Religion & Law

Supreme Court to hear Ashcroft appeal of US Muslim?s detention

Posted on October 18, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: "A lower court has allowed a suit by an American Muslim, detained without charge in 2003 as a material witness, to proceed against former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The Supreme Court says it will consider Ashcroft's appeal...

Federal judge says he?ll rule on Virginia?s health care challenge by Jan. 1

Posted on October 18, 2010
Washington Post / Virginia Politics: "A federal judge for the Eastern District of Virginia said Monday that he would rule on the constitutionality of the federal health care law by the end of the year, a key legal test for the sweeping legislation."

Industrial production falls 0.2 percent in Sept.

Posted on October 18, 2010
Tampa Bay Online (AP): "Industrial production fell in September for the first time since the recession ended, as weak consumer demand led factories to pull back. The Federal Reserve reports that output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities dropped 0...

CO: Planned Parenthood says Scott Walker tried to pass a bill to allow pharmacists block women?s access to birth control

Posted on October 18, 2010
PolitiFact Wisconsin: "The Madison-based group [Planned Parenthood Advocates], which supports pro-choice candidates, has also been working to influence voters in 2010 -- including pushing them to support Democrat Tom Barrett in the Nov. 2, 2010 election for governor...

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How do you protect religious freedom where religion is not valued?

Posted on October 18, 2010
"The American society decreasingly values religion, seriously jeopardizing the future of religious of freedom. A society that does not value religion will not protect religious freedom. The attitude of the next generation towards religion is nothing short of frightening ...

The irresponsibility of law schools

Posted on October 18, 2010
Brian Tamanaha writing at Balkinization: "Law schools thus responded to the worst recession in the legal market in at least two decades by letting in more law students." (see charts)

Planned Parenthood admits defeat: No abortion as a human right in UN Summit document

Posted on October 18, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Pro-life and pro-family advocates have scored two major political victories in the same month in two different international organizations. Following the defeat of the McCafferty Report ? which attempted to abolish the rights of European doctors to refuse to commit abortions ? at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, pro-life advocates are now declaring a victory over the International Planned Parenthood Federation at the UN...

Judge says she?s inclined to reject govt request to stay DADT ruling

Posted on October 18, 2010
AP: "A federal judge said on Monday that she's inclined to deny a government request to delay her order that immediately stopped the military from enforcing its ban on openly gay service members."

Vatican?s Chief Justice: Catholic politicians who support abortion or same-sex ?marriage? must publicly repent

Posted on October 18, 2010
CNSNews: "Catholic politicians who publicly support abortion or homosexual marriage and then seek to turn away from such 'gravely sinful acts' must perform 'public' actions of 'repentance,' said Raymond Burke, the archbishop emeritus of St. Louis and the current head of the highest court at the Vatican, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura...

Evangelical and Catholic immigration proponents push back against same-sex benefits

Posted on October 18, 2010
ChristianNewsWire: "Two proponents of loosened immigration policies, Roman Catholic Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City and the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, have spoken against this 'permanent partners' provision...

CO: ?Politics of homosexuality flare in 2010 campaign?

Posted on October 18, 2010
ABC: "When Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck was pressed Sunday to explain his belief that being gay is a 'lifestyle' choice, he compared it to alcoholism . . . Buck's view -- the underpinning for conservative opposition to broader civil rights for gays and lesbians -- is hardly new...

IRS should investigate MN church for electioneering, says Americans United

Posted on October 18, 2010
Americans United for Separation of Church and State: "Americans United today filed a formal complaint with the IRS over the action of Berean Bible Baptist Church in Hastings. Church pastor Brad Brandon endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer and several other candidates from the pulpit yesterday...

UK: Councils urged to avoid tax breaks for Scientology

Posted on October 18, 2010
Driffield Times: "Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has urged councils, including one in Birmingham, not to give special tax breaks running into hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Church of Scientology."

National Review Online: What the Wilders trial means

Posted on October 18, 2010
National Review Online Editorial: "In the case of Wilders, the judiciary has flirted with imposing political decisions that are quite outside its powers. This is the road to antidemocratic show trials arranged to gag or eliminate anyone whom authority condemns as an enemy of the people ...

New Jersey environmental officials challenge Jewish ritual burial of holy objects

Posted on October 18, 2010
Asbury Park Press: "A deputy attorney general told a judge Friday that state officials 'looked the other way' while a rabbi buried truckloads of bagged religious artifacts on a Jackson property and only took serious legal action when a similar illegal landfill was dug in Lakewood a year later...

Charles J. Chaput: Religious liberty as the foundation of human liberty

Posted on October 18, 2010
Text of remarks Archbishop Charles Chaput delivered during a tri-diocesan catechetical congress in Victoria, British Columbia, on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 15 and 16, 2010: "[John Courtney] Murray saw that religious freedom is humanity?s first and most basic freedom ...

NY Catholic bishops: Right to life outweighs other concerns in voting

Posted on October 18, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The pastoral letter 'Our Cherished Right, Our Solemn Duty,' signed by New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and seven other New York state bishops, says Catholics must be 'cautious' when they cast votes this election, so as 'not to be guided solely by party loyalty or by self interest...

Christian in Bhutan imprisoned for showing film on Christ

Posted on October 18, 2010
Christian Today: "A court in predominantly Buddhist Bhutan has sentenced a Christian to three years in prison for 'attempting to promote civil unrest' by screening films on Christianity."

Killings in Nigeria are linked to Islamic sect

Posted on October 18, 2010
New York Times: "A rash of mysterious killings by gun-wielding motorcycle assassins of policemen, politicians and others in this city near the desert has led authorities to declare that a radical Islamic sect thought to have been crushed by Nigerian troops last year has been revived...

Lawyer: Octuplets? mom implanted with 12 embryos

Posted on October 18, 2010
Associated Press: "Nadya Suleman's fertility doctor implanted her with a dozen embryos in the pregnancy that gave her octuplets, a state attorney said Monday, conflicting with Suleman's assertions that only six embryos were implanted and two of them split...

Fox host apologizes for comment on Muslims

Posted on October 18, 2010
Associated Press: "Fox News Channel host Brian Kilmeade is apologizing for saying on the air that 'all terrorists are Muslim.'"

MS: ?ACLU sues Sheriff?s Department on behalf of corrections officer fired for being gay?

Posted on October 18, 2010
ACLU: "The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today on behalf of Andre Cooley, a corrections officer for juvenile detainees with an exemplary record who was fired when his supervisors discovered that he was gay. The lawsuit claims that Cooley's constitutional rights were violated by the Forrest County Sheriff's Department and his superior officers...

Bishops: Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church must take clear position on homosexuality

Posted on October 18, 2010
YLE: "According to Björn Vikström, the Bishop of Porvoo, there is so much confusion among members of the church, that the religious leadership would do well to take a clear and public position on the matter, preferably before its general synod in November...

Federal judge may rule on DADT

Posted on October 18, 2010
Boston.com (AP): "U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips said she'll hear from both sides Monday afternoon in her courtroom in Riverside before deciding whether to temporarily freeze the injunction she issued earlier this month that stopped enforcement of the 17-year-old policy...

United Arab Emirates: ?Islamic court: OK to beat wife if no marks left?

Posted on October 18, 2010
MSNBC: "A man can beat his wife and kids as long as he leaves no physical marks, the United Arab Emirates' highest court has found . . . According to the court, the injuries showed that the man had over-stepped his rights under Shariah, or Islamic law, the newspaper reported...

Government reports $1.3 trillion budget deficit

Posted on October 15, 2010
Yahoo News: "The Obama administration said Friday the federal deficit hit a near-record $1.3 trillion for the just-completed budget year."

China warns US against making it a ?scapegoat? for flagging economy

Posted on October 15, 2010
Telegraph: "The remarks from China?s ministry of commerce came hours before the US was due to release a report on whether it considers China a ?currency manipulator? as fears grow that tensions over the currency could lead to a protectionist trade war...

?Pentagon warns gay troops to stay silent for now?

Posted on October 15, 2010
AP: "The Defense Department on Friday warned gay troops that if they disclose their sexual orientation now, they could still get in trouble."

Facebook working with GLAAD to censor ?anti-gay hate? speech

Posted on October 15, 2010
AP: "The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says it reached out to Facebook last week after Internet bullies flooded a page it set up to honor teens who recently killed themselves in response to anti-gay hate."

Nebraska abortion law may spread

Posted on October 15, 2010
Omaha World Herald: "Nebraska's one-of-a-kind law banning almost all abortions after a fetus reaches 20 weeks might not stand alone for long. Abortion opponents say they expect lawmakers in several states to introduce similar proposals next session. 'This will take off like wildfire,'predicted Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life...

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