Daily Archives: April 29, 2008

The nation that liberalized its abortion laws in 2002 is now giving unprecedented protection to animal and plant life.

The Middlebury Union High School District, school officials will grant a student-run Bible club formal recognition. The change will allow members to gain access to the same benefits afforded to other campus clubs.

Kansas lawmakers return to Topeka, on Wednesday and members of the Senate are expected to vote on overturning a veto from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on a measure that would reduce abortions.

What do Tulsa; Plano, Texas; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Anchorage, Alaska, and Jacksonville, Fla., have in common? Not much. However, The Advocate, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender magazine, has named Tulsa among those “top five emerging cities for gays and lesbians.”

The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has found that a Northern California minister did not violate denominational law when she officiated at the weddings of two lesbian couples.

.I. Packer, one of the world’s most renowned evangelical theologians, left the Anglican Church of Canada, citing “poisonous liberalism” in the church body.

Two elderly sisters have lost their battle to enjoy the same tax benefits as same-sex couples who register for civil partnerships.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a petition for re-hearing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in the case of a football coach who was prohibited by school officials from silently bowing his head or “taking a knee” while his players offered a pre-game prayer.

The National Review Phi Beta Cons blog links to a study by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.  Apparently, only 20-40% of the money pumped into North Carolina’s colleges and universities actually goes to instruction.

After hearing from a handful of Canutillo residents complaining about the proximity of a strip club to their homes, churches, and schools, Commissioners unanimously approved appointing a committee that will address the regulation of sexually oriented businesses in the county.

However, the actual legal issue at stake in the Texas case is not polygamy, or child custody, or even “pedophilia” or “child sexual abuse,” which are terms usually applied when the victim is pre-pubescent. Instead, the issue is a crime usually referred to as “statutory rape.”

The CLS Center filed a motion for preliminary injunction today in Association of Faith-Based Organizations v. Anderson to request the enjoining of the Iowa “One Gift” state employee charitable campaign requirements demanding that applying charities certify that they do not engage in religious activity, including advocacy for religious viewpoints.

“The Moscow City government has made it clear that it will not tolerate the public promotion of sodomy during Labor Day celebrations on May 1st, reports Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, LifeSiteNews.com. ”

Don’t we normally arrest individual suspects and try them for their crimes? Do we normally and pre-emptively round up all the children in a community where it is suspected abuse is taking place without specific evidence?

This recordkeeping statute has generally been limited to the adult film industry . . . For over two decades, the statute has withstood numerous constitutional challenges by the adult film industry and civil libertarian organizations. On October 23, 2007, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that § 2257 was overbroad on its face and therefore unconstitutional.

When compared to people living in Europe’s most Christian-populated nations, Americans are the most prayerful and most likely to be connected to the Bible, according to a new study released on Monday.

So now Florida is facing a situation where students will suffer if people don’t gamble and lose more money . . .

Under a new ordinance passed by Shelby County Commissioners, all employees — from the janitors to the strippers — must have a background check and carry a permit that can be shown to a law enforcement officer on demand.

The ACLU claims a high school principal violated two students’ freedom of association when she “outed” them to parents, teachers, and other students.

62 per cent of respondents think bigamy, or being legally married to more than one person, is a criminal offence.

“Islamic authorities have rejected a proposal by Malaysia’s prime minister that would require non-Muslims to inform their families before converting to Islam.”

Religion Clause blog reports on competing bills in the Florida legislature that would regulate the teaching of evolution versus the right of teachers and students to express opposing views. This follows in the wake of  the Florida State Board of …

ADF attorney Josh Bollinger appears in this interview with Rick Godley on the Hill 100.9 FM to discuss the Calcasieu case in Louisiana. The mp3 file runs just over 14 minutes concluding with the “Get a Clue, ACLU” song. ADF …

ADF attorney Joel Oster appears on the Frank Pastore show to discuss the Morrison v. Sadler case. Morrison’s constitutional rights were violated when a former mandatory “tolerance” program at his high school instructed him to suppress any speech that opposes …

More specifically, this Note explains why public schools should not discriminate based upon viewpoint when dealing with speech or expression unrelated to the school’s educational mission.

It portrays the Establishment Clause as a structural provision of the Constitution, concerned with democratic processes and limited government, much like the doctrines of federalism and separation of powers.

Part III argues that courts should abandon the presumption of severability– or should extend their use of the presumption of inseverability–in cases where the legislature clearly intended to pass an unconstitutional statute.

My argument proceeds as follows: Part I discusses the basics of the severability doctrine, examining its purpose and function and the reasons that courts should and do have the power to sever a statute’s invalid parts and applications.

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille has toughened his criticism of Senate Republicans for not acting on four interim appointments to state appellate courts, and dismissed their arguments about diversity as “misplaced.”

Procreation is killing the planet, and traditional religion is to blame, Global-Warming cultists insist.

This Essay explores the divided factions of the Court through the lens of Bong Hits and offers further insight into the Justices’ constitutional jurisprudence.

The article concludes that the best understanding of the current jurisprudence is that the constitutional protections are much less robust than currently thought, and offers some modest suggestions about the protections of the rights of unwed fathers that might be created by statute.

This Essay does not address the constitutionality of duties to fill prescriptions for Plan B. Instead it asks whether states should provide conscience clause protections even if they are not constitutionally mandated. In other words, this Essay asks whether such protections are good public policy.

Jus cogens can be defined as law that imports notions of universally applicable norms into the international legal process.

My dissertation tells a story of the abortion right in Taiwan: how abortion was not a right either before or after its legalization, how it became a right after the mobilization of social movements and democratization, and finally, what sort of right it is today.

There’s a good opening here for John McCain. As a senator, he has been a forceful voice for giving lower-income moms and dads the same options for their children that wealthier parents already enjoy . . .

I offer a U.S. constitutional perspective on the rights of religious minorities and women in the public schools, and suggest that a ban on the hijab must be considered unconstitutional.

A bill mandating ultrasound scans for all women seeking an abortion faces an uncertain vote Tuesday in the Florida Senate, where moderate Republicans are banding with Democrats to defeat it — thereby sparing Gov. Charlie Crist from tackling an issue on which he has shifted his stance.

This article explores the proper constitutional standard to apply to teaching, or at least acknowledging, religious viewpoints in the public school classroom.

But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God.

In “Sex and the Soul,” Donna Freitas, an assistant professor of religion at Boston University, acutely describes this “liberated” campus culture and wisely analyzes its effects.

ut with its decision Monday, the Supreme Court signaled that the federal courts should step back and not attempt to referee election reform disputes in the absence of evidence that a challenged state voting law either serves no relevant and legitimate state interests or imposes particularly severe and recurring burdens on the voting rights of identifiable classes of voters.

This letter outlines goals with respect to the Political Activities Compliance Initiative for the 2008 election cycle . . . EO has employed a focused approach toward political campaign intervention by section 501(c)(3) organizations.