Religion & Law

New Report Urges Changes In U.S. Intenational Religious Freedom Policy

Posted on March 19, 2009
The Religion Clause Blog: "Last week, Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs along with the Center on Faith & International Affairs jointly issued a 65-page report titled The Future of U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy: Recommendations for the Obama Administration...

Health care issue returns to Court

Posted on March 19, 2009
SCOTUS Blog: "Seeking to draw the Supreme Court back into the intensifying national debate over health care, a group representing restaurant operators in San Francisco on Wednesday asked for at least temporary relief from mandated spending for workers? medical benefits...

IHSA Asked To Overturn Reported Ban On Prayer At Games

Posted on March 19, 2009
WBBM780.com: "A public school sports association's reported ban on prayer at some games held at private schools is being challenged.Attorney David Cortman with the Alliance Defense Fund says it's unconstitutional to prohibit prayer or religious messages at private schools...

California: School Board Upholds Parental Rights Over Objections of the ACLU

Posted on March 19, 2009
Pacific Justice Institute: The board of trustees of the Vista Unified School District voted unanimously to require that pupils obtain parental permission before leaving campus for "confidential medical services." It is well understood that the term "confidential medical services" is a euphemism for abortion...

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US Secretary of State: UN Statement on ?Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity?

Posted on March 19, 2009
The Secretary of State has issued this statement: The United States supports the UN Statement on ?Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity,? and is pleased to join the other 66 UN member states who have declared their support of this Statement that condemns human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity wherever they occur...

ACLU sues Corona del Mar High School for cultivating ?homophobic? environment

Posted on March 19, 2009
LA Times: More than a month after controversy erupted over Corona del Mar High School’s reported cancellation — then rescheduling — of a production of “Rent,” the American Civil Liberties Union sued school officials Wednesday for fostering a “sexist” and “homophobic” atmosphere...

U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar

Posted on March 19, 2009
Reuters: "A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar."

Lawsuit over UC Berkeley?s ?Evolution? website appealed to Supreme Court

Posted on March 19, 2009
Christian Post: "A Christian schoolteacher's lawsuit over a UC Berkeley website on evolution has been appealed to the Supreme Court. Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute, which is representing Jeanne Caldwell, a Sacramento parent, announced in January that it had filed an appeal to the U...

European bishops back proposed EU law on Sunday rest

Posted on March 19, 2009
Catholic News Agency: "The secretariat of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community has welcomed a proposed EU law that would safeguard Sunday as a day of rest from work."

Pakistan: Christian nursing students accused of blasphemy

Posted on March 19, 2009
Christian Telegraph: "Two female Christian students of Fatima Memorial Hospital?s nursing school in the Pakistani city of Lahore, have been accused of desecrating verses of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, days after their Muslim roommates desecrated a picture of Jesus Christ which they had hung in a shared hostel room, reports Dan Wooding and Sheraz Khurram Khan, special to ASSIST News Service...

Spanish judge: government is persecuting me for Christianity

Posted on March 19, 2009
Christian Telegraph: "A Spanish judge removed from the bench for refusing to approve a homosexual adoption says that before his trial the prosecutors attempted "extortion" against him, and persecuted him for his Christian beliefs, reports LifeSiteNews...

ABA House OKs lateral lawyer ethics rule change

Posted on March 19, 2009
ABA Journal: "After a debate that lasted more than 90 minutes?the longest so far today?the ABA?s policymaking House of Delegates adopted Resolution 109, an ethics rule that allows a firm to ?screen? a lawyer who joins it from any participation in a case that might create conflicts for clients represented by the lawyer at his or her former firm...

Albert Mohler: The delay of marriage and the decline of Church attendance

Posted on March 19, 2009
Albert Mohler: W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia has written a must-read article in the "Houses of Worship" column of The Wall Street Journal. Wilcox, whose research and analysis is consistently top-notch and relevant, considers the impact of the expansion of the government sector in American society.

A new pro-life battle: designer babies

Posted on March 19, 2009
Penna Dexter, Baptist Press: "Medical science has ushered in a brave new world in childbearing. A fertility clinic in Los Angeles recently announced it was ready to offer would-be parents designer babies."

Harvard AIDS expert says Pope is correct about condoms and AIDS link

Posted on March 19, 2009
LifeSite: Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has said that the evidence confirms that the Pope is correct in his assessment that condom distribution exacerbates the problem of AIDS...

Appeals Court gets it right; Texas? moment of silence is constitutional

Posted on March 19, 2009
Jacksonville Progress: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit was correct to uphold a Texas law requiring students to observe a minute of silence following the Pledge of Allegiance . . . The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed briefs in opposition to the law, according to the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case last year...

California Reviews Prop. 8

Posted on March 19, 2009
Catholic.net (NC Register): "In a hearing here March 5, California Supreme Court justices seemed strongly inclined to uphold Proposition 8 . . . As for the outcome of the case, Joe Infranco, an Alliance Defense Fund lawyer working on the Prop. 8 issue, said his group is ?confident the justices are going to recognize the democratic process and do the right thing...

Florida man accused of producing child pornography

Posted on March 19, 2009
Tampa Bay Online: "A Lakeland man was booked into the Pinellas County Jail this morning on charges he videotaped himself inappropriately touching an 8-year-old girl."

Indiana: SOB attorney says Clarksville ordinance is unconstitutional

Posted on March 19, 2009
The News & Tribune: ?I think it?s unconstitutional and has violated the zoning rules,? attorney Joan B. Henderson said of the ordinance. ?There are certain procedures that have to be followed with an ordinance of this nature, and [Clarksville Town Council] they did not follow those...

Does Obama support cloning? An exchange between Robert P. George and Doug Kmiec

Posted on March 19, 2009
U.S. News: "Over the past few days, George and Kmiec have engaged in a rigorous E-mail debate on the nature of human cloning and other thorny issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research?like whether Catholics who use medical treatments developed from embryonic stem cell research are complicit in what the Roman Catholic Church calls the evil of embryo destruction...

New Jersey plan could give students more school choice

Posted on March 18, 2009
PressofAtlanticCity.com: "The state Department of Education wants to make the school choice program available to every public school district in the state, potentially giving thousands of students more options for where they will attend school. If approved, the expansion also could be a way for small or struggling school districts to generate more students and revenue ...

New book on Justice Kennedy defends his jurisprudence

Posted on March 18, 2009
Tony Mauro writes at the Legal Times: "Political scientist Helen Knowles thinks Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has gotten a bad rap as a 'flip-flopper' and as a somewhat unpredictable swing vote. 'He is much more consistent than people give him credit for,' says Knowles, who teaches at the State University of New York-Oswego...

Hopefuls Eye 9th Circuit Vacancies

Posted on March 18, 2009
Dan Levin writes at the Recorder: "The speculation over who will fill California vacancies on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shifted into a higher gear Tuesday, after the Obama administration made its first appellate pick."

?Lambda Legal Urges Connecticut Court to Stand Behind Law Protecting Gay Workers from Harassment?

Posted on March 18, 2009
Lambda Legal: "At the Superior Court in Hartford, Connecticut on Friday, Lambda Legal filed a friend?of?the?court brief seeking to ensure that Connecticut's laws protecting employees from discrimination in the workplace are properly applied . . . "

Specter won?t run as Dem, but won?t rule out run as an Independent

Posted on March 18, 2009
The Hill: "Sen. Arlen Specter said Tuesday that he will not run for reelection in 2010 as a Democrat, but might run as an Independent. The Pennsylvania Republican has been under tremendous pressure from the GOP base since being one of just three Republicans to vote for the Democratic-led stimulus package last month ...

Study: ABA ratings are biased against conservative nominees

Posted on March 18, 2009
Marcia Coyle writes at the National Law Journal: Controversy over the American Bar Association's ratings of potential judicial nominees is likely to continue with the announcement that the bar group will resume its role of evaluating candidates before their nominations...

Arkansas: Trial on adoption ban approved

Posted on March 18, 2009
Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Joined by Byron Babione, an Arizona attorney representing Family Council Action Committee, the conservative Christian political action committee that championed the law, Cordi contended that the ACLU was trying to fabricate a constitutional right that doesn't exist, a right by children to be adopted or placed in foster care ...

Judge orders 2 counties to pay $393,000 in attorneys fees in Ten Commandments case

Posted on March 18, 2009
A federal judge has ordered a pair of southern Kentucky counties to pay $393,798 in attorneys fees stemming from their defense of posting the Ten Commandments in courthouses.

ACLU to Peoria school: Lift rainbow ban

Posted on March 18, 2009
KTAR.com: "An openly gay eighth grade student in Peoria claims his principal made him turn his rainbow colored wristband inside out or stop wearing it to school. The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the Peoria Unified School District Wednesday demanding action...

Bioethics Defense Fund Condemns ?Obsolete Science Bailout Plan?

Posted on March 18, 2009
Bioethics Defense Fund: "Bioethics Defense Fund has compiled the following educational resource highlighting the facts that President Obama should have relied on to bring the nation together behind the breakthrough alternative method of induced pluripotent stem cell research which provides cells virtually identical to embryonic stem cells, but without the need for embryos, cloning or egg harvesting...

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