Religion & Law

Obama mulls options after stem cell plan blocked

Posted on August 24, 2010
Associated Press: "The White House says federally funded stem cell research should continue and is exploring how to respond to a judge's order halting it."

Harvard divestiture undermines U.S. ally, Israel

Posted on August 24, 2010
OneNewsNow: "A Messianic Jewish leader and Israel supporter says she's angered -- but not surprised -- by a report that Harvard University recently sold off all of its investments in Israel."

?Gay couple challenges Wyoming?s marriage law?

Posted on August 24, 2010
Associated Press: "A gay couple has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Wyoming law that defines marriage as existing only between a man and a woman." | Shupe-Roderick v. Freudenthal, No. 2:2010-cv-166-F (D. Wyo. August 13, 2010)

?Calif. legislature approves removing gay ?cure? language?

Posted on August 24, 2010
365 Gay: "The California State Senate passed a bill on Monday that would repeal a section of the California Welfare and Institutions code that instructs the State Department of Mental Health to conduct research into the 'causes and cures of homosexuality,' with the implication that lesbian, gay, and bisexual Californians are sexual deviants, potential sex offenders and a threat to children...

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Women on Law Review: A Gender Diversity Report

Posted on August 24, 2010
Women on Law Review: A Gender Diversity Report (Google Viewer): "Ms. JD collected self-reported gender diversity data from general interest law reviews at the 2009 U.S. News 'Top 50' law schools for the 2008-2010 academic years. The results show that while overall percentages of women members of these law journals (44...

CA candidates Meg Whitman says she would defend Proposition 8

Posted on August 24, 2010
The Sacramento Bee / Capitol Alert: "Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman said this afternoon that if elected governor, she would defend Proposition 8, which prohibits same-sex marriage, by appealing a recent federal court ruling declaring the proposition unconstitutional...

Ireland: Protesters demand same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on August 24, 2010
Irish Times: "Organisers said the Government had tried to 'pacify' the gay community but had failed. They called for the right to marry for same-sex couples. The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2009, signed into law last month, extended marriage-like benefits to gay and lesbian couples in some areas but did not address the rights of children...

Howard Friedman v. Marci Hamilton on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Posted on August 24, 2010
PublicSquare.net: "The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was supposed to clarify issues of religious freedom. But did it make matters worse? Two experts in religious freedom law debate the issue."

?Catholic? group gearing up to challenge Church teaching on homosexuality

Posted on August 24, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "A cadre of homosexualist activists are preparing to launch a new group, Catholics for Equality, whose self-proclaimed mission is to lead lay Catholics away from the institutional Church's teaching on sexuality and encourage support for homosexual 'marriage...

L.A. Unified?s cold shoulder to charter schools

Posted on August 24, 2010
Los Angeles Times: "Proposition 39, which was passed by voters in 2000, requires school districts to provide charter schools with facilities that are reasonably equivalent to those of other schools in the district. About 60,000 students in L.A. Unified have opted to attend charter schools...

Carter heads to N. Korea to seek release of Boston man

Posted on August 24, 2010
Boston.com (AP): "Jimmy Carter was to leave for North Korea today to try to gain the freedom of a Boston man imprisoned for illegally entering the communist nation, US officials said last night."

Court rules World Vision can require employees to be Christians

Posted on August 24, 2010
CNN / Belief Blog: "The humanitarian organization World Vision can require its employees to be Christians, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. In upholding a lower-court ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that World Vision is exempt from a provision in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act barring religious discrimination...

Who owns your dead son?s brain?

Posted on August 24, 2010
Jonathan Adler writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: "Do parents have a constitutionally protected property interest in the dead body of their child, including all organs? Not necessarily is the answer given by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Albrecht v...

NY Times: U.S. judge rules against Obama?s stem cell policy

Posted on August 24, 2010
New York Times: "The ruling came as a shock to scientists at the National Institutes of Health and at universities across the country, which had viewed the Obama administration?s new policy and the grants provided under it as settled law. Scientists scrambled Monday evening to assess the ruling?s immediate impact on their work ...

Eric Holder files politically motivated suit against pro-lifers

Posted on August 24, 2010
Liberty Counsel: "Liberty Counsel has agreed to represent Mary Susan Pine, a sidewalk abortion counselor, who is being sued by the politically motivated U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder. Using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) federal law and seeking the maximum fine of $10,000, Holder alleges that Pine 'obstructed' a car entering a Florida abortion clinic nearly a year ago, on November 19, 2009...

Heritage Foundation: Getting our China priorities straight

Posted on August 24, 2010
Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: "In another development from last week, this one virtually ignored by the establishment media, the Department of Defense released its annual Military and Security Developments Involving the People?s Republic of China...

TX: San Juan teen randomly kidnapped, found in Reynosa, Mexico

Posted on August 24, 2010
The Monitor: "Police reunited a teenage woman with her family Monday afternoon, nearly 19 hours after she was abducted, blindfolded and dumped in a Reynosa field."

Muslim men attack Somali church leader in Ethiopia

Posted on August 24, 2010
The Christian Post: "Two Somali Muslim men attacked a well-known Somali church leader in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa over the weekend, according to a Washington-based Christian human rights group."

Boston Globe asks restrictions on sale of archdiocesan health-care system

Posted on August 24, 2010
CatholicCulture.org: "In an August 22 editorial, the Boston Globe asked Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley to recommend new conditions on the sale of Caritas Christi, the health-care system of the Boston archdiocese . . . The Globe asked the attorney general to seek a commitment that Cerberus would not sell the system?s 6 hospitals for at least 7 years after the official purchase...

Iraqi bishop says U.S. betrayed country, Christians suffer most

Posted on August 24, 2010
"The Americans leave behind 'an Iraq worse off than the one they found seven years ago,' said Warduni, who?s widely regarded as the most charismatic voice among the Iraqi bishops . . . . Now there?s only rubble. We?ve become targets, we?re afraid to even leave the house...

CMA physicians and others gain injunction against embryo destruction to protect ?real cures for real patients?

Posted on August 24, 2010
Standard Newswire: "CMA CEO David Stevens, MD, noted, "This case highlights the harm that diverting federal funds away from proven effective research poses to those patients who are waiting for cures . . . Dr. Stevens noted, 'We are grateful for the excellent legal work of Advocates International, and the Alliance Defense Fund in this case, and are proud to stand with fellow plaintiffs Drs...

Obama stem cell regulations temporarily blocked

Posted on August 24, 2010
Associated Press: "The judge's ruling drew praise from the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys and co-counsel in the suit. 'The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments ? prohibited by federal law ? that destroy human life...

Groups behind Obama embryonic stem cell research lawsuit applaud decision

Posted on August 24, 2010
LifeNews: "The Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life legal group that served as co-counsel in the case, also hailed the order that prevents the Obama administration from carrying out its embryonic stem cell research policy while the court considers the lawsuit...

Greg Baylor: Update on CLS v. Hastings

Posted on August 24, 2010
ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at Speak Up Movement / University: "In a motion filed July 30, 2010, CLS urged the Ninth Circuit to address that issue. On August 9, Hastings and Hastings Outlaw filed their oppositions to CLS?s motion, essentially urging the court to end the case without consideration of the school?s unconstitutionally selective application of its all-comers policy...

David French: How to repeal the First Amendment . . .

Posted on August 24, 2010
ADF Attorney David French writing at Speak Up Movement / University: "Step 1: Launch a debate within key private professional organizations (such as the National Association of Social Workers or the American Counseling Association) about the need for ;social justice; within the profession ...

Federal district court enjoins the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its National Institutes of Health (NIH) from unlawfully funding research involving the destruction of living human embryos

Posted on August 24, 2010
Earned Media (Advocates International): "Advocates International (AI), part of the public interest legal team along with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (GD&C) who brought the case before the court more than a year ago, is pleased with the decision of the United States District Court of the District of Columbia yesterday enjoining HHS and NIH from unlawfully expending taxpayer funds on research involving the destruction of living human embryos...

Reason: The stem cell war heats up again

Posted on August 24, 2010
Ronald Bailey writing at Reason: "The case had been brought before the court by the conservative Christian Alliance Defense Fund and Nightlight Christian Adoptions which wants to put embryos left over from fertility treatments up for 'adoption.' Both argue that deriving human embryonic stem cells kills pre-born people...

Judge blocks Obama?s embryonic stem cell research policy

Posted on August 24, 2010
The Christian Post: "'The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments ? prohibited by federal law ? that destroy human life,' said [Steven H. Aden], senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. 'The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos...

?Stem cells, politics and the law? ? the politics of ?legal? standing

Posted on August 24, 2010
Michael Tomasky writing at The Guardian: "This case was not only about the new NIH guidelines, but about the legal standing of the plaintiffs, who were representatives of conservative Christian advocacy groups and research agencies that opposed the Obama NIH proposals...

Green Party seen as major victor in Australian elections

Posted on August 24, 2010
MercatorNet: "Expectations of stable majority government in Australia have been scuppered by a remarkable 'Greenslide' in Saturday?s national election. Neither the Labor government nor the conservative coalition won a clear majority, so it is not clear who will be leading the country ? the incumbent Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, or the Liberal leader Tony Abbott ...

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