Religion & Law

Should the filibuster be eliminated?

Posted on July 27, 2010
Sandy Levinson writes at Balkinization: "I argued in my previous post that Joe Biden should declare that the Senate is not a continuing body and,therefore, that it can modify its rules by a majority vote, without facing a filibuster. Does this necessarily mean that the filibuster should be abolished lock, stock, and barrel? I think this is quite literally debatable, and I see two circumstances where we might want to retain the filibuster, even if, for example, we might want to drop the number of votes required to break a filibuster from, say, 60 to 55 ...

?Evangelical Lutheran pulpits welcome non-celibate gay pastors?

Posted on July 26, 2010
One News Now: "Seven pastors who work in the San Francisco Bay area and were barred from serving in the nation's largest Lutheran group because of a policy that required gay clergy to be celibate are being welcomed into the denomination."

?Blogger face-off: Are Obama, Congress doing enough on gay rights issues??

Posted on July 26, 2010
The Hill carries this discussion by B. Daniel Blatt and Pam Spaulding introduced as follows: "The Hill invites two established bloggers from either side of the political spectrum to sound off on a designated topic in original commentary each Saturday...

Judge Blocks AZ Law On Domestic Partner Benefits

Posted on July 26, 2010
"A federal judge is blocking Arizona from implementing a state law that eliminates domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian state employees."

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Redesigning Humans: Is It Inevitable?

Posted on July 26, 2010
"There are just a few voices warning of the coming challenges and opportunities of the developing crisis over human dignity as the diesel engine of human genetic technology gains momentum and steam. Some fear it may already be beyond the point of no return ...

1st Circuit: Puerto Rican bar association cannot compel members to buy insurance, must pay damages

Posted on July 26, 2010
Brown v. Colegio, No. 08-2432 (1st Cir. July 23, 2010) "This court held that the First Amendment allowed Colegio to compel its members to purchase life insurance only if this was germane to the purposes that justify compelling membership in an integrated bar association ...

?The truth behind the mosque at Ground Zero?

Posted on July 26, 2010
Kristin Davis writing at The Daily Caller: "The leaders of this mosque have ties to radical Islam. They have lied about the sources of their funding. They have gone on the record blaming American ideology for the events of 9/11. They perpetuate a radical ideology ? an ideology that goes against everything Americans (Muslim Americans included) stand for...

Euthanasia lobby setting sights on Idaho

Posted on July 26, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "A prominent euthanasia opponent is warning that the lobbying group 'Compassion and Choices' (CC), formerly known as the Hemlock Society, has begun an effort to promote assisted suicide in Idaho."

Irish gov?t targets rural areas for LGBT propaganda campaign

Posted on July 26, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "One day after Irish President Mary McAleese signed a civil partnerships bill into law, the government announced a full-scale campaign to promote homosexuality and the homosexualist ideology, particularly in rural areas where Catholicism remains a strong guiding force...

Summer jobs in N.Y. legal market lowest since 1991

Posted on July 26, 2010
Law.com: "The city's legal services sector, largely comprised by law firms, added 1,600 jobs in June, up 2.1 percent from May. But the numbers are below the 2,600 jobs added in June 2009 and below the decade average of 2,800 during the period when many law firms are adding summer associates...

?Argentina becomes first Latin-American nation to legislate in favor of marriage for same-sex partners after Iceland takes the plunge?

Posted on July 26, 2010
Argentina Becomes First Latin-American Nation to Legislate in Favor of Marriage for Same-Sex Partners after Iceland Takes the Plunge (Google Viewer) New York Law School's Lesbian/Gay Law Notes "In the early morning hours of July 15, Argentina?s Senate concluded a 16 hour debate by voting 33-27 (with 3 abstentions) in favor of legislation that will provide full access to marriage for same-sex couples in that country...

Senate Republican leadership now unanimously opposes pro-abortion Kagan

Posted on July 26, 2010
LifeNews: "Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is the chairman of the Senate GOP conference, announced his opposition today to the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor general Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. His announcement makes it so every top Republican lawmaker now opposes Kagan...

Psychiatry?s brave new world

Posted on July 26, 2010
Beverly K. Eakman writing at The New American: "After some 40 years of psychiatry-based 'parenting,' free societies are experiencing behaviors by out-of-control children virtually unknown in the 1950s ... Advocates for a Nanny State see all this as a wedge to further their controlling agenda...

Gone to sod: Illinois government becoming dysfunctional

Posted on July 26, 2010
The American Spectator: "No matter what happens [in the Illinois gubernatorial election] in November, the winner will be presiding over a state government that now makes notoriously dysfunctional statehouses in California and New York look exemplary by comparison...

ObamaCare and Britain?s NHS move forward with rationing of health care

Posted on July 26, 2010
LifeNews: "The U.K. is ramping up healthcare rationing under its National Health Service (NHS). According to The Sunday Telegraph, the NHS has drawn up plans for restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and injured. Operations including hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery will be rationed in a new attempt to save money...

Christian Legal Society: 2010 National Conference

Posted on July 26, 2010
Christian Legal Society: "The conference planning team has lifted the bar significantly this year, giving special attention to both spiritual formation and professional development. With extraordinary support from Campus Crusade for Christ?s (CCC) legal ministries group, CLS has held down costs for attendees despite enhanced programming...

IN: May child?s grandfather adopt the child, while the child?s mother retains her parental rights?

Posted on July 26, 2010
Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: "That?s the issue in In re Adoption of A.M., decided yesterday by the Indiana Court of Appeals. The biological father was fine with the adoption, which terminated father?s parental rights ? the plan was basically for the grandfather (on the mother?s side) to take on the father role, with the mother retaining her role as mother...

Cultural defense accepted as to nonconsensual sex in New Jersey trial court, rejected on appeal

Posted on July 26, 2010
Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: "From today?s opinion in S.D. v. M.J.R. (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div.), a domestic restraining order case   . . . 'The record reflects that plaintiff, S.D., and defendant, M.J.R., are citizens of Morocco and adherents to the Muslim faith...

Pro-life groups seek probe on Kagan and partial-birth abortion before vote

Posted on July 26, 2010
LifeNews: "A coalition of 30 pro-life organizations sent a letter to members of the Senate today asking for a thorough investigation of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. They are calling for a probe into her comments about partial-birth abortion and say she may have misled lawmakers...

New names emerge for 9th Circuit seats

Posted on July 26, 2010
Law.com: "Heather Kendall-Miller, a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, is in the running to succeed Judge Andrew Kleinfeld for an Alaska-based seat. But Kendall-Miller has some competition from Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen, part of a complicated 9th Circuit puzzle the White House is trying to assemble...

As Stevens retires from court, one final duel with Scalia

Posted on July 26, 2010
Washington Post: "Two of the court's leading intellectuals, Scalia and Stevens disagreed with each other about as often as any other pair on the court. Their conflicts involved the court's most enduring controversies -- abortion, gay rights, the death penalty, political speech -- and, just as importantly, diametrically opposed views on how to interpret the Constitution...

Robert Duvall?s cinematic take on faith

Posted on July 26, 2010
NPR: "Duvall pioneered this more understated approach to faith in his 1983 film Tender Mercies. His performance earned him an Oscar and the enthusiasm of Christian moviegoers. ... That realistic ? and complex ? approach to faith appears most vividly in a character of Duvall's creation ? a Pentecostal preacher named Sonny Dewey in The Apostle...

New postage stamp marks a century of scouting

Posted on July 26, 2010
Associated Press: "The 44-cent stamp will be released at ceremonies at the National Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Va., and will also go on sale nationwide."

Court under Roberts is most conservative in decades

Posted on July 26, 2010
New York Times: "If the Roberts court continues on the course suggested by its first five years, it is likely to allow a greater role for religion in public life, to permit more participation by unions and corporations in elections and to elaborate further on the scope of the Second Amendment?s right to bear arms...

New Zealand school sanctioned for firing homosexual coach

Posted on July 26, 2010
OneNewsNow: "A Christian school in New Zealand has been ordered to pay compensation and apologize to a sports coach it fired because he was a homosexual."

If Jacob Sullum is right, then inability to precisely define ?indecent? and ?obscene? means anything can air during TV family hour

Posted on July 26, 2010
ChristianNewsWire: "I wouldn't dispute Mr. Sullum's observation that the FCC's current guidelines for enforcing the broadcast indecency law are 'muddled.' He might have added that the guidelines have become muddled in good part because of court decisions...

PA gambling tax income outpaces Nevada

Posted on July 26, 2010
Associated Press: "Tax revenue figures for the 2009 fiscal year collected by The Morning Call of Allentown show Pennsylvania took in nearly $1.1 billion from its nine casinos. That outpaces the $878 million collected by Indiana and the $831 million by Nevada...

Was Lindsey Graham?s vote for Kagan constitutionally required?

Posted on July 26, 2010
Michael C. Dorf writing at FindLaw: "Senator Graham's view can be summarized as follows: The role of the Senate is to examine a nominee's professional qualifications, character, and whether her substantive views fall within the broad mainstream of legal thought...

DC Circuit OKs ?In God We Trust? on U.S. currency

Posted on July 26, 2010
Religion Clause: "In a brief opinion last week, the D.C. Circuit in Kidd v. Obama, (DC Cir., July 21, 2010), affirming the district court (see prior posting), held that appellants had not demonstrated that printing the national motto In God We Trust" on U...

N.J. Supreme Court declines marriage case filed by six same-sex couples

Posted on July 26, 2010
"In a split decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to hear a case from six same-sex couples seeking the right to marry, saying the case needs to wind its way through the lower courts first."

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