Religion & Law

Justice Ginsburg offers statement on her post-surgery treatment

Posted on March 17, 2009
SCOTUS Blog: "In a press release issued this morning by the Court?s Public Information Office, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gives an update of her health and post-surgery plans . . . "

Texas? GOP senators fight to retain control of federal judge nominations

Posted on March 17, 2009
Dallas Morning News: The Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, will "have a vote on anyone that is submitted, and I'm sure the White House will make them aware of our recommendations," Doggett added. The senators say that's not nearly good enough...

Western Wall rabbi says pope should not wear cross at site

Posted on March 17, 2009
The Jerusalem Post: Ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's May visit to Israel, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, has said that it is not proper to come to the site wearing a cross.

Luxembourg legalises euthanasia

Posted on March 17, 2009
Radio Netherlands reports: Luxembourg has become the third European Union country, after the Netherlands and Belgium, to decriminalise euthanasia. Terminally ill people will be able to have their lives ended after receiving the approval of two doctors and a panel of experts.

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White House Faith Council members says including abortion will sink health care

Posted on March 17, 2009
LifeNews: An evangelical member of President Barack Obama's faith council says any health care reform package would be sunk if it includes abortion. Including taxpayer-funded abortions and forcing insurance companies or medical facilities to include abortions has been a concern of the pro-life community.

Canada: Pro-life club denied funding at the University of Victoria

Posted on March 17, 2009
The UVic Martlet: In an ongoing battle, the pro-life group at UVic has once again been denied stu­dent union funding. The pro-life student club Youth Protecting Youth (YPY) was denied club money again by the UVic Stu­dents? Society, despite Clubs Coun­cil voting in favour of the funding.

The Fairness Doctrine: Coming to a Campus Near You

Posted on March 17, 2009
Education Watch International (Mike S. Adams): Finally, I'll have my friend Travis Barham of the Alliance Defense Fund give a speech to the Women's Resource Center. In it, he'll explain that the Fourth Circuit has ruled that the display of child pornography is not protected by the First Amendment...

Appeals Court Upholds Texas Moment of Silence Law

Posted on March 17, 2009
Beliefnet (Religion News Service): "A moment of silence is not a government endorsement of religion just because someone might use the time for prayer," said David Cortman, senior legal counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund. "No student is compelled to pray under the Texas law...

Denmark has Parliamentary majority for same-sex adoption

Posted on March 17, 2009
The Copenhagen Post: Parliament signals to government for the first time that it is ready to give equal adoption rights to civil partnership and married couples

?Obama names lesbian as Office of Personnel Management counsel?

Posted on March 17, 2009
Government Executive: OPM announced on Tuesday that Elaine Kaplan, a former special counsel appointed by President Clinton, will become the agency's top lawyer.

ACLU demands that Arizona school lift ?rainbow wristband? ban

Posted on March 17, 2009
ACLU: In mid-February 2008 Chris [Quintanilla] wore a rainbow-colored wristband to school with the words "rainbows are gay" printed on it . . . Principle Svorinic informed [Chris's mother] that some of Chris's teachers found the wristband "offensive" ...

?Confronting the Hook-Up Culture?

Posted on March 17, 2009
Robert P. George and John B. Londregan at Public Discourse: Whether it is a private institution such as Yale or a public one such as the University of Delaware, the truth is that things begin going badly for them right off the bat. Princeton is all-too-typical...

Judge says Muslim ?honor crimes? have no place in English law

Posted on March 17, 2009
The Telegraph: Lord Justice Wall made his comments in the first care case to reach the Court of Appeal involving conduct within an ethnic minority community.

Inside Blogotics - Not yet the end

Posted on March 16, 2009
Washington Times - Inside Blogotics: David French, director of the Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom, thought he had seen it all. "But the Spokane Falls (Washington) Community College has proven me wrong," he wrote at the National Review blog Phi Beta Cons before describing the case, now the subject of a pending lawsuit.

Missouri House Passes Bill Banning Coercing Pregnant Women into Getting an Abortio

Posted on March 16, 2009
Americans U. for Life Blog: ". . . the Missouri House passed HCS HB 46 & 434, a bill that bans coercing a pregnant woman into getting an abortion. Additionally, the bill enhances the state?s informed consent law by allowing women to view and hear an ultrasound prior to getting an abortion, and gives women information about the pain their unborn child feels during an abortion ...

AUL?s anti-FOCA resolution, HJR 1009, was passed yesterday by the OK house

Posted on March 16, 2009
Americans U. for Life Blog: House Joint Resolution 1009 declares that the Legislature opposes the federal Freedom of Choice Act because it ?seeks to circumvent the states? general legislative authority as guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S...

Albert Mohler: ?The Fetus as Organ Factory ? The Next Moral Frontier??

Posted on March 16, 2009
Albert Mohler writes: William Saletan understands the issue. "Two arguments have persuaded the United States to fund stem-cell research using destroyed embryos," he explains. "One is that the research will save lives. The other is that the embryos, left over from fertility treatments, will otherwise be wasted...

$11 Million From Adult Business Taxes Aren?t Helping Anyone Yet

Posted on March 16, 2009
a href="http://www.kbmt12.com/news/state/41292292.html" target="_blank">KBMT12.com (AP): "Texas gentlemen's clubs have paid the state more than $11 million in fees collected from patrons as part of a law enacted in 2007. But the money hasn't gone to its intended purpose because of an ongoing First Amendment lawsuit ...

David Hacker discusses Lopez suit, San Diego firefighters with Mike Minokian

Posted on March 16, 2009
ADF attorney David Hacker appeared on Reality Check with Mike Monokian to discuss the Jonathan Lopez and the San Diego firefighters cases.

NV Board Reinstates Domestic Partner Benefits

Posted on March 16, 2009
KLAS-TV.co: "A governmental agency at Lake Tahoe has reinstated health care insurance benefits to domestic partners of employees after hearing complaints from the American Civil Liberties Union and others."

Human Rights Campaign, others attempt to intimidate Ken Starr

Posted on March 16, 2009
"A gay rights group dispatched an emissary to Kirkland & Ellis to deliver a petition that warns one its lawyers--Pepperdine law dean Kenneth Starr?that history will condemn his actions."

Lebanon schools agree girl may wear prom tux

Posted on March 16, 2009
IndyStar.com: "Lebanon Schools has reversed its policy barring female students from wearing tuxedos if they attend prom after a lawsuit by a senior girl was filed last week."

Fresno sex shop loses liquor license, shuts down

Posted on March 16, 2009
KFSN (ABC): For the second time in about three months, Fresno's only adult entertainment club is shut down because it lost its liquor license.

Connecticut: Sex shops rent space on Adopt-A-Highway signs

Posted on March 16, 2009
Hartford Courant (AP): Connecticut transportation officials are saying there is some "auto" eroticism on some sections of two major state highways. The state has rented space on four of the state's 'Adopt-A-Highway' signs to a small chain of adult-entertainment stores.

Suicide advocacy group undermines proper hospice care

Posted on March 16, 2009
Wesley Smith: Compassion and Choices, the assisted suicide advocacy group, has admitted to undermining proper hospice care. That?s not how they put it, of course. Instead, the group brags that nearly 100% of Oregon assisted assisted suicides last year?88% with which their representatives were involved?were in hospice.

UK atheists call for ?debaptism?

Posted on March 16, 2009
BBC: John Hunt was baptised in the parish church of St Jude with St Aidan in Thornton Heath in south-east London. But 50 years later he stands outside and regards its brick facade without much affection . . . Now Mr Hunt has become the pioneer in a rejuvenated campaign for a way of cancelling baptisms given to children too young to decide for themselves whether they wanted this formal initiation into Christianity.

5th Circuit affirms Texas? schools moment of silence law

Posted on March 16, 2009
"A federal appeals court panel has upheld a Texas law that calls for schoolchildren to have a moment of silence during which they can pray, reflect or meditate."

Undercover student videos help de-fund Calif. Planned Parenthood

Posted on March 16, 2009
Via ChristianNewsWire: Undercover videos produced by Live Action Films were used to help strip Planned Parenthood of the $292,000 in taxpayer funds it received from Orange County, CA. The videos, part of the ongoing Mona Lisa Project, clearly show Planned Parenthood employees ignoring the sexual abuse of minors, which mandatory reporting laws require clinicians to report.

?First openly gay mayoral candidate runs in Mexico?

Posted on March 16, 2009
Latin American Herald Tribune: Miguel Antonio Galán has become the first openly gay politician to run for a mayorship in Mexico, throwing his hat into the ring in the race for the city hall of the populous and traditionalist city of Guadalajara, the Mexican Social Democratic Party, or PSD, said.

Stem Cells and the Truth About Medical Innovation

Posted on March 16, 2009
Scottlieb writes at the Wall Street Journal: Whatever one thinks of the ethics of using human embryos in medical research, the rhetoric around President Barack Obama's decision to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell science reveals a widespread misconception of how medical products are created.

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