Religion & Law

How the new healthcare law endangers conscience

Posted on June 29, 2010
Helen Alvaré writing at Public Discourse: "[C]onscience protection merits increased attention, particularly in the context of legislation such as PPACA [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] which contains an extraordinary array of new mandates affecting every player in American healthcare?governments, insurance exchanges and insurance plans, hospitals and clinics, doctors and employers, and every single healthcare consumer...

Report released on Canadian zoning laws and religious freedom

Posted on June 29, 2010
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada Press Release: "The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has released a 20-page report entitled Zoned Out: Religious Freedom in the Municipality. It is an introductory guide that seeks to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the religious freedoms of faith groups and the process of engaging with local government when they encounter zoning challenges from municipal government...

California schools facing ?financial disaster? rises to record

Posted on June 29, 2010
Business Week: "A record number of California schools are in financial distress and may not meet their commitments over the next two years due to the recession and state budget cuts, according to the California Department of Education. The number of school districts on a semi-annual 'fiscal early warning' list issued by the department has jumped 38 percent to 174 districts since January, or 16 percent of the state?s 1,077 local education agencies...

Bill Gates touts charter schools, accountability

Posted on June 29, 2010
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP): "Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates said Tuesday that charter schools can revolutionize education, but that the charter school movement also must hold itself accountable for low-performing schools."

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New York public schools top nation in per-student spending

Posted on June 29, 2010
USA Today: "New York spent $17,173 per student for public education in 2007-08, more than any other state and 67% more than the U.S. average, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released Monday."

Tennessee court rules mother?s lesbian partner can remain in home during visits with her children

Posted on June 29, 2010
ACLU: "A three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled today that a trial court judge was wrong to impose a 'paramour provision' barring a mother's lesbian partner of more than 10 years from being in the home during the mother's overnight visits with her children...

Lawsuit against Obama?s embryonic stem cell policy reinstated

Posted on June 29, 2010
Christian Post: "'Although private-sector funding of embryonic stem cell research has been practically unlimited, it has failed to produce results,' said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel [Steven H. Aden], in a statement. ADF is a co-counsel in the case along with Advocates International in the case of Sherley v...

N.J. Senate approves interdistrict school choice program

Posted on June 29, 2010
NJ.com: "The bill makes the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, which started in 2000 and has continued as a pilot program since expiring in 2005, permanent. It passed 38-0 and is set to be taken up by the Assembly this afternoon."

Prepared statements from Judiciary Committee members

Posted on June 29, 2010
SCOTUSblog has "linked to the prepared statements provided by several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee following today?s session of Elena Kagan?s confirmation hearings. Additionally, Kagan?s prepared statement is available here."

U.S. Supreme Court denies appeal over candy cane pens, other religious materials in Plano schools

Posted on June 29, 2010
Dallas Morning News: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from Plano parents who sought to reverse a decision in a years-long lawsuit sparked by candy cane pens in the Plano school district. Some Plano ISD parents wanted the justices to overturn a lower court's decision in December that upheld the school district's policy regulating when students can pass out religious materials, such as the candy cane pens...

Kagan disregards Obama view on empathy

Posted on June 29, 2010
Blog of LegalTimes: "'Senator Kyl, I think it?s law all the way down,' she said. 'The question is what the law requires. Now, there are cases where it is difficult to determine what the law requires. Judging is not a robotic or automatic enterprise, especially on cases that come before the Supreme Court?...

Marriage, life dodge a bullet in gun ruling

Posted on June 29, 2010
Family Research Council: "If you followed yesterday's news, you undoubtedly heard about a gun rights case called McDonald v. City of Chicago. In headlines splashed across the major newspapers, reporters called it a sweeping victory for Second Amendment rights--but for pro-family conservatives, it could mean much more...

David French interview: ?You cannot be an equal participant in the marketplace of ideas?

Posted on June 29, 2010
ADF Attorney Travis Barham writing at Speak Up Movement / University: "Over at Patheos, Timothy Dalrymple has posted his interview with David French on the meaning and impact of the Supreme Court?s decision yesterday in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez...

David French: Overstepping Boundaries: The Supreme Court decides what?s best for Christians

Posted on June 29, 2010
"So when or if you go to church this weekend, and if you stand up and recite the Apostle?s or Nicene creed, remember that your era is over and new ideas must take their place. Why? Because the Supreme Court says so."

Russian Orthodox Church raises fears over ?pro-gay? Protestant Churches

Posted on June 29, 2010
Christian Today: "Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has told the head of the World Council of Churches of his concerns over the position of some Protestant Churches towards homosexuality."

Australia: Liberal MP Peter Abetz defends abortion law change

Posted on June 29, 2010
Sunday Times: "Writing for wangle.com.au, Mr Abetz has defended his decision to promote changes to WA's abortion laws, including a requirement that women view an ultrasound of their unborn child before going ahead with an abortion. 'I thought that was hardly radical stuff...

Obama admin restricts flow of news and airspace in Gulf spill

Posted on June 29, 2010
New York Times: "Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials...

Vatican says not liable in U.S. sexual abuse case

Posted on June 29, 2010
Reuters: "In a statement, the Vatican's lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, said when the case returns to a U.S. district court it would show it cannot be held responsible for the actions of the priest as he was not a Vatican employee."

Elena Kagan demanded sex-change operations and bathroom access as ?equal rights? for cross-dressing Harvard students

Posted on June 29, 2010
ChristianNewsWire: "While serving as Dean of Harvard Law School, Kagan's administration demanded and forced Blue-Cross, Blue-Shield to cover sex-change operations as an 'equal right' paid benefit, harming gender-confused students, as confirmed in 2006 and 2008 by Harvard Crimson newspaper articles...

Foreigners doing business in China feel boxed out: report

Posted on June 29, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: "Foreign firms are being cut out of business opportunities by official discrimination in favor of Chinese companies, and there is no sign of the playing field being leveled in the near future, a major European business group complained on Tuesday...

Kagan treads carefully on guns, abortion

Posted on June 29, 2010
Blog of LegalTimes: "Why, [Feinstein] asked Kagan, should the Supreme Court?s two recent rulings on gun rights be considered settled law if they were both decided 5-4? 'Once the Court decides a case, it becomes binding precedent,' Kagan replied. ... Kagan said the Carhart ruling was specific to the abortion procedure in question at the time...

Morocco expels teacher for proselytising

Posted on June 29, 2010
Europe News: "Morocco has expelled a Spanish teacher from the Western Sahara region for allegedly attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity, a Spanish newspaper said on Tuesday." | For more information on religious freedom issues in Morocco see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www...

Spain: Catalonia set to vote on burqa ban

Posted on June 29, 2010
Press TV: "The regional parliament in Catalonia is due to vote on a ban on the use of the face-covering veil and the burqa in public, fueling debates over the freedom of rights in the country."

Catholic bishops tell Congress: Don?t turn military hospitals into abortion centers

Posted on June 29, 2010
LifeNews: "The nation's Catholic bishops have a message for members of Congress: don't turn American taxpayer-funded military base hospitals into abortion centers. They are oppose language in a Senate bill that would overturn the ban on abortions at the approximately 250 military base hospitals...

RI ACLU sues over database of patient records

Posted on June 29, 2010
Associated Press: "A civil liberties group is suing the Rhode Island Department of Health over the creation of a centralized database of patient health records."

Nebraska: Abortion screening measure faces suit

Posted on June 29, 2010
The suit challenges "the constitutionality of a new state law that requires doctors to perform extensive screenings of women seeking abortions in Nebraska."

Kagan files? abortion text finds its way into OB-GYN group?s findings and Supreme Court decision

Posted on June 29, 2010
CNSNews: "On Dec. 5, 1996, the government relations office of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) privately provided the Clinton White House with the unreleased draft of a policy statement ACOG was preparing to put out on intact dilatation and extraction (D&X) abortion -- the procedure used in a partial-birth abortion...

Maine Supreme Judicial Court orders new hearing on transsexual?s name change application

Posted on June 29, 2010
Leonard Link: "On June 24, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, ruling on the appeal in In re A.M.B., 2010 ME 54, 2010 WL 2521726, vacated and remanded to the Cumberland County Probate Court a petition by a transsexual man for a name change. Probate Judge Joseph R...

UK: Methodist Church to clarify position on abortion issues

Posted on June 29, 2010
Christian Post: "The Methodist Church of Great Britain?s annual Conference voted in favor of a new briefing to clarify its position on issues related to abortion. The vote comes one week after the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists published a review stating that fetuses in the womb could not feel pain before 24 weeks, therefore making it unnecessary to reduce the time limit for abortions...

Camille Paglia: The sexes are ?suffering from over-familiarity?

Posted on June 28, 2010
Camille Paglia writing in the New York Times: "In the discreet white-collar realm, men and women are interchangeable, doing the same, mind-based work. Physicality is suppressed; voices are lowered and gestures curtailed in sanitized office space. Men must neuter themselves, while ambitious women postpone procreation...

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