Religion & Law

NYDOT agrees to delay confiscation of trailer displaying Gospel message

Posted on June 12, 2008
A gospel message displayed on private business property in Gouverneur will remain until a decision is reached in a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys. New York Department of Transportation officials agreed to delay their plan to force Daniel Burritt to remove the tractor trailer bearing the message until 30 days after a decision is reached in the case.

Kentucky: ACLU Challenges Sex-Segregated Classrooms

Posted on June 12, 2008
"The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Kentucky filed an amended complaint on behalf of five families last month against the Breckinridge County Middle Schools, asserting that instituting sex-segregated classes is both illegal and discriminatory...

Massachusetts Governor?s daughter, 18, says she is a lesbian

Posted on June 12, 2008
"Governor Deval Patrick's 18-year-old daughter announced this morning that she is a lesbian, calling it a source of pride that she is ready to share with Massachusetts . . . "

Organization of American States Approves Homosexual ?Human Rights? Resolution

Posted on June 12, 2008
The Organization of American States has reportedly approved a resolution that expresses "concern" for the "violations of related human rights committed against individuals based on their sexual orientation."

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Father?s Day or Progenitor?s Day?

Posted on June 12, 2008
As Americans celebrate Father's Day this weekend, the changing face of modern parenthood may prompt some to wonder: Do dads still matter? The answer no longer is obvious in an age of sperm donors, single-motherhood-by-choice and same-sex adoption . . .

Texas justice of peace must stop paddling in court

Posted on June 12, 2008
The AP reports: A justice of the peace can no longer give parents the choice of paying a fine or paddling their children in open court for now, a judge ruled Wednesday. Los Fresnos Justice of the Peace Gustavo Garza was sued by three families who say Garza left them with no real option when he told [...

Massachusetts Governor Installs Lesbian Activist Judge

Posted on June 12, 2008
"Despite an official vote by the Governor's Council against the move, the Governor of Massachusets has appointed a radical lesbian activist attorney to the judiciary."

Texts at Saudi financed Islamic school in Virginia encourage slaughter of Jews, converts from Islam, and others

Posted on June 12, 2008
"Textbooks at a private Islamic school in northern Virginia teach students that it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam, according to a federal investigation released Wednesday."

Italian PM says He Agrees with Pope on ?Sanctity of the Human Person and of the Family?

Posted on June 12, 2008
LifeSiteNews.com reports on a meeting between the Pope and the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and ensuing statements by the Prime Minister endorsing the sanctity of human life and family. Visit Site » Share This

Porn conviction applauded, White House chastised

Posted on June 12, 2008
The former chief obscenity prosecutor for the U.S. Justice Department is praising the recent conviction of a hard-core pornographer, while criticizing the Bush administration for not taking obscenity laws seriously . . .

Jeremiah G. Dys: The discrimination of abortion

Posted on June 12, 2008
It is an intriguing juxtaposition. On the one hand, a decision was made to destroy a pre-born child. On the other hand, the author notes that the mother, "is overjoyed that he survived the procedure." In one sentence, a mother has gone from justifying death to embracing life ...

9th Circuit Again Certifies Issues To California High Court In San Diego Boy Scout Case

Posted on June 12, 2008
Plaintiffs claim they avoid using parks because they are "offended by the Boy Scouts? exclusion, and publicly expressed disapproval, of lesbians, atheists and agnostics." Is offended observer status sufficient to confer federal standing to sue? Two 9th Circuit judges think so...

Deafening Silence: Another commentary on Canadian totalitarianism

Posted on June 12, 2008
Among the spookiest aspects of these cases is the silence over, and indifference to them, on the part of journalists whose predecessors imagined themselves vigilant in the cause of freedom. As I've learned first-hand through email, many Canadian journalists today take the view that, "I don't like these people, therefore I don't care what happens to them...

Robert Knight: Media Ignore That Gagging Sound from Canada

Posted on June 12, 2008
Usually, when a journalist is censored in a Western nation, American news organizations respond with collective outrage. But as a major attack on press freedom unfolds in Canada, America?s mainstream media are silent.

Liberty Counsel Files Petition to Stay Same-Sex Marriage Licenses at California Court of Appeal

Posted on June 12, 2008
Today Liberty Counsel filed a petition on behalf of Campaign for California Families requesting the California Court of Appeal to stay the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples following remand from the California Supreme Court.

Cambodia Tackles Human Trafficking

Posted on June 12, 2008
The Wall Street Journal reports: Cambodia is regularly referred to as the human-trafficking hub of Southeast Asia, but it’s hard to know by which measure. Anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are trafficked there annually...

Orlando Paper Misrepresents Facts of Schiavo Case, Attorney Asks for Correction

Posted on June 12, 2008
Bobby kindly informed Mr. Eagles that using the phrase ?brain dead? to depict Terri?s condition was patently false, explaining that the term ?brain death? is an authentic medical diagnosis and not an accurate term to describe a person in Terri?s condition.

Pennsylvania: Same-Sex Marriage, the Courts, and the People

Posted on June 12, 2008
. . . regardless of the wisdom of constitutionalizing our legal norms about marriage, political and legal conditions are such that these norms are almost certainly going to be constitutionalized in Pennsylvania whether we like it or not.

Beyond Homophobia: Thinking About Sexual Stigma and Prejudice in the Twenty-First Century

Posted on June 12, 2008
Gregory M. Herek, Beyond Homophobia: Thinking About Sexual Stigma and Prejudice in the Twenty-First Century. Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.6-24, 2004 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1142860 George Weinberg’s introduction of the term homophobia in the late 1960s challenged traditional thinking about homosexuality and helped focus society’s attention on the problem of anti-gay prejudice and stigma...

British Teenager Becomes 14th Woman to Die From Dangerous Abortion Drug

Posted on June 12, 2008
After the abortion, Jones felt light-headed over subsequent days and began experiencing abnormal bleeding. She then became what is believed to be the fourteenth woman to have died after using the dangerous abortion drug . . .

Florida ?Swingers? Club Ordered To Stop Sex Parties or Pay Large Fines

Posted on June 12, 2008
Local6.com reports: “City code enforcement officials have ordered a controversial underground swingers club to stop hosting sexually themed parties by the end of Thursday or face fines of up to $250 a day.” Visit Site » Share This

Hate speech or free speech? What much of West bans is protected in U.S.

Posted on June 12, 2008
"Western governments are becoming increasingly comfortable with the regulation of opinion. The First Amendment really does distinguish the U.S., not just from Canada but from the rest of the Western world."

U.S. Supreme Court mulls Illinois case: child-abuse claims vs. parents? rights

Posted on June 12, 2008
At issue in the Illinois case is whether state officials can use the potential threat of placing children in foster care as a means to pressure parents to forfeit their parental rights . . .

N.Y. Judge Orders Himself a Raise: Could Cost Taxpayers $700 Million

Posted on June 12, 2008
. . . a state judge has ordered Governor Paterson and the Legislature to start paying him and his 1,180 fellow state jurists more money . . .

The Goods of Marriage in Canon Law

Posted on June 12, 2008
. . . offers a general description and introductory overview of the goods of marriage in canon law . . .

9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who ruled against Pledge of Allegiance, hospitalized

Posted on June 11, 2008
The NY Sun reports that Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, 77, has been hospitalized today after experiencing breathing difficulties. Visit Site » Share This

Turkey: Church fights for life in its 16th court battle

Posted on June 11, 2008
WorldNetDaily reports: One of the very few legally operated Protestant churches in Turkey is fighting for its life ? again. The church has battled through 15 court cases in the predominantly Muslim nation over the last six years, and it’s about to become 16...

School drops Pledge of Allegiance during ceremony

Posted on June 11, 2008
KATU.com reports: The exclusion of the Pledge of Allegiance from a southwest Portland elementary school’s ceremony has proved upsetting for a local mom . . . The following is the full e-mail response that parent Briana Reese received from Principal Pam Wilson: “The Pledge contains the words, ‘under God’ and we have many Muslim families here...

Stateline: ?States at odds over gay marriage recognition?

Posted on June 11, 2008
Christine Vestal has this report on Stateline.org along with marriate map charts and statistics.  She begins: “As thousands of gay couples across the country prepare to marry in California next week, many states are girding for a surge of complex and politically charged legal challenges when newlyweds return to their home states...

What Does Lawrence v. Texas Mean? Another Circuit Heard From?

Posted on June 11, 2008
Leonard Link has this post discussing Lawrence v. Texas. It reports: Did the Supreme Court in Lawrence establish that private consensual adult sex is a “fundamental right,” such that any government policy attaching adverse consequences to it must be narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling state interest without unduly burdening the right?  Or, alternatively, did the [...

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