Religion & Law

Ohio Senate Panel Passes Bill Limiting Collective Bargaining

Posted on March 02, 2011
Bloomberg: "In Ohio Senate committee passed a bill to limit collective-bargaining rights for public employees that has sparked protests at the Statehouse in Columbus. The move allows the full Senate to vote on the measure."

Supreme Court OKs Protests at Military Funerals

Posted on March 02, 2011
"The Supreme Court ruled today that the First Amendment protects members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., who have held provocative, anti-gay protests at military funerals."

MP Comartin introduces Bill to remove sodomy from Canada?s Criminal Code

Posted on March 02, 2011
LifeSiteNews: Just after Canada?s House of Commons narrowly passed a ?transgender? bill (Bill C-389) that would criminalize discrimination based on ?gender identity? and ?gender expression,? Joe Comartin, New Democratic Party MP for Windsor-Tecumseh, introduced an amendment to the Criminal Code, Bill C-628 that had First Reading on February 11...

Oklahoma fetal pain and ?opt-out? bills advance

Posted on March 02, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "Two important pro-life measures that which would restrict late-term abortions and opt the state out of coverage for elective abortions in the new national health care law have made their way out of committees in the Oklahoma legislature...

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?It is wrong!?: Phill Kline blocked from presenting full defense, calling all witnesses

Posted on March 02, 2011
LifeSiteNews (video): "The disciplinary panel overseeing Phill Kline?s ethics trial will not allow the former attorney general to mount a full defense or call all his witnesses, despite Kline?s objection that the prosecution has been given an unjust advantage...

Supreme Court: Hospital punished worker for being in Army Reserves

Posted on March 02, 2011
Christian Science Monitor: "Vincent Staub said he was fired from his hospital job because his supervisors were hostile to his responsibilities in the Army Reserves. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in his favor Tuesday."

Ed Whelan: On Goodwin Liu and Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on March 02, 2011
Ed Whelan writes at National Review Online: "It?s an odd thing: On the one hand, many folks on the Left (and many other supporters of same-sex marriage) maintain that only an irrational bigot could fail to accept the (absurd) proposition that the Constitution is properly interpreted as conferring a right to same-sex marriage...

Archbishop Chaput: ?Subject to the Governor of the Universe: The American Experience and Global Religious Liberty?

Posted on March 02, 2011
Principles that Americans find self-evident ? the dignity of the human person, the sanctity of conscience, the separation of political and sacred authority, the distinction between secular and religious law, the idea of a civil society pre-existing and distinct from the state ? are not widely shared elsewhere...

NY Times: Truth in Pregnancy Counseling

Posted on March 02, 2011
NY Times Editorial: The New York City Council is about to vote on, and should pass, an important measure that addresses the problem of crisis pregnancy centers that masquerade as licensed medical facilities but are, in fact, fronts for anti-abortion groups that interfere with the ability of women to make timely, well-informed decisions about their reproductive health...

7th Circuit rules Illinois high school ?cannot?stifle criticism of homosexuality?

Posted on March 02, 2011
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys won an important decision Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit against Indian Prairie School District on behalf of high school students prohibited from expressing their religious views about homosexual behavior on T-shirts...

Gunmen kill Christian Pakistan government minister

Posted on March 02, 2011
AP: "Assailants purportedly sent by al-Qaida and the Taliban killed the only Christian member of Pakistan's federal Cabinet Wednesday, spraying his car with bullets outside his mother's home."

GOP Controlled House May Defend DOMA in Court

Posted on March 02, 2011
Christian Law Journal: Dale Schowengerdt of the Alliance Defense Fund acknowledged that: ?The Department of Justice?s litigation efforts have been so anemic that this does pave the way for someone to give this law the vigorous defense it deserves,

7th Circuit Upholds Injunction Permitting ?Be Happy, Not Gay? Slogan on Student Clothing

Posted on March 02, 2011
Religion Clause Blog: In Zamecnik v. Indian Prairie School District #204, (7th Cir., March 1, 2011), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a trial court's entry of a permanent injunction permitting any student at a Naperville, Illinois high school  to display on clothing or personal items the slogan "Be Happy, Not Gay...

Court Upholds ?Be Happy, Not Gay? T-Shirt

Posted on March 02, 2011
CBS Chicago: Christian students shouldn?t be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs,? said Nate Kellum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. ?The 7th Circuit has, once again, rightly recognized the First Amendment-protected rights of students on a public school campus...

?Student?s right to wear anti-gay T-shirt upheld by federal court

Posted on March 02, 2011
Chicago Breaking News: The lawsuit supporting opposition to homosexuality was filed by the Alliance Defense Fund, which litigates on behalf of Christian causes. The American Civil Liberties Union filed an opposing brief.

?Judge: Anti-gay shirts worn by Neuqua Valley students OK?

Posted on March 02, 2011
Chicago Sun-Times: Nate Kellum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of Christian attorneys who represented the students in the suit, responded: ?In an environment that freely allows speech that promotes homosexual behavior, the school simply cannot shut out the opposing viewpoint...

?Illinois court rules that anti-gay T-shirts are OK?

Posted on March 02, 2011
Metro Weekly: The conservative religious legal organization Alliance Defense Fund filed the lawsuit. ADF's Nate Kellum said the student who wore the shirt, Heidi Zamecnik, did so to promote her religious views: ''Christian students shouldn't be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs''

Equal access for Christian student groups

Posted on March 02, 2011
One News Now: "With a little nudge from the Alliance Defense Fund, Indiana University has changed a policy that banned a student group from receiving school funding because of its Christian beliefs . . . We're very pleased that Indiana University changed its policy and is now actually requesting that the Impact Movement, the student group, reapply for the funding so that it can reimburse the group and its members for the costs they incurred in going to this national conference," reports David Hacker, legal counsel for ADF...

The Kansas Horror: Abortion whitewashes and witch hunts

Posted on March 02, 2011
Michell Malkin: Yesterday Kline testified under oath that Planned Parenthood of Overland Park and George Tiller together performed abortions on 166 girls 14 years and under and only reported one each to authorities . . . Another bombshell: The Topeka Capital Journal reports that ?the state?s disciplinary board for lawyers concealed for 20 months an internal investigative report concluding no probable cause existed to justify ethics complaints against former Attorney General Phill Kline tied to his criminal inquiries into abortion clinics...

Roe to the Rescue?

Posted on March 02, 2011
Mark Rienzi writes at Public Discourse: This history shows that the right to refuse to perform an abortion is "deeply rooted in the Nation's history and traditions." In fact, the historical basis for a right to refuse is actually far better established than the historical basis for the rights to abortion or to homosexual sodomy.

Holder Right There Obama, FRC?s Got a Question: Unethical collusion in Prop 8 litigation?

Posted on March 02, 2011
FRC: "Last week, I shared with you our concern that President Obama is ignoring his responsibilities as President and refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court. But what's even more troubling about the situation is how quickly litigants trying to overturn Proposition 8 in California filed a "Motion to Vacate Stay" in the Ninth Circuit after Attorney General Eric Holder announced that DOMA would be left undefended...

Winds of Change in Unionland

Posted on March 02, 2011
Holman W. Jenkins writes at the Wall Street Journal (full text via Google): Solidarity House is the headquarters of the United Auto Workers in Detroit, whose windows gaze figuratively across the labor hinterland of the upper Midwest. At least it used to be a labor hinterland, though its politicians this week are taking an axe to public-sector unions...

The Decline of U.S. Naval Power

Posted on March 02, 2011
Wall Street Journal: "Sixty ships were commonly underway in America's seaward approaches in 1998, but today there are only 20. We are abdicating our role on the oceans."

Protests grow in Ohio as vote on union rights nears

Posted on March 02, 2011
Washington Post: "Thousands of union supporters descended on the Ohio Statehouse on Tuesday to protest a proposal that would dramatically curtail bargaining powers of government workers, as the state becomes the latest flash point in the fight over union rights...

Vermont: ACLU Sues Over Town Meeting Prayer

Posted on March 02, 2011
ACLUTV.org: The ACLU of Vermont has sued the town of Franklin for including prayer in its town meeting. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Marilyn Hackett, a Franklin resident, alleges that the town and its moderator, Timothy Magnant, have violated Vermont?s constitution and public accommodations act.

In Defense of the Defense of Marriage Act

Posted on March 02, 2011
David B. Rivkin, Jr. and Lee A. Casey write at the Wall Street Journal: "DOMA effectively bars recognition of same-sex marriages at the national level, and Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the administration believes that this violates the Constitution's equal protection principles...

NY: Halloran Wades Into City Family Planning Debate

Posted on March 02, 2011
LittleNeck.Patch.com: There is no abortion exception to the First Amendment. And the Baltimore case shows that the government cannot compel speech because people want to talk about pregnancy from a pro-life perspective," said Matt Bowman, legal consul at the Washington, D...

?If administration won?t fight gay marriage, conservative law firms will?

Posted on March 02, 2011
Baptist Standard: ?I have no doubt that the Alliance Defense Fund and other organizations will involve themselves in these cases,? said Austin Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the Arizona-based firm. ?The question is what is going to be the nature of the role...

?Be Happy, Not Gay?: 7th Cir. Clears Way for T-Shirts With Pointed Message

Posted on March 02, 2011
Wall Street Journal Law Blog: Nate Kellum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of Christian attorneys who represented the students in the suit, responded to the Sun-Times: ?In an environment that freely allows speech that promotes homosexual behavior, the school simply cannot shut out the opposing viewpoint...

NOM appeals federal judge?s ruling that could pave the way for release of donor list

Posted on March 02, 2011
The Republic: "Lawyers for the National Organization for Marriage filed their notice of appeal with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which already is considering another constitutional challenge of Maine's campaign finance law by the Virginia-based organization...

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