Religion & Law

School meals go halal in London

Posted on August 05, 2010
The Australian: “School dinners for thousands of pupils in Britain will contain only halal meat from next month. The move comes despite anger from parents who are opposed to the religious slaughter of animals. Meat from animals killed in accordance with Islamic teaching will be on the menu at high schools in Harrow, northwest London...

Prop 8 reversal riles, pleases Jewish groups

Posted on August 05, 2010
JTA: "The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon stated that 'Traditional Jewish values recognize marriage as being only between a man and woman' . . . Meanwhile, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism offered a statement the same afternoon welcoming the judge's ruling as a decision that 'reaffirms the strong commitment to equality upon which our nation is built...

Muslim woman sparks burka debate in Australian court case

Posted on August 05, 2010
Telegraph: "The woman, who is a witness for the prosecution, has asked a judge at Perth District Court for permission to appear in the full burka, which covers the whole body except the eyes and hands."

Scotland: Lochaber Catholic and non-religious primary schools to share campus

Posted on August 05, 2010
BBC News: "Plans to combine two Catholic schools on a joint campus with a non-religious primary have been approved. The move involving Lochyside and Fort William RC schools and Caol Primary were opposed by Catholic parents and the bishop of Argyll and the Isles...

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Kosovo police to protect Serb monasteries

Posted on August 05, 2010
Balkan Insight: "NATO?s peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, has announced it is to start transferring protection of sacred Serbian sites to Kosovo Police. The Gracanica monastery, located in a Serb enclave on the outskirts of Pristina, will be the first shrine to come under the control of the mostly ethnic-Albanian police...

Mosque is no way to ?build bridges?

Posted on August 05, 2010
USA Today: "This case is a perfect example of the delicate nature of religious freedom. Religious freedom is most tenuous when the religious act in question is unpopular, and the building of this mosque is unpopular, to put it mildly. The proposed Islamic center shows an incredible lack of sensitivity on the part of the Cordoba Initiative, the group backing the mosque...

Leon R. Kass: The end of courtship

Posted on August 05, 2010
'Hogamus higamus, men are polygamous; higamus hogamus, women monogamous' . . . . Rebarbarization is just around the corner. Courtship, anyone?"

MA gov Deval Patrick backs NYC mosque plan

Posted on August 05, 2010
The Boston Globe: "Governor Deval Patrick, who this spring became the state?s first sitting governor to visit a mosque, lent his support yesterday to an Islamic Center proposed near ground zero, stepping into the middle of a growing national furor over locating a Muslim house of worship so near the site of the terrorist attacks of Sept...

Nelson sticks to his guns on Kagan

Posted on August 04, 2010
Omaha World-Herald: "It wasn't abortion-related memos or military recruiters at Harvard that sank Elena Kagan with Sen. Ben Nelson. It was guns."

New policy clears way for Pledge of Allegiance in Arlington schools

Posted on August 04, 2010
The Boston Globe: "Six weeks after deadlocking on a proposal that would have required the pledge to be led in all Arlington schools, the School Committee approved a new pledge policy unanimously last night."

Prop 8 supporters request stay in event of adverse ruling

Posted on August 04, 2010
"Under local court rules, it could be more than a month before the stay request might be acted upon, and the Proposition 8 backers argued that same-sex marriages could be performed during such an interval."

IA: Church membership at issue in Human Rights appointment

Posted on August 04, 2010
Sioux City Journal: "Two former members of the city's Human Rights Commission told the City Council on Monday they believe the commission is no longer composed of a diverse membership, with almost half its members belonging to the conservative Cornerstone World Outreach church...

Reid plans September showdown on extension of Bush tax cuts

Posted on August 04, 2010
The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to take up legislation in September to address the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush. Senior Democrats had expected the controversial issue to be postponed until after the election, when a fiscal responsibility commission appointed by President Obama is due to release its recommendations...

Bloomberg lauds religious liberty established by Christian founders; others challenge mosque intentions

Posted on August 04, 2010
The Wall Street Journal has the full text of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "speech following a vote that clears most major hurdles for the construction of a planned mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero": "Of all our precious freedoms, the most important may be the freedom to worship as we wish...

Homosexual acts are criminal in more than 70 countries

Posted on August 04, 2010
The Independent: "The research, which was conducted by the charity network the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), shows that 76 countries still prosecute people on the grounds of their sexual orientation ? seven of which punish same-sex acts with death...

How damaging is DOJ?s failure to enforce voting law?

Posted on August 04, 2010
J. Christian Adams writing at Pajamas Media: "Section 8 of the federal 'Motor Voter' law requires states to conduct reasonable efforts to ensure that only eligible voters are on state voter rolls . . . In November 2009, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes, the Obama political appointee in charge of the DOJ Voting Section, told the assembled Voting Section that the Eric Holder Justice Department had 'no interest in enforcing Section 8' ...

BYU most religious school

Posted on August 04, 2010
stltoday.com (RNS): "Brigham Young University was named the nation's most religious campus, and Sarah Lawrence College the least religious, in new rankings released Tuesday. The Princeton Review released the 2011 edition of their yearly assessment of 'The Best 373 Colleges,' which included rankings of the most and least religious students...

ADF-allied attorneys appeal important parental rights case to U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on August 04, 2010
"The appeal asks the court to determine whether a state that permits any legal stranger to seek custody of a child over the objections of the child?s fit parents violates the parents? constitutional right to raise their own children."

Jewish donors give Catholic schools a lift

Posted on August 04, 2010
The Boston Globe: "[Richard J. Henken], the president of Schochet Associates, which develops, acquires, and manages residential and commercial property throughout New England, is one of a number of Jewish benefactors in Greater Boston who not only give generously to Catholic schools, but also provide significant fund-raising muscle at a time when the region's parochial schools are under severe financial strain ...

Was the Prop 8 vote so close partly because of voter confusion?

Posted on August 04, 2010
At The Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh discusses "The Prop 8 Report: What Defeat in California Can Teach Us about Winning Future Ballot Measures on Same-Sex Marriage." Volokh gives Prof. Rick Hasen (Election Law Blog) the final word: "I?ve been involved with enough ballot measure litigation to know that the attorney general should not be entrusted with the responsibility of providing a neutral ballot title and summary, because he or she often has a political axe to grind and can be subject to pressure over ballot wording...

SCOTUSblog roundup: The Senate debates the Kagan nomination

Posted on August 04, 2010
SCOTUSblog: "Yesterday the full Senate opened debate on Elena Kagan?s nomination to the Supreme Court, and a final vote is planned before the end of the week, likely tomorrow."

KS: Moran wins GOP primary for US Senate

Posted on August 04, 2010
Associated Press: "Kansas Republicans have chosen Congressman Jerry Moran as their nominee for an open U.S. Senate seat in a bitter primary race where both candidates actively courted GOP conservatives."

What should medicine do when it can?t save your life?

Posted on August 04, 2010
Atul Gawande writing in The New Yorker: "In the past few decades, medical science has rendered obsolete centuries of experience, tradition, and language about our mortality, and created a new difficulty for mankind: how to die . . . The trouble is that we've built our medical system and culture around the long tail...

Homosexual groups plan August lobbying blitz to repeal DADT

Posted on August 04, 2010
The Hill: "The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) ? two organizations on the front lines of the repeal fight ? will send staffers and allies to the offices of senators from Arkansas, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Virginia as part of their Countdown 2010 advocacy campaign...

Group to fight vote clearing way for NYC mosque

Posted on August 04, 2010
Associated Press: "Even as the project's backers celebrated the decision, a conservative advocacy group founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson announced it would challenge the panel's vote in state court Wednesday."

CO: Bike agenda spins cities toward U.N. control, Maes warns

Posted on August 04, 2010
Denver Post: "Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are 'converting Denver into a United Nations community.'"

Taxpayers pay for ads touting Obamacare

Posted on August 04, 2010
Politico: "In the wake of two polls showing seniors skeptical of health reform, the Obama administration has made a $700,000 national cable ad buy, featuring Andy Griffith talking about the Medicare benefits within the law, aimed at selling a key voting block on new provisions...

FRC Action: Congressional ?lame-duck? session, if any, should not be used for major legislation

Posted on August 04, 2010
"What if Democratic leaders are saving their most controversial issues until after November when voters are powerless to do anything about it? That's a question more insiders are beginning to ask as big ticket legislation on spending, the military, global warming and campaign finance sit curiously idle...

Just 29% say FCC does a good job regulating profanity, sexual content and violence

Posted on August 04, 2010
Rasmussen Reports: "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 29% of Adults say the FCC is doing a good or excellent job regulating profanity, sexual content and violence on television and radio. Twenty-eight percent (28%) feel the FCC is doing a poor job monitoring content...

ObamaCare lacks severance clause?

Posted on August 04, 2010
Betsy McCaughey writing in the Wall Street Journal: "If mandatory insurance is declared unconstitutional, the entire health law could collapse like a house of cards. Most complex legislation states that if one part of the law is struck down, other parts remain enforceable...

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