Religion & Law

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Receives Highest ABA Honor

Posted on August 10, 2010
ABA: "During Monday?s meeting of the policy-making House of Delegates, the association honored Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with its highest recognition, the ABA Medal."

American Bar Association backs same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on August 10, 2010
"The country's largest lawyers' group has backed a resolution calling on all state legislatures to let same-sex couples get married."

All Mexican states must recognize gay marriage

Posted on August 10, 2010
AP: "Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that all 31 states must recognize same-sex marriages performed in the capital, though its decision does not force those states to begin marrying gay couples in their territory."

Huffington Post: The slow, whining death of British Christianity

Posted on August 10, 2010
Johann Hari writing at The Huffington Post: "For centuries, religion was insulated from criticism in Britain. First its opponents were burned, then jailed, then shunned. But once there was a free marketplace of ideas, once people could finally hear both the religious arguments and the rationalist criticisms of them, the religious lost the British people...

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Is straight monogamy the sexual ?ideal??

Posted on August 10, 2010
The Week collects responses to Ross Douthat's NYT column, "The Marriage Ideal."

Yoest on confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court

Posted on August 10, 2010
PR Newswire: "'Elena Kagan will emerge as one of the Supreme Court's most agenda-driven, reliably pro-abortion Justices. It is deeply troubling that the Senate voted to confirm Ms. Kagan without fully investigating her role in manipulating medical evidence during the partial-birth abortion debate in 1996-97...

Planned Parenthood where teen died from abortion drug loses affiliation

Posted on August 10, 2010
LifeNews: "The local San Francisco, California affiliate of Planned Parenthood where teenager Holly Patterson died from using the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug has lost its affiliation with the national abortion business. The decision is not related to Patterson's death but is said to be because of management problems...

WI: Tea party, conservative groups sue over political disclosure rules

Posted on August 10, 2010
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Tea party groups and other conservatives on Monday asked the state Supreme Court to strike down new political disclosure requirements, marking the third time the state has been sued over the issue since the rules went into effect Aug...

So, now its ?conservative? to redefine marriage

Posted on August 10, 2010
" . . . there are multiple reasons for conservatives to think carefully before digging in their heels against gay marriage."

Ross Douthat: Law, culture and same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on August 10, 2010
Ross Douthat writing at his New York Times blog: "So if Anthony Kennedy follows Walker and finds that the traditional legal understanding of marriage is unconstitutional ? and, by extension, that it?s irrational and bigoted to think otherwise ? it?s just naive to say that this won?t have a ripple effect in the culture as a whole...

NY: Quinn wants Senate marriage commitment

Posted on August 10, 2010
The Advocate: "New York City council speaker Christine Quinn said she wants to hear New York state senate majority leader John Sampson commit to bring the marriage equality bill to the floor for another vote as quickly as possible."

Cal Thomas: ?Gay marriage decision is judicial vigilantism?

Posted on August 10, 2010
Cal Thomas writing in the Salt Lake Tribune: "The decision by a single, openly gay federal judge to strike down the will of 7 million Californians, tradition dating back millennia (not to mention biblical commands, which the judge decided, in his capacity as a false god, to also invalidate) is judicial vigilantism equal to Roe v...

More questions raised by Muslims over mosque near 9/11 site

Posted on August 10, 2010
The Christian Post: "Tarek Fatah and Raheel Raza of the Muslim Canadian Congress say the proposed mosque and Islamic community center two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are undoubtedly an act of 'fitna,' or 'mischief-making,' which is forbidden in the Koran ...

?Gay college presidents form group? ? 25 Presidents invited

Posted on August 09, 2010
Washington Post: ine openly gay college presidents gathered in Chicago last weekend and resolved to form an organization to provide professional support to 'out' presidents and faculty. An account in the online journal Inside Higher Ed says 25 openly gay presidents were invited ...

Expert: Supreme Court likely cautious on ?gay marriage

Posted on August 09, 2010
Baptist Press: "Crawford acknowledged Kennedy has sided with the liberal bloc on homosexuality but called it an "enormous stretch" to ask the court to reverse the marriage laws of 45 states. Only five states recognize 'gay marriage.'"

National Anthem banned at Lincoln Memorial?

Posted on August 09, 2010
Fox News Radio: "A group of high school students attending a conservative leadership conference in Washington, D.C. said they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a June 25 visit to the Lincoln Memorial." | Audio at link

Chinese authorities install ?official? prelate in place of imprisoned bishop

Posted on August 09, 2010
Catholic Culture: "A Chinese bishop who left the 'underground' Church to join the government-backed Catholic Patriotic Association has been installed as the bishop of the Baoding diocese. To complicate matters, the 'underground' Church in Baoding already has a bishop, who has been imprisoned since 1997 ...

Cal: Commission Confirms New Justice for Fifth District Court of Appeal

Posted on August 09, 2010
Metropolitan News-Enterprise: "The Commission on Judicial Appointments on Friday confirmed the appointment of Madera Superior Court Judge Jennifer R.S. Detjen as a justice of the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno . . . "

American Bar Association can?t speak for all American lawyers on same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on August 09, 2010
DFW.org: "Two groups representing thousands of attorneys nationwide are disputing claims by the American Bar Association that it speaks for the legal profession in its plans to endorse same-sex 'marriage' later this week. Attorneys associated with the Alliance Defense Fund and National Lawyers Association point out that about three-quarters of American lawyers don?t even belong to the ABA, and many actively work to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman...

KY: Charter schools get hearing in Frankfort

Posted on August 09, 2010
Bluegrass Policy Institute: "School choice supporters told state lawmakers today that charter schools offer the kind of innovation that could bring true reform to Kentucky?s education system."

Ground Zero Mosque Becomes Free Speech Controversy?Federal Lawsuit Filed

Posted on August 09, 2010
Thomas More Law Center: "Although there have been 15,000 Muslim terrorist attacks around the world since 9/11, New York City?s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) had no problem displaying bus ads that promoted Muslims for peace. Yet that same governmental body refused to place an ad requested by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI) that dramatically showed the connection between the proposed Ground Zero Mosque and the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks...

Kevin Theriot: Prop 8 judge attacks churches

Posted on August 09, 2010
Kevin Theriot writing at Speak Up Movement: "If believing what the Word of God says about homosexual conduct is irrational, we?re just one step away from courts holding sermons articulating that belief are not protected speech at all. And if orthodox teaching on sexuality is irrational hate speech, what?s next? It?s likely to be biblical teachings such as creation, proper discipline of children, and Christ?s position as the only path to the Father...

Why waste all this time litigating social issues? Just send Anthony Kennedy an email

Posted on August 09, 2010
Doug Gibson writes at the Standard Examiner Blog: "Why do we waste all this time shopping for judges to issue opinions on gay marriage, immigration or guns, why not just send Justice Anthony Kennedy an e-mail and have him tell us how he?ll rule. . . When this case, or a similar case in Massachusetts striking down the Defense Against Marriage Act, eventually reach the Supreme Court, whatever Justice Kennedy decides will hurt the cause of gay marriage...

FRC praises House Resolution condemning Judge Walker?s Proposition 8 decision on same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on August 09, 2010
Family Research Council: "Family Research Council today praised House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) for his resolution condemning Judge Vaughn Walker's decision that declares the U.S. Constitution includes a right to same-sex 'marriage...

Same-sex ?marriage? judge finds that a child has neither a need nor a right to a mother

Posted on August 09, 2010
Terence P. Jeffrey writes at CNSNews: "U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who ruled last week that a voter-approved amendment to California?s constitution that limited marriage to the union of one man and one woman violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U...

Obama Administration plays politics with science, embryonic stem cell research

Posted on August 09, 2010
LifeNews: "Like Climategate, the public policy debate over hESCR has shown that scientists are not always disinterested parties . . . Rather, scientists can be every bit as political and partisan as the politicians, selectively using scientific 'evidence' to justify their ideological viewpoint ...

All eyes on Anthony Kennedy and Prop 8

Posted on August 09, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "The fate of marriage in the United States will likely come down to the vote of U.S. Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, and more than one commentator has noted that Walker seems to have issued his ruling with the court?s swing vote in mind...

Italy?s last Catholic generation? Mass attendance in ?collapse? among under-30s

Posted on August 09, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Despite regular polls showing that about 30 percent of Italian Catholics claim to attend Sunday Mass regularly, a closer look at the numbers reveals a more uncertain future for the Italian Church, and consequently for Italy as a moral vanguard in Europe...

Kagan, ?Jewish Bolshevism,? and the legacy of a nomination

Posted on August 09, 2010
Religion Dispatches: "'Jewish Bolshevism' will not die. At least the idea of a Jewish socialist plot to take over our American judicial system has been kept alive by some on the religious right who opposed the nomination of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court...

As Kagan joins, Federal Courts? roles rise in importance

Posted on August 09, 2010
NPR: "This summer, federal judges have once again been horning in on issues of great interest and high stakes. Gay marriage. Immigration. The health care law. The post-BP moratorium on deepwater drilling. Each of these decisions will be reviewed by federal courts of appeal and ultimately by the U...

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