Religion & Law

First Amendment Exception for ?Racially Hostile or Contemptuous Speech,? ? Denial of En Banc Rehearing by Sixth Circuit

Posted on March 14, 2011
Eugene Volokh reports at the Volokh Conspiracy: "As I blogged a few months ago, a two-judge majority on a Sixth Circuit panel held in Defoe v. Spiva that there was such an exception; to quote the panel . . . "

Virginia: Plot Thickens in Giles County Ten Commandment Battle

Posted on March 14, 2011
WVNSTV.com: "The banner wasn?t the only change this weekend either. Ken Burgess, a member of All 10 Commandments Ministries, was in town with several others handing out yard signs to locals. They?re attempting to raise awareness of the issues surround the Ten Commandments...

?10th Circuit Court opening could allow Obama to balance the appointments?

Posted on March 14, 2011
John Ingold writes at the Denver Post: "The departure of the longest-serving active judge on the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals gives President Barack Obama the chance to even the panel."

Des Moines Register continues disgraceful efforts to discredit Bob Vander Plaats

Posted on March 14, 2011
The "poll results" and article by Reid Forgrave are this Des Moines Register article titled: More have unfavorable view of Vander Plaats.

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?Gay Activists Petition Apple to Remove Exodus App?

Posted on March 14, 2011
Christian Post: "An online activism website has collected over 2,600 signatures within a few days to petition Apple Inc. for the removal of the iPhone app of a Christian ministry dealing with homosexuality."

Retired general to review religion at AF Academy

Posted on March 14, 2011
Seattle Times: Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and a vocal critic of the academy, criticized the scope of the review as it was outlined in the Air Force statement. The problem at the school is not with any restriction on the free exercise of religion, but with unwanted proselytizing by fundamentalist Christians, a violation of the constitutional concept of the separation of church and state, he said.

India Shia Personal Law Board Takes Action Against Domestic Abuse, Polygamy

Posted on March 14, 2011
Religion Clause Blog: "According to India Today, the All India Shia Personal Law Board is taking action to counter the growing problem of domestic violence."

Court Explores Catholic Doctrines For End of Life Decisions

Posted on March 14, 2011
Religion Clause Blog: "Matter of Zornow, (NY Sup. Ct., Dec. 23, 2010, posted March 2, 2011), involves a dispute between siblings over whether their mother, an Alzheimers patient in a nursing home, should be denied artificially administered food and water when the statutory conditions for doing so would permit such a decision to be made...

Virginia: Judge Orders Nutrition for Immigrant in Nursing Home

Posted on March 14, 2011
NY Times: After The New York Times published an article about her case, the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal alliance, petitioned Judge Nolan B. Dawkins of Alexandria Circuit Court on behalf of her children. He ordered her feeding tube reinstated while the legal issues were weighed.

Judge orders food, water for incapacitated woman

Posted on March 14, 2011
World Net Daily: A judge has ordered a court-appointed guardian for an incapacitated woman to ask health care providers to "reinstate nutrition and hydration and continue such care unless and until there is a further order from this court." . . . Family members declined to comment immediately, but Casey Mattox, legal counsel for the ADF, said, "Innocent life deserves to be protected...

Florida church contends for location

Posted on March 14, 2011
One News Now: And as a matter of fact,? Theriot said, ?in this particular place where they want to lease space, there are already two churches in the shopping center -- and there have been churches there for over nine years. However, the city's now trying to kick those churches out and is not allowing the Baptist church to lease space there and use it for a church...

Terry Paulson: Facing Public Union Realities

Posted on March 14, 2011
Terry Paulson writes at Townhall: In cash strapped CA, higher taxes have just stifled the private sector, motivated corporations to leave the state, and strangled job growth. The economic pain is not shared equally. According to the Employment Development Department, while private-sector workers have lost over a million CA jobs since the recession began, CA government employment has increased 1,200 jobs...

Next time, try reading the Constitution

Posted on March 14, 2011
MyCentralJersey.com: A comment that she made in her letter, which has been erroneously used so often, by so many, in so many circumstances, is six words in length - "the separation of church and state." . . . The ACLU has been using it to ban prayer in schools, and at school events, and activist judges have unjustly sided with them...

Traditional Experts

Posted on March 14, 2011
The Walrus: "When the American Right needed courtroom-ready arguments against gay marriage, it looked to three academics from McGill . . . The following year, a lawyer from the Alliance Defense Fund, a controversial American Christian group, asked Somerville and Young to act as expert witnesses in a landmark Iowa case involving six gay couples who hoped to wed ...

David French: Are Christians Obsessed With Gays and Abortion?

Posted on March 14, 2011
ADF attorney David French writes at Patheos: I'm a card-carrying member of the professional religious right. No, that's an understatement. To simply call me a "member" would profoundly understate my antagonistic role in the culture wars. Fans of comic book movies (and all of you should be) may remember a scene in X2, the sequel to X-Men, when Pyro tells a frightened police officer: "You know all those dangerous mutants you hear about in the news? Well I'm the worst one!" and then proceeds to wreak fiery havoc on an entire neighborhood

Paul Driessen: Welcome to the Third World

Posted on March 14, 2011
Paul Driessen writes at Townhall: "Welcome to the Third World, Europeans, where costly electricity is available only from time to time, at unexpected hours, depending on bureaucratic whims and how much power wind turbines and other ?environment-friendly? generators can muster...

Baby Joseph Maraachli Rescued from Canadian Hospita

Posted on March 14, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "The doctors who have cared for him want to remove his breathing tube but Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader took their battle to court to allow the tube to be removed at home, so the boy can die surrounded by his family."

Steven H. Aden: Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution

Posted on March 14, 2011
ADF attorney Steven H. Aden is a guest essayist at Constituting America.  He has written a brief analysis of Article I, Section 6, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution which provides: "2: No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office...

3% Say Ivy League Schools Produce Better Workers

Posted on March 14, 2011
Rasmussen: "In fact, only three percent (3%) say individuals who go to Ivy League schools are better workers than those who go to other schools. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 79% do not think Ivy League students make better workers...

The Role of Culture in State Failure

Posted on March 14, 2011
NCPA Policy Digest: "The results suggest that culture is more important than formal institutions in explaining differences in the degree to which states fail, according to Claudio D. Shikida and Ari Francisco de Araujo Jr., of Ibmec Minas Gerais, Brazil, and Pedro H...

11th Circuit Obamacare challenge fast tracked

Posted on March 14, 2011
SCOTUS Blog: The Eleventh Circuit Court agreed Friday to put the health care case on a fast track, and issued a briefing schedule, but said it would keep open for now the question of whether the appeal will be heard initially by the full Court or by a three-judge panel...

Mo. House backs restrictions on late-term abortion

Posted on March 14, 2011
NECN.com: he Missouri House has endorsed legislation imposing new limits on late-term abortions and criminal penalties on doctors who don't abide by the new standards . . . Abortion bill is HB213 . . .

New Mexico House passes unborn victims of violence bill, opposed by Planned Parenthood

Posted on March 14, 2011
LifeSiteNews: Lawmakers in the New Mexico state House of Representatives approved a measure that gives limited protection to unborn victims of violence when their mothers are the subjects of a crime. The measure, known locally as the ?Little Isaac? Act, was a legislative response to a mother?s brutal murder in 2009, and was opposed chiefly by Planned Parenthood.

Missouri House Passes Religious Freedom Amendment

Posted on March 14, 2011
Citizen Link: "Legislation designed to safeguard the religious liberties of Missouri residents has passed the state House with a 126-30 vote. HJR 2 . . . "

SD: Judge allows lesbian couple to use married names on driver?s licenses

Posted on March 14, 2011
Argus Leader: Two Sioux Falls women who were legally married in Iowa were granted the right to use their married names today.

UK: Babies with 3 parents proposed using IVF technique

Posted on March 14, 2011
The first baby with three biological parents could be conceived next year after the Government announced a major review of Britain?s fertility laws.

UK: Warning over decline of religious education in schools

Posted on March 14, 2011
Telegraph: "High-quality religious education faces being killed off in schools because of swingeing teaching cuts and its exclusion from new-style league tables, academics warn today."

Australia: First Intersex, Sex and/or Gender Diverse (ISGD) rally for civil rights

Posted on March 14, 2011
The Scavenger: "On 11 May 2011, Australian activists will converge at the Houses of Parliament, Canberra in the country?s first rally in which people currently discriminated against on the grounds of their sex and/or gender variance, identity or expression will demand their equal rights...

Demonstration Re. GOP Leadership?s Treachery on Planned Parenthood and Obamacare Funding in the Proposed 3 Week Continuing Resolution

Posted on March 14, 2011
Christian Newswire: Randall Terry and Prolife Activists will be at the US Capitol on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 from 11 AM to 1 PM at the intersection of New Jersey and Independence Aves to hold a demonstration and speak with the press regarding the vote on the proposed 3 week Continuing Resolution that is expected to take place around 12 noon.

Wis. unions rush deals ahead of bargaining law

Posted on March 14, 2011
Breitbart (AP): "School boards and local governments across Wisconsin are rushing to reach agreements with unions before a new law takes effect and erases their ability to collectively bargain over nearly all issues other than minimal salary increases...

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