Religion & Law

?Who Started the Fire?? Is a Moot Point When the Roof Is Caving in

Posted on April 20, 2007
As I sit here looking at my seven month old son I think that perhaps the last twenty-seven years of my life have led up to this point. Though I would argue that I am undeserving of such a wonderful gift as this boy, I am truly grateful, and it is this gratitude that leads me to think that perhaps my son will one day look at my grandson in the same manner...

The Second Amendment and Virginia Tech

Posted on April 20, 2007
The shocking killings  by the student at Virginia Tech raises an interesting public policy question that connects to a constitutional one:  Did the "gun free zone" rule at Virginia Tech create an opportunity for more killings that probably would not have occurred if students and faculty at Virginia Tech could have carried guns on campus?   Ponder this point: The killings at Virginia Tech did stop when "good people with guns" appeared, that is, the police, but the...

Kennedy's Revenge After Stenberg

Posted on April 20, 2007
Jan Crawford Greenburg, whose book on the Supreme Court was recently reviewed here by Jordan Lorence,  has this very interesting post on the ABC blog in which she discusses how Justice Kennedy felt betrayed in Stenberg (the partial birth abortion ruling) after going along with Casey in 1992...

Killing Your Own Unborn Baby is Central to Womanhood, So Says Justice Ginsburg

Posted on April 20, 2007
Chicago Law Prof. Cass R. Sunstein has an article in today's LA Times titled: Ginsburg's Dissent May Yet Prevail: The justice argues that equality, not privacy, is crucial in the abortion right.  He writes: IN THE LONG RUN, the most important part of the Supreme Court's ruling on "partial-birth" abortions may not be Justice Anthony M...

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Teresa Collett on How the Supreme Court has Left Lower Courts in a Pickle in Abortion Litigation

Posted on April 20, 2007
Teresa Stanton Collett was Counsel for Amici Congressman Ron Paul, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Catholic Medical Association, and Christian Medical and Dental Assoction in Gonzales v. Carhart. Teresa has this insightful post on the SCOTUS blog...

Judicial Restraint: A Simpler Speculation as to Why Roberts and Alito Did Not Join Thomas in Carhart II

Posted on April 20, 2007
A perhaps simpler speculation, one which is arguably most consistent with R&A's careers and Senate testimony, is that R&A were guided by an attitude of judicial restraint: there is no need to declare on Roe/Casey itself if Justice Kennedy's opinion resolves the dispute before the Court...

Further Musings on Why Alito and Roberts Did Not Join Thomas' Concurrence in Gonzalez and the Commerce Clause Issue

Posted on April 19, 2007
If Gonzalez II returns to the Supreme Court, would the four liberals hold their noses and join Justice Thomas to strike down the federal law on the grounds that Congress exceeded its Commerce Clause authority?...(read more)

Supreme Court Bingo Vindicated!

Posted on April 19, 2007
The predictive power of Supreme Court Bingo prevailed on Tuesday when the Supreme Court announced that Justice Kennedy was the author of the partial birth abortion decision, as prophesized (albeit tentatively) in this very blog.   As more decisions come down from the Supreme Court  in coming weeks, we may be able to predict  which justice is drafting some of the argued, but unreleased decisions, such as Hein v...

Kevin Kelly: "Gonzales v. Carhart: Summary and Implications"

Posted on April 19, 2007
Overall, the Court?s decision is a significant victory for the pro-life movement. Although the Court did not explicitly overturn the Stenberg decision, it effectively did so in many ways. And by structuring the Gonzales v. Carhart decision in such a way that the Roe and Casey frameworks were assumed and not reaffirmed as law, the Court has prepared the away for future challenges to the basic premises of abortion jurisprudence...

Stare Decisis is a Charade: Lean on the Doctrine Just a Little and It Collapses

Posted on April 19, 2007
So argues Michael Stokes Paulsen in this post on the Balkinization blog.  ...(read more)

Has the Supreme Court Adopted "Operation Outcry" Messaging and Effectively Gutted Roe and Casey?

Posted on April 18, 2007
". . . many members of the public will not even realize that Roe and Casey have been effectively gutted. " ...(read more)

Think Happy Thoughts or Else! Federal Court OK's Censoring Student's "Be Happy, _ _ _ Gay" T-Shirt

Posted on April 18, 2007
A United States District Judge decided that Naperville High School could allow a veritable festival of speech by students and teachers in favor of homosexual behavior on the "Day of Silence," but could simultaneously suppress the expression of a different viewpoint in the form of the ironic phrase ?Be Happy, Not Gay? on the "Day of Truth"...

More Discussions on the PBA Ruling

Posted on April 18, 2007
In addition to our earlier posts, check out the Volokh Conspiracy blog which also has several interesting posts on today's partial birth abortion ruling: The Federal PBA Ban and the Commerce ClauseFederalism and Partial Birth AbortionFederal Partial Birth Abortion Ban: A Violation of the Interstate Commerce Clause?Scalia Having Second Thoughts About the Commerce Clause? Also, Lyle Denniston has this post over at the SCOTUS Blog that begins: In a decision that surely is on a par, historically,...

Alito and Roberts do not join Thomas' Concurrence: Savvy Move or Trouble Ahead?

Posted on April 18, 2007
In one of the interesting omissions in today's Gonzalez decision, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito did not join Justice Thomas' concurring opinion (joined by Scalia) which states that the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence "has no basis in the Constitution...

Initial thoughts on the partial birth abortion decision from the Supreme Court

Posted on April 18, 2007
This may be more than a thaw; it may be springtime. Beginning with the Ayotte decision almost 1 1/2/ years ago, the Supreme Court is showing a greater deference to lawmakers to set the rules in the vexing and complex area of abortion, rather than impose rigid, extreme rules that strike down event reasonable restrictions on abortion ...

Key Excerpts from Today's U.S. Supreme Court Partial Birth Abortion Opinions: Gonzales v. Carhart

Posted on April 18, 2007
Gonzales v. Carhart, No. 05-380 (April 18, 2007)  Citations have been omitted in some instances. Justice Kennedy writing for the majority joined by the Roberts, C.J., Scalia J., Thomas J., Alito J. to uphold the Federal Act prohibiting Partial Birth Abortion...

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Partial Birth Abortion Ban

Posted on April 18, 2007
Yahoo News Report:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_abortion SCOTUS Blog Report (Summary):http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2007/04/court_rules_att.html How Appealing Report (links to the opinion)http://howappealing...

Enforce the "Military Honor and Decency Act": Married Life Combined with Military Life is Difficult Enough Without Adding Easy Access to Pornography

Posted on April 17, 2007
The Department of Defense is not properly enforcing the Military Honor and Decency Act, 10 U.S.C. § 2489, which prohibits the sale of "sexually oriented material" in military exchanges. The statute defines "sexually explicit material" to include recordings, films, videos, periodicals with visual depictions, or materials "produced in any medium, the dominant theme of which depicts or describes nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious way...

Supreme Court Bingo Update and who is writing the partial birth abortion decisions

Posted on April 17, 2007
Lest you think there is no value in the Supreme Court Bingo method of predicting authorship of opinions,let me give you evidence that it does work, at least sometimes. As of yesterday, eight of the nine decisions from the October sitting had come down, with only Justice Breyer lacking an opinion...

Alan E. Sears: "NFL Gains a First Down for the First Amendment"

Posted on April 16, 2007
  Today's Townhall commentary by ADF's President, Alan Sears, is an interesting read for lawyers and sports fans alike. Here is an excerpt:   Free speech, these days, is in the gimlet eye of some sharply suspicious beholders, and it?s now a de facto crime in America to express any opinion contrary to that of the cultural dictators...

Supreme Court Bingo and which justices may be writing the two partial birth abortion opinions

Posted on April 16, 2007
   This is a serious post about an interesting Supreme Court  phenomenon that I call, "Supreme Court Bingo,"  where we can make educated guesses about  which justices are writing  the argued, but unreleased decisions from the Supreme Court...

Planned Parenthood Moves to Suppress ADF Filing in 8th Circuit Challenge to South Dakota's Informed Consent Law

Posted on April 11, 2007
The Eighth Circuit granted ADF's motion to file the brief, and it seemed to prompt a mini-storm over at Planned Parenthood. That organization asked the court to reconsider and not accept our brief. ...(read more)

Alan E. Sears: Grandparents and Pornographers

Posted on April 10, 2007
The latest article by ADF President Alan Sears is published on Baptist Press. It begins: If children are indeed the future of this country, then the nation's highest court will soon decide how much protection our future deserves. After a disturbing decision by the U...

Book Review: "The Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court" by Jan Crawford Greenburg

Posted on April 10, 2007
By Jordan Lorence       Jan Crawford Greenburg?s excellent book, the Supreme Conflict, insightfully examines  the inside workings of the Supreme Court, its personalities and the political intrigue and battles that got the justices where they are today...

Technorati

Posted on April 01, 2007
Technorati Profile...(read more)

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses Grandparent Visitation Case, But Agrees to Review the Constitutionality of Federal Child Porn Prohibitions

Posted on March 26, 2007
Today the United States Supreme Court refused to take a new look at the constitutionality of state laws governing grandparent visitation with children by refusing to hear Fausey v. Hiller , No. 06-863. But, the Court granted a petition for certiorari in the case of United States...

Is It Biblical to File Suit?

Posted on March 23, 2007
ADF Attorney Travis C. Barham addresses this question in this post on the ADF Center for Academic Freedom blog.  ...(read more)

Don't Ask Christian Public School Students to Surrender

Posted on March 22, 2007
Daniel Henninger?s call in the Wall Street Journal today for common sense would reject student free speech rights until they go to college. But in today's schools, Henninger's suggestion is a call to let government schools keep all of their coercive power to annihilate God in the minds of the young, while forcing Christian students to surrender one of their only peaceful weapons in the face of militant secularism...

Kevin Clarkson: Banner Case Has Deep Implications

Posted on March 21, 2007
ADF Allied Attorney Kevin Clarkson has this opinion piece in today's Anchorage Daily News on the Morse v. Frederick, "Bongs Hits for Jesus" case. ...(read more)

More Thoughts on Oral Arguments in Morse v. Frederick

Posted on March 21, 2007
I highly commend and agree with Matt Bowman's excellent analysis of the oral arguments in the Morse v. Frederick oral arguments.  I add a few thoughts from observing the oral arguments with Matt and others.  The justices do not discuss the cases before the oral arguments, so the first look at their individual response to the case (and their emerging consensus) emerges at the oral arguments...

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