Religion & Law

American Bishops? Compromise Stand on Political Issues is Breaking Down

Posted on October 22, 2008
CWNews.com reports: “This campaign season, American bishops have taken a much more assertive role in public debates, openly criticizing some political candidates for their support of abortion and same sex-marriage. Now, in an even more intriguing development, bishops have begun criticizing each other as well ...

Terence Jeffrey: ?Obama?s Mandate for Nationalized Same-Sex ?Marriage??

Posted on October 22, 2008
In June, Obama sent a letter to the San Francisco-based Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club . . .

Obama spends more than $21M on polling and nearly $200M on media

Posted on October 22, 2008
OpenSecrets.org carries a breakdown on spending by the Obama campaign.  The site was linked through the Drudge Report so its servers may be temporarily overwhelmed.   Visit Site » Share This

Chino Hills: Cal. marriage amendment supporters enduring hassles, vandalism

Posted on October 22, 2008
Supporters of Proposition 8 in Chino Hills have been facing antagonism from two sources: vandals and city hall.

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Justice Department Decision Could Extend Religious Hiring Rights

Posted on October 22, 2008
"A Justice Department opinion published last week has renewed the debate at the center of the Bush Administration's Faith-Based and Community Initiative - a controversy that has even made it to the 2008 presidential campaigns - over whether religious organizations should retain the right to employ only those of their own faith when the positions are funded with tax dollars ...

Veteran Educators Say Closing Public Schools Is In The Best Interest of Both Children & Nation

Posted on October 22, 2008
EdNews carries this report that begins:  The book, ’Leaving School: Finding Education’ comprehensively explains how American schools have failed to make the transition to the new technological age of the 21st Century. As America enters this new millennium, parents, educators and even politicians are seeking a way out of the fiscal burdens and performance failures that characterize America’s [...

2,500 Texans dropout of public schools each week

Posted on October 22, 2008
MySanAntonio.com reports: “Every four minutes a student drops out of a Texas public school, according to a new report from the Intercultural Development Research Association. That means that, across the state, one-third of the students who began high school in fall 2004 left without a diploma before the end of the 2008 school year...

Police prepare for Election Day unrest

Posted on October 22, 2008
The Hills reports:   Sen. Obama (Ill.), the Democratic nominee for president, has seen his lead over rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) grow in recent weeks, prompting speculation that there could be a violent backlash if he loses unexpectedly . . .  ?If [Obama] is elected, like with sports championships, people may go out and riot,? said [...

Oregon: ?Board silences pro-life event: School Board ?revisiting controversial topics policy??

Posted on October 22, 2008
The Pendleton School Board has silenced a protest against abortion at Pendleton High School.

Commissioners take first step to keep Ten Commandments hanging in courthouse

Posted on October 22, 2008
A complaint was registered in September involving the Ten Commandments plaque that hangs in the hallway at the courthouse, and the highly controversial issue has the been the topic of conversation in Johnson County since that time.

What same-sex ?marriage? has done to Massachusetts

Posted on October 22, 2008
Anyone who thinks that same-sex ?marriage? is a benign eccentricity which won?t affect the average person should consider what it has done in Massachusetts. It?s become a hammer to force the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality . . .

Slate: ?Oklahoma?s gallingly paternalistic ultrasound law.?

Posted on October 22, 2008
Elizabeth Bazelon has this report on Slate. She writes:  Dread is the emotion pro-life groups look to instill when they push states to pass laws that make an ultrasound part of the abortion procedure . . .  But what if a woman doesn’t want an ultrasound, and there’s no pressing clinical reason for her to have it? [...

?Gay Marriage in Peril in California?

Posted on October 22, 2008
The Wall Street Journal reports: “A state ballot measure to ban gay marriage in California is gaining momentum, with polls showing almost even odds of it passing after trailing by double digits a month ago.” The report provides polling data...

Penn hacker sentenced, avoids child porn charges: judge questions equity

Posted on October 22, 2008
The AP reports: “A federal judge questioned why a white Ivy League student found during a computer hacking probe with thousands of images of child pornography was not charged with that crime, sparing him a decade-long prison sentence that a black convicted child pornographer faced at the same hearing...

Federal judge in Colo. resigns amid investigation for porn use

Posted on October 22, 2008
ward W. Nottingham, the chief federal district judge in Colorado ceased his judicial duties immediately and his resignation will be effective Oct. 29, according to a statement Tuesday posted on the Web site of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals . ...

ADF: Pro-life counselors arrested and threatened with arrest for sharing message

Posted on October 22, 2008
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4717 ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND MEDIA ADVISORY October 22, 2008 ? FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS:  (480) 444-0020 or www.telladf.org/pressroom Attorneys with ADF available to media after Penn...

UK: Times writer blasts scouts condom plan

Posted on October 21, 2008
The Christian Institute carries this report that begins: “News that the Scout Association is jumping on the sex education bandwagon has been slammed by a columnist writing in the Times. Ross Clark asks: ?Can there be a youth left in Britain who doesn?t know how to roll on a condom, or that having sex without contraception [...

?Gone, but refusal to protect LGBT employees not forgotten: HRC responds to resignation of Bush?s special counsel?

Posted on October 21, 2008
The HRC Backstory Blog reports:  Yesterday, the notorious head of the Office of Special Counsel, Scott Bloch (pictured), submitted a letter (PDF) to President Bush indicating that he will step down at the end of his five-year term on January 5, 2009, rather than staying on until the position is filled by a new administration...

Fighting back at sex and slave traffickers

Posted on October 21, 2008
The Seatle Post Intelligencer carries this report that begins:  THE DIRTY BIZ of sex and human trafficking keeps hitting home. “5 accused of enslaving girl,” said a Seattle P-I headline this month, about a handful of South King County residents arrested on federal charges of enslaving a 16-year-old Afghan immigrant girl ...

Va. pharmacy follows faith, no birth control sales

Posted on October 21, 2008
The AP reports: “A new drug store at a Virginia strip mall is putting its faith in an unconventional business plan: No candy. No sodas. And no birth control. Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is among at least seven pharmacies across the nation that are refusing as a matter of faith to sell contraceptives of any [...

San Francisco weighs decriminalizing prostitution

Posted on October 21, 2008
The AP reports:  In this live-and-let-live town, where medical marijuana clubs do business next to grocery stores and an annual fair celebrates sadomasochism, prostitutes could soon walk the streets without fear of arrest. San Francisco would become the first major U...

Hollywood money boosts opponents of Calif. marriage amend.

Posted on October 21, 2008
Proposition 8 opponents have raised $6.8 million since Oct. 7 . . . Prop 8 supporters have raised $1.2 million since that day . . .

R. Albert Mohler, Jr.: ?What?s at stake in the ?gay marriage? debate? (part 1)?

Posted on October 21, 2008
Baptist Press carries this article by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. that begins:  Human society is a complex reality, but certain constants have framed that reality for human beings. One of those constants has been the institution of marriage. The respected status of the heterosexual pairing, set apart for exclusive rights and respected for its functions for [...

AUL: Clarke Forsythe Speaking at Boston College Law School

Posted on October 21, 2008
Americans United for Life has posted this announcement indicated that AUL Senior Counsel Clarke Forsythe will be speaking at Boston College Law School on October 21st. The topic:  Threatening Women?s Health: How the Federal ?Freedom of Choice Act? (FOCA) would eliminate every health regulation on abortion in the country Visit Site » Share This

Iowa: ?Council adopts changes to adult entertainment code?

Posted on October 21, 2008
THOnline reports that the town of Dubuque has voted 7-0 to adopt a code regulating sexually oriented businesses.  Scott Bergthold is quoted in the article.  ”What you really want to do in the adult-entertainment arena is really just follow the road map that the courts have set,? Bergthold said...

Massachusetts: Town told to revise its sex shop zoning

Posted on October 21, 2008
The Daily News Transcript: “The town must revise its adult zoning bylaw to protect itself from potentially damaging litigation, Dedham officials said last night, while acknowledging that the difficult part is where to locate the controversial zone for R-rated bookstores, video stores and clubs...

ADF: 7th Circuit to hear arguments on Illinois church prevented from meeting at its own property

Posted on October 21, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney David Langdon will be available for media interviews Wednesday following a hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit concerning a Hazel Crest church prevented from meeting at property it has already legally purchased.

Jordan Lorence to debate at UCLA: The effects of marriage redefinition on First Amendment rights

Posted on October 21, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will participate in a debate Wednesday at the UCLA School of Law on the effects of same-sex ?marriage? on First Amendment rights.

DC Cir. blocks release of Chinese Muslims from Gitmo

Posted on October 21, 2008
The Washington Post reports: “A federal appeals court Monday blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslims into the United States from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until it can hear further legal arguments in the case . . .  Nov...

James Madison Center: Court Sides with West Virginians for Life

Posted on October 21, 2008
Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom 1 South 6th Street Terre Haute, IN 47807-3510 PRESS RELEASE October 21, 2008 Contact: James Bopp, Jr. Cell Phone 812/243-0825; Phone 812/232-2434; Fax 812/235-3685; jboppjr@aol.com  Court Sides With West Virginians For Life A federal district court in West Virginia has sided with a West Virginia-based organization in many of its challenges to West Virginia election law...

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