Religion & Law

Indiana mom sues school over religious time release program

Posted on January 02, 2009
The Oxford Review reports: A complaint filed by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on behalf of an unnamed woman and her eight-year-old son asks a federal judge to shut down the program and bar the school district from providing it with utilities or any other support ...

Richard John Neuhaus: The Pro-Life Movement as the Politics of the 1960s

Posted on January 02, 2009
. . . academics . . . do not want to entertain the possibility that these conservative reactionaries might be agents in progressive history . . .

ADF defends Wis. marriage amendment against renewed attack

Posted on January 02, 2009
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a friend-of-the-court brief Monday on behalf of the Wisconsin Family Council to protect the Wisconsin marriage amendment after an appeal was filed challenging its constitutionality.

How Support for Abortion Became Kennedy Dogma

Posted on January 02, 2009
Ann Hendershott writes in the Wall Street Journal: For faithful Roman Catholics, the thought of yet another pro-choice Kennedy positioned to campaign for the unlimited right to abortion is discouraging. Yet if Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of Catholics John F...

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Merck halts production of vaccines untainted by abortion

Posted on January 02, 2009
LifeNews.com reports: “Merck & Co. Inc has stopped the production and sale of its monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella . . . The monovalent vaccines account for only two percent of the total sales but they are important to the pro-life movement because they are produced based on animal cells and not from [...

Pro-Abortion Group Ipas Defends Sex-Selection Abortions in India

Posted on January 02, 2009
LifeNews.com reports: According to a new article circulated by the abortion advocacy organization Ipas, widespread access to ’safe abortion’ trumps concerns over the gender imbalance stemming from ’sex selective’ abortion . . ...

Washington Group Building Assisted Suicide Free Zones With Doctors, Hospitals

Posted on January 02, 2009
LifeNews.com reports: “One of the leading groups that tried to defeat the November ballot proposal voters approved to make the state the second to legalize assisted suicide is now trying to counteract the measure. The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide is working with hospitals and doctors to create assisted suicide free zones ...

Abortion Advocates Have Three Options to Kill Bush Rule Helping Pro-Life Docs

Posted on January 02, 2009
LifeNews.com reports: “Once Barack Obama becomes the next president last this month, abortion advocates have three options to use to kill a new Bush rule that protects pro-life doctors and medical centers. The new Bush regulations provide better enforcement for laws helping medical staff avoid being involved in abortions ...

PC Campus: Academia?s Top 10 Abuses of 2008

Posted on January 02, 2009
Jason Mattera writes at Young America’s Foundation: “Political correctness ran amuck in our nation?s school system this past year, and Young America?s Foundation has once again compiled our ?best of the worst? academic abuses for 2008. From ‘free speech zones’ to transgendered speakers at military academies, the following list may make you both laugh and [...

States Ring in the New Year with Increased Taxes

Posted on January 02, 2009
Donald Lambro writes on Townhall: “Middle-income families do not get wage increases during a recession, but neither should the states. Families have to cut back and so should state governments. They should cut spending,” said fiscal analyst Chris Edwards who tracks state budgets at the Cato Institute ...

Missouri: Church tax dispute likely to be settled by court

Posted on January 02, 2009
The Bridge employs an unconventional approach to youth missionary work, its officials say. The multimillion-dollar building . . . boasts climbing walls, a basketball court, a skate park, an arcade, a concert venue and a cafe . . . The county argues the property is taxable ...

Reid Plans to Seat Franken; GOP Furious

Posted on January 02, 2009
Newsmax: “GOP leaders reacted angrily Wednesday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid?s tactic of all but projecting Al Franken the victor over incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, even as Minnesota election officials continue to count the votes . . ...

Malaysia bans Malay-language edition of Catholic paper over word, ?Allah?

Posted on January 02, 2009
AFP reports: A Catholic newspaper in Malaysia has been ordered by the government to cease its Malay language edition until courts resolve a ban on the paper’s use of the word “Allah”, its editor said Thursday. Herald newspaper editor Father Lawrence Andrew said the move was part of a series of restrictions put in place by the [...

Pro Bono Hours Go Up in Down Economy

Posted on January 02, 2009
The American Lawyer: . . . If there’s a silver lining to this economic meltdown, it’s that a lot of lawyers at large firms have time on their hands to do pro bono work. And unlike the last recession, they’re taking advantage of the slowdown...

Conservatives Can Unite Around the Constitution: The coalition that supported Reagan is as viable as ever.

Posted on January 02, 2009
Peter Berkowitz writes in the Wall Street Journal: “If they honor the imperatives of a constitutional conservatism, both social conservatives and libertarian conservatives will have to bite their fair share of bullets as they translate these goals into concrete policy...

UK: ?Absentee fathers must be sent their children?s school reports: Pupils ?will benefit if both parents are kept informed??

Posted on January 02, 2009
The Independent reports: Schools are being told they must step up communications with absentee fathers to try to improve pupils’ well-being and performance. Ministers will be revising school record regulations to underline the importance of keeping “everybody with parental responsibility” aware of pupils’ progress at school, saying it can lift youngsters to know that both parents [...

Roanoke?s vice mayor hit a hot-button issue by opening a city meeting with a prayer that referred to God?s son.

Posted on January 02, 2009
The Roanoke Times reports: Roanoke Vice Mayor Sherman Lea didn’t actually mention Jesus Christ by name during his prayer at a city council meeting earlier this month. But his invocation, which referred to an “eternal God” and the “high and holy name of your son,” raised the ire of at least one person, who in an e-mail [...

Historism in Late Nineteenth Century Constitutional Thought

Posted on January 02, 2009
It has long been a truism of American constitutional history that the late-nineteenth century proponents of laissez-faire constitutionalism grounded themselves in natural law jurisprudence. Unfortunately, this truism is an oversimplification that limits our understanding of constitutional jurisprudence in late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the jurisprudence of Lochner-era.

Analysis: Must Senate seat Burris?

Posted on January 02, 2009
Lyle Denniston writes on SCOTUS Blog: On the Senate?s authority to judge the mode of selection of new members, the courts have been quite deferential.  There is no indication that the courts, if drawn into the issue, would evaluate congressional action regarding the mode of selection any differently in the case of an appointed member than [...

Conservatives on 9th Circuit Can?t Rescue Boy Scouts From Establishment Clause Claim

Posted on January 02, 2009
Dan Levin writes on the Recorder: A pair of couples, one lesbian and another agnostic, challenged a lease the Scouts signed with the city of San Diego allowing them to operate recreational facilities on park land. They said the deal violated the Establishment Clause because of the Scouts’ professed reverence of God...

In Several States, A Push to Stem Cyber-Bullying: Most of the Laws Focus on Schools

Posted on January 02, 2009
The Washington Post: Starting today, California schools may suspend or expel students who commit cyber-bullying. The law also singles out such harassment as a subject to be addressed by school officials . . . “The problem with these laws is that schools are now trying to control what students say outside of school...

Worst U.S. Supreme Court decisions: Left and Right disagree

Posted on January 02, 2009
The ABA Journal: . . . it depends on which side of the political aisle the experts occupy. Liberal court observers pick Bush v. Gore, as well as decisions viewed as setbacks to civil rights. Conservatives, meanwhile, point to the abortion rulings and those that widened the church-state separation...

Michael Scaperlanda: ?Is a prayer in the name of Christ at the inauguration a sign of the President?s faith, the nation?s faith, or both??

Posted on December 30, 2008
Michael Scaperlanda, law professor at the U. of Oklahoma, writes on the Mirror of Justice Blog: Our dialogue over prayer at the inauguration (here, here, and here) has been subconsciously playing in my mind. Is a prayer in the name of Christ at the inauguration a sign of the President?s faith, the nation?s faith, or [...

Ancient Hindu Prayer To Open Oregon House Of Representatives

Posted on December 30, 2008
OfficialWire: Oregon State House of Representatives in Salem will open with Sanskrit mantras from ancient Hindu scriptures on January 29, some as old as 1,500 BCE. Acclaimed Hindu and Indo-American leader, Rajan Zed, will recite this historic opening prayer...

CWA: ?Department of Education Nominee Brings Radical Focus to Education?

Posted on December 30, 2008
CWA carries this report (links to audio) summarized as follows: “With his selection of Arne Duncan to head the Department of Education in his administration, President-elect Barack Obama has set a course for some very troubling policies in our nation’s schools...

Church?s women bishops proposals draw mixed response

Posted on December 30, 2008
Christian Today reports: The Church of England?s proposals for complementary bishops have stirred up concerns among supporters as well as opponents of women bishops. Draft legislation published on Monday outlined plans for a ?national code of practice? under which the Archbishops of Canterbury and York could appoint complementary male bishops to offer pastoral care and perform functions [...

FCC chair drops porn filtering from free wireless broadband plan

Posted on December 30, 2008
Kevin Martin, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, called Ars Technica today to let us know that he has revised his proposal to roll out a free (and smut-free) wireless broadband service. In an effort to corral more votes, Martin has already circulated a new version of the plan, one that removes the controversial smut filtering requirement.

The Apostle, Mr. Justice Jackson, and the ?Pathological Perspective? of the Free Exercise Clause

Posted on December 30, 2008
By permitting juries to inquire into a religious leader's subjective good faith belief in the tenets of the faith, the Ballard majority provides an insufficient shield against prosecutions based on antipathy toward a particular religious sect's beliefs...

Illinois: Blagojevich to Name Burris to Fill Senate Seat

Posted on December 30, 2008
The Wall Street Journal: Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich plans to name Roland W. Burris, the former attorney general of Illinois, to fill the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by President-elect Barack Obama, a person familiar with the matter said ...

Italy: Catholic-Orthodox Statement on Demographic Winter

Posted on December 30, 2008
The Christian Newswire carries this report: . . . Meeting in Trent, Italy, December 10-14, 30 delegates from the Orthodox Churches, European Bishops Conference and the Vatican met to discuss their common concerns on family matters . . . In their joint statement, “The Family: A Good for Humanity,” the delegates observed that despite the current focus [...

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