Religion & Law

Arizona Senator Jon Kyl to vote against Sotomayor

Posted on July 22, 2009
Jan Crawford Greenburg reports at "Legalities" (ABC News): "Calling her Judiciary Committee testimony 'evasive, lacking in substance and, in several instances, incredibly misleading,' Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl said he will vote against Sonia Sotomayor?s nomination to the Supreme Court...

Obama: Abortion funding not the main focus of health reform

Posted on July 22, 2009
LifeNews reports: "'I'm pro-choice, but I think we also have the tradition in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government-funded health care,' [President Obama] said. 'My main focus is making sure that people have options of high quality care at the lowest possible price...

?House Dems propose maintaining ?status quo? on abortion funding?

Posted on July 22, 2009
Dan Eggen and Rob Stein report in the Washington Post: "A group of conservative Democrats led by Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio) proposed a compromise Tuesday that would neither require nor bar private insurers from offering the procedure as long as no federal funding is used; another group of Democrats and Republicans is holding a news conference today to call for an explicit ban on funding...

Pa. Supreme Court upholds state prisons? ban on pornography

Posted on July 22, 2009
Associated Press: "A sex offender's bid to overturn the state prison system's pornography ban was ended Monday by the state Supreme Court, which sided unanimously with the Department of Corrections."

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Kentucky county removes 10 Commandments

Posted on July 22, 2009
WYMT reports: "An update to a story we brought you three weeks ago in Jackson County about a lawsuit over the ten commandments being on display in the courthouse. The ten commandments are no longer on the walls inside the courthouse. County leaders removed the commandments in response to a lawsuit...

PA Supreme Court: Civil Courts can hear defamation claim against Catholic school

Posted on July 22, 2009
Howard Friedman reports at Religion Clause: "In Connor v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia, (PA Sup. Ct., July 20, 2009), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that civil courts have jurisdiction over a suit growing out of the expulsion of a 7th-grade student from a Catholic parochial school...

ACLU has standing to challenge Islamic charter school

Posted on July 22, 2009
"The court also concluded that the charter school is, under Minnesota law, a part of the state public education system, albeit a part that has considerable autonomy; the First Amendment thus applies to its actions."

Palin signs Alaska sovereignty resolution

Posted on July 22, 2009
WorldNetDaily reports: "Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution ? and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government...

Romania stiff-arms same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on July 22, 2009
OneNewsNow: "'It's defined throughout the code -- spouse as between a man and a woman,' [Kiska] explains. 'It forbids these backdoor, so-called same-sex "marriages" where Romanian citizens or foreigners come into the country and ask that their marriage be recognized by the country...

Nationwide campaign to raise awareness of students? religious rights

Posted on July 22, 2009
Lawrence D. Jones reports in the Christian Post: "The problem, says ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman, is that the guidelines had been sent to every school district but didn?t make it into the hands of school administrators, teachers, parents, and students...

NJ: City settles suit over distribution of religious literature

Posted on July 22, 2009
Shore News Today: "In February, lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit in federal court here against the City of Wildwood and on behalf of Eric Wollod, who was stopped from distributing religious literature without a permit in June 2008. 'Free speech does not have a price tag,' ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster asserted in describing why ADF believed the city must abandon its permit requirement...

Chuck Colson: Religion in schools

Posted on July 22, 2009
Chuck Colson writing in The Christian Post: "To help schools honor students? religious liberties, Gateways to Better Education and the Alliance Defense Fund have launched the National Free to Speak Campaign. The campaign?s goal is to promote greater awareness of the U...

TN: Nashville Metro Council passes non-discrimination ordinance on first reading

Posted on July 22, 2009
Out & About reports: "Nashville's Metro Council has passed on first reading an ordinance filed by at-large Council member Megan Barry that would add gender identity and sexual orientation to Nashville's current non-discrimination clause for Metro employees...

City settles suit over distribution of religious literature

Posted on July 22, 2009
Shore News Today reports: "In February, lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit in federal court here against the City of Wildwood and on behalf of Eric Wollod, who was stopped from distributing religious literature without a permit in June 2008...

TX: El Paso council discusses offering domestic partner benefits

Posted on July 22, 2009
ABC reports: "On the heels of perhaps the most controversial gay rights incident in El Paso, city leaders are now putting forth a plan that would benefit gay couples. By the end of July, City Council is expected to decide whether to extend benefits not just to same-sex partners of city employees, but also to heterosexual couples in committed relationships...

Coerced participation in abortion: The next phase of federal health policy?

Posted on July 22, 2009
Randy Pate writing at the The Foundry (Heritage Foundation): "The Alliance Defense Fund announced today that a lawsuit had been filed in federal court on behalf of a Catholic nurse who says her employer, Mount Sinai Hospital, forced her to assist in performing a late-term abortion in spite of her strongly held religious beliefs against abortion...

ND: Fargo seeks dismissal of monument lawsuit

Posted on July 22, 2009
INFORUM reports: "The city of Fargo is asking for the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging its display of the Ten Commandments by the Red River Valley Freethinkers. The city argues that the Freethinkers lack the legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the display, upheld in an earlier court challenge by the group...

New York hospital sued for trying to force nurse to help with late-term abortion

Posted on July 22, 2009
LifeNews reports: "'Pro-life nurses shouldn't be forced to assist in abortions against their beliefs,' [Bowman] said. 'Requiring a devout, Catholic nurse to participate in a late-term abortion in order to remain employed is illegal, unethical, and violates her rights of conscience...

Canada: ?Tories reject funding for Montreal gay festival?

Posted on July 22, 2009
Jennifer Ditchburn reports in The Canadian Press: "A gay and lesbian arts festival that was told it met all government criteria under a new tourism stimulus program learned Tuesday it was rejected for funding."

Minnesota: St. Paul to add domestic partner registry

Posted on July 22, 2009
Madeleine Baran reports at Minnesota Public Radio: "The St. Paul City Council is expected to adopt an ordinance today allowing domestic partners to register with the city. Under the ordinance, same-sex or opposite-sex couples could apply for a certificate showing that they are in a committed relationship...

UK: Lesbian couple wins battle for taxpayer-funded IVF

Posted on July 22, 2009
LifeSiteNews reports: "An anonymous lesbian couple have won the right to in vitro fertilization (IVF) paid for by the National Health Service (NHS) after a legal battle with their local health trust, which initially refused them the service because they were of the same sex and the child would by fatherless...

OR: Protest against bill banning religious dress in schools

Posted on July 22, 2009
Tim King reports at Salem-News.com: "A protest this afternoon in Portland will address Oregon's ban on religious dress among teachers in the state's schools. An interfaith group will hold the peaceful protest to draw attention to a law that could have, but ultimately failed to...

CDC report finds increase in teen pregnancies and STDs

Posted on July 21, 2009
Beth Vogt reports in the Examiner: "'Adolescents and young adults aged 15-24 years have high rates of the most common [sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)],' according to the CDC report. It is estimated that 15-24 year olds acquire nearly half of all STDs, although they represent only a quarter of the sexually active population in America...

Rhode Island law does not prevent minors from stripping

Posted on July 21, 2009
Amanda Milkovits reports in the Providence Journal: "[P]olice found that neither state law, nor city ordinance bars minors from working at strip clubs. Those under 18 can?t buy pornography, and no one may take pictures or film minors in sexually suggestive ways...

WV: Fight over Cross Lanes strip club heads to court

Posted on July 21, 2009
Kathryn Gregory reports in the Charleston Gazette: "Lawyers for the Pink Pony Club will go to court to try to get the club's liquor license back, after they were rebuffed by the Kanawha County Board of Appeals on Monday night."

More non-Muslim Britons use Sharia courts

Posted on July 21, 2009
UPI: "The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal claims that 5 percent of the cases it has handled involved non-Muslims who used the system of Islamic law because British courts were too costly or cumbersome, The Times of London reported Tuesday."

California cleared to clamp down on nude beaches

Posted on July 21, 2009
Bob Egelko reports in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Keep that towel handy. California parks officials can enforce a ban on nudity at any state beach, even in areas that have been informally designated as 'clothing optional,' a state appeals court says...

Pew Forum: Same-Sex ?marriage? in the U.S.

Posted on July 21, 2009
Pew Forum: "Gay marriage advocates hope that their recent victories in Iowa and Vermont will give their cause momentum in other states. And indeed, other state legislatures - in New Jersey and New York - have recently considered measures that would make gay marriage legal...

Vietnamese police beat hundreds of Catholics seeking to restore parish

Posted on July 21, 2009
Catholic News Agency: "On Monday morning Vietnamese police in the Diocese of Vinh brutally beat hundreds of Catholics who were erecting a cross and building an altar on the ground of a church that collapsed during the Vietnam War. Dozens of Catholics were arrested in the clash...

?Role of gay men in spreading AIDS ignored in Africa?

Posted on July 21, 2009
Donald G. McNeil Jr. reports in the New York Times: "While most transmission of the virus in Africa is heterosexual, 19 recent studies of African men who have sex with men show that they have 'considerably higher' infection rates than other adult men in their respective countries, said the authors, who were from Oxford University and research institutions in Ghana and Kenya...

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