Religion & Law

Judge to hear arguments on new Nebraska abortion law

Posted on July 13, 2010
JournalStar.com: "A federal judge will hear arguments Tuesday about whether to block a new Nebraska law requiring mental health screenings for women seeking abortions."

Prop 8 ruling could impact religious freedoms

Posted on July 13, 2010
Michael Foust writes at Baptist Press: It likely is a very rare event when the Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic official statements on marriage are read aloud in a federal courtroom, as happened earlier this year during the trial of California Prop 8 ...

Abortion, Other Issues Likely To Delay Action On Defense Bill In Senate

Posted on July 13, 2010
Medical News Today: "The potential for debate over several politically sensitive issues -- including abortion -- and a full legislative agenda make it unlikely that the Senate will take up its fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill (S 3454) before the August recess, CQ Todayreports...

Suit Challenges Christian Prayer At Florida City Council Meetings

Posted on July 13, 2010
Religion Clause Blog: "According to the Lakeland (FL) Ledger, Atheists of Florida yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Lakeland, challenging its practice of opening City Commission meetings with prayer. The complaint (full text) in Atheists of Florida, Inc...

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Obama Administration OKs First Tax-Funded Abortions Under Health Care Law

Posted on July 13, 2010
This is the kind of abortion funding the pro-life movement warned the kind of abortion funding the pro-life movement warned about when Congress considered the bill.

NY Congressman Raises Questions about Ground Zero Mosque

Posted on July 13, 2010
CNSNews: "In an interview with The Associated Press, Rep. Peter King raised concerns about the sources of funding for the proposed $100 million mosque, just blocks away from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks, where nearly 3,000 Americans died at the hands of Islamic terrorists...

OK: Illegal Immigration ban OK expected

Posted on July 13, 2010
Omaha.com: "The Fremont City Council was expected tonight to approve election officials? certification of a measure passed by voters to bar the hiring or renting of housing to illegal immigrants."

Candidate and Supporters Sue Virginia For Violating First Amendment Right To Circulate and Sign Candidate Petitions

Posted on July 13, 2010
"On Tuesday, Herb Lux, an independent candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Virginia?s Seventh Congressional District, and three of his supporters sued Virginia to protect their right to circulate and sign a candidate petition in support of Herb Lux?s candidacy...

Excerpts from proposed Helena, Montana sex indoctrination curriculum

Posted on July 13, 2010
Peter Sprigg writes at the FRC Blog: On Tuesday evening, July 13, the Board of Trustees of the Helena, Montana public schools was scheduled to hear public comments for the first time on a controversial new sex education curriculum. Some people who support in principle the idea of sex education in schools may wonder what the fuss is about in Helena...

Seventh Circuit Upholds Ban on Gun Possession by People With Past Convictions for ?Misdemeanor Crime[s] of Domestic Violence?

Posted on July 13, 2010
Eugene Volokh reports on the ruling in United States v. Skolen at the Volokh Conspiracy.

G20 looks to Beijing to drive global growth in face of U.S. deficits

Posted on July 12, 2010
Financial Times: The G20 appears to be placing a large bet on China?s policymakers. At their summit last month, one developed country after another, bar the US, said they would cut fiscal deficits. ?If these economies all decide to reduce their budget deficits, what will drive global growth?? asked Simon Johnson, the former IMF chief economist...

W.Va. gov expects to fill Byrd seat by Sunday

Posted on July 12, 2010
AP: "West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin says he'll make a temporary appointment to the late Robert C. Byrd's Senate seat by Sunday."

The administration?s denial of ?radical Islam? is dangerous, dishonest, and demoralizing.

Posted on July 12, 2010
Charles Krauthammer writes at National Review: "There?s a final reason why the administration?s cowardice about identifying those trying to kill us cannot be allowed to pass. It is demoralizing. It trivializes the war between jihadi barbarism and Western decency, and diminishes the memory of those (including thousands of brave Muslims ? Iraqi, Pakistani, Afghan, and Western) who have died fighting it...

U.S Embassy in Kenya Denies Obama Admin Funding Pro-Abortion Constitution

Posted on July 12, 2010
LifeNews: "The United States embassy in Kenya issued a statement today saying the administration of President Barack Obama is not spending taxpayer dollars funding a campaign to support a pro-abortion Constitution Kenya voters will consider at the polls next month ...

Homosexual ?Marriage? is a Machination of the Devil, Argentinean Cardinal Warns

Posted on July 12, 2010
"Argentina's number one Catholic prelate, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, is calling upon the priests of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires to bring their flocks to an upcoming protest against homosexual "marriage," which is currently under consideration by the nation's senate ...

Obama Bypasses Senate to Install Controversial ?Rationing Czar? at Medicare Center

Posted on July 12, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Performing an 'end-run' around the Senate confirmation process, President Barack Obama has installed Dr. Donald Berwick, an enthusiast for medical rationing and an unabashed admirer of the United Kingdom?s socialized health care system, as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services via a recess appointment...

U. of Illinois Fires Catholic Prof for Explaining Church Teaching on Homosexuality

Posted on July 12, 2010
LifeSiteNews: "Catholic professor has been fired from the University of Illinois for sending an email to students in a course on Catholic doctrine, explaining how homosexual activity is contrary to the natural moral law . . . Because the diocese of Peoria reportedly only permits university professors to teach at the campus Newman center, Howell lost his position there as well...

White House Pregnancy Assistance Fund Could Fund Pro-Abortion Groups

Posted on July 12, 2010
LifeNews: "The new pregnancy assistance fund the White House quietly announced earlier this month has already drawn skepticism from pro-life advocates. Now, other pro-life leaders who are chiming in on its creation say they are worried grant money will go to pro-abortion organizations ...

Challenged! Court using ?feelings? as case decider

Posted on July 12, 2010
WorldNetDaily: "A district judge's decision that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional is being challenged on the argument, submitted in friend-of-the-court briefs to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that never before has any court decided that "hurt feelings" are grounds for making a claim...

Felons Voting Illegally May Have Put Franken Over the Top in Minnesota, Study Finds

Posted on July 12, 2010
Fox News: "That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen...

D.C. Fights $3.1 Million Fee Request in High Court Gun Case

Posted on July 12, 2010
National Law Journal (Law.com): "Lawyers for the District of Columbia are fighting a request from a private attorney who wants more than $3.12 million in fees for successfully challenging the city's handgun ban."

?Why Is the Military Polling the Troops About Gays??

Posted on July 12, 2010
Mark Thompson writes at TIME: "When Harry Truman wanted to integrate blacks into the U.S. military in 1948, he simply ordered it done. When the Navy wanted women on ships beginning in 1978, it commanded its admirals to do so. When the Clinton Pentagon decided women should become fighter pilots, it issued orders telling the military to make it happen...

Daniel Blomberg: ?If gays serve openly, will chaplains suffer? Yes, religious liberty is in real jeopardy.?

Posted on July 12, 2010
ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg writes in USA Today: "In the late 1990s, for instance, the Clinton administration tried to silence military chaplains from speaking out against "partial-birth" abortion, even banning speech in the pulpit. Similarly, chaplains who oppose the normalization of homosexual behavior in the military will likely face direct orders ? potentially in the form of non-discrimination laws ? and subtle pressure to keep their opposition silent, while chaplains who support the change will be free from such limitations...

Correction: Will lawyers in Tar Heel State be forced to choose between conscience, career?

Posted on July 12, 2010
CORRECTION: ADF news release from July 7, 2010 should reflect that the ADF-allied attorney letter was sent to the North Carolina State Bar, NOT the North Carolina Bar Association.

Judicial Offensive Against Defense Of Marriage Act: Collusive Litigation?

Posted on July 12, 2010
"This controversial case might well go up on appeal. But if so, it looks almost like collusive litigation, unless some true defender of DOMA is allowed . . . "

Pro-Life Advocates Protest National NAACP Convention Over Abortion Backing

Posted on July 12, 2010
LifeNews: "As black civil rights activists from across the country meet today in Kansas City for the NAACP convention, pro-life advocates are there to encourage them to oppose abortion. Black pro-lifers and supporters are letting convention-goers know the NAACP takes a position backing legalized abortion...

Ginsburg: Roe will hold

Posted on July 12, 2010
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declared Thursday that abortions would continue to be available to women regardless of the legal challenges now being waged by opponents of Roe v. Wade.

Stays were common at High Court

Posted on July 12, 2010
How Appealing carries this article by Lawrence Hurley that originally at the Daily Journal Newswire: "One of the most distinctive features of the U.S. Supreme Court's just completed term was the justices' unusual willingness to intercede at the early stages of controversial cases through their power to stay lower court rulings...

Demetrios Stratis: Lawyers Need Not Check Their Religions at the Courthouse Door

Posted on July 12, 2010
"Mr. Costello disingenuously casts the arguments for upholding marriage as 'subjective religious concepts.'"

?Brown to support Wall Street reform; Dems appear to have 60 votes?

Posted on July 12, 2010
The Hill: "Democrats need 60 votes to move the legislation through the Senate. Fifty-seven Democrats support the legislation, and Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) has also indicated she will support the bill . . . Another Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), is also seen as a likely 'yes' vote...

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