Religion & Law

Heritage Foundation: The gov?t spending threat to economic freedom

Posted on January 12, 2011
Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: "All told, 117 countries, mainly developing and emerging market economies, improved their Economic Freedom Index score. Meanwhile the U.S. dropped to 9th place, remaining 'mostly free,' weighed down by the burden of President Obama?s spending spree...

Ilya Somin: Supreme Court refuses to hear potentially important Commerce Clause case

Posted on January 12, 2011
Ilya Somin writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: "Yesterday, the Supreme Court refused to hear United States v. Alderman, a potentially important Commerce Clause case [HT: Josh Blackman]. In Alderman, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the constitutionality of a federal statute that banned the possession of body armor by felons...

Sen. Udall: Reforming the rules of the Senate to restore accountability and reduce gridlock

Posted on January 12, 2011
Sen. Tom Udall writing in the Harvard Law & Policy Review: "The United States Senate has become a graveyard for good ideas?increasingly crippled by the partisan abuse of the institution?s own rules. Instead of being the chamber of Congress where legislation is carefully debated and serving as an 'additional impediment ...

NYT: Impeachment as intimidation

Posted on January 12, 2011
New York Times Editorial: "It is unlikely that Iowa?s Democratic-controlled Senate would go along with removing the judges, but an impeachment trial would be disruptive and intentionally intimidating. The nation?s democracy and cherished rights rely on keeping court decision-making above the fickle tugs of ordinary politics...

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CO: 10th Circuit denies media access to prison video admitted during trial

Posted on January 12, 2011
Denver Post: "A federal appellate court in Denver has denied the media access to video and autopsy photographs showing the mutilation of a prison inmate killed by his cellmates even though the images were used by prosecutors during two criminal trials...

Pakistan court convicts imam and son for blasphemy

Posted on January 12, 2011
AFP: "A Pakistan court has jailed a Muslim prayer leader and his 20-year-old son for life on controversial blasphemy charges in the rural centre of the country, court officials said Tuesday."

Kevin Theriot: Church can work with county to provide affordable housing

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: Just before Christmas, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim that Arlington County Virginia violated the Establishment Clause when it worked with a church to develop a building that contained both a church and affordable housing...

Casey Mattox: Vanderbilt University: Pro-lifers need not apply; will Obama admin enforce the law?

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF attorney Casey Mattox writing at Speak Up Movement / University: ADF has today filed a formal complaint with the Department of Health & Human Services, asking it to enforce federal law and prohibit Vanderbilt from illegally discriminating against our client, a well qualified nursing student who happens also to be pro-life and unwilling to violate her conscience by assisting in abortions ...

Matt Bowman on KFUO: Stripping parental rights to make a buck on abortion

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared with Roland Lettner  on KFUO to discuss this: ADF attorneys, pro-life groups: Parental involvement more needed for abortions than for body piercings.  | MP3 audio 23:15 mins

Erik Stanley on KFUO: Taxing churches based on attendance

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF attorney Erik Stanley appeared with Roland Lettner  on KFUO to discuss this: Kansas town sued for taxing church attendance. | MP3 audio 23:50 mins

Alan Sears: Mount Soledad decision underscores threat to U.S. war memorials

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF President and CEO Alan Sears writing at Inside the Issues: "Paul warned the Christians of Corinth that the cross would always be 'a stumbling block' and 'foolishness' (1 Corinthians 1:22) to the people around them. He told the Philippians that there were many who act as 'enemies of the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18)...

Erik Stanley: Oh Canada! The homosexual agenda steamrolls religious freedom

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "The court held that allowing marriage commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex 'marriage' ceremonies would violate the 'Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms' because it 'would violate the equality rights of gay and lesbian individuals...

David Cortman: Isn?t every day ?Religious Freedom Day??

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF Attorney David Cortman writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "You probably didn?t know that several of our Presidents, past and present, have declared January 16th of each year to be 'Religious Freedom Day' . . . But don?t we have religious freedom every day of the year? Why do we need a special day? And doesn?t it exist in our public square as well as in our public schools?"

Unborn twins interact with each other as early as 14 weeks

Posted on January 12, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "Unborn twin babies socialize as early as week 14 of gestation, a new study has shown. Italian researcher Dr. Umberto Castiello of the University of Padova and associates used an advanced method of ultrasonography, which enables the movements of the babies to be recorded over time in 3D, to study five pairs of twins from a sample of low-risk pregnant women attending the Institute of Child Health I...

?Catholic Marquette U welcomes pro-abort, pro-gay former Sen. Feingold as visiting prof?

Posted on January 12, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "The Catholic Marquette University Law School has hired a former senator, well-known for his pro-abortion views, as a visiting professor for the Spring semester."

Housing market slips into depression territory

Posted on January 12, 2011
CNBC: "In the past few years, we?ve all been careful to choose our words carefully, not calling it a recession until it fit the technical definition and avoiding any inappropriate use of the 'D' word ? Depression. Things were bad but the broader economy never reached Depression territory...

Religious themes permeate Kansas inauguration

Posted on January 12, 2011
Miami Herald: "Gov. Sam Brownback, who proudly wears his religious faith on both sleeves, declared the day of his inauguration a 'gift from God' not to be frittered away."

Virginia rally to urge governor to enforce new abortion clinic regulations

Posted on January 12, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "Virginia pro-lifers are planning a demonstration Thursday to urge Republican Governor Bob McDonnell to implement health regulations that would protect the health of abortion-bound women and may even lead to the closure of sub-standard abortion mills in the state...

NJ: Officials not fazed by prayer ruling

Posted on January 12, 2011
NorthJersey.com: "Local officials are not worried about an injunction issued by state Superior Court judge ordering Point Pleasant to stop saying a prayer before the state of council meetings. 'I am not worried about that, we haven't heard anything from the ACLU (American Citizens Liberties Union),' said Old Tappan Mayor Victor Polce...

OR: Prineville nativity gets lots of support

Posted on January 12, 2011
KBND: "More than one hundred Prineville residents showed up at Tuesday night's City Council meeting to let them know they don't want the City's nativity scene to go away."

Cardinal George: Marriage redefinition advocates are arguing with ?Mother Nature?

Posted on January 12, 2011
Windy City Media Group: "The Catholic spiritual leader of Chicago visited Boston College recently, where a doctoral student pressed Cardinal Francis George about the Church's recent opposition to civil-unions legislation recently passed by the Illinois General Assembly...

Canada: Polygamy survivor takes the stand

Posted on January 12, 2011
CKNW: "Carolyn Jessop recounted how she escaped her abusive husband, and the community of Colorado City, Arizona in april of 2003. She loaded up all eight of her kids into an uninsured van and drove away with the lights off. She described the terror she felt every time a car approached her vehicle, convinced it was someone coming to force her back...

Feds tells Manhattan College it?s not Catholic enough

Posted on January 12, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "A federal agency has told a New York Catholic college that it has distanced itself too far from the authority and teaching of the Catholic Church to merit government recognition as a sectarian institution - a development Catholic education watchdogs are using as a warning to other secularized Catholic institutions ...

Cato Institute: ?Marriage against the State: Toward a new view of civil marriage?

Posted on January 12, 2011
Jason Kuznicki writing at the Cato Institute: "As U.S. courts have repeatedly declared, marriage is fundamentally a private, individual right. One implication of this view, clear but not always consistently applied, is that the federal role in marriage should be to get out of the way...

David French: Second student files complaint as Vanderbilt spins

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF attorney David French writing at National Review Online / Phi Beta Cons: "Yesterday afternoon, I wrote about Vanderbilt?s requirement that applicants for a nursing residency sign a ?Women?s Health Acknowledgment? stating that applicants 'will be expected to care for women undergoing termination of pregnancy...

Hundreds of Christians demonstrate on Cairo?s edge

Posted on January 12, 2011
Boston.com (AP): "Hundreds of Christians demonstrated late Wednesday near a large Cairo slum, blocking a major highway and clashing with police following the shooting death of a Christian man the day before, said a security official."

FRC urges health advisory panel to protect conscience rights, oppose mandates for abortifacients in Obamacare

Posted on January 12, 2011
FRC Press Release: "At a meeting today in the nation's capital of a federal advisory committee on the new health care law, Family Research Council (FRC) expressed its strong opposition to designating abortion as a means of pregnancy-prevention. The Institute of Medicine Committee on Preventive Services for Women is hearing comments about regulatory mandates for women's preventive services under Obamacare...

Hawaii: Senators recommend halt to floor session invocations

Posted on January 12, 2011
Honolulu Star Advertiser: "State Senate leaders will recommend that the Senate end the invocations traditionally offered by clergy before floor sessions to avoid intruding on the separation between church and state."

ACLJ seeks injunction to halt mosque near Ground Zero

Posted on January 12, 2011
Christian Post: "The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents 9/11 first responder firefighter Tim Brown in a lawsuit against the Park51 project, is seeking an injunction in any demolition and construction at the downtown Manhattan site."

In Pakistan, tolerance shrinks

Posted on January 12, 2011
Wall Street Journal [full text via Google News]: "Late last week, when Taseer's assassin was presented at an antiterrorism court, no public prosecutor showed up out of fear for his safety. Instead, a throng of shouting lawyers and activists, bearing garlands for the assassin, crowded the streets hailing the killer as a hero...

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