Religion & Law

?Labor secretary denounces gay pride poster vandals?

Posted on June 29, 2009
AP: "Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is denouncing vandals who defaced many of the gay pride posters installed at the agency's Washington headquarters."

Tim Chandler on KIRO FM: Supreme Court refuses to consider Bible club case

Posted on June 29, 2009
ADF attorney Tim Chandler appeared on KIRO FM to discuss the Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case of Truth v. Kent School District. Click here for more information. The mp3 audio link is here.

You Have an Amazing Brain! ? The Brain Science of Porn Addiction

Posted on June 29, 2009
Bernell Christensen writes at CANDEO: "How does pornography viewing alter the physical and chemical structure of the brain? How does addiction circuitry develop in the brain and why does it have such a radical impact on human behavior? Once this addiction circuitry is formed, how does one shrink this circuitry, build new healthy circuitry and return to healthy behaviors? The ability to overcome addiction is built into the very structure of the brain itself...

Kalamazoo predicted to approve ?gay rights? law: Opponents ready to try to overturn measure

Posted on June 29, 2009
Washington Blade: "City Commissioner David Anderson says an ordinance prohibiting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will be approved Monday night, perhaps unanimously."

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Indian women march against sex-selective abortion

Posted on June 29, 2009
Christian Telegraph: "Thousands of women marched in Coimbatore, southern India this week to protest the practice of sex-selective abortion."

Oregon: Suspect quickly caught in Bend adult store holdup

Posted on June 29, 2009
KTVZ.com: "A man claiming to have a gun held up a northeast Bend adult store late Friday night, then ran, but police recognized his description and soon found and arrested a transient in an abandoned vehicle, officers said."

?Gay marriage stalls as RI lawmakers wrap up?

Posted on June 29, 2009
Boston Herald: "Rhode Island seems almost certain to remain the only New England state that does not recognize gay marriage after measures legalizing same-sex unions stalled just before the part-time General Assembly ended the bulk of its annual work...

Aristotle and the cult of the immediate

Posted on June 29, 2009
"The use of terms like 'moral,' 'spiritual,' 'virtue,' or 'soul,' can create uneasiness in those who prefer to conceive of politics only in secular and mundane ways."

Connecticut Governor Rell Signs Bill Banning Ultrasounds Without Medical Reason

Posted on June 29, 2009
"The bill could have a negative impact on pregnancy centers that use ultrasounds to help women considering abortion."

Researcher: Abortions Double Risk of Premature Birth in Subsequent Pregnancies

Posted on June 29, 2009
LifeNews: "Having an abortion doubles the risk of having a premature birth in a subsequent pregnancy -- that is the conclusion of a European researcher at a medical conference."

?Come on You Homosexual Demon?

Posted on June 29, 2009
Eugene Volokh has this post on the Volokh Conspiracy addressing a situation where CPS was apparently contacted to investigate the exorcism of a "homosexual demon" from a Connecticut teenager. YouTube carres the video of the exorcism here: http://www...

Some 2.6 million abortions happen in Indonesia annually

Posted on June 29, 2009
Antara News reports: "The abortion rate in Indonesia reaches around 2-2.6 million annually, or 43 abortions per 100 pregnancies, Dr Titik Kuntari, a lecturer at the medical faculty of the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) said."

MA: Catholic hospital chain drops venture with insurer

Posted on June 29, 2009
St. Louis Business Journal: "A Massachusetts Catholic hospital chain has backed out of a joint venture with a Centene Corp. subsidiary after facing criticism about a how the Catholic-affiliated venture would handle contraception, abortions and other family planning services that the Catholic Church is against...

UK: This clampdown on home education doesn?t help children

Posted on June 26, 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/26/response-home-education-children

African Hospitals Funded by U.S. PEPFAR Program Accused of Forcibly Sterilizing HIV-Positive Women

Posted on June 26, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "African AIDS patients say they are being forcibly sterilized in hospitals funded by the United States' international AIDS program PEPFAR, LifeSiteNews has learned."

Adultery, Not Hypocrisy

Posted on June 26, 2009
Tom McFeely writes at the Catholic Register and quotes Legionary Father Thomas Williams: ?Some say that a hypocrite doesn?t practice what he preaches, but this isn?t hypocrisy. None of us perfectly practices what he preaches. We all fall short. The solution of lowering our moral bar to match our imperfect behavior doesn?t make us less hypocritical; it just makes us more mediocre...

Respected Pro-Life Physician: International Abortion-Maternal Death Data Wrong

Posted on June 26, 2009
LifeNews: "In a new interview, a respected pro-life physician says the data used by abortion advocates and United Nations agencies concerning abortion and maternal deaths is wrong. The misuse of the figures is important because they are used to persuade some national governments to legalize or expand abortions...

?Gay groups back federal challenge to marriage ban?

Posted on June 26, 2009
AP: "The lesbian center, Lambda Legal and the ACLU now say they support the legal arguments of former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and David Boies."

Federal Court rules ?transgender? discrimination suit against Ga. legisluture can go forward

Posted on June 26, 2009
Lambda Legal: "The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia today denied the Georgia General Assembly's motion to dismiss Lambda Legal's federal lawsuit on behalf of Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who was fired from her job as Legislative Editor after she told them she planned to transition from male to female...

OUTLaw seeking to create LBGT law journal

Posted on June 26, 2009
Andrew Martinez reports in The Daily Texan: "OUTLaw, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender law student alliance, has begun the process of establishing a legal journal to focus solely on issues affecting the gay community. The Texas Journal of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identification and the Law would be the first of its kind at UT and the second student-edited LGBT legal journal in the country...

British Appeals Court Says Jewish School?s Admission Criteria Are Racial, Not Religious

Posted on June 26, 2009
"The school's rule thus was found to violate the Race Relations Act 1976."

California: Trial Court Abused Its Discretion In Scope of Relief In Church Dispute

Posted on June 26, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "First Assembly of God Christian Center of Pittsburg, California v. Bridgeway, (CA Ct. App., June 24, 2009) involves, in the court's words, "a secular dispute dressed as a schism." At issue is the validity of the election of a board of directors and of Tim Combs as senior pastor of the church, here challenged through a summary proceeding under the non-profit provisions of California Corporations Code Sec...

Louisiana: Court Says School Board Invocations Governed By ?Legislative Prayer? Standards

Posted on June 26, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "Second it concluded that the question of the propriety of the School Board's invocation policy is governed by the legislative prayer principles of Marsh v. Chambers, rather than the school-classroom prayer restrictions imposed by Lemon v...

California: Man allegedly tries running down Planned Parenthood protestor

Posted on June 26, 2009
Elizabeth De Alwis reports in the Paradise Post: "A Planned Parenthood protestor was nearly struck by a motor vehicle Wednesday morning in Chico when a 40-year-old man allegedly tried to mow him over with an SUV."

South Dakota: 2005 ?right to know? law is back in court

Posted on June 26, 2009
Associated Press: "A federal judge will hear oral arguments next month in Sioux Falls over a lawsuit challenging a law that requires doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure ends a human life."

Amnesty Int?l tars Poland over abortion access

Posted on June 26, 2009
Piero A. Tozzi, J.D. reports at LifeSiteNews: "In its entry on Poland , Amnesty raps the country for its 'Denial of access to abortion for eligible women,' citing criticism that Poland received from the Human Rights Council (HRC) in May 2008. It further faulted the government for failing to implement a 2007 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Tysic v...

Ireland recognizes civil unions, but not same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on June 26, 2009
Reuters: "Ireland recognized the legal rights of same-sex couples for the first time Friday in a civil partnership bill that gave people in long-term relationships many of the statutory rights of married couples. But it stopped short of recognizing civil marriage...

Vermont parks seek to cash in on same-sex ?marriage?

Posted on June 26, 2009
The Vermont Times-Argus reports: "In April, staff of the Forest, Parks and Recreation Department talked about ways to boost use of state parks, including how to increase reservations for gay marriages and accommodate couples who might now want to change plans as a result of the new law that goes into effect in September...

Congressional Research Service on Sotomayor: Hard to Categorize

Posted on June 26, 2009
Tony Mauro writes at the National Law Journal: "The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has produced a report on the opinions of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, drawing conclusions that lend support to her advocates' assertions that she is far from an extreme liberal...

Abortion opponents ask feds to investigate threats

Posted on June 26, 2009
AP: "Operation Rescue of Wichita, Kan., on Thursday released audio recordings and e-mails containing threats, including one that says it's 'time to start killing Bible-thumping morons.'"

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