Religion & Law

At U.S. insistence, sexual orientation language restored to UN resolution

Posted on December 22, 2010
"Gay rights advocates scored a hard-fought victory at the U.N. on Tuesday when member states restored a reference to sexual orientation, dropped last month from a resolution opposing the unjustified killing of minority groups."

A Possible Endorsement Test Case for the U.S. Supreme Court?

Posted on December 22, 2010
"Yesterday, the Tenth Circuit voted 5?4 not to rehear the Utah roadside cross memorial case, American Atheists, Inc. v. Duncan. The result, and the forceful dissents from denial of rehearing en banc, make it likely that the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case, and perhaps overturn the Establishment Clause endorsement test ...

Kansas town sued for taxing church attendance

Posted on December 21, 2010
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of two churches in response to a city of Mission property tax disguised as a ?driveway fee? to evade having to grant exemptions.

DADT lawsuits to remain active

Posted on December 21, 2010
Associated Press: "Pending lawsuits against the military ban on openly gay troops will remain in place for now, even though Congress has voted to repeal the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy."

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Military will write the rules on repeal of DADT

Posted on December 21, 2010
Associated Press: "Gays and lesbians will be treated just like any other soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines, the new rules say. But commanders will have some flexibility when they believe it's needed to maintain order and discipline in their units."

ACLU submits brief to fight Iowa lawsuit that would derail judicial appointments

Posted on December 21, 2010
"On December 9, the Bopp law firm of Indiana filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of four Iowa residents, arguing that Iowa's current 'Missouri Plan' method of selecting judges is unconstitutional because citizens are not allowed to directly vote for the judges...

Andy McCarthy: America must wake up to threat of sharia

Posted on December 21, 2010
Andrew C. McCarthy writing in The Washington Examiner: "Islamism is a mainstream ideology to which millions of Muslims -- only a bare fraction of whom would ever participate in terrorism -- are beholden. Islamists and Muslim terrorists agree on the goal: the implementation of Sharia to strangle individual liberty and foster Islamicized societies...

Stanley Fish on higher education: We?re all Conservatives now

Posted on December 21, 2010
Stanley Fish writing at The New York Times / Opinionator: "The left is right to point to the withdrawal of state funds from public universities as precipitating 'the neoliberal rush to privatize and vocationalize all facets of higher education' . . . But the right is right to point out that the faculty who work within these ever-more-pinched spaces are predominantly liberal and have over the years created 'new inter-disciplinary fields whose inspirations were ideological and closely linked to political activism' ...

Korea: Christmas tree serves as explosive symbol of the North-South divide

Posted on December 21, 2010
"The lighting of the tree after a seven-year hiatus marked a pointed return to a tradition condemned in Pyongyang as propaganda."

Phoenix diocese strips St. Joseph?s Hospital of Catholic status

Posted on December 21, 2010
"The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix has removed St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center's status as a Catholic hospital for failing to strictly adhere to Bishop Thomas Olmsted's demands that the hospital comply with church moral teaching."

Lord Nicholas Windsor: Abortion is Europe?s most pressing issue

Posted on December 21, 2010
Lord Nicholas Windsor writing at First Things: "Is it still possible then that we can point to anything of any real significance that had been overlooked, anything dangerous smuggled into this new phase of history that has caught us unawares? I would say that this is indeed the case, and I would like to focus especially on a matter and a practice that constitutes the single most grievous moral deficit in contemporary life: the abortion of our unborn children ...

TX Planned Parenthood chapter quits, forced by national to do abortions

Posted on December 21, 2010
LifeNews: "A Texas-based Planned Parenthood affiliate has resigned as a member of the national organization because Planned Parenthood Federation of America wanted it to do abortions."

Hungary passes law boosting government control over media

Posted on December 21, 2010
Reuters: "Hungary's parliament passed legislation on Tuesday to tighten government control over news outlets that media watchdogs say is arbitrary and ill-defined."

Poll: Americans say Christmas a religious day, 92% celebrate it

Posted on December 21, 2010
UPI: "An overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate Christmas, and most of those who do say they consider it a religious celebration, a poll indicates."

UK terror plot aimed British landmarks, shopping

Posted on December 21, 2010
Associated Press: "A large-scale terror attack was aimed at British landmarks and public spaces, security officials said Tuesday as more details emerged and police searched the homes of 12 British suspects being held for questioning."

Pope sees clergy sex abuse as product of moral relativism

Posted on December 21, 2010
Bendict XVI: "We are well aware of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and of our corresponding responsibility. But neither can we remain silent regarding the context of these times in which these events have come to light. There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society...

6th Circuit affirms free-speech suit against judge

Posted on December 21, 2010
Courthouse News Service: "A fired court employee can sue the chief judge who ordered her termination in his personal capacity, but the court and the judge, in his professional capacity, are immune from federal claims the 6th Circuit ruled." | Pucci v...

Long-dead judge sparks a lively tug of war

Posted on December 21, 2010
News Observer: "James Iredell, one of the first U.S. Supreme Court justices, and father of the state's 23rd governor, was a prolific letter writer . . . Harvey Wilson Johnson, a Raleigh octogenarian with direct family ties to the 18th-century statesman, has sued the state Department of Cultural Resources and state archives, staking a claim on a collection that contains many of Iredell's writings and a letter from King George V...

Homosexual advocates launch new guide to make homosexual ?rights? a reality

Posted on December 21, 2010
C-FAM: "Homosexual activists just launched a new 'toolkit' which outlines methods to promote a controversial document which asserts that states have a legal obligation to fulfill 'rights' to gay adoption, reproductive technologies and state-funded sex changes ...

Dems reach magic number on arms treaty as GOP support builds

Posted on December 21, 2010
The Hill: "Senate Democrats appear to have the nine Republican votes they need to ratify the New START nuclear treaty this week and give President Obama his third major victory of the lame-duck session."

Iowa justices to leave office despite state legal challenge

Posted on December 21, 2010
"Lawyers who contend the Nov. 2 retention vote was unconstitutional said this morning that they will drop their push to temporarily prevent the justices from leaving office."

On Palin?s reading list, C.S. Lewis

Posted on December 21, 2010
Wall Street Journal: "Mrs. Palin is on the right track by giving C.S. Lewis a prominent place on her reading list. Yet Ms. Behar and other Palin critics have dismissed Lewis's work, forgetting that Lewis was a medieval and renaissance scholar at Oxford and the author of several brilliant Christian apologetics...

Pat Buchanan: Christian rout in the culture war

Posted on December 21, 2010
"For only in secularist ideology is it an article of faith that all sexual relations are morally equal and that to declare homosexual acts immoral is bigotry."

William McGurn: The Army and the Ivy

Posted on December 21, 2010
William McGurn writing in the Wall Street Journal: "When you take the victory lap you are entitled to for ending the prohibition on gays serving openly in the military, follow up with a call to end the remaining discrimination faced by members of our military?the second-class status of Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) cadets on some of our leading college campuses...

Heritage Foundation: It?s time to stop the FCC Internet czars

Posted on December 21, 2010
Mike Brownfield writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: "Imagine a future where the Internet is governed by unelected bureaucrats in Washington, DC, who rule at their own whim, regardless of legislators? demands or judicial rule. Sadly, that future is now...

Afghan sex practices concern U.S., British forces

Posted on December 21, 2010
Washington Examiner: "A document released by WikiLeaks described efforts by high-ranking Afghan officials to quash reports of police officers and other Afghans arrested for 'purchasing a service from a child' . . . The vast gulf between U.S. and Afghan attitudes about homosexuality and pedophilia has generated concern among U...

FFRF objects to sectarian prayers in Tulsa

Posted on December 21, 2010
FFRF: "The Freedom From Religion Foundation has formally complained to Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr. of Tulsa, Okla., about unconstitutional sectarian prayers at Tulsa City Council meetings."

?Sad day?: Senate passes DADT repeal

Posted on December 21, 2010
Michael Foust reports at Baptist Press: "'No Americans, and especially not our troops, should be forced to abandon their religious beliefs,' Alliance Defense Fund attorney [Daniel Blomberg] said in a statement. 'We hope that our nation's leaders will work to ensure that none of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines are ever made to choose between serving their country or obeying their God as result of this damaging policy decision...

?Merry Christmas? banned at Nevada high school

Posted on December 21, 2010
Fox News Radio: "'Employees, including teachers, can't even say the words, "Merry Christmas," in the school,' [David Cortman] told Fox News Radio. Students, however, are still permitted to use the traditional holiday greeting."

WorldNetDaily: Military ban not over yet

Posted on December 21, 2010
WorldNetDaily: "On the legal front, the Alliance Defense Fund is preparing to defend the religious liberty of chaplains and service members. 'Our concern is that chaplains and others will find their ability to work in the military will depend on their ability to censor themselves,' said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel [Daniel Blomberg]...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.