Religion & Law

Texas to same-sex couple: Keep your divorce out of our courts

Posted on December 17, 2010
Wall Street Journal Law Blog: "On Wednesday, a state lawyer argued before an appeals court on Wednesday that a District Judge Scott Jenkins violated state law when he granted a divorce earlier this year to a same-sex couple. Click here for the story, from the Austin American-Statesman...

NJ judge blocks town?s pre-council meeting prayers

Posted on December 17, 2010
First Amendment Center (AP): "A shore town will have to cease its practice of allowing individual borough council members to say a prayer before meetings, a judge ruled today in a decision that likely won't end a dispute that has inspired vigorous debate among residents and advocates...

ACLU targets Phoenix bishop for opposing hospital abortion

Posted on December 17, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The American Civil Liberties Union has attacked Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix after news broke this week that the bishop had taken further steps against a Catholic hospital that had performed a direct abortion."

Gov?t changes attorney licensing regulations in response to CCR, ACLU suit

Posted on December 17, 2010
ACLU: "Attorneys are no longer required to seek permission from the government to provide uncompensated representation to individuals the government has placed on a list of designated terrorists, following a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in August...

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Kansas education board argues over HIV/AIDS conference

Posted on December 17, 2010
KansasCity.com (AP): "A state board of education member says the Kansas Department of Education should not participate in an HIV/AIDS conference because it promotes safe sex rather than abstinence."

Iowa: Foes push state to block remote-control abortion system

Posted on December 17, 2010
Des Moines Register: "Abortion opponents continue pressing state medical regulators to stop Planned Parenthood from using a remote-control system to provide abortion pills at small-town clinics around the state."

Michael J. New: More faulty research on the mental-health effects of abortion

Posted on December 17, 2010
Michael J. New writing at National Review Online: "Earlier this week, the Washington Post ran an article about a new study disputing the contention that abortions increase the risk of mental-health problems among women. This study, conducted by Julia Steinberg of UC?San Francisco and Lawrence Finer of the Guttmacher Institute, appeared in the October 2010 issue of Social Science and Medicine...

Stringent medical marijuana rules proposed in AZ

Posted on December 17, 2010
Associated Press: "Arizona regulators have posted preliminary rules for users and sellers of medical marijuana intended to make sure only those who truly need pot can get it."

?Gay Alabama lawmaker asks if ethics bill would apply to her spouse?

Posted on December 17, 2010
Associated Press: "Todd is the only openly gay member of the Legislature and she asked Wednesday if the bill would apply to the woman that is her spouse considering that Alabama law does not recognize gay marriages. Todd said she and her partner were married in another state...

Lesbian freshman gets leadership post in California Assembly

Posted on December 17, 2010
Gay Politics: "California Assemblymember Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, an out lesbian in her first term as a state legislator, has been named majority whip by Speaker John Pérez."

Travis Barham: Till [WVU-Parkersburg] freezes over

Posted on December 17, 2010
ADF Attorney Travis C. Barham writing at Speak Up Movement / University: "On Wednesday, [WVU-Parkersburg] issued a press release, which is notable primarily for its efforts to evade the actual decisions that caused the nursing students to contact ADF in the first place ...

Casey Mattox: NCAA Bowl picks ? campus freedom style

Posted on December 17, 2010
ADF Attorney Casey Mattox writing at Speak Up Movement / University: "I?ll bring you my picks for all 35 bowl games based on the universities? respect for the First Amendment. The first installment today is for those games played through December 27. Later posts will cover the remaining games ? including the BCS National Championship...

FRC Action to support primary challengers to Senators voting for DADT repeal

Posted on December 17, 2010
"We are pledging today to endorse, and help fund, conservative primary challengers to any U.S. Senator who votes during the lame-duck session to overturn 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'"

NC: Perdue says same-sex ?marriage? law is sufficient

Posted on December 17, 2010
News and Record (video): "Gov. Bev Perdue told reporters that she did not think North Carolina needed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage."

FIFA leader apologizes for ?gay sex? comment

Posted on December 17, 2010
ABC: "FIFA's president Sepp Blatter apologized Friday for his remarks that gay fans should abstain from sex during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar."

Proposed sale of Philly Boy Scouts headquarters back on track

Posted on December 17, 2010
Philadelphia Enquirer: "The city's proposed sale of the historic Boy Scouts of America local headquarters to the group was back on track Thursday, but a formidable coalition of gay-rights and other civic leaders has lined up against it."

What IVF does not heal

Posted on December 17, 2010
Tim Muldoon writing at Patheos: "Most significant is what we know about the practice of adoption: those who experience infertility are up to ten times as likely to adopt as those who have not. To put it differently: the experience of infertility leads many from that landscape of heartbreak to the hope of adoption...

Mormon Church pulls missionaries from Ivory Coast

Posted on December 17, 2010
Salt Lake Tribune: "Due to escalating unrest and political instability in the wake of the Ivory Coast?s contested presidential election, the LDS Church is pulling its non-African missionaries out of the small West African nation and relocating them in Benin and Togo, which are all part of the same LDS mission...

Dutch may introduce burqa ban as early as 2011

Posted on December 17, 2010
Reuters: "The Netherlands could ban the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women, as soon as next year, Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders told Reuters in an interview Thursday."

Canada: Fertility law not working, critics say

Posted on December 17, 2010
Montreal Gazette: "Canada's fertility laws are driving infertile couples who are desperate for babies into the black market or abroad and need to be reformed, critics say. The 6-year-old law prohibiting payment for sperm, eggs or surrogacy services has Canadians seeking paid surrogates in India...

MI: Boy agrees to remove religious dagger at school

Posted on December 16, 2010
Hometown Life: "A Bentley Elementary School fourth-grader and his family have agreed to remove a religious item normally required to be worn by their Sikh religion until Plymouth-Canton Community Schools officials can figure out the best way ? legally and otherwise ? to handle it...

Woman sues Milan inn, claims religious discrimination

Posted on December 16, 2010
Quad City Times: "A Rock Island woman claims in a lawsuit that she was discriminated against by her former employer, Milan?s Welcome Inn, in Milan, Ill., because she refused to work on Sundays."

Iowa Supreme Court should have final say on steel wheels case

Posted on December 16, 2010
Globe Gazette editorial: "We believe there is only one place for it to come to a conclusion: The Iowa Supreme Court. That?s why we?re backing a call by the attorney for Mitchell County Mennonites for the high court in Iowa to rule on the county?s ban of the use of steel-wheeled vehicles...

The ACLU?s not-so-holy trinity

Posted on December 16, 2010
Paul Kengor writing at The American Spectator: "In the interest of faith and charity, I'd like to add my own ecumenical offering -- a history lesson. It concerns some fascinating material I recently published on the ACLU's early founders, especially three core figures: Roger Baldwin, Harry Ward, and Corliss Lamont...

Planned Parenthood gets $363 million in tax funds, does more abortions

Posted on December 16, 2010
LifeNews: "The report shows it received more government funding, which has translated into more abortions. The nation?s largest abortion business released a factsheet in September showing the number of abortions it performed in 2008 increased to 324,008, a 6...

Russia uses extremism law to target dissenters

Posted on December 16, 2010
Reuters: "The local leader of a congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Siberia now faces up to two years in prison if found guilty this week of inciting religious hatred for distributing literature about his beliefs."

PA: Church?s expansion plans rejected

Posted on December 16, 2010
Daily Local: "Borough Council rejected First Presbyterian Church's request to tear down two buildings adjacent to the Miner Street church as part of an expansion plan for the church with more than 2,000 members . . . Earlier this year the church hired a Chicago law firm that specializes in religious land-use cases...

Book Review: The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History

Posted on December 16, 2010
In Democracy, Yehudah Mirsky reviews The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History By Samuel Moyn: "Two large questions dog the theory and practice of human rights in our time. Although many claim that these rights have a long ancestry in the history of human thought, why do they seem to have emerged in force only in recent decades? And why does the language of human rights lend itself so easily to abuse, malevolence, and near meaninglessness, to the point where we?ve nearly come to expect that UN human-rights bodies will be chaired by dictatorships?" [Via Instapundit]

Iowa: House GOP leader open to impeaching Supreme Court justices

Posted on December 16, 2010
"If the people of Iowa demand that the remaining four justices on the state Supreme Court be impeached, Speaker-elect Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha) said Wednesday he would not stand in the way . . . . . . State Sen. Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola) said Monday that he will also push for impeachment proceedings...

Dalton, Tomich, and Pensler, PLC: A RLUIPA win in Hazel Park

Posted on December 16, 2010
attorneysforlanduse.com (Dalton, Tomich, and Pensler, PLC): "As noted in the Alliance Defense Blog, in Hazel Park, Michigan, city authorities have been doing their red-tape best to gerrymander a local congregation, Salvation Temple Church, out of the district...

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