Religion & Law

2nd Circuit to Hear Arguments on Lawyer Ad Restrictions

Posted on January 22, 2009
Joel Stashenko writes on Law.com: “Three judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments today into whether restrictions placed on lawyer advertising by New York state courts in 2007 violate attorneys’ constitutional right to free speech ...

Obama Administration Considers Pro-Euthanasia British-Style Health Care

Posted on January 22, 2009
LifeNews.com: “The new administration of president Barack Obama is still putting up nameplates on walls and staff members are learning how to use their computers. But some watchdogs are concerned that the administration is already full steam ahead with a plan that could lead to assisted suicide, euthanasia and health care rationing ...

On Roe v. Wade anniversary, GOP lawmakers press Obama

Posted on January 22, 2009
McClatchy reports: Republican lawmakers on Wednesday urged President Barack Obama to reconsider his support of legal abortions as anti-abortion activists arrived in Washington for a protest on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling...

Oath administered to Obama again without a Bible

Posted on January 22, 2009
How Appealing links to numerous reports covering the story. Visit Site » Share This

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In Texas, a Line in the Curriculum Revives Evolution Debate

Posted on January 22, 2009
James C. McKinley, Jr. writes in the NY Times: The latest round in a long-running battle over how evolution should be taught in Texas schools began in earnest Wednesday as the State Board of Education heard impassioned testimony from scientists and social conservatives on revising the science curriculum...

High court says no to protecting minors from porn

Posted on January 22, 2009
OneNewsNow.com reports: The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to revive the Child Online Protection Act, designed to protect children from sexual material and other objectionable content on the Internet . . . “Why is it that the Constitution allows adults to give pornography to children?” ...

Kennedy withdraws her name from U.S. Senate consideration

Posted on January 22, 2009
AP: “A person who worked closely with Caroline Kennedy on her bid for the Senate says a pressing personal matter unrelated to her uncle’s health prompted her to tell the governor she was withdrawing from consideration . . . ” Visit Site » Share This

White House may put hold on offshore and shale based oil exploration

Posted on January 22, 2009
Reuters: “U.S. President Barack Obama may order a hold on a proposal issued in the final days of the Bush administration to expand offshore drilling in previously banned areas, an Interior Department official told Reuters on Wednesday . . . “ Visit Site » Share This

Abortion fight a study in irrelevance

Posted on January 22, 2009
Samuel Clegg writes in the Badger Herald: If one ever doubts the pettiness to which the political discourse in this country can be taken by the advocates of partisan hackery, look no further than the abortion debate for validation. The battle is now measured in inches and yards (or trimesters) in which neither side will realistically [...

Needville kindergartner wins battle to keep hair long for religious reasons

Posted on January 22, 2009
Houston Chronicle: Five-year-old Adriel Arocha doesn?t have to stuff his hair into his shirt collar. And he doesn?t have to meet privately with a teacher, away from his classmates, for flouting the school?s policy on hair length. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that the Needville Independent School District?s policy violated state law and the U...

Spheres of Sovereignty: Church Autonomy Doctrine and the Theological Heritage of the Separation of Church and State

Posted on January 22, 2009
Today, there are few phrases in public policy parlance more misinterpreted, misquoted, and misapplied than the ?separation of church and state.? The church autonomy cases shed light on the issue from an often-neglected angle when viewed in light of the theology and church history that preceded them...

Unconstitutional Mixing of Religion and the Judiciary: An Analysis of the Fugitive Safe Surrender Program Under Establishment Clause Jurisprudence

Posted on January 22, 2009
This Comment argues that Fugitive Safe Surrender violates the Establishment Clause under current jurisprudence and that the program should be offered in a non-sectarian environment so that its tremendous benefits may be obtained through constitutional means...

Sacrificing Motherhood on the Altar of Political Correctness: Declaring a Legal Stranger to be a Parent Over the objections of the Child?s Biological Parent

Posted on January 22, 2009
Part I of this Article briefly presents three recent cases where courts were asked to decide the parentage of a child born to a woman while she was in a same-sex relationship. This Part traces parental rights jurisprudence, discussing the fundamental rights of parents to direct the care and religious upbringing of their children...

Does ?Emergency? Trump Conscience, Thus Drawing Another Line in the Sand for Pharmacists?

Posted on January 22, 2009
Many articles take the perspective of the patient's rights, emphasizing the view that in the end the pharmacist must always do whatever the patient wants- thus ignoring the pharmacist's conscience. In being denied the right of conscience, however, the pharmacist loses the same right that women fought so hard to obtain...

King Solomon?s Solution to the Disposition of Embryos: Recognizing a Property Interest and Using Equitable Division

Posted on January 22, 2009
When divorce and IVF combine, a complex legal battle develops. When a couple that used IVF divorces, the court must decide who should get the remaining embryos. This article asserts that embryos should be considered property. The elements of ownership, possession, use, and exclusion, otherwise known as the bundle of sticks, are present...

Surrogacy contracts, the marriage requirement, and consent rights

Posted on January 22, 2009
This article will address the constitutionality of the marriage requirement in Florida's gestational surrogacy statute and the repercussions of the right to revoke consent in traditional surrogacy agreements. Part two of this article will provide a background of gestational surrogacy and traditional surrogacy...

Fixing Free Exercise: A Compelling Need to Relieve the Current Burdens

Posted on January 22, 2009
Using the dispute between the native tribes of northern Arizona and the federal government over the development of the Peaks, this article will demonstrate how the Supreme Court's decision in Smith, as well as the subsequent activities of courts and legislative bodies, has disrupted well-settled law and has created a quagmire of confusion related to religious freedom...

How the Iowa Supreme Court Can Use the Rational-Basis Test to Address Varnum v. Brien

Posted on January 22, 2009
In the 2007 case Varnum v. Brien, a Polk County, Iowa judge ordered the state of Iowa to begin processing marriage licenses for same-sex couples. One of the rationales for striking down the gay-marriage ban was that it failed to pass rational-basis review...

The Last Progressive: Justice Breyer, Heller, and ?Judicial Judgment?

Posted on January 22, 2009
This paper considers Justice Breyer's dissent as a species of progressive jurisprudence. By progressive, I do not mean a political program but rather an approach to how the Supreme Court views its role and its work. Progressive jurisprudence was developed in the shadow of the relative formalism of the classical jurists and forged in the pragmatic philosophical tradition at the turn of the century...

Is a Strip Club More Harmful Than a Dirty Bookstore? Navigating a Circuit Split in Municipal Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses

Posted on January 22, 2009
This Comment argues that the Tenth Circuit's approach properly interprets the Supreme Court by providing deference to cities at the initial stages of litigation while still ensuring that cities are ultimately not relying on ?shoddy data or reasoning.? The Fifth Circuit has improperly interpreted the initial evidentiary burden a city must meet when proving secondary effects by forcing municipalities to differentiate between on- and off-site businesses...

Can the Accommodationist Achieve Pluralism?

Posted on January 22, 2009
This paper is based on my brief remarks on a panel dedicated to ?reimagining the relationship between religion and law? and focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court's church and state jurisprudence. In particular, I ask whether an approach to the Establishment Clause known as accommodation is consonant with the larger concept of pluralism, particularly in the context of public religious symbols and displays, and offer some proposals and tentative conclusions...

No Choice: Doctors forced to perform abortions or else?

Posted on January 22, 2009
Attorneys with the CLS and the ADF filed motions to intervene Wednesday in three lawsuits that seek to invalidate a federal law protecting medical professionals from discrimination because they refuse to participate in abortions.

Poll: ?Floridians favor cigarette tax, gay adoption?

Posted on January 22, 2009
Finally, pollsters sought to find out about what to do about prohibiting gays from adopting children. A majority favored doing away with the state law that bans gays from adopting. 39 percent wanted to keep the ban in place. Democrats and independents both favored eliminating the ban, while Republicans and Evangelicals supported keeping the ban in place.

Pennsylvania Most Pro-Life State in America, California Least, says Americans United for Life

Posted on January 22, 2009
Americans United for LIfe has issued this press release: “Americans United for Life (AUL) today released its sixth annual ranking of the most and least pro-life states.  Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and South Dakota top the ranking, while California, Hawaii, and Vermont ranked lowest ...

Michael J. New: The case for pro-life optimism

Posted on January 22, 2009
Is this the dystopian scenario we face today? Nope. What I have just described is the political landscape in 1993, the last time the pro-life movement found itself in the political wilderness. There were plenty of reasons for pessimism at the time, but the movement refused to give up and went on to make some very impressive gains during the 1990s?gains that remain today, and should give pro-lifers plenty of hope for the future.

Man tries to drive SUV into St. Paul Planned Parenthood

Posted on January 22, 2009
KAALtv.com: A 32-year-old man was arrested Thursday after ramming his SUV into the front door of an abortion clinic on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, police said . . . Investigators believe the incident at the Planned Parenthood clinic in St...

Videos: Pro-Life Congressional Republicans speak against abortion

Posted on January 22, 2009
Just hours before the “March for Life” begins, pro-life Republican Members of Congress took to the House Floor Wednesday evening to speak out on behalf of the unborn — and their right to life. The reserved floor time, made available by Republican Conference Chair Mike Pence, was led by Rep...

CSPAN: Pro-Life Speeches on Floor of Congress Today

Posted on January 22, 2009
The Family Research Council has issued this email update: Tune in at 5:00 p.m. ET Today to Watch Congressional Pro-Life Speeches on CSPAN January 21, 2009 | As pro-abortion forces increase their numbers in Congress and with the election of President Barack Obama, prolifers need to work hard to protect the life of the unborn...

Senate shuffles Judiciary Committee

Posted on January 22, 2009
The Blog of the Legal Times: “. . .The departures of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Vice President Joe Biden have been expected for more than a month . . . Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) is the third senator leaving the committee . . . He is running for governor of Kansas ...

Connecticut: 3 locals among 5 arrested in prostitution investigation

Posted on January 22, 2009
The Middletown Press: “Police arrested five people Tuesday after an investigation into prostitution at Club Laura, a Meriden strip club on North Broad Street, owned by 48-year-old David Henderson of 22 Lake Road . . . “ Visit Site » Share This

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