Religion & Law

AUL Says New Hampshire HB 329-FN Protects Minors & Parental Rights

Posted on March 17, 2011
Americans United for Life: "Dr. Charmaine Yoest, President and CEO of Americans United for Life commended the New Hampshire House of Representatives for passing HB 329-FN, an AUL-drafted measure that requires parental notification before abortions may be performed on unemancipated minors, and called on the New Hampshire Senate to do the same...

Delaware House panel passes bill on clinic inspections

Posted on March 17, 2011
Delaware Online: "Legislation to subject abortion clinics and other facilities that conduct invasive medical procedures to safety and sanitation inspections cleared a House committee Wednesday despite concerns that the bill doesn't go far enough. House Bill 47 ...

U.S. Debt Jumped $72 Billion Same Day U.S. House Voted to Cut Spending $6 Billion

Posted on March 17, 2011
CNSNews: "If Congress were to cut $6 billion every three weeks for the next 36 weeks, it would manage to save between now and late November as much money as the Treasury added to the nation?s net debt during just the business hours of Tuesday, March 15...

LifeSiteNews: ?NH Supreme Court: homeschooled girl must go to public school against mom?s wishes?

Posted on March 17, 2011
LifeSiteNews: ?Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children,? responded Simmons. ?Courts can settle disputes, but they cannot legitimately order a child into a government-run school on the basis that her religious views need to be mixed with other views...

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NH Court Upholds Order to Send Homeschooled Girl to Public School

Posted on March 17, 2011
Christian Post: John Anthony Simmons, the Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney in the case, expressed appreciation that the Supreme Court ?limited its decision to the facts of this case." . . . ?Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children...

Reid: GOP must give in on Planned Parenthood to get spending deal

Posted on March 17, 2011
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declared Thursday that a Republican proposal to defund Planned Parenthood will not be part of any agreement to fund the government for the rest of this year."

The Secrets to Long Life: Worry, Work Hard and Marry Well (If You?re a Man)

Posted on March 17, 2011
TIME: Worrying is good for your health. Optimism is overrated. Women thrive post-divorce (men don't). These are just a few of the unexpected findings that psychologist Howard Friedman explores in The Longevity Project, a new book based on a groundbreaking eight-decade study on the secrets to long life.

Jeremy Tedesco: Distortions for Dollars

Posted on March 16, 2011
ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco writes at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Non-profit advocacy groups often raise funds by highlighting the actions of groups their donors oppose, and I have no gripe with Lambda highlighting Julea Ward?s important civil rights case to its donors...

Jeff Shafer: Sure, you can speak. Just pay us hundreds of dollars for the privilege.

Posted on March 16, 2011
ADF attorney Jeff Shafer writes at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Indirect methods of censorship are often government officials? most effective means of speech control. Because such restraints on speech are not formally directed to interfering with the speaker?s message (only having the effect of doing so), it allows for both better public relations (?we aren?t intending to censor you?) and the resulting likelihood of diminished resistance from the affected speaker.

Joe Infranco: Reigning Relativism Dampens Outlook on Churches

Posted on March 16, 2011
ADF attorney Joe Infranco writes at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: Advocating for something like eternal truth in an age when anything goes can only mean, as a NY Assistant Attorney General assumed, that the benefit is only to the few faithful who believe that kind of thing, and not to society at large...

Court puts hold on discriminatory law targeting Md. pro-life pregnancy resource centers

Posted on March 16, 2011
Most of a Montgomery County law forcing pro-life pregnancy counselors to advise women against using their services was put on hold Tuesday by a federal court while a lawsuit against the ordinance moves forward. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys represent a Silver Spring pregnancy resource center in the lawsuit against the county.

VA: Commandments Display Proposed in Giles County

Posted on March 16, 2011
Bluefield Daily Telegraph: Lilly said the proposed display would be centered around the Declaration of Independence, but would also include the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the Mayflower Compact and the Ten Commandments.

?Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women?

Posted on March 16, 2011
Jeanne Monahan writes at the FRC Blog: Last night on the House Floor, a number of pro-life congresswomen celebrated Women?s History Month with an incredible discussion of abortion, feminism, and women?s rights. Below are a few of my favorite quotes although it is definitely worth taking the time to read through the entire text ...

Idaho: Senate panel passes bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks

Posted on March 16, 2011
The Spokesman-Review: "Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, has moved to send SB 1165, the bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks, to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass.'

OR: City Council wrestles with prayer protocol

Posted on March 16, 2011
OregonFaithReport.com: "At the February 22, 2011, Damascus City council meeting, officials took public comment on whether to include an invocation at the beginning of each meeting. About 20 residents offered opinions from both sides of the issue . . ...

NH House passes parental notification for teen abortions

Posted on March 16, 2011
Union Leader: "The New Hampshire House today passed a parental notification bill on abortion for teenagers that includes language its sponsors say will pass any court review. The bill, HB 329, passed 256 to 102."

US school bans child?s Christmas party invites

Posted on March 16, 2011
The Christian Institute (includes photo of David): ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman said: ?Christian students and churches shouldn?t be discriminated against, censored and excluded in public schools because of their beliefs. ?Disallowing a 5th-grade student?s invitation to a Christmas party just because it takes place in a church is simply unconstitutional?, he added, ?especially when Hallowe?en parties and promotional events for businesses and other community groups indiscriminately receive a free pass?.

Ohio Bill to Strengthen Parental Consent on Abortion Passes

Posted on March 16, 2011
LifeNews: Yesterday, the House voted for HB 63 with an overwhelming 64 to 33 bipartisan vote ? nearly three quarters of the members of the state House. This pro-life legislation now heads to the Ohio Senate for additional hearings.

Illinois: Agriculture Committee passes abortion bill

Posted on March 16, 2011
Chicago Sun Times: By a 13-0 vote, before a standing-room-only room of angry abortion-rights supporters clad in ?Women are not livestock? T-shirts and buttons emblazoned with a cow, the panel advanced legislation putting new financial burdens on abortion clinics.

FFRF: ?Board resolution pushes prayer in public school: Board resolution pushes prayer in public school?

Posted on March 16, 2011
Freedom from Religion Foundation: "The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a strong letter of complaint to officials in Philadelphia after the City Council unanimously passed a resolution March 10 that violates the constitutional boundary between state and church...

Missouri House Considers Amendment Banning Sharia Law

Posted on March 16, 2011
Yahoo News: "The Missouri House is considering a bill to ask voters in 2012 to amend the Missouri Constitution. At issue is whether or not Sharia law should be considered in Missouri's legal system."

Howard Stern: Divorcing first wife ?blew my mind?

Posted on March 16, 2011
MSNBC: I had never been a guy to turn to religion but then as my marriage was coming to an end, I needed help to explain it to my children and make sense of it all...Because once you are a divorced guy, being a father is a whole different thing."

Indiana marriage vote next week in Senate Judiciary

Posted on March 16, 2011
Journal Gazette: "The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony Wednesday to move forward a measure that would ban gay marriage in the Indiana Constitution but held off a vote until next week."

Americans United for Life releases 2011 guide for model pro-life legislation

Posted on March 16, 2011
The American Independent: National anti-abortion rights law and policy group American United for Life, which credits itself with informing anti-abortion and other health-care related legislation, this month released its Defending Life 2011, a comprehensive guide of model legislation specifically for abortion, legal recognition and protection of the unborn, bioethics and biotechnology, end of life and health care rights of conscience

Planned Parenthood Republicans: A Decades-Long History

Posted on March 16, 2011
New American: "Planned Parenthood, for instance, has always enjoyed the support of a notable component of the Republican Party, especially its moderate or Rockefeller wing, comprised of influential Establishment elitists, internationalists, and environmentalists...

Pro-Lifers Should Oppose Pro-Abortion Obama Judicial Pick Steve Six

Posted on March 16, 2011
LifeNews: President Barack Obama has nominated former Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six as a judge on the Federal Appeals Court in Denver. Six was involved in obstructing the prosecution of Planned Parenthood on 107 criminal charges and, according to some, tied the hands of the prosecutor in the 2009 criminal case against George Tiller.

In Afghan Kilns, a Cycle of Debt and Servitude

Posted on March 16, 2011
NY Times: The labor boss stood looking down at a man and his four sons squatting in the dirt, the boys mechanically rolling and slapping mud as they made line after line of dull gray bricks.

Videos: Fight against Mission driveway tax gets bigger ? Erik Stanley on NBC and Fox News

Posted on March 16, 2011

Religious Accommodations in Court Holding Cells, Islamic Headscarves, and Statutory Construction

Posted on March 16, 2011
Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: A unanimous 11-member en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit has just reversed a decision that I blogged about last year, and held that the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act secures a limited right to religious accommodations in court holding cells, and not just in prisons and jails...

ADF files two appeals with U.S. Supreme Court over right of students to fight policies that muzzle speech

Posted on March 16, 2011
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed two appeals Wednesday with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to resolve a stark disagreement between federal appeals courts as to whether students can challenge college speech codes that regulate every human interaction they have on campus.

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