Religion & Law

Louisiana: Livingston Parish?s Halloween switch criticized by ACLU

Posted on October 22, 2010
WDSU: "The ACLU of Louisiana on Friday delivered a letter to Livingston Parish leaders urging them to repeal an ordinance that changes the official date of Halloween when Oct. 31 lands on a Sunday."

MT: Helena school board OK?s revised sex education plan

Posted on October 22, 2010
The Body (AP): "Helena school district trustees voted 6-3 on Oct. 12 in favor of a revised sex education curriculum . . . But the changes are not enough for some religious and conservative parents who argue that sex education should be taught at home, not at school...

Plaintiffs? attorney questions Tenn. mosque intent

Posted on October 22, 2010
BusinessWeek: "An attorney for opponents of a proposed mosque attempted Thursday to use unverified Internet information to prove that there is a militant motive behind the project . . . Computer technician Timothy Cummings said he was hired by one of the plaintiffs' attorneys to search the Internet for content connected to the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro and its board members...

USCIRF: 8 nations, including Russia, failing religious liberty pledge

Posted on October 22, 2010
Hannah Cummings reports at Baptist Press: "Several countries in the Organization for Security and Co-operation have violated religious liberty commitments set forth by the organization, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom...

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TIME: ?Why you?re gay: A new study shows why boy rats like other boy rats?

Posted on October 22, 2010
John Cloud writing at TIME / Healthland: "The authors of the new study ? psychologist Cynthia de Medeiros of the University of Toronto and four colleagues ? followed a group of 88 rats after they were born. Rats live only about two or three years, so it was possible for the researchers to track their sexual development from birth to death...

Michigan woman faces civil rights complaint for seeking a Christian roommate

Posted on October 22, 2010
Fox News: "[Joel Oster], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the woman free of charge, describes the case as 'outrageous.' 'Clearly this woman has a right to pick and choose who she wants to live with,' he said."

Civil rights complaint filed over roommate ad

Posted on October 22, 2010
Click on Detroit: "The Fair Housing Center of West Michigan filed the complaint against the 31-year-old Grand Rapids woman, saying she was being discriminatory by excluding people of other faiths when she posted the flier . . . The woman is being represented by an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund...

?The year in sanity: Judge Vaughn Walker?

Posted on October 22, 2010
Alex Pareene writing at Salon: "Reagan nominee Vaughn Walker made a striking ruling -- and wrote a remarkable decision -- that destroyed the legal case against marriage equality for gays and lesbians . . . California attorney general Jerry Brown refused to defend Proposition 8, leaving the anti-equality argument to an array of well-funded conservative groups like the Alliance Defense Fund and Campaign for California Families ...

Black Panthers case reveals deep divisions at DOJ: Should law be enforced without regard to race?

Posted on October 22, 2010
Jerry Markon and Krissah Thompson writing at The Washington Post: "Interviews and government documents reviewed by The Washington Post show that the case tapped into deep divisions within the Justice Department that persist today over whether the agency should focus on protecting historically oppressed minorities or enforce laws without regard to race...

John Yoo: Repeal the 17th Amendment?

Posted on October 22, 2010
John Yoo writing at Ricochet: "There's a lot of truth to the argument that the enactment of the 17th Amendment undermined federalism. State legislatures have a greater institutional incentive to protect federalism than do the people of a state . . . The problem is that there is no point to trying to fix this problem -- an effort to amend the Constitution will be fruitless...

IA: ?Justices don?t have the right to redefine our marriage laws?

Posted on October 22, 2010
Letter to the editor of The Daily Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, IA) by Steve Meidlinger: "I?m not at all hesitant to tell you I feel my right to vote has been usurped by Senator Mike Gronstal and three activist Judges on our Iowa Supreme Court. We, the people, have every right to be heard this most important issue of our time...

French Senate OKs retirement reform in tense vote

Posted on October 22, 2010
Yahoo (AP): "The French Senate, pushed into an early vote, approved on Friday a hotly contested bill raising the retirement age to 62, hours after riot police forced the reopening of a strategic refinery to help halt growing fuel shortages amid nationwide strikes and protests...

6th Circuit upholds public high school?s interference with teacher?s curriculum choices

Posted on October 21, 2010
Evans-Marshall v. Board of Education of the Tipp City Exempted Village School District, No. 09-3775 (6th Cir. Oct. 21, 2010) Unanimous decision by: SILER and SUTTON, Circuit Judges; CLELAND, SUTTON, Circuit Judge. Does a public high school teacher have a First (and Fourteenth) Amendment right ?to select books and methods of instruction for use in the classroom without interference from public officials?? Yes, says the teacher, Shelley Evans-Marshall...

Battle over education: Michelle Rhee, Tim Pawlenty and teacher unions

Posted on October 21, 2010
MinnPost.com: "[O]ver the past month and a half . . . Pawlenty has subtly yet clearly laid out his education platform for the nation. It merges his aspirational record in Minnesota (that is, what he?s glad he did and would have liked to do but couldn?t) with related policies that fall outside a governor?s state-focused purview ...

Police see over 1,000 militant Islamists in Germany

Posted on October 21, 2010
Reuters: "Germany is probably home to more than 1,000 potentially violent Islamists and the number of identified militants has risen constantly in the past few years, the Federal Crime Office (BKA) said on Wednesday."

Hungary: New constitution to declare marriage just for men and women

Posted on October 21, 2010
Politics.hu: "The constitution which is now being drafted at the behest of the ruling Fidesz-Christian alliance will declare marriage suitable only for men and women, according to a section of the draft document seen by MTI."

MS: Free exercise challenge to custody decree rejected

Posted on October 21, 2010
Religion Clause: "In Forthner v. Forthner, (MS App., Oct. 19, 2010), a Mississippi court of appeals rejected a father's religious free exercise challenge to a judge's decision giving his wife custody of their children and denying the husband separate maintenance...

Vets stand guard over Christian flag in NC town

Posted on October 21, 2010
Associated Press: "The protesters are concerned not only about the flag, which was one of 11 flying above the memorial when it was dedicated six years ago, but about a metal sculpture nearby depicting a soldier kneeling before a cross." | For more information, see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www...

Sexually oriented business regulations proposed in Windsor, CO; San Antonio, TX; Menomonie, WI

Posted on October 21, 2010
Windsor Beacon: "The new regulations proposed would limit the zoning areas the businesses could locate to only heavy industrial areas, with 1,500 foot buffers from schools, churches, residential zones, parks, cemeteries, playgrounds, child care centers and other adult businesses...

Mich. woman accused of civil rights violation for seeking Christian roommate at church

Posted on October 21, 2010
When a 31-year-old single woman in Grand Rapids placed an ad for a Christian roommate on her church bulletin board, she had no idea it would result in a civil rights complaint accusing her of illegal housing discrimination.

Slate book review: ?Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion?

Posted on October 21, 2010
Lincoln Caplan writing at Slate: "It has been Brennan's legal enemies who have generally been readiest to credit him with a political philosophy?albeit rooted in a personal, rather than principled, vision. Central to the conservative attacks on the Warren Court a generation ago was a portrait of Brennan as an avatar of judicial activism...

Colorado waives medical marijuana fees for poor

Posted on October 21, 2010
Boston.com (AP): "The Colorado Board of Health approved a plan Wednesday to waive the $90 registration fee for indigent medical marijuana patients, starting Dec. 1. Patients who want their fees waived will have to show that they meet other government standards for indigence, such as qualifying for food stamps...

Nigeria: feared Muslim sect issues new threats

Posted on October 21, 2010
Boston.com (AP): "A Muslim sect suspected of a series of targeted killings and a massive prison break has issued new threats in northern Nigeria, this time invoking al-Qaida's north Africa branch."

Civil organizations urge Mexican government to hold debate on same-sex adoption

Posted on October 21, 2010
Catholic News Agency: "Various organizations in Mexico are urging President Felipe Calderon to call for a national debate on adoption by same-sex couples."

RI judge to take up National Organization for Marriage?s case

Posted on October 21, 2010
Boston.com (AP): "An anti-gay marriage group is preparing to ask a judge for the right to run ads in the Rhode Island governor's race without having to comply with state election law."

ADF granted right to defend life in German euthanasia suit at European Court of Human Rights

Posted on October 21, 2010
The European Court of Human Rights will allow a German pro-life group represented by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys to intervene to defend life in a lawsuit filed against the German government. A man sued Germany after a state agency would not give his disabled wife drugs to commit suicide.

Utah: Cedar City considering sexual orientation discrimination laws

Posted on October 21, 2010
The Salt Lake Tribune: "The City Council announced Wednesday that it will consider passing ordinances that prohibit housing or employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity."

Sexual orientation discrimination ordinance returns to Memphis City Council

Posted on October 21, 2010
Out & About: "The Memphis City Council's Personnel Committee will again take up the issue of an employment non-discrimination ordinance that prohibits workplace discrimination for city employees based on religion, race, sex, creed, political affiliation, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or other non-merit factors...

Orthodox Jews urge Quebec to abandon proposed niqab ban

Posted on October 21, 2010
The Globe and Mail: "Quebec?s Orthodox Jewish community appeared for the first time on Wednesday before a National Assembly committee, taking up an unexpected cause ? fighting a bill that would ban the wearing of the Muslim niqab when receiving government services...

The real harms of prostitution

Posted on October 21, 2010
MercatorNet: "The women explain to us how it feels to be treated like a rented organ. 'It is internally damaging. You become in your own mind what these people do and say with you. You wonder how could you let yourself do this and why do these people want to do this to you?' Women who prostitute have described it as 'paid rape' and 'voluntary slavery'...

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