Blog From The Capital: Religion & Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Religion & Law

Blog From The Capital

Blog from the Capital is the weblog of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Baptist church-state separation advocacy group in D.C. for the last 70 years.

Post Frequency: 8.8/day

Last Entry: March 30, 2009 at 16:22:09

Texas Judge Throws Out "Under God" Challenge

Posted on March 30, 2009
A district judge in Texas upheld the state's pledge as constitutional in a ruling on Thursday. Public school parent David Wallace Croft challenged the phrase "under God", but on the heels of the 5th Circuit's recent ruling in support of...

Senate Confirmation Hearing of David Hamilton Set

Posted on March 30, 2009
On Wednesday at 2:30, according to the Judiciary Committee's website, Judge David Hamilton will have his confirmation hearing. Hamilton was nominated by President Obama to fill a vacancy on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, and is sure to have...

Are Crosses and the Ten Commandments Meaningless When Government Uses Them?

Posted on March 30, 2009
In an op-ed for the USAToday, Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett argues that the Supreme Court should use the upcoming Mojave Cross case as an opportunity to set the record straight on governmental religious displays. More specifically, he wants...

Texas Education Board Adopts "Mixed Messages" on Evolution

Posted on March 27, 2009
The Fort-Worth Telegram reports from the Education Board's votes yesterday. As I posted yesterday, science supporters successfully (if barely) turned back an effort to emphasize "weaknesses" in evolution in the curriculum. But the board also adopted a string of amendments...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Do Religions Have Rights?

Posted on March 26, 2009
The UN's Human Rights Council has adopted a controversial resolution that finds "defamation of religion" to be a violation of human rights. I find much common sense in the members of the Council who argued that this language could improperly...

Texas Science Curriculum at Stake in Votes Today [UPDATED]

Posted on March 26, 2009
The Texas Education Board has its final say (hopefully) today in proposed alterations to the science curriculum that would reinstate discredited, religion-based objections to evolution. The Dallas Morning News, noting that textbook publishers often defer to the state's standards in...

Arizona Supreme Court Rules Voucher Programs Unconstitutional

Posted on March 25, 2009
In recent years, Arizona has attempted limited voucher programs to allow both foster and disabled children taxpayer money to attend private schools. Today the state's Supreme Court unanimously ruled both initiatives in violation of Arizona law. The Daily Star has...

Judge Rules Homeland Security Policy Amounts to Religious Discrimination

Posted on March 25, 2009
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security believes that international religious workers entering the country are more likely to commit fraud on their visa applications than other international workers. So they have had procedures in place to make it more difficult...

Texas Education Board Trying Again to Soften Science Curriculum with Religious Concerns

Posted on March 25, 2009
Once again the Texas Board of Education is primed to hear testimony and vote on the language used to teach evolution in science textbooks. In the Dallas Morning News, Daniel Foster argues that the mixed messages anti-evolutionists would send children...

Obama's "Outreach Toward Both Ends of the Religious Spectrum"

Posted on March 24, 2009
The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler writes of President Obama's practice of acknowledging "nonbelievers" during public events at the same time that he demonstrates great comfort with faith publicly. The outreach toward both ends of the religious spectrum makes for...

9th Circuit Supports Nevada School in Monitoring Graduation Speech

Posted on March 24, 2009
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed the First Amendment lawsuit brought by a Clark County, NV 2006 high school valedictorian. Brittany McComb strayed from her approved speech to include personal religious testimony during her commencement address and had...

Weekend Roundup: Blasphemy Laws, Newt's Still Upset, Ceremonial Hallucinogens, and More

Posted on March 23, 2009
Too many stories over the weekend to choose from. Take your pick! The NYTimes profiles the issue of state blasphemy laws, particularly the one in Pennsylvania now being challenged. Narrowly speaking, the suit filed last month in Federal District Court...

Voucher Proponent Sees the Light

Posted on March 23, 2009
The Washington Post's Jay Matthews has changed his mind on DC school vouchers. A former supporter, he now thinks that tax money should be used to improve the education of all public school children. Even if we had unlimited funds...

Ceremonial Deism

Posted on March 20, 2009
At Beliefnet, Mark Silk ponders the issue of ceremonial prayer. Asking clergy to deliver only inclusive non-sectarian prayers at government meetings, he says, is not asking too much. It impinges on no clergy's religious freedom to be asked to pray...

Lions and Tigers, Living Together!

Posted on March 19, 2009
The NYTimes reports on the opposition to a proposed Prison Bureau rule (earlier post here), noting the diversity of groups that came together in signing the statement. The Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian lawyers who litigate religious rights...

Conservatives Misrepresent Prayer Decision to Oppose Hamilton's Appeals Court Nomination

Posted on March 19, 2009
The blog of the conservative American Spectator posts a letter in opposition to President Obama's nomination of David Hamilton to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, emphasizing in fairly shrill and certainly inaccurate terms his decision in the Indiana House...

Obama Selects First Appeals Court Judge

Posted on March 18, 2009
Via Religion Clause, President Obama has nominated an Indiana judge to fill a vacancy in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. From a church-state perspective, the selection of David Hamilton would seem to be good news. He wrote the decision...

One Day Late, But...

Posted on March 17, 2009
Happy Birthday James Madison! (That's what you're celebrating today, right?) In the Wall Street Journal, Steven Waldman explains why he's taking the time to remember. Madison's most important contribution to religious freedom was not legislative, it was theoretical...

Baptist Joint Committee Opposes Proposed Bureau of Prisons Rule

Posted on March 17, 2009
The Baptist Joint Committee, along with several other religious and civil liberties organizations, signed a statement today in opposition to a proposed rule that could enhance the right of federal prisons to remove certain religious materials. You can read the...

Air Force Investigates Commander for Sending "Inspirational" Link to Subordinates

Posted on March 16, 2009
Over the weekend, the NYTimes reported the Air Force is investigating an incident in which a commander sent an email to the thousands of personnel in her wing directing them to an "inspirational video" concerning the role of Christian faith...

5th Circuit Affirms TX Moment of Silence Law

Posted on March 16, 2009
AP reports a 5th Circuit panel has ruled Texas' "Moment of Silence" law constitutional, in the face of a challenge by parents who objected to the recently-altered wording of the bill. The 2003 law allows children to "reflect, pray, meditate...

New York Ponders Religious School Conversion

Posted on March 16, 2009
New York's Gotham Gazette considers the church-state implications of the city's plan to turn a handful of struggling religious schools into public charter schools. Not surprisingly, the infusion of public money comes at a price. Much of this presents challenges...

BJC Counsel Takes on Radio Talk-Show Host

Posted on March 14, 2009
Baptist Joint Committee Counsel Holly Hollman reacts in a column today in the Tennessean, after the Nashville paper published a screed from right-wing radio talk-show host Phil Valentine spouting many of the usual lies about church-state separation. Claiming it was...

DC District Court Dismisses Inauguration Challenge

Posted on March 13, 2009
Via Religion Clause, a lawsuit challenging the practice of including prayers in the Inauguration ceremony, and "So help me God" in the swearing-in of the President has been dismissed by the DC District Court for lack of standing. [T]he Court...

Legal Battle Continues over Religious Student Groups, School Discrimination Policies

Posted on March 12, 2009
Attorneys for the Christian Legal Society met a skeptical 9th Circuit panel Tuesday in their efforts to obtain full recognition at Hastings College of Law for the student CLS organization, denied in 2004 for violating the school's nondiscrimination policy...

Do 223 Years of Religious Freedom Principle Need an Update?

Posted on March 12, 2009
A political action group in Virginia is arguing for a legislative update to that state's famous Statue for Religious Freedom. Religion and Philosophy Professor Stephen Strehle makes the case in today's Washington Times. Today the enemy of liberty is no...

Senate Rejects DC Voucher Amendment to Budget

Posted on March 11, 2009
The Senate passed the final '09 appropriations bill tonight after voting on several contentious amendments, including one that would have restored funding for DC's voucher program. That amendment failed, 58-39. As I noted in an earlier post, new Education Secretary...

Connecticut Changes Course, Withdraws Church Interference Legislation

Posted on March 11, 2009
Sometimes reason prevails. Even at the expense of good intentions. Connecticut lawmakers have withdrawn a bill from consideration that would have governed the way Catholic parish finances are monitored. An outcry from church-state experts and others argued the measure was...

10th Circuit Judges Question "Secularization" of Cross

Posted on March 10, 2009
A panel of the 10th Circuit yesterday considered the constitutionality of large memorial crosses on Utah highways, marking the deaths of state patrol officers. At issue in part is whether the cross has become merely a secular symbol of death...

Church-State Arguments This Week

Posted on March 09, 2009
Today, the 10th Circuit hears arguments in the challenge to memorial crosses marking the deaths of Utah's state troopers. A lower court determined that the 13-foot high cross monuments are not an improper government endorsement of religion because "the cross...

Related Law Bulletins

Memo to Rick re Capital Punishment, the Constitution, and the Courts
In response to Rick's post this afternoon, let me say this: We mus...

New Baptist Covenant Blog
Last week, I pointed to the New Baptist Convenant website, now onl...

The Mexico Trucker Blog
I've written before about the perceived problems with relaxed rest...

Capital Punishment ... and the Courts
Rick often says that although he opposes capital punishment, he wa...

is===1