Religion & Law

ACLU: ?Birth Control: Who Decides? The Bishops or You??

Posted on January 13, 2011
ACLU Blog: "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will soon be issuing guidelines on what constitutes preventive care for women. Groups like the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Family Research Council and Alliance Defense Fund are trying to stop HHS from including birth control on the list of covered preventive services...

Poll: Three in 10 Americans commit financial infidelity?

Posted on January 13, 2011
Reuters: "The Harris Interactive online poll of 2,019 adults released on Thursday showed 31 percent of American couples who have combined finances were not truthful about issues such as hiding cash or a bank account or about debt or earnings."

Virginia: Judge allows lesbian couple to share last name

Posted on January 13, 2011
Augusta Free Press: "A Washington County Circuit Court judge who had previously ruled that a woman could not adopt the last name of her same-sex partner has reversed himself, holding that the name change could go forward."

Rise in abortions in China, young women targeted

Posted on January 13, 2011
Northwest Asian Weekly: "The leaf-strewn median on Eternal Peace Road hides a grim secret. Numerous tiny fetuses lie in unmarked graves dug by women from the abortion clinic across the street. The staff at the small clinic in the heart of this ancient city don?t bury most of the fetuses ? only those that have reached three or four months, when they clearly resemble miniature babies...

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NH ?gay marriage? opponents confident of repeal

Posted on January 13, 2011
Boston Globe: "Kevin Smith, of the conservative Cornerstone Action, said Thursday the House must vote on legislation to repeal same-sex marriage. He said if it isn't this year, it will be next year."

Christian Post: ?University Changes Policy Requiring Students to Sign Abortion Pledge?

Posted on January 13, 2011
Christian Post: ADF Senior Council David French said of the discrepancy, ?A university is never ever going to say we did something wrong.? However, he is pleased with the latest changes.

Step relatives in 40 percent of American families

Posted on January 13, 2011
MSNBC: "Major demographic changes, including a rise in divorce and more babies born to single moms, have contributed to the rise of the stepfamily over the past decades, the survey found. Overall, 42 percent of American adults have a step relative. Thirty percent of Americans have a step or half-sibling, 18 percent have a living stepparent, and 13 percent have a stepchild...

Canada: Are weddings becoming extinct?

Posted on January 13, 2011
Toronto Sun: "Moving up the relationship ranks is the very modern - and considerably cheaper - option of living together, sans the 'I dos'. 'It's the first time in Canada there are more unmarried people than married people,' explains Gemini-award winning documentary filmmaker Sue Ridout, producer and director of the new hour-long doc entitled, 'Thoroughly Modern Marriage' (Dreamfilm Productions)...

Religion and region at play in Nigerian election

Posted on January 12, 2011
Associated Press: "Jonathan, a Christian from the nation's oil-rich southern delta, came into the presidency after the May death of elected leader Umaru Yar'Adua, a northern Muslim. Under an unwritten power-sharing agreement in the ruling People's Democratic Party, the presidency should have been held for another term by a northerner because a southerner had it for the first eight years of democracy in the nation...

The rising abortion rate: 3 theories

Posted on January 12, 2011
The Week: "For the first time in two decades, the U.S. abortion rate didn't fall in 2008 . . . so why have the numbers leveled off now? Here, three theories: Blame the recession . . . People had less money to spend on contraception . . . The 'abortion pill' has made abortion more palatable...

Chief Justice warns Iowa lawmakers about threat to checks and balances

Posted on January 12, 2011
Des Moines Register: "Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark Cady warned lawmakers today that attacks on the judiciary based on misunderstandings poses a threat to the checks-and-balances system that protects individual rights." | More from the Sioux City Register here.

Raymond Ibrahim: Radical Muslims in America

Posted on January 12, 2011
Raymond Ibrahim writing at Hudson New York: "The mainstream position, the only one evoked by politicians, both Democrat and Republican, is that all the sacrifices America makes in the Muslim world (Iraq or Afghanistan), will pay off once Muslims discover how wonderful Western ways are, and happily slough off their Islamist veneer, which, as the theory goes, is a product of?you guessed it?a lack of democracy, liberty, prosperity, and freedom of expression...

Saskatchewan: ?Gay-friendly list of marriage officials may be illegal, too?

Posted on January 12, 2011
The Province: "Provincial Justice Minister Don Morgan says the conservative Saskatchewan Party government is considering another way of accommodating the religious beliefs of marriage commissioners who balk at marrying gays."

PA: Haverford?s gender identity discrimination proposal sparks more debate

Posted on January 12, 2011
Daily Times: "It was literally and figuratively the 11th hour Monday when commissioners cast their votes on a controversial anti-discrimination ordinance. After listening to many voices speak passionately on both sides of the issue, engaging in heated debate themselves, and defeating a motion to table, commissioners approved the first reading of the measure 5-3 with one abstention...

Ireland: Jehovah parents lose transfusion ruling

Posted on January 12, 2011
RTE News: "A baby boy was given a life saving blood transfusion under court order after his parents, who are Jehovah's Witnesses, objected on religious grounds. The order was made after a late night court sitting in the home of a High Court judge on 27 December...

Police capture gunman who killed Coptic Christian on train in Upper Egypt

Posted on January 12, 2011
Al Masry Alyoum: "Authorities have captured the man responsible for killing one Egyptian Christian and injuring five others on a northbound train in Upper Egypt, security sources said on Tuesday evening . . . Security sources said the assailant had checked passengers for the green cross traditionally tatooed on the wrists of Coptic Christians in Egypt...

Religious clashes continue in Nigeria

Posted on January 12, 2011
UPI: "Witnesses told the BBC the bodies of 13 people killed by machetes and gunshots were found Tuesday in a mostly Christian village 25 miles southwest of the polarized city of Jos. There have been no arrests in the attack, and the culprits have not been identified...

IA Chief Justice: Court expected uproar over marriage ruling

Posted on January 12, 2011
Chicago Tribune: "Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady says justices realized they would unleash a fury when they struck down a law in 2009 banning same-sex marriage."

Archbishop Chaput on Judge John Roll: A life of authentic Catholic witness

Posted on January 12, 2011
Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput: "Roll was devoted to St. Thomas More and kept a biography of the saint on a table near his desk. He liked mentoring young Christian attorneys because he believed their faith gave them a better moral foundation for the vocation of law ...

SC House Republicans to take on abortion

Posted on January 12, 2011
Columbia Free Times: "The 2011 legislative agenda for the Republican majority in South Carolina?s House of Representatives will include many bills the chamber has dealt with before, but one issue made it on the list this year that?s never gotten such high-profile early play...

GOP?s own ?Great Society? backfired

Posted on January 12, 2011
Robert W. Patterson writes at the Washington Examiner: "Just as LBJ's Great Society never delivered as promised, Nixon's social engineering effort -- dispensing heavy doses of contraception to the low-income population on the theory that fertility is a cause of poverty -- also backfired...

SD: Justices question school funding system in hearing

Posted on January 12, 2011
Bloomberg: "The South Dakota Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a high-stakes challenge to the state's system for funding schools, as lawmakers consider severe school aid cuts to balance the budget."

Gateways: Religious Freedom Day, January 16, 2011

Posted on January 12, 2011
Gateways to Better Education: "Each year since 1993, the President of the United States declares January 16 Religious Freedom Day. It is a time to celebrate the religious freedom we have in America. In 2011, January 16 falls on a Sunday. Gateways to Better Education and the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) have teamed up to help churches equip families with information on students' and teachers' freedom of religious expression in their public schools...

Walter E. Williams: What our Constitution permits

Posted on January 12, 2011
Walter E. Williams writing at Townhall: "If the House of Representatives had the courage to follow through on this [Constitutional compliance] rule, their ability to spend and confer legislative favors would be virtually eliminated. Also, if the rule were to be applied to existing law, they'd wind up repealing at least two-thirds to three-quarters of congressional spending...

PA: Rendell assails proposed school-voucher plan

Posted on January 12, 2011
The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Gov. Rendell urged his successor Tuesday to not cut education spending in the state's next budget, and came out against a proposed voucher program that would help low-income students from low-performing schools attend either private schools or public schools in other districts...

Rasmussen: Many favor cutting pay, benefits of State employees

Posted on January 12, 2011
Rasmussen Reports: "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 40% of Adults favor a 10% pay cut for all state employees to help reduce state spending. Forty-one percent (41%), however, oppose an across-the-board pay cut like this. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure...

L.A. billboards focus on black babies killed in abortion

Posted on January 12, 2011
LifeNews: "The City of Angeles will be getting the message that a large number of black angels ? unborn children ? are killed there every year ? more so than babies of other races. This week, the Radiance Foundation is launching its 'Endangered Species' billboard campaign in Los Angeles, California, after having experienced significant success and getting massive media attention with campaigns in other states...

Report shows contraception failure, 54% used before abortion

Posted on January 12, 2011
LifeNews: "The number of abortions would decrease in the United States if only contraception and birth control were promoted to a higher degree, abortion advocates say, but the new abortion report issued today by the Guttmacher Institute puts that notion to rest...

TN: Vanderbilt applicant complains over abortion clause

Posted on January 12, 2011
WRCBTV: "The Alliance Defense Fund claims that Vanderbilt is violating a federal law that states recipients of federal funds cannot require someone to perform or assist in abortions if it violates his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions."

Matthew Sharp: Vermont had no license to censor vanity plates

Posted on January 12, 2011
ADF attorney Matthew Sharp writing at Townhall: "[T]he recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Byrne v. Rutledge, a lawsuit wrapped up Monday, assures us that no matter how short the message or the viewpoint it expresses, it is protected by the First Amendment ...

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