Religion & Law

ADF: Pastor prevails in Wichita

Posted on April 06, 2009
City of Wichita officials have agreed to a consent order from a federal court that concludes that police violated the constitutional rights of a pastor when they arrested him as he prepared to peacefully express his Christian beliefs on a public sidewalk.

Iowa High Court Legalizes Gay Marriage

Posted on April 03, 2009
CBNNews.com: "Click play for more insight on the ruling with CBN News Reporter Efrem Graham and Doug Napier of the Alliance Defense Fund."

Unanimous ruling: Iowa marriage no longer limited to one man, one woman

Posted on April 03, 2009
Des Moines Register: Doug Napier, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund in Arizona, said the Iowa Supreme Court ?stepped out of its proper role in interpreting the law.? Napier said the legislature should place a constitutional amendment on a statewide ballot to let Iowans decide...

?Gay couples make wedding plans following court ruling today?

Posted on April 03, 2009
Rod Boshart reports in the Globe Gazette: However, Douglas Napier of the Alliance Defense Fund, an alliance of Christian attorneys and organizations, saw the case differently. ?The Iowa marriage law was simple, settled and overwhelmingly supported by Iowans...

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Iowa Supreme Court Strikes Down Marriage Law

Posted on April 03, 2009
CitizenLink: ?The Iowa marriage law was simple, settled and overwhelmingly supported by Iowans," said Douglas Napier, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. "There was simply no legitimate reason for the court to redefine marriage."

Democracy, Political Ignorance, and Constitutional Reform

Posted on April 03, 2009
PENNumbra (University of Pennsylvania): "In this Debate, Professors Ilya Somin and Sanford Levinson discuss the constitutional implications of a federal government whose ?size, scope, and complexity? are far beyond anything that the framers could have possibly imagined and an electorate that is more likely to be able to name the Three Stooges than the three branches of their government...

Texas House OKs sexually oriented business tax

Posted on April 03, 2009
Fox News reports (AP): "The Texas House has given initial approval to a new tax on sexually oriented businesses. Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson's proposal ? tentatively approved Thursday with a non-recorded voice vote ? would repeal a $5-per-person fee that strip clubs were required to collect from 2007 legislation...

Pa. city says cross to stay despite lawsuit threat

Posted on April 03, 2009
AP: "The American Civil Liberties Union and Washington, D.C.-based Appignani Humanist Legal Center have demanded that the cross be removed. Center attorney Robert Ritter says cross displays are banned on government property because they endorse a particular religion, and a federal suit will be filed over Reading's cross...

NYC backs down on plan to replace three public schools with charters

Posted on April 03, 2009
Javier C. Hernandez reports in The New York Times: "The city?s Department of Education, facing a lawsuit accusing it of violating state law, retreated on Thursday from a plan to shut down three traditional public schools to make way for charter schools...

Maryland Senate stops porn film screening at UM

Posted on April 03, 2009
Baltimore Sun: "Maryland lawmakers know pornography when they see it, and they know how to stop it: by threatening to halt funding to the state's flagship public university. Civil liberties groups criticized Thursday a decision by the University of Maryland to cancel a campus screening of what is billed as the most expensive adult film ever made...

?The UN?s Jihad Against Free Speech?

Posted on April 03, 2009
Robert Spencer writing at FromPage Magazine: "This has been a long time coming. The UNHRC resolution and the Durban II draft are part of an international agenda agreed upon at the March 2008 meeting in Senegal convened by the OIC. At that convocation the OIC developed what the Associated Press called ?a battle plan? to defend Islam ? but not from the terrorists who, as we hear all the time, have ?hijacked? their religion...

With the Downturn, It?s Time to Rethink the Legal Profession

Posted on April 03, 2009
New York Times: "The changes are likely to begin with compensation. Years ago, law firm starting salaries were not that different from government or public-interest jobs. But the gap has become a chasm. First-year salaries at top firms are around $160,000, compared with $48,000 to start for state and local prosecutors and $40,000 for legal-services lawyers...

Quotes on Iowa court ruling on gay marriage ban

Posted on April 03, 2009
AP: Douglas Napier, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented Iowa state legislators who filed a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of same-sex marriage ban. "The Iowa marriage law was simple, settled, and overwhelmingly supported by Iowans...

?Iowa Court Legalizes Gay Marriage?

Posted on April 03, 2009
Christian Post: "The Iowa marriage law was simple, settled, and overwhelmingly supported by Iowans," said Douglas Napier, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. "There was simply no legitimate reason for the court to redefine marriage.

Federal Judge Sides with Teen Girls in Pa. Cell-phone ?Sexting? Case

Posted on April 03, 2009
CNSNews: ?There?s a lot of child pornography of this genre floating around the Internet,? Trueman said. ?If you want to increase it, then exonerate the kids. But if you want to reduce child pornography, you have to enforce the law.?

Good News: FAA Employee Wins Religious-Speech Case

Posted on April 03, 2009
CitizenLink: "A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employee disciplined for discussing his religious views at work will no longer face punishment, following a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)."

Suit Against FAA By Employee Disciplined for Remarks About Gays Is Settled

Posted on April 03, 2009
Religion Clause: "A settlement stipulation (full text) has been filed with a Georgia federal district court in Dombrowski v. Federal Aviation Administration . . . Alliance Defense Fund issued a release yesterday announcing the settlement."

Abortion based on race, gender labeled ?barbaric?

Posted on April 03, 2009
OneNewsNow reports: "Sex-selection and racially-motivated abortion is an immense problem in America and internationally," the attorney explains, "and Congressman Franks' bill would prohibit the performance of such abortions, the funding of them, or promoting them...

?Donor Offspring? Redefining Family

Posted on April 03, 2009
Human Life Review: "New technologies are being developed, including same-sex procreation?already successfully done in mice. Reproductive cloning apparently is gaining acceptance, with a recent survey showing 10 percent of fertility-clinic directors saying they would support it for their patients...

Iowa Supreme Court rules to redefine marriage

Posted on April 03, 2009
"The court stepped outside of its proper role of interpreting the law and has instead overruled the will of the people and created new law. Marriage as one man and one woman has been the law in Iowa for 170 years."

E. Mich. Univ. ousts student for not affirming homosexual behavior

Posted on April 03, 2009
The school 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.

Rick Garnett: How the No-Establishment Rule Does (and Does Not) Protect the Freedom of Conscience

Posted on April 03, 2009
Public Discourse: "[The "separation of church and state"] is a rule that limits the state (not a program of marginalizing or privatizing religion) and thereby clears out and protects a social space, within which persons are formed and educated, and without which the liberty of conscience is vulnerable...

Georgia Legislature Passes Nation?s First Embryo Adoption Law

Posted on April 03, 2009
Georgia Right to Life, via ChristianNewsWire: By a vote of 108 to 61, the Georgia House sent the nation's first ever embryo adoption bill, HB 388, to the desk of Governor Sonny Perdue for him to sign into law.

California AG seeks reversal of marriage amendment

Posted on April 03, 2009
Peter Henderson reports in the Calgary Herald: "California Attorney General Jerry Brown unexpectedly joined the fight to reverse a ban on gay marriage, telling the state Supreme Court Friday the voter-approved ban violates the constitutional right to liberty...

Uganda not to bow to foreign pressure on legalizing homosexuality

Posted on April 03, 2009
Xinhua reports: "Uganda will maintain its stance against homosexuality despite increased calls by foreign governments to legalize it, an official said here on Friday."

Senate amendment to protect conscience rights defeated

Posted on April 03, 2009
LifeSite reports: "Yesterday an amendment introduced into the Senate by Sen. Tom Coburn to protect the conscience of patients and health care providers was defeated by a vote of 56-41."

N.Y. Man says underage pornographic video provoked him to kill

Posted on April 03, 2009
Fox News (AP) reports: "Green says he was psychologically affected by seeing the sexually explicit video, which he says depicted Pike with a young girl. Pike was a convicted sex offender who volunteered at local churches."

Federal Judge Strikes Down Maryland Ban on Exotic Dancers

Posted on April 03, 2009
The Blog of LegalTimes reports: "A federal judge in Maryland yesterday struck down a state statute meant to ban strip clubs, finding it would place unconstitutional limits on free speech while violating the 14th Amendment?s guarantee of equal protection...

?Teens, child porn prosecutions and the ACLU?

Posted on April 03, 2009
Gregory Sullivan, writing in the Philadelphia Bulletin: "So widespread is this problem becoming ? some surveys disclose that 20 percent of teenagers have engaged in some form of sexting ? that the criminal law must move forcefully and quickly just to begin curbing it...

Mass. man convicted of child porn possession

Posted on April 03, 2009
Wicked Local Boxborough reports: "Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan of the District of Massachusetts, announced in a statement Frabizio was found guilty after a seven-day jury trial in the U...

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