Religion & Law

Free Ward in the Battle Against Obscenity

Posted on February 26, 2007
The Salt Lake Tribune is carrying the following report by Robert Gehrke: The former U.S. Attorney in Utah heads a national anti-porn task force. Brent Ward is a tremendous leader in the effort against obscenity but he is hamstrung by the fact that the FBI will not investigate and most U...

Here's some foreign law that no U.S. court will cite

Posted on February 21, 2007
The highest court in France  ruled Tuesday that the non-birth-mother partner of a  lesbian birth mother cannot adopt  her child.  The court said there is nothing in  French law to permit same-sex couples to be co-parents...

David French: A Bad Idea, Yes, But Unconstitutional? Restricting Political Speech in the Classroom

Posted on February 20, 2007
For many years, university professors have enjoyed a measure of academic freedom that is actually greater in scope than the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Persistent and arrogant abuse of that freedom is going to invariably lead legislatures and universities themselves to begin to roll back professors? expressive autonomy...

Does Same-Sex Sexual Behavior Require Society to Discard All Social Convention?

Posted on February 20, 2007
In Maine a woman is trying to undo an adoption that occurred more than 15 years ago. What makes this particularly noteworthy is that the case has nothing to do with a parent caring for a child, rather the parties involved were attempting to manipulate the legal system to obtain benefits for a same-sex partner...

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Get the Facts Straight on Same-Sex Issue

Posted on February 15, 2007
That is the title of my article that appears today in the Indianapolis Star. It is written in response to this article by Sheila Kennedy that appeared in the Indianapolis Star on Tuesday, February 13th. ...(read more)

Granting a Degree to a Creationist Raises ?Thorny Philosophical and Practical Questions" According to the NY Times

Posted on February 12, 2007
ADF Attorney David French discusses the story in his most recent post on National Review's Phi Beta Cons blog. ...(read more)

The Media's Latest Strategy to Undermine Marriage Betrays a Culture That Has Forgotten Faith, Hope, and Love

Posted on February 09, 2007
Pay attention. Over the last few weeks, we have seen the beginnings of a new media strategy to undermine marriage. In this latest strategy, the media paints marriage as an outdated, irrelevant, or even harmful institution without ever mentioning the "gay" word...

Hard Times for the Porn Industry?

Posted on February 08, 2007
Yesterday, Newsweek published an article by Brian Baiker titled Hard Times for the Porn Industry?. For years the porn industry has greatly inflated its distribution numbers and the press has always accepted the figures, no matter how fatuous the claims...

On the Michigan Marriage Amendment, the Michigan Court of Appeals Gets It Right

Posted on February 02, 2007
The Michigan Court of Appeals yesterday ruled in a strong opinion that the state's new constitutional amendment defining marriage prevents governmental entities, such as the the City of Kalamazoo, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University from offering spousal benefits for health insurance to the unmarried partners of its employees...

The Sanctity of Human Life: We Don't Really Believe It, But Let's Pretend!

Posted on February 02, 2007
  Democrats Rethinking Abortion Issue in 2008 Campaign: Some Candidates Looking for a Compromise Position, ABC, Sonya Crawford, 2.2.2007 "Pro-choice Democrats have found a new way to talk about abortion. Instead of simply pledging to protect a woman's right to choose, they're also highlighting the need to reduce the number of abortions overall ...

Natural Law: We Don't Really Believe It, But Let's Pretend!

Posted on February 02, 2007
Well, that is what Brian Tamanaha contends in this post over on the Balkinization Blog. As Mr. Tamanaha readily admits his view is a far cry from the viewpoint of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, who appealed to the "laws of Nature and Nature's God...

The Law Prevented Me from Aborting Her, But "I Am Thankful for My Daughter": Now, I Support Planned Parenthood So Others Can Abort Their Daughters

Posted on February 01, 2007
Its nice to know your appreciated by a mom who tried to kill you and views you as a reminder of the fact that the law stopped her. Oh, by the way, she also actively supports an organization that promotes a so-called "right" for other moms to kill their daughters...

Is Justice Sacrificed by the Socratic Method and Lawyers Who Think Like Lawyers?

Posted on February 01, 2007
Over at the Law School Innovation Blog, Joe Hodnicki has a new post that discusses a new book by Wisconsin Law Prof Elizabeth Mertz titled, The Language of Law School: Learning to "Think Like a Lawyer" (Oxford, Feburary 2007).   Commenting on the Mertz's book, Hodnicki observes: She shows how all these schools employ the Socratic method between teacher and student, forcing the student to shift away from moral and emotional terms in thinking about conflict, toward frameworks of legal...

Bill to Curb Online Sexual Predators

Posted on January 31, 2007
The San Francisco Chronicle has this report by Joe Garafoli: Bill to Curb Online Sexual Predators: It Would  Try to Keep Pedophiles Off Social Networking Sites. This bill is a nice concept and the sponsors should be commended rather than criticized...

Relativism on College Campuses is not a Substantive Position by Leftists, It is a Tactic

Posted on January 24, 2007
That is the point that ADF Attorney David French makes in this post over at the National Review Phi Beta Cons blog. ...(read more)

Theatres That Show Film With Child Rape Scene Are Liable to Federal Prosecution

Posted on January 23, 2007
Film hounded for child rape scene, Variety.com, Dana Harris, 1.22.2007  The filmmakers as well as theatres that show the film, Hounddog, are subject to  federal prosecution under child pornography laws.  Federal child pornography laws state that a film or image depicting a minor, defined, as ?under the age of eighteen years,? engaged in ?sexually explicit conduct,? may be the subject of a prosecution...

Science, Surrogacy, and Surrealism

Posted on January 23, 2007
. . . this process sounds remarkably like someone is buying a child . . . . Science cannot "create" a family anymore than it can create matter. Science observes and reports, what science should be observing and reporting in this case is that the selfish desires of those engaging in inherently non-reproductive behavior are creating a market that commodizes the human person and their parts ...

Rick Esenberg: After Breathing Madison's Air Too Long, City Council Has Endorsed Oath Breaking Because It Doesn't Like the Definition of Marriage

Posted on January 17, 2007
They did it - and by a landslide. The Madison City Council voted overwhelmingly to allow city officials to take a special oath of office.  As I explained in an earlier post, public officials in Wisconsin are required to take an oath pledging to uphold the federal and state constitutions...

What is the Supreme Court Doing With the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" Case?

Posted on January 16, 2007
Some interesting developments at the Supreme Court with Frederick v. Morse,  which this blog has commented on in the past here. This is the case where the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of a student on free speech grounds after he was punished by the principal for unfurling a banner that said, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"  when the students of Juneau, Alaska High School were assembled to watch the runners carrying the Olympic torch for the Winter Olympics coming by...

Rick Esenberg: Constitutional Oathbreakers: Madison, Wisconsin = Ten Square Miles Surrounded by Reality

Posted on January 11, 2007
Here in Wisconsin, it is not uncommon to refer to Madison as ten square miles surrounded by reality. Every so often, something happens that confirms this. Most recently, certain members of Madison's city government have shown that they are in denial about the fact that Wisconsin voters really have amended the state constitution to preserve the traditional definition of marriage...

Federal Appellate Nominations - Update

Posted on January 10, 2007
In light of my post about the coming battle over federal appellate court nominees, I must point out Ed Whelan's post about the exact pending vacancies among the federal appeals courts. These seats will be the main battlefields in the Senate in the oncoming months ...

The White House Withdraws Four Appellate Court Nominees

Posted on January 10, 2007
The announcement yesterday by the White House that it was withdrawing four controversial nominees for federal appellate judgeships reflects the  new  political reality that the Democrats rather than the Republicans control the Senate, and  that  the Democrats oppose many of  President Bush's judicial nominees...

Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Union Fee Case

Posted on January 10, 2007
The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today in two cases from the Washington Supreme Court involving a state law that requires unions to get the permission of nonmembers required to pay the agency fee before the union can use those funds to support political candidates or support or oppose ballot initiatives...

Military Porn Addictions Growing: President Should Intervene

Posted on January 09, 2007
WDC Media is carrying this Agape Press report on the growing problem of porn addiction in the military. The Military Honor and Decency Act, passed by Congress in 1996, was never properly enforced by the U.S. Department of Defense.  It was supposed to cause the removal of pornography from PXs throughout the world on the notion that our government should not be in the porn business...

The "Government Holiday Called Christmas"

Posted on January 09, 2007
ADF Attorney David French has this new post over at the National Review Phi Beta Cons Blog. David begins: I received the following memo from a friend in the Illinois university system yesterday. It comes from the Dean of Southern Illinois School of law, a school that recently lost a recent and important decision in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals after it de-recognized the Christian Legal Society...

Secular Fundamentalism and Democracy

Posted on January 09, 2007
That is the title of this interesting article from The Acton Institute's Markets and Morality, Vol. 8, No. 1 which has been published online.  Here is an excerpt: This article critiques the view, which may be termed secular fundamentalism, that democracy requires religious arguments and religious believers to be excluded from political discourse...

Rick Esenberg: Same Sex "Marriage" Slippery Slope Proves True Again: Canadian Court Approves Two Mommies and a Dad

Posted on January 03, 2007
The Ontario Court of Appeals has held that Heather (or, in this case, a child identified as D.D.) can not only have two Mommies, but keep her Daddy as well. Although Canadian law would permit the lesbian partner of the D.D.'s biological mother (with whom the child lives) to adopt D...

President Gerald Ford's Worst Legacy

Posted on January 02, 2007
Many have lauded the legacy of former President Gerald Ford, who helped heal  our nation after the raucous turmoil of the Vietnam War under Lyndon Johnson and the corruption of Watergate under Richard Nixon.  He was the right man at the right time...

Rick Esenberg: Embryo-Destructive Research: A Fairy Tale More Frightening Than the Brothers Grimm

Posted on December 29, 2006
In assessing the legal and moral issues around embryo-destructive research, I am reluctant to place too much emphasis on the relative lack of progress toward the cloning of a human embryo or the seemingly insurmountable odds against therapeutic use of embryonic stem cells...

Massachusetts: Will it Be Law or Anarchy?

Posted on December 28, 2006
This is why so many express disdain for the kind of judicial activism that brought us Goodridge. Judicial activism is repugnant, because it undermines the rule of law. Yet, we now risk moving a step beyond the problem of judicial activism. What happens when everyone begins to ignore the rule of law?...

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