Daily Archives: October 20, 2008

The AP reports: “Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says she supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a break with John McCain who has said he believes states should be left to define what marriage is.”

Southern Voice reports: Three state lawmakers have asked a federal judge to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed against them by a former employee who alleges she was fired after announcing her gender transition. Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn claims she was fired …

Katherine Kersten has this commentary in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She begins: Below the radar, the groundwork is being laid to change the meaning of marriage in Minnesota. The new “Rights of Unmarried Couples Task Force” of the Minnesota State …

The West Virginia Record reports: An adult entertainment business and its owner have filed a motion for preliminary injunction against the Planning Commission of Berkeley County and its director, alleging it should be allowed to continue to operate its business …

OneNewsNow.com reports: The 40 Days for Life campaign, a period of fasting and prayer to save babies from abortion, is in its final two weeks. Various events are being held outside abortion facilities throughout the country, and David Bereit is …

The News Journal reports: News Journal Washington Bureau reporter Nicole Gaudiano conducted a one-on-one interview with Sen. Joe Biden on April 27, 2007. The first half of the interview dealt with Biden’s now-ended presidential run. The second half focused on …

TIME Magazine carries this lengthy report discussing the relationship between Catholics, presidential candidates and the political parties along with some discussion of voting trends.

Richard John Neuhaus has this article on LifeNews.com. He concludes: . . . But the balance on the Court could hardly be more fragile. It ought not to be the case that, as is cynically said in law schools, all …

LifeNews.com reports: A United Nation’s bioethics panel may examine an effort to overturn the call for a global human cloning ban the United Nations issued in March 2005. After four years of debate on the issue of human cloning, the …

Science Daily reports: The first reports of the successful reprogramming of adult human cells back into so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which by all appearances looked and acted like embryonic stem cells, created a media stir . . . …

STLToday reports: “Taliban assailants on a motorbike gunned down a Christian aid worker in Kabul on Monday and the militants said she was killed for spreading her religion – a rare targeted killing of a Westerner in the nation’s capital.”

The Telegraph reports: The House of Commons is due to give its final assent on Wednesday to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which contains measures to expand medical research in the search for a cure for dozens of serious …

The Vancouver Sun reports: “Several hundred parents gathered in downtown Montreal on Saturday to protest a controversial mandatory ethics and religion course that’s been taught since the beginning of the school year.” The report further indicates that many of the …

In other words, “matrimony” infers procreation! The term infers that someone is going to become a “mother”. The term naturally denotes a heterosexual relationship. Consequently, we should learn to lean on this word as we debate “gay marriage”, because “gay matrimony” is an impossibility.

Robert P. George’s ISI lecture on natural law.

top 5 law school rankings scams of 2008

One of the most momentous and least-discussed topics in the presidential campaign is the likely departure in the next four years of as many as three of the more liberal justices on a closely divided U.S. Supreme Court.

With all the focus on the economy, hot-button social issues such as abortion and gay marriage have been largely off the radar screen, both candidates agreed. But the two differ on those issues, too. Foxx is opposed to abortion in all instances. Carter says he is in favor of “drastically reducing the number of abortions,” but is opposed to outlawing it.

The AP reports: “Two years after South Dakotans rejected a nearly total ban on abortion, voters on Nov. 4 will decide another sweeping but less restrictive ballot measure that would probably send a legal challenge of Roe v. Wade to …

Therefore, since legislators have not narrowly tailored housing-discrimination statutes to protect the constitutional freedoms that provide the foundations for shared living, existing housing-discrimination law is unconstitutional insofar as it limits the right of private individuals to choose the people with whom they wish to share their homes.

If Lawrence paves the way for legal recognition of same-sex relationships as marriages, as many fear, should Christians resist or embrace that result?

Proposals for a central database of all mobile phone and internet traffic have been condemned as “Orwellian”.

But is the nation’s moral compass wrongheaded or are our lawmakers and policymakers failing to reflect the values of the American people?

Penn State students tackled a centuries-old controversial question Thursday night — is God homophobic?

Houston Chronicle reports: The philosophical battle lines for this fall’s Texas Supreme Court races are clearly drawn. On one side are three Republican incumbent justices heavily funded by lawyers and litigants — mostly from the corporate, insurance and medical communities …

The Independent reports: . . . The 86 defendants, prominent secularists and right-wingers united only by their authoritarian ultra-nationalism, stand accused of attempting to remove the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan by force. The indictment against them, a 2,455-page …

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund are ready to offer free legal help to students at schools across the nation who participate in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, should the students’ First Amendment rights be violated.

Lloyd Omdahl has this commentary on the Grand Forks Herald criticizing ADF’s Pulpit Initiative that concludes: . . . Eventually, those who hold minority views will leave, and churches will be left serving congregations that become more and more homogenous …

The New York Times carries this report detailing China’s crackdown on Islam: Mr. Wang said the government was engaged in a “life or death” struggle in Xinjiang. Mr. Baikeli signaled that government control of religious activities would tighten, asserting that …

Louisiana forbids first cousins to marry, but such unions do not violate a strong public policy of the state and must be recognized if performed in a state or nation where they are valid. That recent pronouncement from a state appellate court . . .

The Boston Globe reports: . . . Over the past five years, however, that has begun to shift dramatically. After an unprecedented hiring binge, Harvard has assembled what many legal scholars believe is the most formidable law faculty in the …

Richard L. Hasen has this commentary on Findlaw. He writes: . . . The short answer to why this is occurring is this: We haven’t made some important changes in election laws that should have been made soon after Florida …

The Religion Clause Blog reports on a controversy over the Carlisle School District’s apparent decision to ban teachers from See You at the Pole events.

The Religion Clause Blog reports: “Yesterday’s New York Times reported on a 25-page memorandum (full text) written in 2007, but released only last week, by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). The memo concludes that the Religious Freedom …

WorldNetDaily reports: A growing movement that experts believe could end up in the criminalization of Christianity in the United States is being exposed in a new documentary being prepared for airing on October 26, officials at Coral Ridge Ministries have …

The Religion Clause Blog reports: “In Champion v. Secretary of State, (MI Ct. App., Oct. 16, 2008), the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected claims under the free exercise and equal protection clauses of the Michigan constitution and required that a …

The Religion Clause Blog reports: “In response to class action lawsuits filed by Muslims in several states, federal authorities began in May to reduce a nationwide backlog of citizenship applications that have been delayed because of required name checks and …

The Religion Clause Blog reports: “Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer reports on an unusual trial that begins today in a Pennsylvania state trial court. Rev. David Moyer, former rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal parish in Rosemont (PA), is suing Episcopal Bishop Charles …

Steve Chapman has this commentary on Reason.com that concludes: . . . Now that gay marriage is in place in California, the public might as well see if it lives up to the promises of supporters or the warnings of …

The Christian Newswire reports: Stand True, Christ-Centered Pro-life, will hold its fifth annual Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity on Tuesday, Oct. 21. As of this morning hundreds of thousands of students from over 4,000 campuses worldwide have registered to take …

The Politico reports: Retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, one of the country’s most respected Republicans, stunned both parties Sunday by strongly endorsing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and laying out a blistering, detailed critique of the modern GOP. Powell said …

Marji Allred was shocked when she heard a Mormon bishop urge his congregation to support Proposition 102, the marriage amendment that goes before Arizona voters Nov. 4 . . .

Moral approval means that you plan to teach it to your kids as righteous and true, and not just as something that other people do (and then secretly pray that you never find your kids doing).

SCOTUS Blog has this post indicating that the Court only accepted one case today.  The complete order list is here.

The AP reports: “The American Civil Liberties Union elected a new president on Saturday, choosing a constitutional law scholar who said she would reach out to African-Americans and to religious communities where the group has often been viewed more as …

However, the second (and truly pernicious) effect of Justice Brennan’s call to arms was that it served as an encouragement for state courts to use their state constitutions to invade the province of their state legislatures and to advance judicially favored social policy.

But as practicing Christians, Thomas and Baker refuse to rent to unmarried cohabitants on the grounds that premarital sex offends their religious beliefs.

“Let me put it this way; there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution — try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up.”

This article provides an assessment of the 2007 decision of the Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart.