Religion & Law

Has the Time Come to Tweak the Communications Decency Act?

Posted on March 09, 2009
Robert J. Ambrogi writes at Legal Blog Watch: “One major difference between publishing online and publishing in print is that the online publisher is not legally responsible for information posted by others. For this shield from liability, publishers of blogs, online newspapers and other Web sites can thank Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act...

Islam should prove it?s a religion of peace

Posted on March 09, 2009
Tawfik Hamid, writing in the Wall Street Journal: Scholars in the most prestigious Islamic institutes and universities continue to teach things like Jews are “pigs and monkeys,” that women and men must be stoned to death for adultery, or that Muslims must fight the world to spread their religion...

The Contest of Ideas with Radical Islam: The Centrality of the Idea of Religious Freedom and Tolerance

Posted on March 09, 2009
The Contest of Ideas with Radical Islam: The Centrality of the Idea of Religious Freedom and Tolerance Nina Shea, Hudson Institute The issue of religious freedom and intolerance is at the heart of the ideological struggle with jihadist terror. All jihadist orthodoxies hold the core animating belief of absolute intolerance for the religious ?other...

Court nomination fights ? enough!

Posted on March 09, 2009
Dahlia Lithwick writes at the LA Times: Last month, former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr sent out a warning to President Obama: GOP senators won’t readily forgive the president for his Senate votes against Supreme Court Justice Samuel A...

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Ky. Religious Funding Suit Heads To Appeals Court

Posted on March 09, 2009
KYPost.com:  Attorneys in a case involving a Kentucky Baptist children’s program will appear before a federal appeals court this week to argue about the role of government funding for faith-based institutions.  The nine-year-old lawsuit alleges that the Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children has used public dollars to indoctrinate children and fired a lesbian employee for religious reasons [...

?A Primer on the Jurisdiction of the U.S. Courts of Appeals?

Posted on March 09, 2009
How Appealing links to this online book (free download) by Thomas E. Baker published by the Federal Judicial Center. Share This

Marriage payback? Connecticut bill seeks to regulate church finances

Posted on March 09, 2009
nder the proposed bill, any Catholic parish organized as a religious corporation would be required to elect a lay board of between 7 and 13 members to manage and oversee its financial affairs. A nominee of the bishop or archbishop will serve as an ex-officio member of each parish board ...

Dutiful Doctors or Moral Malpractice?

Posted on March 09, 2009
Jennifer Roback Morse writes at the Ruth Institute: “Two physicians are accused of discrimination against gays?but artificial insemination is not what the doctor ordered.” Visit Site » Share This

Christian Group Readies to Defend National Day of Prayer Against Lawsuit

Posted on March 09, 2009
The Christian Post:  A Christian legal group, which is defending the National Day of Prayer Task Force against a lawsuit by an atheist group, has launched a campaign to rally support for the annual prayer day. On the “Save the National Day of Prayer” campaign Web site, the Alliance Defense Fund is urging Americans to do their part [...

What?s Left of the Constitution? California, Marriage, and the Obama Administration

Posted on March 09, 2009
ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND MEDIA RELATIONS www.telladf.org/left What?s Left of the Constitution? - March 9, 2009 - California, Marriage, and the Obama Administration Watch the new video at www.telladf.org/left For the second time in less than a year, the California Supreme Court will decide whether to reject the votes of millions of Californians regarding marriage...

Incubators of atheism: How public schools undermine Faith, NY Catholic schools go the charter route

Posted on March 09, 2009
On his first day of eighth grade at the former Holy Name Roman Catholic school last fall, Jeffrey Stone bowed his head . . . and began to recite the Lord?s Prayer. Within seconds, his teacher chided him: ?We don?t do that anymore.?

President Barack Obama Makes Taxpayers Fund Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Posted on March 09, 2009
"Today President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order (full text ) lifting the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research."

Obama Can?t Say He?s Pro-Choice by Dropping Protections for Pro-Life Doctors

Posted on March 09, 2009
LifeNews: “President Barack Obama’s apparent decision to drop the protections the Bush administration put in place to protect doctors means he can no longer say he is pro-choice on abortion. That’s the assessment of respected pro-life attorney Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund...

Federal Courts React to Tide of Pro Se Litigants

Posted on March 09, 2009
Amanda Bronstad writes at the National Law Journal: In response to a growing tide of pro se litigants in federal courts, legal centers in at least three districts have been set up to provide services and advice to parties who represent themselves in civil cases...

High Court to hear ?desert cross? case

Posted on March 09, 2009
Rees Lloyd writes at the Record Gazette:  The U.S. Supreme Court has announced that it will hear and rule on the controversial Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross Case. It promises to be a precedent which will affect how Americans can choose to honor their war dead and other veterans, and will determine the limits of the Establishment of Religion [...

Perpetuating a Needless Stem-Cell War: Obama?s decision is bad ethics, bad science, and bad politics.

Posted on March 09, 2009
Ryan T. Anderson writes at the Weekly Standard:  Of course, the stem-cell debates have never been about science. As Joseph Bottum and I argued in the November issue of First Things, the furor over stem cells was fueled by numerous factors: patients’ desperation in the face of illness and their hope for cures; the belief that biology can now [...

U.S. Supreme Court rules against minority districts

Posted on March 09, 2009
Lyle Denniston writes at the SCOTUS Blog:  Dividing 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal voting rights law does not require the creation of a new legislative district when that would include a racial minority group that has less than 50 percent of the population, as a remedy when minority voters? rights have been [...

Support for Hawaii civil union vote wavering

Posted on March 09, 2009
AP:  The drive to make Hawaii the fifth state in the country to allow same-sex civil unions is on the verge of failing, despite support from most state lawmakers. Senate leaders had planned a vote before the full Senate as early as Tuesday, but deep divisions have emerged over whether Democrats should take an extraordinary legislative step [...

Do the Supreme Court?s Current Justices Hold Sincere Views About States? Rights? A Failure-to-Warn Case Reveals an Apparent Inconsistency

Posted on March 09, 2009
Michael Dorf writes at Findlaw: “Below, I shall explore the possibility that the Court’s conservatives and liberals alike only pay lip service to considerations of federalism, caring more about ensuring the outcomes that fit their ideological predispositions...

Sweden: Tattos worse than abortion?

Posted on March 09, 2009
Mat Tunehag has this post on the Varlden Idag discussing some of the absurdities of state regulation of abortion in Maryland and Sweden. Visit Site » Share This

Human Rights Campaign targets Illinois Mormons over marriage support

Posted on March 09, 2009
One News Now: “The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest homosexual activist group in the nation, is targeting Mormons in Illinois who support traditional marriage . . . “ Visit Site » Share This

Single-sex classes raise hope, doubt

Posted on March 09, 2009
Boston Globe: Hoping to quell unruly behavior and improve middle school students’ grades, school leaders in Lawrence are turning to a throwback to the old days: separating the girls from the boys. But the school system could end up on shaky legal ground if it offers all-boys and all-girls classes without presenting a co-ed alternative to [...

Obama lifts Bush restrictions on stem cell research

Posted on March 09, 2009
Reuters: “President Barack Obama lifted some restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research on Monday, angering many abortion opponents but cheering those who believe the study could produce treatments for many diseases.” Visit Site » Share This

More Americans say they have no religion

Posted on March 09, 2009
AP: “Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.” Related reports Visit Site » Share This

Obama calls cloning ?dangerous, profoundly wrong?

Posted on March 09, 2009
AP: “President Barack Obama says human cloning is ‘dangerous, profoundly wrong’ and has no place in society.” Visit Site » Share This

Greed and gov?t corruption drive embryonic stem cell research

Posted on March 09, 2009
"More than $10 billion of funding to the National Institutes of Health, which will oversee the research, was included in the economic stimulus package."

Debunking the Sebelius Abortion Decline

Posted on March 09, 2009
Michale J. New writes at MoralAccountability.com: President Obama?s nomination of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius for Secretary of Health and Human Services has set off a firestorm of controversy in Catholic political circles. A number of Catholic organizations, citing Sebelius? steadfast support for legal abortion and her cozy relationship with notorious late term abortionist George Tiller, [...

Opposing Views: Should Churches be Tax Exempt?

Posted on March 09, 2009
ADF attorney Erik Stanley appeared in this Opposing Views discussion to argue in favor of tax exemption for Churches. American Atheists and Americans United for Separation of Church and State also made appearances. Visit Site » Share This

San Diego relents after restricting ministries? homeless ?feeding? to cage

Posted on March 09, 2009
. . . San Diego Parks and Recreation abandoned a program Thursday which would have required a homeless outreach, after several years of serving the poor at Mission Bay Park, to relocate to a dirt lot with a cramped, fenced-in area resembling a cage . ...

UK: Campaigners will seek arrest of Islamic radical

Posted on March 09, 2009
Telegraph: The think-tank said the Home Office would be “beyond hypocrisy” if it allowed Dr Ibrahim Moussawi into Britain just weeks after barring Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician, because of his alleged anti-Muslim views . . . Mr Wilders, 45, planned to show his controversial film which links the Koran to terrorism, but was banned from entering [...

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