Religion & Law

Romania adopts strong civil codes protecting marriage

Posted on July 20, 2009
Romanian President Traian Basescu enacted new amendments to the country?s civil codes Friday that provide strong, new protections for marriage.

?Little compromise in W.Va. gay marriage debate?

Posted on July 20, 2009
Lawrence Messina reports for the Associated Press: "Lawyer Jordan Lorence of the national Alliance Defense Fund, which is aiding the council's campaign, told the interim committee that courts in nine of those states have declared such laws unconstitutional...

?Split ruling over ban on same-sex unions?

Posted on July 20, 2009
New Jersey Star-Ledger: "The decision was welcome news to the Alliance Defense Fund, which argued the camp meeting association has a constitutional right based on religious freedoms to say how its property is used. 'We're very happy that the court of appeals remanded the case back to the district court,' said Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund...

Court favors mother?s rights over former lesbian partner

Posted on July 20, 2009
OneNewsNow reports: "Salt Lake City Alliance Defense Fund attorney Frank Mylar represented Dickson. 'This other party was living with my client and it was in a lesbian relationship -- and my client and the other party separated and cut off their relationship,' he recalls...

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Calif. Judge Dismisses Challenge to Prop 8

Posted on July 20, 2009
CBN News reports: "'The people of California want marriage to remain as the union between one man and one woman; they made their voice clear last November at the polls,' Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Brian Raum said. 'We are pleased that the court dismissed the challenge to Proposition 8, which asked the court to nullify the voices of more than 7 million California voters,' [he] added...

Texas: Two men stabbed outside strip club

Posted on July 20, 2009
Caller.com: "Two men were stabbed multiple times outside a strip club in the 5400 block of Staples Street Sunday morning."

WV: Greenbrier resort plans to add gambling this year

Posted on July 20, 2009
USA Today: "The Greenbrier's new owner said Thursday he plans to open a small casino at the four-star southern West Virginia resort by fall, and he wants the dice rolling and cards being dealt at a full-scale gambling operation by April 1."

Canada: Legislation would allow gov?t to monitor internet users

Posted on July 20, 2009
LifeSiteNews reports: "The federal Conservative government introduced legislation in June to give the state greatly expanded power of surveillance of electronic communications and access to the personal information of Internet users. The Department of Justice's communiqué on the proposed legislation says the intent of the bill is to thwart child pornography and identify criminal activity on the Internet...

Committee Rejects Amendment to Ban Fairness Doctrine

Posted on July 20, 2009
TelevisionBroadcast.com: "The House Rules Committee has rejected a bill that would have blocked the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine or enacting proposed localism regulations for the next fiscal year."

Hate crimes amendments pass easily

Posted on July 20, 2009
The Hill: "None of the changes significantly affect the chamber?s action last week in passing by voice vote an amendment by Leahy that expands the federal definition of hate crimes to include crimes targeting victims because of their sexual orientation, gender or disabilities...

Hyde Amendment cannot stop abortion funding in health care proposals

Posted on July 20, 2009
LifeNews reports: "Hundreds of thousands of Americans literally owe their lives to the Hyde amendment, budget language in Congress that has significantly reduced abortions by stopping federal taxpayer funding for them. However, the amendment doesn't have the power to stop abortion funding in health care...

Lisbon Treaty may force abortion into Ireland

Posted on July 20, 2009
LifeSiteNews reports: "One of the Republic of Ireland's leading pro-life lobby groups has warned Irish voters that a vote for the Lisbon Treaty will be a vote against the country's constitutional protections for the unborn."

Letter requests end to Wis. Assembly?s prayer

Posted on July 20, 2009
WCOW.com: "The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking the Wisconsin State Assembly to stop opening sessions with prayer." Freedom from Religion Foundation press release

ADF responds to factual error: Ocean Grove news story

Posted on July 20, 2009
ADF Media has issued this correction to erroneous news reports in connection with the Ocean Grove litigation in New Jersey.

WA Initiative to protect marriage faces July 22 deadline

Posted on July 20, 2009
Protect Marriage Washington provided this report last week: "With just eight days to go before the R-71 mailing deadline of July 22, we continue to mail out petitions by the hundreds daily! If just a fraction of the nearly 75,000 petitions we have distributed are return to us signed, we will have the signatures...

Ohio: ?Items buried in the budget affect Pledge of Allegiance, angled parking, corporal punishment?

Posted on July 20, 2009
Cleveland.com: "This requires Ohio's 611 public school districts to allow students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, without deleting or altering any of its words . . . Paddling and other forms of corporal punishment in public schools is out. This was a Strickland idea that survived largely unscathed through the budget process...

Top Senator Dodd Defends Abortion in Health Care Bill: Respects Religious Views

Posted on July 20, 2009
LifeNews: "A top member of the Senate who is pushing the bill for government restructuring of health care through the chamber is defending the inclusion of abortion in it. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut says covering abortions respects the religious views of Americans...

Iran: Exodus of Christians looms

Posted on July 20, 2009
Asia News: "The climate of distrust and general insecurity has led to the re-emergence of the project related to the plain of Nineveh, the establishment of a Christian enclave in the north. It would become a buffer zone between Kurds and Arabs and is opposed, with some distinction, by the majority of Christian leaders...

Did Sotomayor really repudiate Obama?s judicial philosophy?

Posted on July 20, 2009
Stuart Taylor, Jr., writing at The Ninth Justice (National Journal): "Indeed, I wonder whether the Obama team itself may even have suggested to the nominee that rejecting the Obama philosophy -- as well as disavowing the apparent meaning of her years of 'wise Latina woman' speeches -- would be the best way out of a tight spot, for reasons explained below...

RNC chairman: Obama?s health care is socialism

Posted on July 20, 2009
Associated Press: "The chairman of the Republican Party on Monday called President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul health care 'socialism,' accusing the president of conducting a risky experiment that will hurt the economy and force millions to drop their current coverage...

China: Bible School Raided

Posted on July 20, 2009
Voice of the Martyrs: "A Bible school run by Vice-President of the Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA) Pastor Shi Enhao was raided on July 16 at 11:30 a.m. (Beijing time) in Suqian city, Jiangsu province."

2nd Circuit revives Muslim scholar?s challenge to travel ban

Posted on July 20, 2009
Mark Hamblett reports at Law.com: "The decision to bar Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan from the United States because he contributed to a charity that supports Hamas is heading back to a lower court following a decision Friday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Bloggers misrepresent ADF on Hate Crimes

Posted on July 20, 2009
ADFMedia.org: "The Daily Kos and a few other bloggers have misrepresented the position of ADF on the current Hate Crimes Bill based on some selective quoting. . . . ADF has never claimed and does not claim that some people deserve 'overly-equal' rights and some deserve 'no rights at all...

SC: Dorman students petition against prayer

Posted on July 17, 2009
Lee J. Healy reports at Go Upstate: "A student-spurred petition requesting that school district officials put a stop to religious messages at graduation ceremonies has garnered about 40 signatures and an online following of more than 100 people."

?Kennedy praises hate crimes bill?

Posted on July 17, 2009
From the Boston Globe's "Political Intelligence" blog: "Senator Edward M. Kennedy lauded the Senate for endorsing a bill that he has championed for more than a decade to expand federal hate-crimes laws to protect people attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender...

?NY man guilty of hate crime in transgender slaying?

Posted on July 17, 2009
Associated Press: "A jury on Friday convicted a man of manslaughter as a hate crime for killing a transgender woman he shot outside a house party last year."

Sotomayor Senate vote roundup

Posted on July 17, 2009
At How Appealing, Howard Bashman has a useful roundup of articles on the Sotomayor Senate hearings.

South Africa?s Constitutional Court protects widows in polygamous Muslim marriages

Posted on July 17, 2009
Ernest Mabuza reports at Business Day: "All the widows of a polygynous Muslim marriage ? entered into under Muslim personal law ? will be entitled to claim from the estate of a husband who dies without leaving a will, the Constitutional Court ruled yesterday...

State Agency removes website links to ?open and affirming? churches

Posted on July 17, 2009
Daniela Altimari reports in the Hartford Courant: "The state Department of Children and Families has removed from its website links to 'open and affirming' churches after a group opposed to gay marriage threatened legal action."

WSJ: ?A reckless Congress?

Posted on July 17, 2009
Editorial in the Wall Street Journal: "But the most remarkable quality of this health-care exercise is its reckless disregard for economic and fiscal reality. With the economy still far from a healthy recovery, and the federal fisc already nearly $2 trillion in deficit, Democrats want to ram through one of the greatest raids on private income and business in American history...

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