Religion & Law

Broad support for marriage, initiative process reflected in numerous briefs filed with 9th Circuit

Posted on September 27, 2010
"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit received 25 friend-of-the-court briefs Friday in support of California?s voter-approved constitutional amendment that protects marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

UN launches $40 billion health drive

Posted on September 27, 2010
AFP: "UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday announced a 40-billion-dollar drive to improve the health of women and children, which he said would save millions of lives around the world . . . Of the eight key development targets set a decade ago, cutting deaths of women during pregnancy and childbirth and those of children younger than five have seen the least progress...

Bill would amend Title VI to include ban on religious discrimination in schools receiving federal funds

Posted on September 27, 2010
Religion Clause: "Senator Arlen Specter and Rep. Brad Sherman announced on Friday that they were introducing bills to amend Title VI to also ban discrimination on the basis of religion in order to protect Jewish, Muslim and Sikh students from harassment at schools and colleges receiving federal funds...

University presidents ready to privatize

Posted on September 27, 2010
Arizona Daily Star: "Arizona's university presidents said they'll start privatizing some operations, pursue a state financial-aid program and reduce the average tuition by the end of the decade. The Arizona Board of Regents approved those actions among 10 sweeping recommendations from the three university presidents on Friday that will change the way Arizona's universities operate...

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Archbishop of Canterbury: Anglican Church has ?no problem? with ?gay? bishops

Posted on September 27, 2010
Telegraph: "While recognising that he was simplifying the Church's position, Dr Williams said in an interview: 'There's no problem about a gay person who's a bishop. It's about the fact that there are traditionally, historically, standards that the clergy are expected to observe...

UK: Christian man charged with ?offending? homosexuals is released

Posted on September 27, 2010
Christian Concern For Our Nation: "The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has withdrawn its case against a Christian man charged under public order legislation in relation to ?offence? caused to homosexuals. Paul Shaw was charged by Essex Police with a 'hate crime' after an election leaflet was distributed in Colchester that called for a review of whether homosexual acts should remain legal...

A judge?s warning about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court

Posted on September 27, 2010
New York Times: "Justice Breyer describes the court in its early years, when it decided few cases and the ones it decided were trivial. From that lowly state, the court has earned considerable authority, but it has also forfeited legitimacy with bad decisions, some so bad they were 'ignored or disobeyed' ...

Obama: Teacher unions can help boost schools

Posted on September 27, 2010
Associated Press: "He says unions have often been resistant to change as they try to protect their members - but that many of them are now working with states on reforms including charter schools, and imposing higher standards and accountability."

National Organization for Marriage Seeks to Put New York in Line with the Constitution

Posted on September 27, 2010
pecifically, NOM desires to run television and radio ads, send out mailers, and post these items to its website. New York law, however, restricts the rights of groups such as NOM from having their voice heard in the midst of relevant discussions in society concerning these critical issues...

Jordan Lorence on the Zeb Bell Show: Is military readiness enhanced by normalization of homosexual conduct?

Posted on September 27, 2010
ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the battle over normalization of homosexual conduct in the military. | MP3 audio 20:30 mins

New study claiming abortion not linked with teen depression full of problems

Posted on September 27, 2010
LifeNews: "A new study bandied about by the mainstream media over the weekend claiming abortion is not linked with teen depression is full of problems, according to one of the world's leading researchers on abortion and the adverse mental health issues women face afterwards ...

Appeals court considers ban on stem cell research

Posted on September 27, 2010
Associated Press: "Judge Thomas Griffith questioned whether the work would really be irreparably harmed or just delayed if the government ultimately can win the ongoing case."

Boehner: Tax cuts punt ?most irresponsible thing I have seen?

Posted on September 27, 2010
The Hill: "House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called Congress' expected adjournment before acting on the Bush-era tax cuts the "most irresponsible thing that I have seen since I have been in Washington, D.C."

Is Powell?s Bookstore a criminal pornographer? 9th Circuit panel says no

Posted on September 27, 2010
Julie Hilden writing at FindLaw: "On September 20, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that two Oregon statutes that had criminalized giving sexually-explicit material to minors violated the First Amendment. In theory, these statutes were intended to target the reprehensible practices of 'luring' and 'grooming,' by which adults expose minors to sexually-explicit material as part of their attempt to have sex with the minors...

Michigan: ?Transgender? senior can?t be king

Posted on September 27, 2010
WOOD TV: "Some Mona Shores High School students say administrators stole the homecoming king throne from the rightful winner -- a transgender senior . . . Assistant Superintendent Todd Geerlings said the issue is simple: The ballots gave two choices -- vote for a boy for king and a girl for queen...

Pastors gear up to challenge tax-exempt regulations on Pulpit Freedom Sunday

Posted on September 27, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "'Pastors and churches shouldn?t live in fear of being punished or penalized by the government?in this case, the IRS,' said ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Erik Stanley]. 'ADF is not trying to get politics into the pulpit; we want to get government out of the pulpit...

Kevin Theriot: Hope for church autonomy case

Posted on September 27, 2010
ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "We reported back in June that a preliminary ruling in Kennedy v. Villa St. Catherine eroded the freedom of religious organizations. In an unusual development (and as a result of some good lawyering by St...

Pastors test IRS regulations, endorse candidates

Posted on September 27, 2010
CBN News: "'What in essence the IRS has been doing for the last 56 years -- is setting up a system of intimidation and censorship and really establishing itself as kind of the orthodoxy police -- telling pastors, "You can talk about anything you want to from scripture, but you can't talk about the issue of what's right about what the scripture says about candidates and elections,"' said [Erik Stanley], a senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund...

Medical marijuana foments culture war in Montana

Posted on September 27, 2010
In These Times: "Tom Daubert, a caregiver and director of Patients and Families United, the medical marijuana advocacy group that spearheaded the 2004 I-148 campaign, says most of the opposition in the state has come from 'conservative, so-called right-wing church groups' ...

Opening briefs filed to appeal Prop. 8 repeal

Posted on September 27, 2010
OneNewsNow: "'What the lower court said here in essence is that it violates the United States Constitution to define marriage and to preserve marriage as the union between a man and a woman,' [ADF Attorney Jim Cambell] explains. 'So if that decision were to be upheld, it could have ramifications throughout the entire country...

Participants in annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday increase for third year

Posted on September 27, 2010
Pastors from approximately 100 churches nationwide participated in the Alliance Defense Fund?s third annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday on Sept. 26. The pastors preached sermons related to biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates or current government officials, exercising their constitutional right to free religious expression despite a problematic Internal Revenue Service rule that activist groups often use to silence churches.

Nashville minister discusses candidates? abortion views on ?Pulpit Freedom Sunday?

Posted on September 27, 2010
The Tennessean: "Sunday was the third year for the conservative Christian group Alliance Defense Fund's 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday,' in which pastors around the country defy the tax code that restricts church and nonprofit political activity in exchange for tax-exempt status ...

Pastors defy IRS on ?Pulpit Freedom Sunday?

Posted on September 27, 2010
ABC News: Nearly 100 pastors across the country took part in Pulpit Freedom Sunday today, an in-your-face challenge to what the government says can and cannot be said in church . . . 'We believe that a pastor has a right to speak whatever he believes without fearing the government will somehow censor what he says or threaten to take away his tax exemption,' ADF spokesman [Erik Stanley] said...

Church pastors back political candidates

Posted on September 27, 2010
Ian Talley writing at the Wall Street Journal / Washington Wire blog: "The group aims to force a legal battle over existing tax rules, said [Erik Stanley], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. Under current law, the Internal Revenue Service can revoke the tax-free status of churches, or other nonprofit groups, that use their lecterns to stump for or against politicians...

Preaching from the pulpit and looking for a fight

Posted on September 27, 2010
Care2.com: "The conservative Christian advocacy group Alliance Defense Fund is organizing the 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday,' encouraging pastors to speak openly in support of or against political candidates from their Sunday pulpit . . . If we hope to keep sacred the space of worship then we must keep separate the space for partisan politics...

?Pulpit Freedom Sunday is a slap in the face of law ? will IRS act??

Posted on September 27, 2010
Portland Atheism Examiner: "In a fashion right out of the annals of right wind demagoguery, September 26th, 2010 brings us the third installment of 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday' . . . It's not the right to speak the ADF is looking to ensure, but the 'right' to do it essentially on the tax payer dime...

Pawlenty to attend Family Research Council event

Posted on September 27, 2010
Minnesota Independent: "The Watchmen on the Wall 2010 Minnesota event is geared toward pastors and will include discussions on abortion, legal issues surrounding churches getting involved in politics and the conflict between Israel and Iran . . . The event is new to Minnesota...

?Tenn. clergy plan to violate federal law barring church electioneering?

Posted on September 27, 2010
Americans United for Separation of Church and State: "The Tennessean . . . reported that seven pastors in the state will 'bait' the IRS by endorsing candidates from the pulpit. A provision in the Internal Revenue Code bars all 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations, which includes houses of worship, from intervening in elections...

Pastors to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday

Posted on September 27, 2010
Christian Web News: "[Erik Stanley], also a senior counsel for the ADF, said 'The IRS should not be used as a political tool to advance the agenda of radical groups bent on silencing the voice of the church and inhibiting religious freedom. It is ironic that a group with a name like 'Americans United for Separation of Church and State' continues to exploit a scheme of massive government monitoring and surveillance of churches...

Wyo., 9 states file brief opposing marriage redefinition

Posted on September 27, 2010
"The amicus brief sent Friday to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said that the Constitution does not require marriage to include same-sex couples. The 39-page brief also said that states, not federal courts, have final say in whether to allow same-sex marriages...

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