Religion & Law

IN: Local ordinance could be key in cupcake discrimination flap

Posted on September 30, 2010
Indianapolis Business Journal: "A local ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation may give the city the right to take action against a cookie shop operating within Indianapolis City Market that declined to fill an order from a gay-rights group...

OH: Anti-discrimination ordinances under attack in Bowling Green

Posted on September 30, 2010
NBC 24: "Although support for the ordinances was strong, a group of anti-gay activists petitioned enough signatures to have it challenged. The ordinances will be up for renewal or refusal on the November 2 ballot."

Iowa: Mennonite steel-wheel ordinance violators are fined by Mitchell County judge

Posted on September 30, 2010
Agri News: "[Magistrate DeDra Schroeder] told John Ray Nolt he could not talk about how the ordinance was unconstitutional or against his religion in front of the jury. The ordinance bars steel wheels from hard surface roads in Mitchell County. John Ray Nolt was cited for driving his Massey Ferguson tractor, which has steel wheels, on hard surfaced Addison Avenue on July 16...

France?s illegal ban of the burqa

Posted on September 30, 2010
Rabah Ghezali writing at The Huffington Post: "Whether we like the burqa or not, we should recognize that French Parliament violated freedoms of expression, thought, conscience and religion -- a string of fundamental human rights that can no longer be taken for granted in France since the ban ...

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Pulpit politicking returns for 2010 election cycle

Posted on September 30, 2010
Stuart Whatley writing at the Huffington Post: "[T]he ADF is determined to provoke a lawsuit from the IRS so as to challenge the 1954 provision that prohibits political endorsements from tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, which includes most religious institutions...

Wyoming AG defends same-sex ?marriage? brief

Posted on September 30, 2010
CBS 4: "Wyoming joined in a legal brief opposing gay marriage in California because it has an interest in defending its own state law defining marriage as existing only between a man and a woman, Wyoming's attorney general said Wednesday."

Rwanda: Anglican Archbishop-elect vows to fight marriage redefinition

Posted on September 30, 2010
allAfrica.com: "Archbishop elect, Onesphore Rwaje, who is set to succeed Anglican Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini in January, 2011, has vowed to follow in his predecessor's footsteps by taking a firm stand against homosexuality."

Ireland: Catholic schools issued guidelines on integrating non-Catholic children

Posted on September 30, 2010
Iona Institute: "Guidelines to Catholic schools on how best to integrate students of other faiths have been issued by the Joint Managerial Body/Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools (JMB/AMCSS). Among the recommendations is that, depending on the number of students of other faiths in the school, a decision should be made as to whether a prayer room is specifically a Catholic place of worship or welcome to those of all faiths...

Satanist leader condemns vandalism of St. Louis Islamic prayer center

Posted on September 30, 2010
KSDK: "A Satanist group based out of New York, outraged after seeing NewsChannel 5's report on vandalism of an Islamic prayer center in St. Louis, has condemned the crime."

CO: Personhood Amendment 62 lawsuit against Blue Book dismissed based on court?s jurisdiction

Posted on September 30, 2010
ChristianNewsWire: "Today Judge Hyatt decided to dismiss the lawsuit filed against the Colorado Blue Book by the sponsors of Amendment 62, claiming that the court has no jurisdiction over the Colorado Legislative Council." Related: Personhood Amendment 62 files suit to stop distribution of biased ?Colorado Blue Book?

AZ: Bus tours promote ?polygamy experience?

Posted on September 30, 2010
AOL Travel: "Tourists from as far away as Europe and Scandinavia and from throughout the U.S., are paying $70 for a look at isolated life in the polygamist community at the Utah-Arizona border, the wire service reports."

First effects of Obamacare: McDonald?s health-insurance offerings may be fried

Posted on September 30, 2010
FOX Business: "Unless regulators waive a requirement of the health-care overhaul, McDonald?s has warned federal regulators it could drop its health insurance plan for almost 30,000 hourly workers."

Scotland: New law planned to tackle forced marriages

Posted on September 30, 2010
Scotsman.com: " . . . [Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon] said: 'This legislation is not striking at arranged marriages which are an established part of Muslim culture where there's consent on both sides.'"

Erik Stanley: ?Separation of Church and State? group wants state-controlled churches

Posted on September 30, 2010
ADF Attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "It?s ironic that a group that has 'separation of church and state' in its name would argue and agitate for government-controlled churches. AU wants pervasive and ongoing monitoring and surveillance of churches by the IRS...

Ed Whelan: Vaughn Walker?s retirement

Posted on September 30, 2010
Ed Whelan writing at National Review Online / Bench Memos: "Walker?s decision to retire is no surprise. Indeed, the buzz from local courtwatchers is that Walker was going to retire last year . . . but changed his mind when the anti-Prop 8 case, through the wonders of supposedly random assignment, fell into his lap ...

Indian court splits holy site in three

Posted on September 30, 2010
CNN: "A disputed holy site in India will be divided in an attempt to satisfy competing religious claims to the site, the Allahabad High Court ruled Thursday. Muslims, Hindus and a local sect will all get part of the land at Ayodhya, the three-judge panel said...

Official: Germans, Brits behind Europe terror plot

Posted on September 30, 2010
Associated Press: "Eight Germans and two British brothers are at the heart of an al-Qaida-linked terror plot against European cities . . . "

Many Americans fear U.S. is no longer world?s top economy

Posted on September 30, 2010
Rasmussen Reports: "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 35% of Adults still believe the United States has the best economy in the world despite the country's current economic difficulties. (To see survey question wording, click here)...

No state charges in FBI?s fatal shooting of Michigan imam

Posted on September 30, 2010
Associated Press: "It is 'undisputed' that Luqman Ameen Abdullah fired at agents, resisted arrest and rejected demands to surrender, Attorney General Mike Cox said."

Study shows progress with stem cell alternative

Posted on September 30, 2010
Associated Press: "The advance in cell reprogramming by researchers in Boston was praised as a more efficient way of turning skin cells into stem cells, a step toward developing new medical treatments."

Three decades of forced abortion and counting: China to continue one-child policy

Posted on September 30, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "On Sept. 25, 1980, the Communist Party Central Committee issued a statement saying that 'in 30 years, when our current extreme population growth eases, we can then adopt a different population policy.' But while the 30th anniversary of China's coercive one-child policy came and went this past week ...

Texas AG tightens licensing/informed consent requirements for abortion clinics

Posted on September 30, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The Attorney General of Texas released an opinion tightening the licensing requirements for clinics that dispense abortion drugs, as well as the state?s informed consent laws for women seeking an abortion." Opinion No. GA-0803 Re: Whether a facility must have a license to perform medical abortions, and whether drugs to induce an abortion must be ingested in the presence of the prescribing physician Opinion No...

Senate markup postponed for abortion-friendly Int?l Violence Against Women Act

Posted on September 30, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The Senate committee markup of a $1 billion bill pro-life leaders say they fear could become an engine for more abortion funding overseas has been postponed."

President Obama names two to U.S. Circuit Courts

Posted on September 30, 2010
White House: "Today, President Obama nominated Caitlin Halligan for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Jimmie V. Reyna to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit . . . "

Georgetown professor launches Catholics for Equality

Posted on September 30, 2010
The Hoya: "As Catholics across the United States continue to debate the legality of gay marriage, Fr. Joseph Palacios, S.J., adjunct professor of sociology, has taken the lead on helping to found Catholics for Equality, a new organization devoted to rallying Catholics in support of gay rights...

Outsourcing and the 21st-Century economy

Posted on September 30, 2010
Craig Barrett and James P. Moore, Jr. in The Wall Street Journal, "Outsourcing and the 21st-Century Economy" [full text available via Google News]: "Companies outsource for two reasons . . . . The second reason U.S. companies outsource is that our own government pursues policies that drive investment and job creation offshore: excessive taxes, needless regulations, lengthy permit processes, a decreasing supply of U...

David Cortman on the Hugh Hewitt Show: Arizona School Choice at the Supreme Court

Posted on September 30, 2010
ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn which is pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. | MP3 audio 7:42 mins | ADF Media Information Page | Great Hearts Academies | SCOTUS Wiki information page, decisions, and court filings | DONATE: www...

Justice Alito to deliver Opperman lecture at Drake University

Posted on September 30, 2010
Chicago Tribune: "Alito will give the Dwight D. Opperman Lecture in Constitutional Law. The lecture series is named after Opperman, a 1951 Drake Law School graduate. He endowed the lecture series in 1988 to recognize the importance of constitutional law to the U...

ACLU faults Arizona voting law for 13,000 discarded ballots

Posted on September 30, 2010
Courthouse News Service: "A state law caused Arizona to toss more than 13,000 provisional ballots cast in the November 2008 presidential election because they were filed in the wrong precinct on Election Day, the ACLU says. The state invalidated the provisional ballots of one in every 10 Arizona voters who cast one, the ACLU says in a new report, 'Uncounted Voices...

Heritage Foundation: The bipartisan fight against the Obama tax hikes

Posted on September 30, 2010
Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: "Speaker Pelosi, who rarely votes on day-to-day legislation, was forced to cast the tie breaking vote (210-209) on the adjournment resolution. To the members of the majority who broke ranks with Speaker Pelosi, the meaning of the vote was clear: a vote to adjourn was a vote to raise taxes...

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