Religion & Law

Reps. Rangel, Waters? public ethics trials won?t start until after midterm election

Posted on October 08, 2010
The Hill: "Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) won't face public ethics trials until after the election. The House ethics committee announced Thursday that Rangel?s trial will begin Nov. 15 and Waters?s will start Nov. 29."

No good faith in peddling body parts, panel finds

Posted on October 08, 2010
Law.com: "An upstate New York appellate panel has affirmed the conviction of a Rochester-area funeral director who was sentenced to up to eight years in prison for harvesting and selling body parts without consent." | People v. Batjer, KA 10-00875 [link - see pgs...

Islamist Watch: Celebrating free speech and religious freedom victories

Posted on October 08, 2010
Islamist Watch: "With Dutch MP Geert Wilders on trial for insulting Islam, American cartoonist Molly Norris in hiding after death threats, and other outrages against liberty, one may be tempted to think that the struggle to defend free speech ? particularly speech that offends Muslims ? is a hopeless endeavor...

Economists ignore the facts in supporting Chinese currency legislation

Posted on October 08, 2010
Daniel Ikenson writing at Cato @ Liberty: "The Chinese currency issue is in full bloom this week, as the House of Representatives passed the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act of 2010 by a vote of 348-79 on Wednesday. Though there is so much to criticize about the bill and about the layers upon layers of misinformation, myth, and subterfuge that brought us to this point, this post concerns the dubiousness of the bill?s central premise: that Yuan appreciation will significantly reduce the bilateral trade deficit...

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

Study: California faces $379 billion retirement liability

Posted on October 08, 2010
Adam Summers writing at the Reason Foundation: "A new study released by the Foundation for Educational Choice and the Pacific Research Institute estimates California's unfunded liability for state (CalPERS and CalSTRS) pensions and retiree health care at $379 billion...

U.S. Congressman steps up to defend DOMA

Posted on October 08, 2010
CitizenLink: "[Dale Schowengerdt], legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, said the same attorneys successfully defended the law during the Bush administration. 'Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department has basically thrown the case, and has refused to make the winning arguments,' Smith said...

China to overtake Japan in global wealth rankings?

Posted on October 08, 2010
Wall Street Journal / China Real Time Report: "In its first Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse predicts that total household wealth in China could more than double to $35 trillion by 2015 from $16.5 trillion at the moment. China currently is third in terms of the total share of global wealth after the U...

Texas Republican seeking to intervene in marriage cases

Posted on October 08, 2010
Dallas Voice: "'We should be strengthening and protecting marriage, not subjecting it to a hostile takeover through the courts,' said Dale Schowengerdt, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, in a press release. 'If the Obama administration won?t defend marriage, we are ready and willing to do so...

AZ: Former porn actress makes new start as Chandler mom

Posted on October 08, 2010
Arizona Republic: "But Hayden ultimately decided her fame and earnings came at too great a cost. 'The money ends up being spent on medical bills to pay for all the health problems you get from sleeping with so many people, drugs, pills, and alcohol to numb the pain, and lavish material items that make you feel a temporary high and happiness,' said Hayden ...

Center for Arizona Policy: Voting on judges in Arizona

Posted on October 08, 2010
Cathi Herrod, Center for Arizona Policy: "Most Arizona voters also will be deciding whether to retain judges who serve on our state courts. If there is one question I am repeatedly asked, it's how people can learn about the judges to then cast an informed vote ...

Top Dem: Congress will investigate Chamber of Commerce funding

Posted on October 08, 2010
The Hill: "Congress will launch an investigation into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's financing, the third-ranking House Democrat said Thursday night. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) opened the door to a congressional inquiry into the Chamber and whether it's used foreign dollars to fund its political activities...

French Muslims feel increased scrutiny amid terror concerns

Posted on October 08, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: "Many Muslims in France feel increasingly targeted amid growing terror concerns and what some see as anti-Muslim measures, such as the banning burqas in public."

Associated Baptist Press: Who are evangelicals?

Posted on October 08, 2010
Associated Baptist Press: "When evangelist Billy Graham, social activist Jim Wallis, pastor Rick Warren, theologian Al Mohler and author Brian McLaren all can fit under the umbrella term 'evangelical,' some theological and cultural observers wonder if the term has lost its meaning...

Abortion clinics close in 2 states

Posted on October 08, 2010
Baptist Press: "Planned Parenthood of Southern New Jersey has shut down its Cherry Hill family planning clinic in a dispute over state funding, while a Maryland abortion clinic is closing after its operator's medical license was suspended."

Alaska bar poll rates federal judge candidates

Posted on October 08, 2010
Alaska Dispatch: "An Anchorage attorney with close ties to Democrats tops a new Alaska bar poll rating list of candidates to replace federal judge John Sedwick."

ACLJ demands CO school allow student to wear cross

Posted on October 08, 2010
ACLJ: "The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), focusing on constitutional law, today demanded that a Colorado middle school permit a 7th grade student to wear a small cross on a chain to school warning school officials not to violate the student's First Amendment rights...

?Couples with daughters more likely to divorce?

Posted on October 08, 2010
ABC: "Not only did researchers find that couples with sons are more likely to stick together, unmarried pregnant couples were more likely to have shotgun weddings if the baby was going to be a boy and divorced mothers of boys are more likely to remarry and stay remarried...

Let the church bells ring free, says Philadelphia City Council

Posted on October 08, 2010
Montgomery News: "Let the bells ring freely and Philadelphia City Council seems to concur. An amendment exempting church and school bells from the city?s 2006 Noise Ordinance passed out of committee on Oct. 5 unanimously . . . According to Jack Kennedy, pastor of Church of the Living Savior, who attended the committee meeting, the council should have a first reading of the bill next week and a final vote a week after...

Chillicothe, OH committee outlines restrictions on adult businesses

Posted on October 08, 2010
Chillicothe Gazette: "The city council is poised Monday to read a second piece of legislation regulating nude dancing clubs . . . In September, [the council approved] an ordinance establishing a section of law that defines a sexually oriented business and establishes criminal violations for those who establish a strip club and do not obey Ohio Revised Code as it pertains to strip clubs...

FL: Ormond Beach annexes new ?bikini bar? despite litigation

Posted on October 08, 2010
Orlando Sentinel: "Ormond Beach annexed a new bikini bar named 'Cheaters' near Interstate 95 on Tuesday night, to the raucous approval of residents, and despite a pending federal lawsuit."

South Dakota defends restrictions on sexually oriented businesses

Posted on October 08, 2010
Argus Leader: "South Dakota's attorney general is defending a 2-year-old state law that a Sioux Falls man says is unconstitutional because it unfairly targets adult-oriented businesses."

In the wake of ?gay teen? suicides, leftists target David Barton for asking why homosexuality isn?t regulated as health hazard

Posted on October 08, 2010
"'The only thing that David Barton got right is that gay and lesbian people do have a higher suicide rate,' Barry Lynn said, adding that 'this is only true because of people like Barton who 'sow the seeds of this kind of bigotry.'

SC: Hartsville considers sexually oriented business ordinance

Posted on October 08, 2010
SCNOW: "Last week, the Hartsville Planning Commission postponed sending a recommendation to Hartsville City Council for an ordinance regulating sexually-oriented businesses in the city while one of its members reviews a model ordinance after the city attorney said certain provisions of the model appear to be unconstitutional...

OR: Student-teacher ousted over same-sex ?marriage? discussion with 4th grader

Posted on October 08, 2010
KGW: "Seth Stambaugh, a student teacher at Sexton Mountain elementary school, was apparently dismissed after answering a fourth grader's question about his marital status by saying it would be illegal for him to marry because he would choose to marry a man...

St. Mary?s College of California to present controversial ?homosexual-friendly? play on campus

Posted on October 08, 2010
California Catholic Daily: "Rehearsals for a play 'revolving around issues in the gay community' have begun at St. Mary?s College of California in Moraga, a Christian Brothers institution in the Diocese of Oakland."

Judge tells school to admit NC girl with pierced nose

Posted on October 08, 2010
Associated Press: "A federal judge ordered a North Carolina school to admit a 14-year-old high school student suspended for wearing a nose piercing she says is part of her religion, and the teenager was on her way to science class Friday afternoon, her attorney said ...

Chuck Colson on Snyder v. Phelps: Free to desecrate?

Posted on October 08, 2010
Chuck Colson writing at The Christian Post: "The central question here is, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted during the hearing, is whether the First Amendment must tolerate 'exploiting this bereaved family.' I hope and pray that the answer is, 'No...

Germany asks, ?should Muslims be treated on an equal footing??

Posted on October 08, 2010
Spiegel Online: "The recent statement by German President Christian Wulff that 'Islam belongs in Germany' has provoked something of a conservative backlash. The German press is divided on whether the presence of Muslims in Germany is self-evident or cause for concern...

Rick Santorum: A reckless liberal attack on nation?s religious hospitals

Posted on October 08, 2010
Rick Santorum writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "The American Civil Liberties Union has launched an effort to force religious hospitals to provide abortions. The organization is asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - which controls nearly $800 billion in President Obama's latest budget - to force hospitals to provide abortions or lose federal funding...

Supreme Court Asked to Protect Campaign Speech in Final Days Before Election

Posted on October 08, 2010
?I feel like my client is Goldilocks,? said James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for the Madison Center, ?its always too early or too late to protect my client?s right to speak. But when the First Amendment is involved, the time is always just right for the court to step in to protect them...

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