Religion & Law

Bush Signs Bill To Take All Newborns? DNA

Posted on May 07, 2008
Last week President Bush signed into law a bill S. 1858, known as The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007 which will allow the federal government to begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months. This is a move by the government to initiate the establishment of a national DNA database ...

A Spirited Practice: Combining Law With Religion Is Work ? but Worth It

Posted on May 07, 2008
And therein lies the challenge. Lawyers who integrate their belief system into their legal life say it's the most fulfilling way to practice. But they all agree it isn't easy . . . Fort Worth, Texas, litigator Thomas S. Brandon Jr. agrees.

NY High Court refuses to hear marriage redefinition case

Posted on May 06, 2008
"The Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York State, Tuesday declined to hear a case challenging an appeals court ruling that found the marriages of same-sex couples married in jurisdictions where they are legal must be recognized . . . "

Crisis Pregnancy Center shuts down website

Posted on May 06, 2008
"Hope Pregnancy Resource Center, which opposes abortion and doesn't offer contraceptives, banked on the fact that some people switch up the ".com"s and ".org"s when typing in Web addresses."

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North Carolina Appeals Court Affirms Joint Custody Award to Former Lesbian Partner

Posted on May 06, 2008
"In a case of first impression for North Carolina, on May 6 the state?s court of appeals upheld a decision by Durham County District Judge Ann McKown to award joint custody of a child to Joellen Mason and Irene Dwinnell, former lesbian partners."

Record 44 states have introduced school-choice legislation

Posted on May 06, 2008
Citizen Link reports: “Georgia, Florida, Louisiana among those helping low-income families. A record 44 states have introduced school-choice legislation this year. Lawmakers are using tax credits and other incentives to help low-income families get their children out of failing schools...

CWA: Crouse Says ?Evangelical Manifesto? Muddies the Evangelical Waters

Posted on May 06, 2008
Dr. Crouse said, "The select group drafting the manifesto apparently excludes traditional conservative, pro-life and pro-family evangelical voices. Further, the timing of the manifesto ? at the end of primary election season and just before the general election in a presidential election year ? makes this a decidedly political document when millions of evangelical votes are at stake ...

Evangelical Divide Widens along Generational Line, Says Exper

Posted on May 06, 2008
Younger evangelicals are increasingly feeling disconnected from the older generation when it comes to politics, said an expert on Monday . . .

McDonald?s promotion of the homosexual agenda: This is a combo customers won?t buy

Posted on May 06, 2008
The Family Research Council (FRC) has issued an update urging readers to sign a petition protesting McDonald’s decision to promote the homosexual agenda.  The petition and more information are here. See also the poster linked below. The body of the email signed by Tony Perkins reads: _________ McDonald’s is funding homosexual activism–and I’m NOT lovin’ it! Apparently, serving McFlurries [...

Abortionist George Tiller unable to stall grand jury

Posted on May 06, 2008
In a unanimous ruling, the Kansas Supreme Court Tuesday thwarted an effort by accused serial abortionist George Tiller to stop a grand jury from issuing subpoenas to obtain medical records from him.

Los Angeles man wins right to use wife?s last name

Posted on May 06, 2008
"This disposes of the rule in California that the male surname is the marital name to the same trash bin where dowries were once tossed out," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the Southern California chapter of the ACLU . . .

Milford, Mass. Chief: ?Adult? entertainment increases crime

Posted on May 06, 2008
Police Chief Thomas O'Loughlin will be on hand tonight to present board members research he has done on policing and crime attributable to adult entertainment businesses.

Animal Rights Lawyers Seeking ?Holy Grail? Gain Smaller Victories

Posted on May 06, 2008
"For animal rights lawyers, the holy grail is a court decision that would allow them to sue in the name of animals."

Pennsylvania: School officials deal with ?transgender student? age 9, parents in uproar

Posted on May 06, 2008
"For school officials in Haverford Township, the challenge was daunting: What do you do when a 9-year-old student, with the full support of his parents, decides that he is no longer a boy and instead is a girl? Parents of a third-grade student at Chatham Park Elementary School approached the administration on April 16 to ask for help in making a "social transition" for their child...

Kansas Supreme Court upholds Tiller grand jury prompted by citizens

Posted on May 06, 2008
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled today today that the state?s system of allowing citizen-petitioned grand juries is constitutional . . . The court also sent three related cases back to the Sedgwick County District Court for further review . . .

Japan Steadily Becoming a Land Of Few Children

Posted on May 06, 2008
Japan celebrated a national holiday on Monday in honor of its children. But Children's Day might just as easily have been a national day of mourning.

Federal Court Allows Judicial Candidates To State Their Views On Questionnaires

Posted on May 06, 2008
Today, an Indiana federal court granted an injunction against rules preventing judicial candidates from answering a candidate questionnaire.

California: Moral scruples, civil rights and babies for lesbians

Posted on May 06, 2008
California Catholic Daily reports: Can physicians be compelled by law to artificially inseminate lesbians so they can have children even if performing such a procedure violates the doctors? religious convictions? The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on that issue beginning at 9 a...

Canadian Cabinet Member Slams Human Rights Commission Manipulations as ?Dangerous?

Posted on May 06, 2008
Jason Kenney, the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity gave an address in Calgary Friday where he sounded off on the scandal of Human Rights Commissions (HRC) suppressing freedom in Canada.

Abortion Kills Your Sex Life Says UK Doctor in Times Column

Posted on May 06, 2008
Dr. Stuttaford responded by saying that loss of libido after an abortion is "so common that it can almost be said to be expected". Asked if the feelings would pass, Stuttaford wrote, "It is possible, but by no means inevitable, that the changes this will have wrought in the way you feel about a future together may have irretrievably undermined your relationship...

California Legislature Expected to Vote This Week on Bill Promoting Euthanasia

Posted on May 06, 2008
Last Tuesday, on a straight party line vote, the Assembly Judiciary Committee sent AB 2747 to the Assembly floor.

Shame on the Ohio Legislature for Holding the Human Cloning Ban Hostage

Posted on May 06, 2008
Much opponent focus is to change the bill to ban only so-called reproductive cloning but not so-called therapeutic cloning, plus their feared effect of this ban on research jobs and funding for Ohio.

US Civil Rights Commission reviews religious discrimination in prisons

Posted on May 06, 2008
Religion Clause Blog reports: “The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has recently posted online the full transcript of its Feb. 8 Briefing on Religious Discrimination In Prisons.” Visit Site » Share This

WV: Town Council votes to replace Lord?s Prayer with silence

Posted on May 06, 2008
In a 7-1 majority vote Monday night the Charles Town City Council decided to institute a moment of silent prayer, thus abolishing the decades-long tradition of reciting the Christian-specific Lord?s prayer before the beginning of each meeting . . .

How did the Ten Commandments End on Both Sides of the Wall of Separation between Church and State?

Posted on May 06, 2008
These conflicting judgments do little to clear up the debate concerning religious monuments on government property. Instead, Van Orden and McCreary seem to have opened the floodgates to further litigation and blurred the ?wall of separation between church and state...

The Ten Commandments and the Rejection of Divine Law in American Jurisprudence

Posted on May 06, 2008
State-enforced discrimination that exiles displays of the Ten Commandments from the public forum infringes more than the free exercise of religion: It symbolizes the death of natural law and the rule of law in American jurisprudence. Unless this is understood and rectified, all that will remain is hostility toward religion, rule by law, and the supremacy of the secular state.

Strip clubs ask Texas high court to stop fee collection

Posted on May 06, 2008
The Houston Chronicle reports: An association representing strip clubs asked the Texas Supreme Court on Monday to stop the state from collecting a new fee that a trial court has ruled unconstitutional. The state has already received $3.3 million in payments from the clubs in their initial quarterly payments due last month...

The Privatization of Religion and Catholic Justices

Posted on May 06, 2008
The privatization of religion has been a major theme in American law and culture over the last several decades.

Bill to raise judicial salaries by 29% runs into trouble

Posted on May 06, 2008
One complication that has taken some wind out of the sails is the batch of last-minute amendments to the legislation tacked on by senators . . .

First Principles: Homeschooling

Posted on May 06, 2008
One of the most powerful and unexpected American social movements during the last quarter of the twentieth century was homeschooling, by which thousands of parents broke with generations of law and custom and chose to provide the primary and secondary education of their children in their own homes.

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