Religion & Law

Cal. court OKs out-of-state birth certificate change for non-resident ?transgender?

Posted on April 13, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle: "Gigi Marie Somers was born male but has lived most of her life as a woman, and underwent sex-change surgery in 2005. She got a driver's license with her new name and gender and sought a new birth certificate, but learned that Kansas was one of the few states that will not change a resident's sex designation on a birth certificate...

Iowa: The ?product of a very smart legal team researching every state supreme court and every state legislature?

Posted on April 13, 2009
?It?s courts that started this,? Mr. Koppelman said of the same-sex marriage movement.

Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Says Party Will Not Oppose Homosexual Marriage

Posted on April 13, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "The Republican Party of Massachusetts' newly elected Chairman told a LGTB news service recently that the party will no longer take stances on social issues like same-sex "marriage" because she is against 'legislating' personal views."

Alabama Rep. Bachus Says 17 House Members Are Socialists

Posted on April 13, 2009
Fox News: "An Alabama congressman told local officials this week that he's worried about the number of socialists in Congress, and he put the number already there at 17."

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Obama hosts a Seder: Who was invited?

Posted on April 13, 2009
LA Times: "Aides and family are on the list to attend the dinner, a follow-up to last year's Seder. But Jewish leaders in the Washington area wonder where their invitations are."

Humanists file appeal in Presidential Inaugural challenge to ?so help me God?

Posted on April 13, 2009
The American Humanist Association: "Attorneys for the 255 individual and 19 organizational plaintiffs in Newdow v. Roberts filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today."

Developments In Obama?s Faith Based Partnerships Program

Posted on April 13, 2009
The Religion Clause Blog: "OFBNP executive director Joshua DuBois told those in attendance that the Office would put less emphasis on the Bush administration's concern about equal access to grants. Instead it will seek the expertise of faith-based groups on policy goals such as fighting poverty, promoting responsible fatherhood, reducing unintended pregnancies, and enhancing inter-religious cooperation...

China releases first human rights action plan

Posted on April 13, 2009
AP: "China released its first human rights action plan Monday, pledging to improve the treatment of minorities and do more to prevent the torture of detainees but said that raising living standards would remain a central goal."

The Vermont Legislature, Inventor of the ?Civil Union,? Grants Full Marriage Rights to Same-Sex Couples: Why It Decided Civil Unions Were Not Sufficient to Ensure Equality

Posted on April 13, 2009
Joanna Grossman writes at Findlaw: "In this column, I'll trace the history of marriage rights for same-sex couples in Vermont and elsewhere, focusing as well on the likely motivation for the Vermont legislature's decision to move beyond civil unions."

Will WI Supreme Court uphold the will of the people on Marriage?

Posted on April 13, 2009
Racine News: "Claiming that the case presents ?several novel issues? and constitutes a matter of ?significant public interest with statewide implications,? a panel of three judges on a State District Court of Appeals referred McConkey v. Van Hollen to the Wisconsin Supreme Court today...

Joe Infranco: President Barack Obama warped and twisted science with embryonic stem cell order

Posted on April 13, 2009
ADF Senior Counsel Joe Infranco: "On March 9, with a stroke of his pen, President Obama signed an executive order that provides federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The president?s terse but chilling justification was that ?science should trump ideology...

LA Court throws out religious court?s ruling

Posted on April 13, 2009
LA Times: "The jurist throws out a religious court's decision awarding the scrolls to the woman . . . . On Monday, Superior Court Judge Zaven V. Sinanian ruled in Ohana's favor based on what he believed may have been a conflict for one of the three religious judges, Rabbi Nachum Sauer...

NY: Court Orders Discovery On Equal Access Act Claim

Posted on April 13, 2009
The Religion Clause Blog: "In Youth Alive v. Hauppauge School District, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29017 (ED NY, April 6, 2009), a New York federal district court dismissed as moot most of the claims asserted by two high school students regarding difficulties in organizing and operating a Bible club at their school ...

Faith of our Fathers: Were the Founders ?Post-Christian??

Posted on April 13, 2009
Taki's Magazine: "As the Preamble to the Bill of Rights shows, the entire purpose of the Bill of Rights was further to delineate the limits on federal authority, because Antifederalists insisted that the unamended Constitution had not made those limits clear enough...

EU directive to combat discrimination would gut religious freedom

Posted on April 13, 2009
The draft discrimination directive would make it illegal to offer goods and services only to particular sections of society.

Sikh Group Wants Army To Accommodate Turbans, Unshorn Hair and Beards

Posted on April 13, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "Tomorrow the Sikh Coalition will begin a campaign to convince the U.S. Army to permit Sikhs to serve in the military while wearing a turban, unshorn hair and a beard."

Conscience vs. Conscience

Posted on April 13, 2009
Stanley Fish: "This sequestering of religion in a private space is a cornerstone of enlightenment liberalism which only works as a political system if everyone agrees to comport himself or herself as a citizen and not as a sectarian, at least for the purposes of public transactions...

A Time for Hope: The Prospects for American Law

Posted on April 13, 2009
ISI Books: "Judges do not make the law, in other words, though that timeworn phrase is often used by those who ostensibly support Judge Bok?s perspective but cannot see the implications of its meaning. For Judge Bork is arguing for a deep level of legal discipline by judges...

?Faith Groups Increasingly Lose Gay Rights Fights?

Posted on April 13, 2009
Washington Post: "People seem to say that if you enter the world of commerce, you lose all your First Amendment rights" to free exercise of religion, said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization that has represented several businesses...

Students Encouraged to Skip School on ?Day of Silence?

Posted on April 13, 2009
Christian Post: "Alliance Defense Fund and Exodus International, the promoters of Day of Truth, are encouraging students to speak the 'truth in love' and engage in conversation about homosexuality."

Getting the wrong idea at EMU

Posted on April 13, 2009
Michigan Daily: "Ward was then brought under review. A panel of professors questioned her on a number of other issues, including abortion and extra-marital sex, and she said she would still feel comfortable being able to discuss those issues with clients...

Ex-grad student counselor sues EMU

Posted on April 13, 2009
Detroit Free Press: "The student, Julea Ward, said in the suit filed last week by the Alliance Defense Fund in U.S. District Court in Detroit, that she was unfairly punished after she asked that the client be assigned to another counselor."

Ohio: Groups take sides in adoption dispute

Posted on April 13, 2009
Cincinnati Enquirer: "More than a month after a controversial Butler County adoption policy surfaced that gives preference to married couples, the fate of that rule remains in limbo . . . Some groups expect a legal fight. In fact, a group of Christian lawyers called the Alliance Defense Fund has offered to help defend Butler County's policy against legal challenges...

Defining moments in marriage

Posted on April 13, 2009
World Magazine: ". . . Alliance Defense Fund attorney Jim Campbell. "The California decision really involves the right of the people to enact constitutional amendments in their state," Campbell said. "While it involves the definition of marriage, the legal issue is very distinct from what we saw in Iowa, Vermont and D...

Bench press: Obama begins to ?remake? federal courts

Posted on April 13, 2009
World Magazine: "This could remake the courts into a "ruling oligarchy of unelected judges who view themselves as smarter than everyone else" and who indulge in their own policy preferences to force sweeping changes in accepted laws just because they think it is good for us, argues Jordan Lorence, a senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund...

SCOTUS Petitions to Watch: Jury consultation of Bible during sentencing

Posted on April 13, 2009
  SCOTUS Blog’s latest listing of Petitions to Watch includes this case:  Docket: 08-833 Title:  Oliver v. Quarterman Issue:  Does juror consultation of the Bible during sentencing deliberations  deprive a defendant of Sixth Amendment rights and what standard of proof should apply in evaluating the possible prejudice to the defendant? Opinion below (5th Circuit) Petition for certiorari Brief in opposition Petitioner?s reply brief Brief amicus curiae of former [...

Ethical questions over harvesting dead son?s sperm

Posted on April 13, 2009
AP on MyWay: "Missy Evans has harvested her dead son's sperm and hopes to find a surrogate and one day raise her son's child. It's a decision that ethicists say raises troubling questions; one called the potential offspring a 'replacement child.'"

Ginsburg Shares Views on Influence of Foreign Law on Her Court, and Vice Versa

Posted on April 13, 2009
NY Times: . . . Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended the use of foreign law by American judges . . . The occasion was a symposium at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University honoring her 15 years on the court. ?I frankly don?t understand all the brouhaha lately from Congress and even from some of my colleagues about referring to foreign law,? Justice Ginsburg said in her comments on Friday.

Woman?s Bid to Assert Same-Sex Parental Rights Fails under NY Law

Posted on April 13, 2009
A woman whose same-sex partner gave birth to a child does not have standing to assert parental rights after the couple broke up, a New York state appeals panel ruled Thursday in an unsigned, unanimous opinion.

Map tracks national battle to defend ?choose life? plates: ADF preps for another hearing in NJ

Posted on April 13, 2009
ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of the pro-adoption Children First Foundation against the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission for repeatedly refusing to grant its application to run specialty plates with the ?Choose Life? slogan.

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