Religion & Law

NC Bishops Rally For A Marriage Amendment

Posted on February 24, 2009
AP: North Carolina’s two Roman Catholic bishops are headlining a call to adopt an amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage. Bishop Michael Burbidge of Raleigh and Peter Jugis of Charlotte are together responsible for the state’s estimated 800,000 Catholics ...

US Supreme Court denies appeal in Wyo. eagle case

Posted on February 24, 2009
AP: A member of the Northern Arapaho tribe who killed a bald eagle for use in a Native American ceremony could face up to a year in jail after the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear his appeal. The court’s ruling Monday is the latest turn in a long-running legal dispute over the rights of American [...

U.S. Supreme Court: Idaho teacher?s union can?t force political payroll deductions

Posted on February 24, 2009
"Held: Idaho's ban on political payroll deductions, as applied to local governmental units, does not infringe the unions' First Amendment rights."

?Brain Death? as Criteria for Organ Donation is a ?Deception?: Bereaved Mother

Posted on February 24, 2009
LifeSiteNews: Bernice Jones came to Rome last week to tell the world that doctors killed her son by removing his organs. “Brain death is not death” and “organ donation is very deceptive,” the bereaved mother told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview on Thursday...

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Notre Dame University Establishes Pro-Life Fund

Posted on February 24, 2009
LifeSiteNews: The University said the main purpose of the fund is “to educate Notre Dame students in the rich intellectual tradition supporting the dignity of human life, specifically in its beginning stages, and to prepare those students - through personal witness, public service and prayer - to transform the culture into one in which every [...

Congressional Democrats Seek to Restore, Increase Funding to Pro-Abortion UNFPA

Posted on February 24, 2009
LifeNews: “Congressional Democrats have unveiled their new omnibus spending bill that will fund federal government programs through the Autumn months. The measure, H.R. 1105, contains language that would restore the money President Bush withheld from the UNFPA because of its abortion activities...

NY?s Broome Community College sweeps church off campus

Posted on February 24, 2009
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of North Pointe Church against the Broome Community College board of directors and administrators after school officials enforced a policy banning groups that engage in ?religious services and observances...

State Funding of Devotional Studies: A Failed Jurisprudence that Has Lost Its Moorings

Posted on February 24, 2009
The Court?s attitude toward the public funding of devotional studies can best be described as ambivalent. Not long ago, devotional studies were viewed as one of the few kinds of study that the state clearly could not fund. Then, the Court did an about-face, implying that public funding of devotional studies does not violate constitutional guarantees, because that kind of study cannot be distinguished for constitutional purposes from other kinds of permissibly funded areas of study.

Abortion: The Persistent Debate and Its Implications for Stem-Cell Research

Posted on February 24, 2009
In this article, I will suggest that the abortion debate and its offshoots into embryonic medical research persist because of a failure to properly separate human personhood from human biology. I will argue further that a proper analysis of the problem will not only enlighten the abortion and fetal tissue research debate, but will have implications for end-of-life issues as well.

Accidental Incest: Drawing the Line?Or the Curtain??For Reproductive Technology

Posted on February 24, 2009
This article examines the issue of inadvertent consanguinity raised by third party gamete use through a feminist lens. It seeks to map out the arguments about why we seek to regulate incest and how thinking about reproductive technology places these issues in sharp relief ...

ADF named in Best Christian Workplaces Announced for 2009

Posted on February 24, 2009
The Christian arm of a research-based firm that consults various organizations has released this year?s list of the best Christian workplaces in America. Among those appearing in the U.S. portion of the list . . . Alliance Defense Fund . . .

Kentucky AG Conway announces cybersafety grant

Posted on February 24, 2009
Attorney General Jack Conway, Kentucky Child Now, and the Kentucky Department of Education today announced a $77,000 grant from the AT&T Foundation to help fund cybersafety initiatives in Kentucky.

California: ?Transsexual sues Burlington over harassment?

Posted on February 24, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle: “A transsexual former employee of Burlington Coat Factory filed a discrimination suit against the company today, claiming she endured seven years of verbal and physical abuse from supervisors, colleagues and customers after undergoing sexual reassignment surgery...

U. of Utah students join Planned Parenthood to promote sex indoctrination

Posted on February 24, 2009
UWire: Students at the University of Utah are fighting to help younger students become informed about the reality and consequences of sex and many signed a petition supporting a reformed version of the present sex-education bill . . . Students for Choice, a group of students who worked with the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, set up [...

Colorado: Third attempt at Grand Junction SOB permit

Posted on February 24, 2009
The Grand Junction Planning Commission has twice rejected a conditional-use permit that would allow a proposed strip club to serve alcohol.

19 ?openly gay? appointees in the White House, so far

Posted on February 24, 2009
GayPolitics.com: “President Barack Obama has appointed Shin Inouye as the White House official spokesperson to gay publications. This brings the total number of openly gay White House appointees to 19.” 365Gay.com: “Renewed pressure to appoint gay man to Cabinet” “A new effort is underway to convince President Obama to name Fred Hochberg as Commerce Secretary...

?NAACP Comes Out Against Prop 8?

Posted on February 24, 2009
The Family Equality Council reports: “Throughout the Prop 8 fight last year, the California NAACP was a strong ally for marriage equality. Yesterday, the national NAACP came out strongly against Prop 8, as well.” Visit Site » Share This

Democrats at Pat Robertson?s Regent University Form Club

Posted on February 24, 2009
Black Christian News: “The university approved Regent Democrats as an official student organization in late January. Robertson was not available for comment on the group.” Visit Site » Share This

Exodus International & Alliance Defense Fund Team Up For Day of Truth Event

Posted on February 24, 2009
Exodus International: Two Christian organizations are teaming up to empower youth to express their views on sexuality by co-sponsoring this year’s annual Day of Truth event held April 20 on high school campuses nationwide. Exodus International, a ministry that helps those affected by same-sex attraction to live a life that reflects their [...

Lawyer?s Lawyer, Radical?s Radical: Meet Obama DOJ nominee Dawn Johnsen

Posted on February 24, 2009
Andrew McCarthy writes at the National Review Online: Pegnancy provokes a welter of feelings, physical and emotional. But does anyone really think of pregnancy as slavery? Apparently so: Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen, Pres. Barack Obama?s nominee to head the Justice Department?s Office of Legal Counsel...

Children?s Beliefs and Family Law

Posted on February 24, 2009
In a recent series of opinions authored by Justice Stevens, the Court has recognized that children may have independent religious rights, and that these may be in conflict with their parents'. The questions for this piece are whether considering children's rights independently is a good thing whether it is warranted by children's actual religious preferences and whether children's religious activities actually do anything measurable for the children.

Legal Experts Propose Limiting Justices? Powers, Terms

Posted on February 23, 2009
Washington Post: If we had it to do all over again, would we appoint Supreme Court justices for life? Allow the chief justice to keep the job forever? Let the court have the final word on which cases it hears and those it declines? A group of prominent law professors and jurists thinks not, and the group [...

Hawaii May Become Fifth State to Legalize Civil Unions

Posted on February 23, 2009
CNSNews: Hawaii, the state that adopted the nation’s first “defense of marriage” constitutional amendment a decade ago, has now become the latest battleground in the fight for same-sex civil unions . . . The measure was passed by the state House this month but it now faces the Senate, where a divided committee is to vote Tuesday...

UK: ?Parents told: avoid morality in sex lessons?

Posted on February 23, 2009
The Telegraph: PARENTS should avoid trying to convince their teenage children of the difference between right and wrong when talking to them about sex, a new government leaflet is to advise. Instead, any discussion of values should be kept ?light? to encourage teenagers to form their own views, according to the brochure, which one critic has called [...

Time Magazine?s False Report on FOCA

Posted on February 23, 2009
John McCormack writes at the Weekly Standard Blog: Ramesh Ponnuru takes apart a shoddy report on the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) by Time magazine’s Amy Sullivan . . . Worst of all, Sullivan writes that it is a “false claim” that FOCA would “lead to at least 100,000 more abortions each year...

Supreme Court to tackle judicial conflict of interest

Posted on February 23, 2009
LA Times: “This saga of money, power and judicial politics in West Virginia has prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to consider for the first time whether big spending on a judge’s election can create an unconstitutional ‘appearance of bias’ that violates the guarantee of due process of law in the Constitution...

U.S. Supreme Court will hear dispute over 8-foot cross

Posted on February 23, 2009
"The Supreme Court agreed Monday to step into a long-running legal fight over an 8-foot cross that stands as a war memorial in the vast Mojave National Preserve in California . . . "

ADF attorneys appeal ruling against student groups at San Diego State University

Posted on February 23, 2009
?The university should be a marketplace of ideas, not an institution for suppressing speech that is ?unpopular? with the academic elite,? said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.

Georgetown Law: ?Webcast ? Same Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty?

Posted on February 23, 2009
ADF attorney Jordan Lorence particpated in a marriage debate at Georgetown Law School which is webcast here. ADF press release: ADF attorney to debate same-sex ‘marriage,’ religious freedom at Georgetown Visit Site » Share This

Wiscosin: ?Critics: domestic partner benefits unconstitutional?

Posted on February 23, 2009
The Daily Cardinal: Critics of the domestic-partner benefits proposal in Gov. Jim Doyle?s budget are challenging its constitutionality in light of the 2006 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Wisconsin Family Council and affiliated groups contend the recent proposal creates a status ?substantially similar to that of marriage,? according to Julaine Appling, CEO of Wisconsin Family Council ...

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