Religion & Law

FL: Neither side backing down on football prayer dispute

Posted on October 06, 2010
ChipleyPaper.com: "The teams gathered at midfield Saturday at Memorial Field in Bonifay at a weekly game of the Holmes County Peewee Association. Both teams joined in prayer before the game except for two lone figures on the Vernon sideline ? Vernon Assistant Coach Louis Fromm and his son, a player on the Vernon team...

Private sector sheds 39,000 jobs in September

Posted on October 06, 2010
Yahoo (Reuters): "Private employers unexpectedly cut 39,000 jobs in September after an upwardly revised gain of 10,000 in August, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday."

MI: American Family Association threatens lawsuit against Saline school district

Posted on October 06, 2010
AnnArbor.com: "The American Family Association of Michigan has accused Saline school board members of pressuring administrators to 'punish a teacher' for speaking out against proposed changes in the district's non-discrimination policy and threatened the district with a lawsuit if such pressure does not stop...

Italian law on assisted fertility under judicial review

Posted on October 06, 2010
ANSA: "A court in Florence is reported to have petitioned Italy's supreme Constitutional Court to rule on Italy's 2003 law on assisted fertility, one of the most restrictive in Europe."

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MN: Archbishop denies Communion to ?gay activist? students at Catholic college

Posted on October 06, 2010
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "About 25 college students and community members at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., were denied communion by Twin Cities Roman Catholic Archbishop John C. Nienstedt because they were displaying rainbow buttons and sashes in protest of the church's stand on gay relationships...

The key to killing DOMA? Curb appeal

Posted on October 06, 2010
"[The president has left] the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unprotected in the hands of activist judges. When a federal district court ruled in July that DOMA was unconstitutional, it fell to Obama's Justice Department to fight for the law . . . As of this week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) hadn't lifted a finger to appeal the ruling ...

Salt Lake City schools could ban ?anti-gay discrimination?

Posted on October 06, 2010
The Salt Lake Tribune: "On Tuesday, the school board weighed an amendment that would add sexual orientation to the list of characteristics, such as race and religion, that would be illegal to use to target someone for harassment. The board will consider the issue again Nov...

WA: Parents fume over sexuality questions at school

Posted on October 06, 2010
KCPQ-TV: "A survey is causing havoc at a local junior high school. Students at Edgemont Junior High in Edgewood will be taking part in an event called 'Challenge Day' on Tuesday, but parents are challenging the Puyallup School District over a controversial survey ...

Belgium keeping alive EU anti-discrimination bill

Posted on October 06, 2010
EU Observer: "The Belgian EU presidency is keeping alive hopes that disabled, gay and old people will in the coming years have equal access to services in the Union's single market."

EU ambassador to stand up for ?gay pride? in Serbia

Posted on October 06, 2010
EU Observer: "The EU's ambassador to Serbia, French diplomat Vincent Degert, has said he is willing to put his neck on the line in support of what he calls EU values by personally attending the Belgrade Pride event in the Serb capital on Sunday (10 October)...

UK: Catholic adoption agency renews fight to stay open

Posted on October 06, 2010
Catholic Herald: "Catholic Care, which serves the dioceses of Leeds, Middlesbrough and Hallam, wants to continue its policy of assessing only married heterosexuals and single people as potential adopters and foster parents. The Charity Commission has twice rejected its applications to change its statutes to allow this on the grounds that such a policy was unjustly discriminatory towards homosexual couples and in breach of both European and British equality and human rights laws...

North Carolina takes on ACLU over Christian flag

Posted on October 06, 2010
Bobby Eberle writing at GOPUSA: [T]he people of King, North Carolina felt the sting of government when their City Council under pressure from the ACLU voted to remove a Christian flag from a veterans memorial. But that was not the end of the story . ...

Open letter to Obama on Mojave Desert Cross

Posted on October 06, 2010
Family Security Matters: "On May 9th, the Mojave Memorial Cross was stolen from the United States World War I memorial in the Mojave Desert, which is a federal crime under the Veterans Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act of 2003. More than four months have passed and your administration has still refused to take action to replace the Mojave Memorial Cross...

More on Planned Parenthood, sex ed, and gov?t funding

Posted on October 06, 2010
Jeanne Monahan writing at FRCBlog: "As an update to my blog last week, it appears that Planned Parenthood is receiving much more government funding to teach your children about sex than initially obvious from the HHS award announcement."

Planned Parenthood challenged, says no complications from telemed abortions

Posted on October 06, 2010
LifeNews: "Planned Parenthood claims its new telemed abortion process it is using in Iowa has resulted in no complications for women using the dangerous abortion drug. But, one pro-life organization says figures from the CDC and the Australian government make that claim appear impossible...

David French: Higher-ed-bubble update: Pansexuality edition

Posted on October 06, 2010
ADF Attorney David French writing at Phi Beta Cons: "Featuring an absolute avalanche of politically correct nonsense, the video shows what is allegedly a freshman orientation program at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. I?d be tempted to fully describe the video, which ? among other things ? has actors portraying gay, lesbian, bicurious, bisexual, transgendered, transexual, and pansexual students and then features a student discussing how he became an atheist at a Christian college, but then you might not actually watch...

Woman seeking identity of sperm-donor father may get day in B.C.?s Supreme Court

Posted on October 06, 2010
National Post: "On Wednesday the Supreme Court of British Columbia agreed to consider whether Ms. Pratten?s legal battle against the province?s Attorney-General and College of Physicians and Surgeons that seeks to make the identities of anonymous sperm, egg or embryo donors available should proceed to trial...

Canada: Surrogate refuses to abort Down syndrome baby despite client demand

Posted on October 06, 2010
"When a B.C. couple discovered that the fetus their surrogate mother was carrying was likely to be born with Down syndrome, they wanted an abortion. The surrogate, however, was determined to take the pregnancy to term, sparking a disagreement that has raised thorny questions about the increasingly common arrangements...

Health vote haunts pro-life Democrats

Posted on October 06, 2010
Politico: "[Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper] and other anti-abortion Democrats are at risk of becoming an endangered species in the House. She and others eventually signed on to the health reform law, endorsing an executive order that barred federal funding of abortions...

Wisconsin: Marinette pro-life billboard turning heads

Posted on October 06, 2010
Fox 11: "A billboard dealing with the controversial topic of abortion is getting some attention. The billboard is in Marinette, near the high school. It's been up for about a week and a half. So far, there have been a variety of interpretations, and responses to it...

UK study: Women prefer surgical abortion to pill in second trimester

Posted on October 06, 2010
Yahoo (Reuters): "Women who undergo an abortion during the second trimester may often prefer a surgical procedure to the 'abortion pill,' a small UK study suggests."

Florida lawyer warns of deepening foreclosure mess

Posted on October 06, 2010
Reuters: "A Florida lawyer at the forefront of legal challenges against foreclosure practices by mortgage lenders says the U.S. housing morass will drag on due to difficulty in determining who owns home loans."

Sarah Palin: November elections about fighting ?culture of death?

Posted on October 06, 2010
CBS: "At a Texas fundraiser on Tuesday, Sarah Palin urged audience members to vote in the midterm elections for candidates who would focus on overturning health care reform, citing the importance of choosing a "culture of life" over 'a culture of death,' according to CNN...

Does ?living in sin? still lead to divorce?

Posted on October 06, 2010
Newsweek: "As cohabiting has come more common across the country . . . the once strong link between 'living in sin' and divorce has weakened over time. While some religious groups, such as socially conservative Christians and Orthodox Jews, still frown upon living together before marriage, two thirds of marriages in the U...

Marriage, law and Loving v. Virginia

Posted on October 06, 2010
Bruce Hausknecht writing at CitizenLink:  "That?s why it is interesting to see a Prop 8 friend-of-the-court brief filed in the 9th Circuit appeal of Walker?s Prop 8 decision by several civil rights organizations, specifically on the topic of Loving v...

Justices appear set to limit funeral protests

Posted on October 06, 2010
Los Angeles Times: "Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer, usual defenders of the First Amendment, said they thought people could be sued for outrageous personal attacks . . . Though the case is about funeral protests, Breyer said the court's ruling will have an impact on the Internet, since it tests whether personal attacks can lead to lawsuits...

Expat Christian teacher forced to flee Maldives

Posted on October 05, 2010
Charisma Mag: "Authorities in the Maldives last week had to transport a Christian teacher from India off one of the Islamic nation's islands after Muslim parents of her students threatened to expel her for 'preaching Christianity.'"

40 Days for Life campaign saves 138 babies from abortion

Posted on October 05, 2010
LifeNews: "The national 40 Days for Life campaign continues producing live-saving dividends for the hundreds of cities where local pro-life people are praying and helping women outside abortion centers find alternatives. Organizers say that they can confirm 138 babies have been spared from abortion so far...

1st Circuit hears appeal over concealment of Islamic charity?s ties to terrorists

Posted on October 05, 2010
Law.com: "On Oct. 4, a day of heightened concerns about international terrorism, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard a multipronged appeal concerning three men charged with giving false information to the Internal Revenue Service about a charity allegedly connected to jihadist fighters and the mujahedeen...

Islam in America: Times Square Bomber statement raise troubling questions

Posted on October 05, 2010
Findlaw (AP): During Shahzad's statement, Cedarbaum cut him off at one point to ask if he had sworn allegiance to the United States when he became a citizen last year. "I did swear but I did not mean it," said Shahzad, a former budget analyst from Connecticut who was born in Pakistan...

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