Religion & Law

Buchanan: Reaction to general illustrates the culture war

Posted on March 20, 2007
Pat Buchanan's piece titled, Reaction to general illustrates the culture war, appears in today's Argus Leader. It concludes: This brings us to the heart of the matter. Is homosexuality - not the orientation, but the activity - inherently immoral? On Pace's side, that homosexuality is immoral, we have the Bible and Koran, 2,000 years of Christianity, Orthodox Judaism and natural law, the moral beliefs of virtually every society to the present, and the laws of every state before the...

A Political Plot to Undermine DOJ Obscenity Prosecutions

Posted on March 20, 2007
The Nation has posted an article titled, "The Porn Plot Against Prosecutors."  This article and others are, in part, blaming Brent Ward, chief of DOJ?s Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, for the U.S. Attorney flap that has recently appeared in news headlines...

"Bong Hits" Argument Goes Both Ways

Posted on March 19, 2007
The US Supreme Court's argument today on the student free speech case Morse v. Frederick, affectionately known as the "Bong Hits for Jesus" case, featured a loose and forthright panel of justices, just about all of whom expressed passionate views for both sides of the case...

"Is that a Dare or a Challenge?"

Posted on March 16, 2007
That is the title of a new post at ADF's Center for Academic Freedom.  The post begins: In an amazing display of arrogance, the interim Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire invited a lawsuit by disregarding warnings from FIRE that his speech code policies violated the First Amendment...

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When is a Baby Not a Baby?

Posted on March 16, 2007
That is the title of a recent blog post by Peter Gentala, General Counsel for the Center for Arizona Policy.  Peter discusses a criminal case pending against two Tucson residents accused of burying a baby's remains in their backyard...

Al Mohler Responds to Controversy Generated by His Comments on Homosexuality and Biology

Posted on March 16, 2007
Yesterday, Matt Bowman commented on and linked to Dr. Mohler's original article. Dr. Mohler has responded to the media firestorm that his original article created with a new post here. ...(read more)

5th Circuit: Addresses Whether Preambles and Legislative History are Obligatory and Whether Judicial Opinions Alone Can Support Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses

Posted on March 15, 2007
The Fifth Circuit has issued a unanimous panel decision in Illusions-Dallas Private Club, Inc. v. Steen, No. 05-10962 (5th Cir. March 15, 2007) addressing whether a Preamble and legislative record are constitutionally required to justify government regulation of adverse secondary effects from sexually oriented businesses...

Al Mohler, Sex, Sin, and Syllogisms

Posted on March 15, 2007
Advocates of homosexual behavior have attempted to prove biological causal factors for same-sex attraction because they assume the following faulty syllogism in their propaganda: (major premise) Whatever we are born with is unqualifiedly good and comes from God; (minor premise) Individuals, who engage in homosexual behavior, are born with same-sex attraction; (conclusion) Ergo, same-sex attraction is unqualifiedly good and comes from God...

Is there a hidden agenda with the controversy over Al Gonzalez and the firing of the U.S. Attorneys?

Posted on March 14, 2007
  I have barely followed the story about the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, and know little more that it has become a big controversy in Washington, D.C.  I have wondered why this is such a big deal.  Commentators have said that this controversy is overblown because presidents have routinely replaced U...

Is a Christian parent unfit to raise a child whose other parent identifies as a homosexual?

Posted on March 14, 2007
  This week there is news that former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, who resigned from office after publicly announcing he is a "Gay American" who had an extra-marital affair with a male staffer, has amended his divorce lawsuit to seek custody of his 5-year-old daughter...

What's good for the goose . . . Religious Identity Orientation Discrimination

Posted on March 09, 2007
I wonder if proof of a genetic predisposition to theism would give any pause to the many legal thinkers in the homosexual agenda who now argue strenuously that religious conscience exemptions to sexual orientation nondiscrimination laws cannot under any circumstances be tolerated ...

"Can Religious Freedom Survive Gay Liberation?"

Posted on March 09, 2007
That is the question posed by David Frum over at National Review. After citing various examples, he concludes with this insight: That is precisely why the gay rights movement is inherently an illiberal one. When you decide to extend your nondiscrimination principles to behavior condemned by your society's majority religion, you are embarking on a course that will sooner or later require the state to police, control, and punish adherents of that religion...

Ninth Circuit jettisons three decades of equal access jurisprudence

Posted on March 09, 2007
  In a sharply divided ruling today, the Ninth Circuit denied rehearing en banc in Faith Center Church v. Glover. Faith Center, represented by ADF, was seeking to preliminarily enjoin a public library policy that opens its meeting rooms to the public for "educational, cultural and community related meetings, programs and activities," but prohibits "religious services...

Major D.C. Cir. Ruling: Second Amendment Protects Individual Right to Bear Arms

Posted on March 09, 2007
This appears to be a very important ruling from the D.C. Circuit based on this summary provided by Howard Bashman on the How Appealing blog.  Bashman also links to the opinion. Several posts about the decision also appear on the Volokh Conspiracy blog ...

The Enduring Costs of John F. Kennedy?s Compromise: America's first Catholic president popularized the separation of faith from politics -- and the problem isn't going away.

Posted on March 08, 2007
That is the title of this insightful article by Colleen Carrol Campbell at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.  Here are a few excerpts: The controversy over America's Catholic politicians connects to a more fundamental question confronting dozens of pluralistic democracies today: Should religious convictions and religiously-based moral principles be confined to the private realm, or should they inform our public policy debates?  And what role must the Catholic politician play in articulating...

Nambla Pambla: An Implicit Admission that Man-Boy Acts are Homosexual

Posted on March 08, 2007
On the CWNews "Off the Record" blog, Diogenes has a post today titled "nambla pambla" wherein he argues that a "gay" lawsuit against California pedophile laws implicitly admits that man-boy acts are homosexual, contra the talking points of homosexual activists, mainstream psychologists, and the US Bishops' conference, and contra the "logic" of Lawrence v Texas...

The Royal "We": Activist NJ Court Tries to Legislate Homeschooling Policy

Posted on March 06, 2007
New Jersey judges who legislate from the bench are giving Massachusetts judges (and German jack boots) a run for their money. In a troubling divorce case last week, a Newark family court judge ordered penal charges against a mom merely because she homeschools her children, with no evidence of neglect or even of poor performance, and even though New Jersey law explicitly protects the right to homeschool free from government interference...

Mike Manno: Has Political Correctness Finally Jumped the Shark? Probably Not

Posted on March 06, 2007
In Hollywood when it is thought a TV show has run its course it is said to have ?jumped the shark,? a reference to the Happy Days episode where Fonzie made a water ski jump over a shark cage. That was my first thought Sunday morning when I read that political correctness had reared its ugly head to cancel participation in a university blood drive...

Supreme Court vacates Ninth Circuit opinion in Harper

Posted on March 05, 2007
  The Supreme Court in an order today gave the nation great news for student free speech rights by vacating the widely-criticized decision of the Ninth Circuit in Harper v. Poway Unified School District. The Ninth Circuit had denied a preliminary injunction to a high school student, Chase Harper, whom the Poway School District punished for wearing a homemade T-shirt at school that read, "Homosexuality is shameful," because it was offensive to observers who practice or support...

Decline in Paid Cert. Petitions at the U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on March 05, 2007
At the SCOTUS Blog, David Stras has this post discussing the decline in paid petitions at the U.S. Supreme Court. David observes: As the number of cases granted plenary review have decreased and the number of petitions for certiorari have simultaneously increased, the Court has become more selective in its selection of cases for plenary review...

U.S. Supreme Court Order in the Harper Case

Posted on March 05, 2007
Breaking News Below!  Stay tuned for more information on this case. Today's Supreme Court Order list contains this entry: HARPER, TYLER C., ET AL. V. POWAY SCHOOL DISTRICT, ET AL. The motion of Kelsie J. Harper for leave to intervene is denied. Petitioner seeks review of the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the district court?s denial of petitioner?s motion for a preliminary injunction...

"Is Your Baby Gay? What If You Could Know? What If You Could Do Something About It?"

Posted on March 02, 2007
That is the title of this post by Albert Mohler. He concludes: Christians must be very careful not to claim that science can never prove a biological basis for sexual orientation. We can and must insist that no scientific finding can change the basic sinfulness of all homosexual behavior...

Alan Sears: "Utah case exemplifies judicial contempt for biological parents"

Posted on March 02, 2007
ADF President Alan Sears explains in this commentary on StandardNet. See also, this earlier post by ADF Attorney Chris Stovall discussing recent Utah Supreme Court and Washington Supreme Court decisions on "psychological parenting." ...(read more)

Gary McCaleb: "ACLU Plays Ring-Around-the-Rosie With Its Pro-Abortion 'Logic'"

Posted on March 02, 2007
ADF Attorney Gary McCaleb explains how in this commentary on The Christian Post. ...(read more)

David French: "University to Christians: Don't Hang Out Off Campus"

Posted on March 02, 2007
ADF Attorney David French's latest post over at the National Review Phi Beta Cons blog expounds on a new suit filed against Savannah State University after it expelled a Christian student group for engaging in the ancient Christian practice of foot washing...

Harper back on the conference list

Posted on March 01, 2007
  The Supreme Court has placed the Harper v. Poway School District case back on the conference list for March 2.  This is the case we discussed earlier about the student in southern California whom school officials censored for wearing a T-shirt that read, "Homosexuality is shameful...

A Tale of Two Judicial Philosophies: Washington Supreme Court v. Utah Supreme Court on "Psychological Parenting"

Posted on February 27, 2007
  Discussions about judicial activism always seem to draw heated discussions regarding whether the concept can be precisely defined.  Yet the quest for semantic precision is sometimes an unnecessary obstacle to gaining conceptual insight.  Sometimes, the Way of the Optometrist is the path to clarity:  by repeatedly comparing examples (?Is this one better, or is this one better??), we find things gradually starting to come into focus...

Center for AZ Policy Taps into a New Communications Paradigm: Don't Let Your Pro-Family Organization Exclude Potential Readers

Posted on February 27, 2007
  Each day I receive hundreds of emails, alerts, and information updates from pro-family organizations operating on the state and national level.  The majority of these emails fail to link to a web page that contains the email's content...

The Supreme Court: Hearing "Bong Hits" and Holding Two?

Posted on February 27, 2007
  Apparently, the Supreme Court is holding two  additional student speech cases for remand after the high court issues its decision in the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case, Morse v. Frederick, which the Supreme Court will hear  oral arguments on March 19...

Amazing Grace

Posted on February 27, 2007
I highly recommend the new movie, Amazing Grace, about British MP William Wilberforce's 20 year effort to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire.   As a movie, it is well done and interesting with great detail to cinematic excellence...

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