Religion & Law

Leahy Rebuffs GOP On Do-Over Confirmation Hearing

Posted on April 09, 2009
CQ Politics: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy has rejected the idea of having another confirmation hearing on 7th Circuit Court nominee David F. Hamilton. Leahy made his position clear in an exchange of letters with ranking Republican Arlen Specter that has laid bare the mounting tension between the two lawmakers over the confirmation process...

RI: Bill targets loophole in prostitution law

Posted on April 09, 2009
The Providence Journal: "Under current state law, only streetwalkers, their pimps and their customers can be charged. But a group of lawmakers has revived the perennial call to close the loophole, criminalizing the act as a misdemeanor no matter where it takes place...

23 Detroit schools face closure

Posted on April 09, 2009
USA Today: "The mass closing would be the third this decade for DPS, which has shuttered 70 buildings as enrollment plummeted from 173,848 a decade ago to about 95,000 today. Another 30 of the district's roughly 200 schools could close in 2010. Bobb said Wednesday that the proposed closure list resulted from an analysis of enrollment, building conditions, community partnerships and academic achievement...

Iowa Congressman Calls for ?Help? in Overturning Homosexual ?Marriage? Ruling

Posted on April 09, 2009
CNSNews: "Rep. Steven King (R-Iowa) is calling for help to fight last week?s Iowa Supreme Court decision creating homosexual marriage in the heartland . . ."

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School faces lawsuit for dismissing student who refused to condone homosexuality

Posted on April 09, 2009
Catholic News Agency: During the hearing, EMU faculty reportedly denigrated her Christian views and asked ?several inappropriate and intrusive questions about her religious beliefs,? the ADF said . . . But ADF Senior Counsel David French says that discrimination is exactly what took place...

ADF says Eastern Michigan University ousted student for not affirming homosexual behavior

Posted on April 09, 2009
Examiner.com: "Christian students shouldn?t be penalized for holding to their beliefs," said ADF Senior Counsel David French. "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...

?EMU sued for booting student over views on gays?

Posted on April 09, 2009
Michigan Messenger: "According to The Ann Arbor News, the Alliance Defense Fund Center is suing EMU in Detroit?s U.S. District Court because it dismissed Julia Ward from the counseling graduate program after Ward referred a gay client to another counselor because she believes homosexuality is ?immoral sexual conduct, and cannot affirm or validate that behavior or otherwise use her counseling skills and abilities to facilitate homosexual behavior, without violating her sincere religious beliefs,' the lawsuit said...

?Student Sues After Being Dropped from Gay-Positive Counseling Program?

Posted on April 09, 2009
Edge Boston: "But lawyers from The Alliance Fund say that Ward?s Constitutional rights were `violated by the University. The article quoted Alliance attorney David French as 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...

Facing plummeting enrollment, DC public schools launch ad campaign

Posted on April 09, 2009
Washington Post": . . . the campaign, titled 'Rediscover DCPS,' has been launched by Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee as one step toward stemming the decline in public confidence in a system whose enrollment has plummeted from 80,000 students three decades ago to 45,000 this year...

Minn.: Polk County updating zoning ordinance

Posted on April 09, 2009
Crookston Daily Times: "Adult uses as defined in the ordinance emphasize ?the presentation or display, depiction or description of ?specified sexual activities? or ?specified anatomical areas? which the public could see.? This excludes procedures performed by licensed medical providers and to schools...

Student suing EMU for wrongful dismissal

Posted on April 09, 2009
Ypsilanti Courier: Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco, with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom, representing Ward, said she should not be ejected from the program based on her religious views. "She shouldn't be penalized just because she wants to hold to her religious beliefs," Tedesco said Monday afternoon...

Students react to EMU lawsuit

Posted on April 09, 2009
Ypsilanti Citizen: "According to attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom, EMU dismissed Julea Ward from the program because she would not agree prior to a counseling session to affirm a client?s homosexual behavior and would not retract her stance in subsequent disciplinary proceedings...

New plan revealed for Colo. strip club proposal

Posted on April 09, 2009
Journal Advocate: "[Pat] LaGuardia spoke to the council during the public comments portion of their regular meeting concerning his attempt to bring a strip club business into the town of Fleming."

Quebec dad sued by daughter after grounding loses his appeal

Posted on April 09, 2009
CBC reports: "Quebec Superior Court rejected the Gatineau father's appeal of a lower court ruling that said his punishment was too severe for the wrongs he said his daughter committed . . . In its ruling, issued Monday, the province's court of appeal declared the girl was caught up in a "very rare" set of circumstances, and her father didn't have sufficient grounds to contest the court's earlier decision...

The lure of embryonic stem cell research

Posted on April 09, 2009
Culture of Life Foundation: "Recall we said that ESCs possess the quality of pluripotency, that is, the ability to develop themselves from an undifferentiated cellular state into most any differentiated cell type in the human body. This wide-ranging capacity for differentiation?this pluripotency?is the coveted property of ESCs...

Parental rights: The new wedge issue

Posted on April 09, 2009
Politico: "Hoekstra last week introduced a bill in the House to amend the U.S. Constitution to permanently ?enshrine? in American society an inviolable set of parents? rights. The bill had 70 co-sponsors, all Republicans, including Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Minority Leader John A...

Maine governor to ?wait and see? about same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on April 09, 2009
AP: "I had been opposed to (gay marriage) earlier and, as we all evolve and grow, we learn and listen," he said. "But I think at this particular point, I'll sort of take a wait and see attitude and watch and see how the debate takes place. And like the rest of the Mainers, learn in the process and ask questions, and then be able to make sure that we're making the right statement for the state and for the future...

Rhode Island gov. denounces recognition of same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on April 09, 2009
NECN: "One day after Vermont approved gay marriage, Rhode Island's governor is speaking out against similar efforts in his state. Governor Donald Carcieri is now lending his support to a national organization and a new ad campaign."

Nevada senate vote targets ?sexual orientation bias?

Posted on April 09, 2009
Las Vegas Review-Journal: "Under SB207, the Nevada Equal Rights Commission would be required to investigate complaints filed by those reporting such discrimination. The bill now goes to the Assembly for more hearings."

Jamaican parliament to consider child pornography bill

Posted on April 09, 2009
Radio Jamaica: "Justice Minister and Attorney General, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne announced Wednesday that the Child Pornography Bill is soon to be introduced in Parliament after Cabinet on Monday, gave approval for the bill to be tabled in the House of Representatives...

Nevada: Neighbor wants Reno topless bar closed

Posted on April 09, 2009
Reno Gazette-Journal: "She said Goldfinger customers park in her parking lot and urinate and vomit on her property. They also have left behind broken glass and marijuana cigarette butts and turned her lot into a "party" zone."

Brazilian child porn case goes to trial in the Netherlands

Posted on April 09, 2009
NRC Handelsblad: "A year ago today, Jerry K. and Johan T. were sentenced to 21 and 17 years in prison by a Brazilian appeals court for distributing child porn. They had been arrested in Rio de Janerio in 2002 after a police phone tap operation. But in 2004 the men managed to escape to the Netherlands...

Obscenity laws in Newton, Kansas

Posted on April 09, 2009
Cari Cusick, writing in the Newton Kansan: "A lot of rumors have circulated since an alleged incident at a local private club involving a stripper. We?ve fielded lots of calls as to why no legal action has been taken and what the applicable laws are. And the truth is, there?s no easy answer...

Ind. Supreme Court reverses surrogate adoption

Posted on April 09, 2009
AP: "The Indiana Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling that allowed a New Jersey man to adopt twin girls born in Indianapolis to a surrogate mother he hired from South Carolina."

North Carolina bill challenges parental rights

Posted on April 09, 2009
North Carolina Family Policy Council: "On April 7th, the North Carolina House Judiciary 3 Committee began considering a bill to establish a study on the expansion of grandparent visitation rights that could violate the fundamental right of parents to raise their children as they see fit...

Minnesota: Strip club continues to clash with city

Posted on April 09, 2009
KTTC.com: Zumbro Falls, MN - "Tigue says the bar is not considered nude and therefore is legal in that zone, the Cabaret requested what's called a permitted use permit to operate in town. The council quickly denied the request."

Will D.C. force Congress to consider same-sex ?marriage??

Posted on April 09, 2009
Ezra Klein: "Due to D.C.'s strange system of governance, the District's laws are subject to approval by Congress. If D.C. passes a gay marriage ordinance, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the subcommittee that handles District matters will have to either reject D...

?Gay marriage laws in the US?

Posted on April 08, 2009
AP: "Vermont lawmakers on Tuesday voted to override the governor's veto of a bill allow gay men and lesbians to marry. Here's where things stand nationally . . . "

Video: ?Dr. Oz to Oprah and Michael J. Fox: Stem Cell Debate is Dead?

Posted on April 08, 2009
Life Report has posted this video on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDFJOzu9SyM

U. of Maryland: Porn In, Prayer Out

Posted on April 08, 2009
Keith Pavlischek writes at First Things: More from the 'you-can?t-make-this-up' file . . . administrators cancelled a screening of the movie scheduled for last Saturday night. But then, as the Post reported in Tuesday?s article, ?At U-Md., XXX-Rated Show Goes On,? a few students (including those associated with something called the Student Power Party), professors, and local ACLU agitators, outraged at this assault on free speech, took matters into their own hands and showed excerpts from the movie on Monday night ...

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