Religion & Law

?Iowa in no hurry to embrace gay-friendly status?

Posted on April 07, 2009
AP: "Iowa tourism officials don't have immediate plans to market the state as a gay-friendly destination despite its new status as the Midwest's only state with legalized same-sex marriage."

David French: Thought reform at Eastern Michigan University

Posted on April 07, 2009
David French, Director of ADF?s Center for Academic Freedom, writes at the National Review Phi Beta Cons Blog: "It is becoming increasingly clear that many professional schools dedicated to the so-called "helping professions" (education, social work, counseling, etc...

SD: Rapid City Council rejects pro-homosexual measure

Posted on April 07, 2009
Bob Ellis, writing at Dakota Voice: "Last night the Rapid City Council rejected a proposal to recommend to South Dakota?s congressional delegation that they support at the federal level the addition of 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' to nondiscrimination policies alongside innate, morally-neutral physical characteristics such as age, sex and skin color...

Tennessee House Panel Passes Amendment to Limit Court Decision on Abortion

Posted on April 07, 2009
LifeNews: "A Tennessee state House committee today approved a state constitutional amendment that would make the Tennessee Constitution abortion-neutral. The amendment is necessary because the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled 4-1 in 2000 that the state constitution allows unlimited abortions...

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Pro-Life Response Needed Soon to Obama Axing Abortion Conscience Protections

Posted on April 07, 2009
LifeNews: "President Barack Obama has proposed overturning the conscience protections the Bush administration put in place and pro-life advocates have until Thursday to respond."

Groups spar over Mass. transgender bathrooms

Posted on April 07, 2009
AP: "The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition supports legislation that would add 'gender identity and expression' to the state's anti-discrimination laws. The bill has more than 100 legislative co-sponsors."

Absentees push Franken?s Senate lead to 312

Posted on April 07, 2009
AP: "Democrat Al Franken's lead in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race widened Tuesday to 312 votes after previously rejected absentee ballots were added to the counting."

Hawaii civil-union bill revision is proposed

Posted on April 07, 2009
Honolulu Advertiser: "Gay rights advocates have suggested a new draft of a civil-unions bill that would give both same-sex and heterosexual couples the option of entering into civil unions."

?Gay marriage ruling has Iowans weighing their values?

Posted on April 07, 2009
Christian Science Monitor: "In the two days since the highest court in her state ruled to allow same-sex marriages starting in late April, Sheila Engel of Davenport, Iowa, found herself rethinking an issue about which she had assumed she'd made up her mind...

David French on The Frank Beckmann Show: Mich. Univ. ousts student for not affirming homosexual behavior

Posted on April 07, 2009
David French, Director of ADF's Center for Academic Freedom, appeared on the Beckman Show to discuss the case involving a graduate counseling student who refused to affirm homosexual behavior as morally acceptable. The mp3 runs just over 11 minutes.

?Rick Warren: Stopping Gay Marriage ?Very Low? on Priority List?

Posted on April 07, 2009
U.S. News and World Report: "Has Rick Warren changed his tune on gay marriage? In an appearance last night with Larry King?his first TV interview since delivering the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration (full transcript here)?Warren reaffirmed his opposition to same-sex marriage...

Justice Thomas on rights, law school and tough cases

Posted on April 07, 2009
Tony Mauro writes at the Legal Recorder: "If you've ever seen Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speak to a group of students, you know how energized and enthusiastic he becomes. That was the case Tuesday night when Thomas served as the keynote speaker for an event celebrating the 27 winners of a nationwide high school essay contest...

Vt. Legislature says OK to imposing system that deprives children of mom, dad

Posted on April 07, 2009
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund say that the legislation is a textbook rebuttal of the argument that ?civil unions? are a satisfactory compromise to protect marriage.

Daniel Blomberg on Ave Maria Radio: Free Exercise in Prisons

Posted on April 07, 2009
ADF attorney Daniel Bloomberg appears on Ave Maria Radio to discuss regulations that could endanger the right of prisoners to read Scripture. The mp3 file runs just over 23 minutes.

The ABA?s Liberal Bias: Who should judge the judges?

Posted on April 07, 2009
Richard A. Epstein writes at Forbes: "So let's be clear that the constitutional left engages in its own political bias when it aggressively defends some supposed constitutional rights while remaining sublimely indifferent to others. The true creationists, as it were, are both liberals and conservatives, who refuse to see the powerful libertarian strands that run through the Constitution as a whole...

Senate GOP Considers Filibuster of Obama Judicial Nominee Who Compared Pregnancy to Slavery

Posted on April 07, 2009
Fox News: "President Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel once compared 'forced pregnancy' with slavery. Now Republicans are considering a filibuster to block her confirmation."

?Fiction and Faction: Iowa judges have imposed gay marriage on a state that voted against it.?

Posted on April 07, 2009
Andrew C. McCarthy writes at National Review: The Iowa Supreme Court claims that equal protection under the law, the principle employed to foist its social-justice vision on Iowans, has no fixed standards but changes with the sensibilities of each generation...

Iowa ruling unlikely to affect Arizona

Posted on April 06, 2009
Phoenix New Times: "No legal challenges to the successful Proposition 102 are expected, says Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy. The law can only be repealed by another successful election, she points out -- something that's not on the horizon...

South Dakota charities oppose tax benefit reduction

Posted on April 06, 2009
The Argus Leader reports: "South Dakota charities could feel pinched by President Obama's proposal to reduce the tax benefit that wealthy Americans derive from giving to nonprofit organizations. The proposal, already getting a frosty reception from Congress, is part of the 2010 budget plan that Obama unveiled in February...

Swedish library criticized for child porn

Posted on April 06, 2009
UPI: "The Swedish national library says it's reviewing lending policies that allowed its collection of child pornography to be easily accessed by the public."

Scranton diocese seeks assurances that Catholic colleges aren?t providing contraception

Posted on April 06, 2009
Republican Herald: "Diocese of Scranton leaders have asked the presidents of the four area Catholic colleges and universities for ?assurance? that they are not providing or encouraging the use of contraceptives among students, which is against the doctrine of the Catholic Church...

Iowa same-sex ?marriage? ruling stirs debate in Tennessee

Posted on April 06, 2009
Associated Press: "Gay rights advocates and social conservatives said the ruling stirs strong emotions, even if it doesn?t initially swing Tennessee. Voters in the state overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2006 that bans gay marriages...

Federal hate crimes legislation introduced in House

Posted on April 06, 2009
H.R. 1913 was introduced in the House Judiciary Committee on April 2nd by Rep. John Conyers [D, MI-14]. The official title: "To provide Federal assistance to States, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for other purposes...

Douglas Napier: No pot of gold at the end of Iowa?s ?rainbow?

Posted on April 06, 2009
Douglas Napier: "It is no secret that the shameful strategy of Lamda Legal and its co-conspirators has been to deprive the American people, and in particular Iowans, the right to determine public policy when it comes to marriage. Instead, they prowl around for complicit, unaccountable judges to do their bidding...

Eugene Volokh: ?The slippery slope to same-sex marriage?

Posted on April 06, 2009
"In particular, would this increase the likelihood of further broadening of antidiscrimination laws? Would it increase the likelihood that groups (such as the Boy Scouts) that discriminate based on sexual orientation will be excluded from tax exemptions, just as groups that discriminate based on race are often excluded from tax exemptions? Would it increase the likelihood that such groups will be excluded from generally available benefits?"

A third of Americans back same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on April 06, 2009
Angus Reid: "One-in-three adults in the United States support same-sex marriage, according to a poll by CBS News. 33 per cent of respondents believe gay couples should be allowed to marry, up five points in two years."

Obama set to ease Cuban ban on travel, money

Posted on April 06, 2009
Associated Press: "The Obama administration intends to allow Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send money back to their families on the communist island nation, senior U.S. officials said Saturday."

Newsweek: ?The End of Christian America?

Posted on April 06, 2009
Newsweek: "The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now?and what, as a nation, we are about to become."

N. Dakota Senate rejects ?Personhood? bill, passes ultrasound bill

Posted on April 06, 2009
Christian Post: Without debate, the Senate voted 29-16 to defeat House Bill 1572, which would have granted "personhood" status to all human beings "irrespective of age, health, function, physical dependency, or method of reproduction, including their preborn offspring at every stage of their biological development...

Two men rob SOB in Columbus

Posted on April 06, 2009
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports: "Two men robbed a Columbus adult novelty store at gunpoint late Friday, police said."

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