Religion & Law

Silence to rock thousands of campuses Tuesday as students protest abortion

Posted on October 19, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "On Tuesday morning, students from thousands of schools around the world will keep silence and refuse to speak as a protest against the silencing of countless innocent children by abortion . . . Over the past few years many schools have tried to stop students from participating...

Court reaffirms: City can?t force firefighters to attend ?gay pride? parade

Posted on October 19, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "'We hope this ruling will end the city?s attempts to defend its act of compelling people to participate in sexually-charged events against their moral and personal convictions,' said ADF Senior Counsel [Joseph Infranco], who is co-counsel in the case...

Third lawsuit against pro-abortion ObamaCare gets court hearing in Virginia

Posted on October 19, 2010
LifeNews: "A federal judge held a court hearing on Monday in the third lawsuit filed against the ObamaCare health care reform bill that contains abortion funding and has been described by pro-life groups as the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v...

CO Senate Candidate vilified for calling homosexuality a lifestyle choice

Posted on October 19, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Ken Buck sparked the reaction after telling the host of NBC's Meet the Press during a debate with his opponent Sunday that the genetic effect upon homosexuality could be compared to that of alcoholism."

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Long battle by foes of campaign finance rules shifts landscape

Posted on October 19, 2010
New York Times: "Beyond that, conservatives say they are guided by less partisan motives: the fervent belief, shared by some liberal groups like the A.C.L.U., that the First Amendment should prevent the government from enacting campaign finance restrictions that can chill free speech, even if it means giving anonymity to donors and rights to corporations...

NYT: The Court?s pre-emption test at issue in vaccination case

Posted on October 19, 2010
New York Times Editorial: "[Bruesewitz v. Wyeth] is about whether the family of a girl, who they said was badly injured by a vaccine, can sue the manufacturer in a state court. Or are they barred by a 24-year-old federal law that blocks this sort of lawsuit if 'the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable?' That prohibition is called pre-emption, a hot issue in constitutional law because it is at the heart of the balance of power between states and the federal government ? the meaning of federalism...

China plans to reduce its exports of minerals; has monopoly on crucial rare elements

Posted on October 19, 2010
New York Times: "The Chinese government plans a further reduction, of up to 30 percent, next year in its quotas for exports of rare earth minerals, in an attempt to conserve dwindling reserves of the materials, the official newspaper China Daily said Tuesday...

Lawsuit filed over Arizona?s ethnic studies program

Posted on October 19, 2010
Associated Press: "Teachers opposed to a new Arizona law that targets a school district's ethnic studies program are suing to overturn the measure."

Judge throws out Montana?s ban on corporate campaign spending

Posted on October 19, 2010
Missoulian: "Saying a U.S. Supreme Court ruling trumps Montana's unique historical circumstances, a Helena district judge Monday threw out as unconstitutional the state's 1912 law banning direct corporate spending for or against political candidates or political parties...

Geert Wilders, Western sages, and totalitarian Islam

Posted on October 19, 2010
Andrew Bostom writing at Pajamas Media: "Wilders' assessment [of Islam] not only comports with scholarly observations made (primarily) before the advent of the postmodern Western scourge of cultural relativism, it is supported by contemporary hard polling data from 2006 -2007, and a more recent follow-up reported February 25, 2009...

Pat Buchanan: Tribalism returns to Europe

Posted on October 19, 2010
Pat Buchanan writing at Townhall: "Is Europe's adventure in international living about to end? . . . Across Europe, there is a resurgence of ethnonationalism that is feeding the ranks of populist and anti-immigrant parties that are gaining respectability and reaching for power ...

4th Circuit issues important ruling in case of Md. troopers who arrested pro-life speakers

Posted on October 19, 2010
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit Monday upheld a district court decision that denied the request of several Maryland state police officers to be immune from a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys representing pro-life advocates...

Ignore the media, O?Donnell is right about the so-called ?separation of church and state?

Posted on October 19, 2010
Politico: "Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell questioned on Tuesday whether the Constitution provides for the separation of church and state."  Similarly, the AP files this misleading report. The Washington Post also carries this report that includes video of the debate...

Iceberg ahead: The hidden cost of public sector retiree health benefits in New York

Posted on October 19, 2010
NCPA: "New York taxpayers spend billions of dollars a year on health insurance coverage for retired state and local government employees, many of whom are too young to be eligible for Medicare. But the mounting 'pay-as-you-go' bill for retiree health care is just the tip of a much larger iceberg, says E...

Hastings, MN pastor makes political endorsements from the pulpit

Posted on October 19, 2010
Pioneer Press: "A Hastings pastor who endorsed several political candidates from the pulpit Sunday has prompted [the Americans United for Separation of Church and State] to send a letter to the IRS stating the church has violated its tax-exempt status ...

?Military recruiters told to accept gay applicants?

Posted on October 19, 2010
"A Pentagon spokeswoman says recruiters have been told that they must accept gay applicants, following a federal court decision striking down the ban on gays serving openly in the military."

?No scientific evidence of gay youth suicide epidemic?

Posted on October 19, 2010
Sify News: "Ritch Savin-Williams, professor of developmental psychology and director of Cornell University's Sex and Gender Lab, has said that there is absolutely no scientific evidence of an 'epidemic of gay youth suicide,' or even that gay youth kill themselves more frequently than do straight youth...

Troops chafe at restrictive rules of engagement, talks with Taliban

Posted on October 19, 2010
Washington Examiner: "To the U.S. Army soldiers and Marines serving here, some things seem so obviously true that they are beyond debate. Among those perceived truths: The restrictive rules of engagement that they have to fight under have made serving in combat far more dangerous for them, while allowing the Taliban to return to a position of strength...

Is college worth the investment?

Posted on October 19, 2010
Mark Schneider, American Enterprise Institute: "As the cost of higher education rises, more and more students are struggling over the decision to attend college. But they now have help from PayScale.com, which recently released data on the return on investment (ROI) from over five hundred colleges and universities...

?Hang them?: Uganda paper publishes photos of ?gays?

Posted on October 19, 2010
Associated Press: "The front-page newspaper story featured a list of Uganda's 100 'top' homosexuals, with a bright yellow banner across it that read: 'Hang Them.' Alongside their photos were the men's names and addresses."

Groups challenge expanded Mass. obscenity law

Posted on October 19, 2010
Associated Press: "A coalition of booksellers and Internet content providers will ask a judge to stop Massachusetts from enforcing an expansion of state obscenity law to include electronic communications that may be harmful to minors." Complaint: American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, et...

Judge issues written order rejecting stay of DADT ruling

Posted on October 19, 2010
An AP report is here and a copy of the order is here.

Muslim dances on altar of Catholic Basilica in Florence (video)

Posted on October 19, 2010
Gateway Pundit: "A Muslim man danced on the altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy last week."

Eric Holder asks China to release Nobel Peace Prize winner

Posted on October 19, 2010
CNSNews: "U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday urged Beijing to release Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, a day before Holder was scheduled to meet with top law enforcement officials in China."

Brian Brown: Hold judges accountable

Posted on October 19, 2010
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, writing at USA Today: "Judges are not above the citizenry. The voters of Iowa have the civil right, and duty, to hold their judges accountable. And because we trust the voters to do the right thing, we look forward to Iowans voting 'no' on all three judges...

Polish bishops slam plans for liberal in vitro law

Posted on October 19, 2010
Associated Press: "Poland's influential Roman Catholic church appealed Monday to the country's politicians to oppose in vitro fertilization, calling the procedure akin to eugenics."

Fight looms over ?religious defamation? measure at UN

Posted on October 19, 2010
CNSNews: "This December, for the sixth consecutive year, the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) will vote on a resolution presented by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) (Islamic bloc), calling on governments to act against 'religious defamation...

French retirement protests take violent turn

Posted on October 19, 2010
Breitbart (AP): "Masked youths clashed with police officers and set fires in cities across France on Tuesday as protests against a proposed hike in the retirement took an increasingly radical turn."

Calif. same-sex ?marriage? ruling defended

Posted on October 19, 2010
Lyle Denniston writing at SCOTUSblog: "Supporters of same-sex marriage have urged a federal appeals court to end the constitutional fight over 'Proposition 8' by ruling that no one still in the case has any right to pursue an appeal. In a lengthy new brief (found here) filed Monday, the same-sex couples also sought a ruling that a federal judge had authority to strike down Proposition 8, and to do so throughout California...

George Soros? millions buying ?political reporters? for NPR

Posted on October 19, 2010
Warner Todd Huston writing at Big Journalism: "[W]ith the news that George Soros is buying one hundred political 'reporters' for National Public Radio (NPR), one waits with bated breath for the left to decry the fact that a famous anti-American leftist is buying and influencing the 'news' ...

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