v. Summum

Posted on May 08, 2009
Northwestern University Law Review: "This short essay reviews the Supreme Court's recent decision in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum. The case addressed whether Summum, a religious group, had a right under the Free Speech Clause to put up a permanent monument of its Seven Aphorisms ? its version of the Ten Commandments ? in a local city park, given that the park already contained a number of other objects donated by various groups, including a more orthodox Ten Commandments display donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles...

Systemic Integration of International Law by Domestic Courts: Domestic Judges as Architects of the Consistency of the International Legal Order

Posted on May 08, 2009
Jean D'Aspremont, University of Amsterdam: "The paper aims at appraising whether domestic courts, because of different legal and institutional constraints, construe the systemic character of the international legal order differently from international courts and international legal scholars...

Mike Johnson on the Michael Medved Show: National Day of Prayer

Posted on May 08, 2009
ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the National Day of Prayer. The mp3 runs just under 35 minutes.

Christian broadcasters warn of hate crimes bill?s effect on religious freedom

Posted on May 08, 2009
Katherine T. Phan writing in the Christian Post: "[T]he 1,400-member National Religious Broadcasters says Christian broadcasters and even pastors covering culturally unpopular views, such as preaching homosexuality as sin, could face prosecution just for expressing their religious views because their teachings could be blamed for inciting violence...

Missouri: License under review for ?gym? adjacent to SOB

Posted on May 08, 2009
The Joplin Globe: "Jasper County is looking at a license application for a business adjacent to an adult-video store, but it has not issued approval for the operation, officials said Thursday."

Wilson Quarterly: The world?s new numbers

Posted on May 08, 2009
Martin Walker writing in The Wilson Quarterly: Something dramatic has happened to the world?s birthrates. Defying predictions of demographic decline, northern Europeans have started having more babies. Britain and France are now projecting steady population growth through the middle of the century...

Alan Keyes, 21 others arrested at Notre Dame protest

Posted on May 08, 2009
Associated Press: "Former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes and 21 others have been arrested after they marched on the University of Notre Dame campus to protest President Barack Obama's upcoming commencement speech."

?Gay marriage stalls in heavily Catholic Rhode Island?

Posted on May 08, 2009
Ray Henry reports in the Associated Press: "[T]he movement has stalled in Rhode Island, perhaps even lost ground, after a stalemate at the Statehouse, a loss in the state's top court and continued opposition from religious leaders . . . Religion remains among the biggest hurdles...

White House begins effort to bridge divide over abortion

Posted on May 08, 2009
Laura Meckler reports in the Wall Street Journal: "The White House has begun bringing together a diverse group of abortion-rights supporters and opponents to help craft policies both sides can embrace: preventing unwanted pregnancies and reducing demand for abortion...

City of Cleveland warned to discontinue unconstitutional ?domestic partner registry?

Posted on May 07, 2009
An ADF-allied attorney sent a letter Thursday to City of Cleveland Law Director Robert J. Triozzi, asking him to stop the city?s newly enacted ?domestic partnership registry,? which violates the Ohio Constitution.

Kansas Supreme Court to Hold Hearing Wednesday in Planned Parenthood Case

Posted on May 07, 2009
LifeNews: "The court will determine whether subpoenas Kline issued for medical records from the Planned Parenthood facility can be enforced."

Homeschooling is the primary issue for the Parental Rights Amendment

Posted on May 07, 2009
Kathryn Joyce writing at Religion Dispatches: "The desire to forward the bill as something with a more universal appeal is likely why, though the board of the Parentalrights.org website it overwhelmingly affiliated with the homeschooling movement, little mention has been made of it as an issue...

American Canyon, CA city council tables same-sex ?marriage? resolution

Posted on May 07, 2009
Rachel Raskin-Zrihen reports in the Time-Herald: "After nearly 90 minutes of sometimes passionate public comment, a split City Council has effectively killed a proposed anti-discrimination resolution aimed at supporting gay marriage . . . In a procedural move, Councilman Ed West moved to table indefinitely the resolution that stated that the city opposes discrimination in any form, including with regard to gender in marriage...

Toledo Bishop bans New Ways homosexual ministry workshop

Posted on May 07, 2009
Catholic News Agency: "Bishop of Toledo, Ohio Leonard Blair has banned a workshop on homosexual ministry that was scheduled to start on May 1, saying its positions were "not at all in accord" with U.S. bishops? guidelines and do not present the "full, authentic teaching" of the Catholic Church...

NJ: Advocates of same-sex ?marriage? hope to follow Maine

Posted on May 07, 2009
Mary Fuchs reports in the Star-Ledger: "The state already recognizes civil unions for same-sex couples after a Supreme Court decision in 2006 left it up to the Legislature. The decision to reverse that law -- or take it further -- is still in the hands of Legislature, where lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow gay couples to marry (S2898), and a measure (SCR-30) that would ask voters to amend the constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and woman...

Thomas Sowell: ??Empathy? Versus Law: Part III?

Posted on May 07, 2009
Thomas Sowell writes at Townhall: "There is a reason why the statue of Justice wears a blindfold. There are things that courts are not supposed to see or recognize when making their decisions-- the race you belong to, whether you are rich or poor, and other personal things that could bias decisions by judges and juries...

After same-sex ?marriage,? bisexual polyamorous ?marriage?

Posted on May 07, 2009
Abby Ellin writing in The Daily Beast: "Maine this week became the fifth state, and the fourth in New England, to legalize gay marriage, provoking yet another national debate about same-sex unions. The Lessins' advocacy group, the Maui-based World Polyamory Association, is pushing for the next frontier of less-traditional codified relationships...

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