Religion & Law

Chinese forced abortion opponent faces persecution after prison release

Posted on September 13, 2010
LifeNews: "Chen Guangcheng, the blind attorney who stood up for thousands of men and women subjected to forced abortions and sterilizations in his city, may have been released from prison but now he and his family face persecution. They have been subjected to house arrest and there are concerns about his health...

Richard Brookhiser: James Madison, the Father of American politics

Posted on September 13, 2010
Richard Brookhiser writing in the Wall Street Journal, "The Father of American Politics" [full text via Google News]: "He is the father of American politics as we know it. Madison helped establish America's first political party, the Republicans . . ...

Indonesian Christians beat on their way to prayers

Posted on September 13, 2010
Associated Press: "Indonesia's president ordered police to arrest the assailants who stabbed a Christian worshipper in the stomach and beat a minister in the head with a wooden plank as they headed to prayers."

?No gay divorcees in Texas?

Posted on September 13, 2010
Joanna L. Grossman writing at FindLaw: "This column will discuss a recent appellate court decision from Texas, In the Matter of the Marriage of J.B. and H.B., which illustrates the problem and its harsh consequences for many affected couples . . . The appellate court held that the statutory law did not give Texas courts the jurisdiction to give effect to same-sex marriages from other states, even if the recognition was fleeting?in that the recognition of the marriage was only extended by the court on the way to the court's granting a divorce and thus dissolving the marriage...

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Hartford says no to Muslim prayer before meetings

Posted on September 13, 2010
Associated Press: "Officials in Connecticut's capital city say they won't include Muslim prayers before council meetings after getting mostly negative feedback from the public."

Imam says NYC mosque site is not ?hallowed ground?

Posted on September 13, 2010
Associated Press: "It may be two blocks from ground zero, but the site of a proposed mosque and Islamic center shouldn't be seen as sacrosanct in a neighborhood that also harbors a strip club and a betting parlor, the cleric leading the effort said Monday...

Chile?s Bachelet frontrunner for ?UN Women? post

Posted on September 13, 2010
Associated Press: "Chile's former president Michelle Bachelet is the front-runner to head the new U.N. agency to promote women's equality, several U.N. officials said."

Obama presses for tolerance and free exercise rights for U.S. Muslims

Posted on September 13, 2010
Religion Clause: "The U.S. today marked the ninth anniversary of 9-11, following what the New York Times described as an 'impassioned call' by President Obama for better relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. At his news conference on Friday (full text), the President gave lengthy answers to three separate questions on attitudes toward Muslims in the U...

Senate opens impeachment trial against judge

Posted on September 13, 2010
Associated Press: "A federal judge from Louisiana is corrupt and unfit to serve on the bench, House members said Monday as they began a rare congressional impeachment trial by laying out their case against the jurist . . . Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va...

UK men charged for illegal sperm donor Web site

Posted on September 13, 2010
Associated Press: "Two British men charged with making a profit by illegally making sperm available on the Internet have appeared in court . . . Prosecutors said Monday that Woodforth, 43, ran the company from the basement of his home, and the two men did not have a license to procure or distribute sperm, as required by British law...

The Obama Administration and the treatment of human embryos

Posted on September 13, 2010
At Public Discourse, "An Executive Summary of the Statement of the First Annual Neuhaus Colloquium": "In this our first statement we take up the ethical, political, and scientific issues raised by President Obama?s stem-cell policy. This statement, the full version of which appears in First Things, represents the considered judgment of some of the leading scientists and public intellectuals today?a major statement on a pressing and timely topic ...

South African court bans burning of Koran and Bible

Posted on September 13, 2010
SperoForum: "On September 10, 2010 a South African high court banned a Muslim activist from organizing a 'Bible burning day' at the Library Gardens in Johannesburg on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The event was meant to be a response to the planned Qur?an burning in Florida by Pastor Terry Jones...

Texas gubernatorial candidates give views on teaching of creationism / intelligent design

Posted on September 13, 2010
San Angelo (TX) Standard Times: "Rick Perry: 'I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill...

Q&A with lawyer who upended ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell?

Posted on September 13, 2010
Law.com: "A federal district judge in California declared the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy unconstitutional late Thursday. The lawyer who won the case is a White & Case commercial litigator who had worked on just one prior pro bono matter...

Matt Bowman on the Zeb Bell Show: Is American society in danger of viewing human life purely in utilitarian terms?

Posted on September 13, 2010
ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the problem of government funding of embryonic stem cell research. | MP3 audio 12:46 mins | ADF Media information on the Sherley v. Sebelius ruling.

Referendum results will impact Turkish judiciary

Posted on September 13, 2010
The Globe and Mail: "With a double victory in Sunday?s constitutional referendum, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is poised to make sweeping changes in his officially secular, but predominantly Muslim country. The package of changes was supported by 58 per cent of the 39 million people who voted, paving the way for the government to appoint a large number of high-court judges more in tune with the government?s Islamic tendencies ...

Ruling against ?Don?t Ask? may not face Obama appeal

Posted on September 13, 2010
" . . . Given that President Obama has sought to repeal the policy through legislation before Congress, it's possible the government could opt not to appeal, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, a constitutional law expert...

Pledge of Allegiance battleground shifts from San Fran to Boston

Posted on September 13, 2010
Wall Street Journal Law Blog: "[Newdow's] pledge battle is continuing in a different forum, this time at the First Circuit in Boston. On Thursday, the court heard arguments over whether a New Hampshire statute that requires school districts to provide time for the pledge violates the Establishment Clause...

Video game industry to Supreme Court: Games, like movies, are art

Posted on September 13, 2010
Los Angeles Times / Company Town: "The video game industry on Friday filed its brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, outlining its best arguments against a 2005 California law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors . . . The 78-page document can be boiled down to four main points: 1) Video games should be considered an art form, alongside movies, books and music ...

Citizens United?s personhood debate and the take away for reproductive justice

Posted on September 13, 2010
American Constitution Society blog: The decision [in Citizens United v. F.E.C.] not only overturned decades-old Supreme Court precedents, but it also disturbed a 100 year-old tradition of federal legislation placing limits on corporate campaign spending...

History through a Supreme Court Justice?s lens

Posted on September 13, 2010
NPR: "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has sparred for years with Justice Antonin Scalia on the printed pages of legal opinions. The two have even debated about constitutional interpretation in public. And now Justice Breyer has taken his argument to the printed pages of a book written for popular consumption ...

Schwarzenegger keen on China high-speed rail

Posted on September 13, 2010
Breitbart: "California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday he hoped China would invest in his state's future high-speed rail network as he wrapped up a trade mission to the world's second-largest economy."

Founding dean to speak at forum

Posted on September 13, 2010
The Town Talk: "Louisiana College's Division of History and Political Science will hold its Constitution Day Forum on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Granberry Conference Center. This year's speaker is J. Michael Johnson, founding dean of the Louisiana College Judge Paul Pressler School of Law...

US stem cell research potentially back on track

Posted on September 13, 2010
BioNews: "A federal appeals court in the US has ruled that federal funding for embryonic stem (ES) cell research may continue and an injunction placed on the funding by a lower court last month is temporarily suspended . . . Opponents argue that federal funds should not be used in research that involves the destruction of what many consider human life and that the benefits of the research are as yet unproven...

Federal funding of stem cell research continues

Posted on September 13, 2010
WorthyNews: "'The American people should not be forced to pay for even one more day of experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate an existing federal law,' said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel [Steven H...

Obama wants to pay for stem cell research

Posted on September 13, 2010
MercatorNet / Sheila Reports: "The Alliance Defense Fund, co-counsel in this suit, helps us follow the straight line narrative. Starting with the August ruling, revealing what the Obama administration was trying to do in the first place: 'The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found last month that the policy President Obama attempted to institute through an executive order in March 2009?which rescinded former President George W...

Court installs ?if you want? into state constitution

Posted on September 13, 2010
WorldNetDaily: "The Supreme Court in California, which in 2008 ordered the creation of 'same-sex marriage' and was rebuffed within months by voters, now has refused to require that state officials follow the law and defend the constitutional mandate that marriage is only between one man and one woman ...

Federal Appeals Court: Gov?t can fund stem cell research for now

Posted on September 13, 2010
Christian Post: "Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research is back on following the ruling of a federal appeals court Thursday . . . Still, the decision was criticized by conservative groups including the Alliance Defense Fund, co-counsel in the lawsuit against the federal funding of the research...

NIH to resume stem-cell research, for now

Posted on September 13, 2010
WORLDmag.com: Government officials said Friday they will fund controversial embryonic stem cell research, one day after an appeals court temporarily lifted a judge?s order that funding cease . . . 'The American people should not be forced to pay for even one more day of experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate an existing federal law,' said one of their lawyers, [Steven H...

NIH expedites grants for human embryo destroying research

Posted on September 13, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The National Institute of Health (NIH) is expediting the grant process for outside researchers in human embryonic stem-cell (hESC) research, after the D.C. Court of Appeals gave them an emergency stay until September 20 on a judge?s order halting their work ...

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