Religion & Law

Iowa: Former Gov. Branstad won?t join ouster bid of justices who redefined marriage

Posted on August 16, 2010
Des Moines Register: "Former Gov. Terry Branstad intends to stay out of the debate over whether Iowa voters should oust Iowa Supreme Court justices for legalizing gay marriage. 'This is a ballot issue, and Governor Branstad believes this is an issue on which people need to decide for themselves,' spokesman Tim Albrecht said Wednesday...

Protests at funerals a test of free speech

Posted on August 16, 2010
The Boston Globe: "Not every military family has managed to ignore the painful intrusion of picketers from Westboro Baptist Church, who have made headlines around the country by asserting that US military deaths are divine punishment for the country?s sins, including tolerance for homosexuality ...

We are right to put money away; gov?t is wrong to discourage us

Posted on August 16, 2010
Investor's Business Daily: "Americans are doing all they can to reduce their debts and put money away for rainy days, and the federal, state and local governments are doing all they can to pile debts onto our backs, reward borrowing and punish saving ...

Supreme Court refuses to block $20,000 ?birther? sanction

Posted on August 16, 2010
FindLaw (AP): "The Supreme Court has upheld a $20,000 fine against a leader of the movement challenging President Barack Obama's citizenship."

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NC law allows 2 excused school absences for religious holidays

Posted on August 16, 2010
Religion Clause: "Yesterday's Charlotte (NC) Observer reports on a new law signed last month by North Carolina's governor that requires public schools and colleges in the state to adopt rules giving students a minimum of two excused absences each academic year for religious observances required by the student's faith...

Ohio strip club owner, pastor to meet over feud

Posted on August 16, 2010
Associated Press: "Foxhole strip club owner Tommy George says churchgoers with bullhorns have bothered his patrons. New Beginnings Ministries pastor Bill Dunfee calls the strip club a nuisance. They say they'll negotiate for the first time Wednesday."

California?s budget crisis and its Prop 8 litigation: What they reveal about the state?s divided Executive

Posted on August 16, 2010
Vikram David Amar writing at FindLaw: "In California, the unfolding gay-marriage episode has showcased this Attorney General autonomy. In the 'same-sex marriage cases' in the California Supreme Court in 2008, Attorney General Jerry Brown . . . filed briefs that were different from the Governor on the merits, asserting different, nuanced views of what state equal protection means ...

Holy month, hot days mean football nights in Mich.

Posted on August 16, 2010
Associated Press: "The moonlight practice is tailored for Restum and fellow Muslim teammates who make up a majority of the Fordson High School squad in the large Arab community of Dearborn. It's a way for the players to practice football and their faith, and balance the fasting common during the 30-day holy month of Ramadan that started last week...

Taliban stone couple for adultery in Afghanistan

Posted on August 16, 2010
Associated Press: "Taliban militants in northern Afghanistan stoned a young couple to death for adultery, which a rights group said was the first confirmed use of the punishment here since the hardline Islamist regime was ousted in 2001."

White House: politics no role in mosque remarks

Posted on August 16, 2010
Associated Press: "A White House spokesman says politics wasn't a factor in President Barack Obama's remarks about building a mosque near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City."

Book discussion banned in public library

Posted on August 16, 2010
WorldNetDaily: "Library 'policy' bans the use of the rooms for discussion of 'religious' books, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee by the Alliance Defense Fund. 'It's incredibly ironic that discussing a book would be prohibited in a library,' said ADF Senior Counsel [Nate Kellum] of the complaint filed yesterday...

Tanzania court acquits Christian evangelists of ?illegal preaching?

Posted on August 16, 2010
BosNewsLife: "Two Christian evangelists were free Sunday, August 15, after a court in Tanzania acquitted them of 'illegal preaching', trial observers said . . . They were arrested after Muslims invited them to participate in a religious debate at a neutral venue in the Kariakoo area of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city...

Dahlia Lithwick: ?What will Anthony Kennedy do on gay marriage??

Posted on August 16, 2010
Dahlia Lithwick writing at Slate: "Kennedy himself has become the Rorschach test, with both sides importing their worst fears onto their assessment of his future vote. Still, it's the only question anyone's asking . . . For a bit of deeper insight, I turned to a 2004 paper called 'The Gay Rights Jurisprudence of Anthony Kennedy,' by Artemus Ward, a professor of political science at Northern Illinois University ...

China overtakes Japan in 2Q as No. 2 economy

Posted on August 16, 2010
Associated Press: "The figures underscore China's emergence as an economic power that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed. It is already the biggest exporter, auto buyer and steel producer, and its global influence is expanding...

Anti-ground zero mosque TV ad planned

Posted on August 16, 2010
Associated Press: "New York's Conservative Party is planning a television ad campaign to pressure a New York City utility to use its power to block a proposed mosque near ground zero that the ad says is planned by an 'un-American' Muslim leader."

Judges decision on motion for stay appealed by defenders of California marriage amendment

Posted on August 16, 2010
ChristianWebNews: "ADF Litigation Staff Counsel [Jim Campbell]: 'The Protectmarriage.com legal team will appeal immediately to the 9th Circuit to stay the trial court?s decision until this case is concluded. This case has just begun, and ADF and the rest of the legal team are confident that the right of Americans to protect marriage in their state constitutions will ultimately be upheld...

Oakland Tribune editorial: Let appeal of Proposition 8 proceed

Posted on August 16, 2010
Oakland Tribune editorial: "It would be a shame if the appeals court did not grant standing to the Alliance Defense Fund, which supports Prop. 8 and was a party that tried the case in Walker's court. Walker delayed his stay on allowing same-sex marriage only until 5 p...

Judicial spending doubles in last decade

Posted on August 16, 2010
Associated Press: "Campaign fundraising for elections to the nation's top state courts has doubled to more than $200 million over the last decade, fueled partly by super-spending individuals and groups investing big money to influence down-ticket races, according to a study released Monday...

SC: Spartanburg County Council to set prayer policy

Posted on August 16, 2010
Spartanburg Herald-Journal: "Spartanburg County Council will formalize its policy on invocations at public meetings Monday, as prayer in the public square continues to be under increased scrutiny . . . Local officials met with state Attorney General Henry McMaster and other attorneys ? including those with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian organization ? to formulate the new policy...

African Americans react, agree with, denounce Prop 8 ruling

Posted on August 16, 2010
L.A. Watts Times: "[Jim Campbell], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund who participated in the defense in the San Francisco case, tells the L.A. Watts Times that the Supreme Court doesn?t hear a case unless it decides to do so, but 'one thing?s for sure: Whoever loses before the Ninth Circuit (court) will ask the Supreme Court to hear this case...

ACLU: Summer for marriage

Posted on August 16, 2010
ACLU Blog of Rights: "The summer got started a little early with Portugal, on June 5, becoming the sixth European country allowing same-sex couples to marry . . . On July 8, a federal court in Boston ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional ...

Kennedy key to same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on August 16, 2010
Michael Kirkland writing at UPI: "Any number of analyses show Kennedy voting in the majority in more than 90 percent of cases, more than any other justice. He votes mostly with the conservative bloc. Frequently, he is the pivot around which the four other conservative justices swing, often writing the majority opinion in 5-4 decisions ...

Hawaii: Recktenwald picked to lead high court

Posted on August 16, 2010
Honolulu Star Advertiser: "Gov. Linda Lingle appointed Associate Justice Mark E. Recktenwald yesterday to a 10-year term to become the fifth chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court."

Judicial Candidate Wins Right to Challenge Campaign Rules

Posted on August 16, 2010
On Friday, a federal appeals court held that a 2008 Arizona judicial candidate could proceed with his challenge to Arizona?s election laws despite having lost his election bid. Randolph Wolfson, who ran for Justice of the Peace in 2006 and for Superior Court Judge in 2008, brought suit during the 2008 campaign to block enforcement of Arizona laws that banned state court judicial candidates from supporting other candidates or ballot initiatives, or from personally asking for campaign funds.

Turks see Ottoman legacy in new light

Posted on August 16, 2010
Associated Press: "For most of the last century, Turks were told to look askance at the Ottoman Empire. Nostalgia for the 1453 conquest of Constantinople and other early triumphs was fine - but the excesses of the sultans were the stuff of decay, no model for modern Turkey...

SCOTUSblog: The week ahead

Posted on August 16, 2010
SCOTUSblog: "The Court is in recess for the summer; it is expected to return on October 4 for the first oral argument of October Term 2010. The schedule of merits briefs due this week follows the jump."

Lyle Denniston: Who speaks for California on Prop 8?

Posted on August 16, 2010
SCOTUSblog: "California?s Attorney General, Edmund G. Brown, Jr., formally notified the Ninth Circuit Court Friday night that the state will not appeal a federal judge?s ruling striking down the Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. That position, along with a flurry of other filings in the Circuit Court, puts new emphasis on a basic issue: can anyone else carry on the case? And that comes down mainly to a question of state law: who speaks for California, legally? ...

Erwin Chemerinsky: Who has standing to appeal Prop. 8 ruling?

Posted on August 16, 2010
Erwin Chemerinsky writing in the Los Angeles Times: "Article III of the U.S. Constitution restricts federal courts to deciding 'cases' and 'controversies.' The Supreme Court long has held that in order to meet this requirement, a person or group pursuing legal action must have standing, a status conferred only on those who have suffered a direct, concrete injury...

Obama backtracks over Ground Zero mosque after furious 9/11 families label him ?insensitive and uncaring?

Posted on August 16, 2010
The Daily Mail: "Barack Obama has backtracked over his support for plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero. The U.S. President was hit by a furious backlash from victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks after he backed the highly controversial plans in a speech on Friday...

Obama?s mosque remarks reverberate

Posted on August 16, 2010
Victoria McGrane and Siobhan Gorman writing in the Wall Street Journal: "President Barack Obama's weekend remarks supporting the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero reverberated across the country, nationalizing a debate over the New York City project...

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