Daily Archives: June 8, 2010

Boston Globe: “The chief justice of New Hampshire’s Supreme Court wants the governor to avoid making full-time judicial appointments for the next fiscal year, to save money.”

Canadian Business: “The Anglican Communion has suspended U.S. Episcopalians from serving on ecumenical bodies because of the election of a lesbian as a bishop in California.”

CP-24: “Ontario’s top court has overturned the acquittal of a man who claimed he collected more than 600 images of child pornography for artistic purposes . . . Katigbak was acquitted in 2008 of one count of possession of child pornography. In a judgment released Tuesday, the Appeal Court set that aside and convicted him instead, referring sentencing to the trial judge.”

FRC Washington Update: “When it was obvious that Congress didn’t have the votes to move the cap-and-trade bill, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved on to Plan B: bypassing the House and Senate altogether. Instead of waiting on Congress, agency officials decided on the next best thing–imposing the emission rules without any input from Capitol Hill.”

The Sacramento Bee | Capitol Alert: “California’s political watchdog agency is proposing to fine the Mormon church $5,539 for contributions to help pass the state’s gay-marriage ban two years ago. The Fair Political Practices Commission is scheduled to act on the proposed fine at a public meeting Thursday.” | California Fair Political Practices Commission

“The federal judge presiding over a trial on California’s Proposition 8 issued a list Tuesday of 39 wide-ranging questions to be answered in closing arguments in San Francisco next week . . . ”

BBC: “Most people in the UK associate Islam with extremism and the repression of women, a survey has suggested. The online YouGov poll found 58% of those questioned linked Islam with extremism while 69% believed it encouraged the repression of women.”

JURIST: “The Chinese government on Tuesday defended its Internet censorship laws in a report detailing Internet usage within the country. China reported that nearly 30 percent of its population currently has access to the Internet and that they expect that number to increase to nearly 50 percent in the next five years.”

LifeSiteNews: “The British Columbia Office of Information and Privacy has rejected an attempt by pro-life activists to gain access to information on abortions at the province’s hospitals. In a Monday ruling, senior adjudicator Celia Francis rejected applications from pro-life researchers John Hof and Ted Gerk for information on the abortions conducted at Vancouver General Hospital and Kelowna General Hospital.”

The New Canaan Advertiser: “[W]hen alumni of St. Luke’s School were told last week the school mascot, the Crusader, was being retired this month, many objected . . . ‘In the process of reviewing all that data, one of the things that we discovered that was unique about the school was that sense of community. That we hold that as a value very highly,’ he said. Henson said in light of that sense of community, ‘we wanted something more inclusive than the Crusader.’”

ADF Attorney David J. Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “[F]ormer ADF client Scott Savage . . . gave up a big city desk job to become a plain Christian and eventually took a job as a reference librarian at The Ohio State University Mansfield campus, only to be ousted because of his Christian and conservative beliefs . . . Two committee members called Scott ‘anti-gay,’ said his book recommendations were ‘homophobic tripe,’ and accused him of ‘homophobia’ . . . The university eventually dropped the harassment charges after the ADF Center for Academic Freedom intervened on Scott’s behalf. But the university continued to target Scott for his views, making his working environment unbearable, which eventually forced him to resign. He then filed a defamation lawsuit against the university and some faculty members. On Monday, a federal district court in Ohio dismissed Scott’s lawsuit. This dismissal is disappointing and constitutes another troubling step in the direction of eviscerating academic freedom on campus. But from reading news reports on the ruling, you would think nothing significant happened to Scott.”

LifeSiteNews: “‘Employees shouldn’t be threatened with termination and punished for sharing their opinion with willing co-workers just because the view being shared doesn’t fit what’s politically correct,’ said ADF Senior Counsel Joseph Infranco. ‘Mr. Coppedge has always maintained that ID is a scientific theory. Regardless, JPL has discriminated against him on the basis of what they deem is “religion.” The only discussion allowed is what fits the agenda. Stray, and you are silenced and punished. It just doesn’t fit with JPL’s otherwise fine reputation in the industry.’” | ADF News Release

Brett D. Schaefer writing at National Review Online: “How is the International Criminal Court getting along? To answer that question, the Review Conference for the ICC was convened in Kampala, Uganda, on May 31 and is scheduled to last through June 11. It was launched with an ambitious agenda to engage in a stocktaking exercise, assess the Court’s record since 2002, and consider three amendments to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. The organizers and supportive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had high hopes that the conference would result in a ringing endorsement of the Court and the adoption of amendments that would greatly enhance its power. Midway through the conference, however, that agenda is taking on water. Most surprising — and gratifying — is that concerns and objections raised by the Obama administration have been central to interrupting the momentum of the conference and, hopefully, stopping the adoption of the proposed amendments.” | International Criminal Court

John D. Podesta, founder and president of the Center for American Progress, and Robert A. Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute, writing in the Washington Post: “43 years after Loving, the courts are once again grappling with denial of equal marriage rights — this time to gay couples. We believe that a society respectful of individual liberty must end this unequal treatment under the law. Toward that goal, we have agreed to co-chair the advisory board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights. The foundation helped launch the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which is currently before a federal district court in California but is likely to be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

GLAD: “A U.S. district court judge in Massachusetts has denied the government’s request to dismiss the case of Vanessa Adams, a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) inmate with gender identity disorder (GID). For years, the BOP denied Ms. Adams treatment for her serious medical condition. As a result, Ms. Adams attempted suicide multiple times when prison doctors failed to provide any treatment. She eventually removed her own genitals. | Complaint | Court Order”

Christian Post: “An amended complaint was filed Monday in a lawsuit against a NASA laboratory in California on behalf of an employee who was demoted for discussing his beliefs about intelligent design . . . Coppedge’s attorney, William J. Becker, Jr., who is part of the Alliance Defense Fund, argues, ‘Discussing the origins of the universe with willing co-workers is not punishable just because it doesn’t fit a prevailing view at JPL’ . . . ADF Senior Counsel Joseph Infranco commented, ‘Mr. Coppedge has always maintained that ID is a scientific theory. Regardless, JPL has discriminated against him on the basis of what they deem is “religion.” The only discussion allowed is what fits the agenda. Stray, and you are silenced and punished. It just doesn’t fit with JPL’s otherwise fine reputation in the industry.’”

UPI: “An amendment to a defense policy bill approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee late last month would lift the military’s long-established ban on abortions at overseas military hospitals, The Washington Times reported Tuesday.”

Mercury News (AP): “A group of Christian lawyers is challenging four San Diego Superior Court judges in a race critics say threatens the impartiality of the courts.”

LifeNews: “A local Planned Parenthood affiliate in Iowa has backed down from comments saying it would expand the controversial telemed abortion process throughout Iowa. The process has women getting the dangerous abortion drug without an in-person examination by a physician.”

Compass Direct News: “The head of a Muslim village last week ordered 250 Christian families to leave their homes in Khanewal district, Punjab Province, local residents said. Abdul Sattar Khan, head of village No. 123/10R, Katcha Khoh, and other area Muslim residents ordered the expulsions after Christian residents objected too strenuously to sexual assaults by Muslims on Christian girls and women, said a locally elected Christian official, Emmanuel Masih.”

Phoenix Business Journal: “Gay rights groups are joining boycotts of Arizona over the state’s controversial new immigration law. Twenty-three gay rights and advocacy groups said Tuesday they would join economic and meeting planner boycotts of the state already imposed by labor unions and Hispanic activists including the National Council of La Raza. The Arizona law gives police greater ability to question and detain suspected illegal immigrants.”

Blog of the Legal Times: “Former acting solicitor general Walter Dellinger said today that Elena Kagan’s work for civil rights and Democratic icons should alleviate any concerns about her among liberals . . . ”

Blog of Legal Times: “Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has scheduled a June 15 confirmation hearing for James Cole, nominated for deputy attorney general . . . ”

Human Rights Campaign: “The Human Rights Campaign today hailed a proposal by the California Fair Political Practices Committee (FPPC) that would fine The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) for failing to report all of its late non-monetary contributions in its efforts to pass Proposition 8 in California in 2008 . . . A copy of the FPPC complaint is available at: http://www.hrcbackstory.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/LDS_FPPC-complaint_2008-0735.pdf”

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom: “On June 8, 2010, by the narrowest of margins (12-11), the New York State Senate Judiciary Committee voted to reject a bill known as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA or the ‘Bathroom Bill’).”

Legal Blog Watch: “Nate Raymond reports in today’s New York Law Journal that Citigroup has put all of its outside counsel on notice that it will not pay for summer associate time. Not for a single, solitary hour of it, thank you very much . . . ”

Stanley Fish writing at the NY Times:  Leigh A. Bortins’ “The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education,” . . .  proposes a two-pronged program of instruction: “classical education emphasizes using the classical skills to study classical content.” By classical skills she means imitation, memorization, drill, recitation and above all grammar, not grammar as the study of the formal structure of sentences (although that is part of it), but grammar as the study of the formal structure of anything . . . “Classical content” identifies just what the subjects to be classically studied are . . .

World Jewish Congress: “The Supreme Administrative Court in Cairo has upheld a ruling urging the government to consider stripping Egyptian men who are married to Jewish Israeli women of their Egyptian citizenship. The ruling requires officials to send all such cases to the Cabinet, to be decided on an individual basis.”

LifeSiteNews: “Ten foreign diplomats, including ambassadors from the UK and U.S., signed a statement expressing ‘support’ and ‘solidarity’ with the Romanian homosexualist movement last month. The statement, which has been published on the website of the British Embassy in Bucharest, was issued May 20 to coincide with ‘Gayfest,’ the week-long annual festival organized by the national homosexualist lobby group.”

“For the first time in its history, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will require grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals . . .

Ars Technica: “Also published are the application certification requirements that applications must meet to be allowed in the Marketplace. Just as with the Windows Mobile Marketplace, no porn or sexually suggestive content is allowed. Microsoft is clearly seeking to avoid the controversy that Apple faced when it yanked porn from the store.”

The Dominion Post: “Kosher slaughter of animals, known as shechita, is a ritual where the blood drains from an animal’s severed throat. The tradition is an oral law and a tenet for orthodox Jews. The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry commercial animal slaughter code released last week makes the stunning of all animals before slaughter compulsory – which contravenes shechita.” | Wikipedia: Shechita

AFP: “Almost 2,000 members of Paraguay’s Association of Evangelical Priests (APEP) on Tuesday complained about what they see as FIFA’s opposition to World Cup players making religious gestures.”

Expatica: “A Belgian high school on Tuesday sacked a Muslim maths teacher after she insisted she would continue to wear the burqa while taking classes.”

AFP: “Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox pope on Tuesday urged a high court to review its decision to allow Coptic Christians to remarry following divorce, which is forbidden by the church. ‘The decision must be reviewed, otherwise it would mean that Copts have been suffering and we are putting pressure on them through religion,’ Pope Shenuda III said.” | Related: Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court Overrules Coptic Church On Remarriage Rights

Chuck Colson writes at Breakpoint: “Same-sex couples just want the right to be married like everyone else, or so the argument goes. They call it a civil right. You could hardly find a more innocuous argument, perfectly designed to appeal to all of us who believe in equal rights and fair play. The only problem is that it’s not true. A significant percentage of same-sex couples do not want to get married ‘like everyone else.’ Many of them want to create a whole new paradigm for marriage that has serious implications for the institution and for the rest of society . . . ”

Hat tip: Ruth Institute Blog

ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg appeared on the Jody Hice Show to discuss religious freedom and normalization homosexual behavior in the military.  | MP3 17:10 mins

Sussex Countian: “A House committee approved legislation June 2 that would allow the same-sex domestic partners of state workers to purchase health insurance and receive some pension payments under Delaware’s employee benefits plans . . . ” | HS 1 for HB 10

Des Moines Register: “More than three-quarters of Iowans planning to vote in Tuesday’s Republican primary say Iowans should have a chance to vote on changing the constitution specifically to ban gay marriage.”

The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that same-sex couples must be treated the same as heterosexual couples under a feature of California tax law. Advocates for the change say it is the first time the agency has acknowledged gay couples as a unit for tax purposes.”

Law.com: “A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, over a monument displaying the Ten Commandments. A religious sect called Summum wanted to erect a display of its Seven Aphorisms in the park where the Ten Commandments monument stands.”

Albert Mohler writes at Crosswalk: “Perhaps the marriage of Al and Tipper Gore may yet be saved. We must prayerfully hope that it might be so. But their announcement has revealed a break-up on an even larger scale — the break-up of a cultural commitment to marriage as an enduring institution. We have become a culture that believes that staying together unto death is just too much to ask.”

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss church use of public school facilities including the Bronx Household of Faith case that has been litigated for over 15 years. | MP3 10 mins | ADF media information on Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York

WorldNetDaily: The state’s new HB 31 reads, “District school boards, administrative personnel, and instructional personnel are prohibited from taking affirmative action, including, but not limited to, the entry into any agreement, that infringes or waives the rights or freedoms afforded to instructional personnel, school staff, or students by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, in the absence of the express written consent of any individual whose constitutional rights would be impacted by such infringement or waiver.”

Telegraph: “Data released under the Freedom of Information Act has shown that an average of 80 abortions are carried out in England and Wales a year on women who have undergone IVF treatment . . . Around 12,000 women give birth in Britain following fertility treatment and about 200,000 abortions are carried out a year in England.”

AFA Rightly Concerned Blog: “Since fundamental Islamic values are so directly odds with the values of the Christian West – values such as tolerance, religious freedom, freedom of speech, equal rights for women, etc. – devout Muslims simply cannot become good Americans. They must shed their Islamic heritage to become good citizens of the U.S., and precious few of them are willing.”

LifeNews: “The slew of legal memos released by the Clinton presidential library provide enough proof to show Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is radically pro-abortion. But a law review article she wrote over a decade ago yield . . . ”

Nathan Schneider writing in The Nation: “Like debates about religion broadly, debates about [The Templeton Foundation] often get mapped onto the culture wars in black and white, or red and blue. It doesn’t help that the foundation is a longstanding donor to conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute . . . The stakes are high. The Templeton Foundation holds assets valued at around $1 billion, a sum that will likely swell to $2.5 billion in the years to come as John Templeton Sr.’s estate is settled . . . [Richard Dawkins] and others among the so-called New Atheists have been the foundation’s most strident critics lately; they believe Templeton is corrupting science by trying to inject it with religious dogma and, in turn, misrepresent science to the public. The advance of science steamrolls over religion, they say, and Templeton is deluding people into thinking otherwise.” | John Templeton Foundation

“Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) reports that an allied attorney filed an amended complaint Monday in a lawsuit against Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on behalf of an employee demoted, silenced, harassed, and threatened with termination for discussing his beliefs with willing co-workers about intelligent design as a scientific theory of life’s origins . . . ‘Employees shouldn’t be threatened with termination and punished for sharing their opinion with willing co-workers just because the view being shared doesn’t fit what’s politically correct,’ said ADF Senior Counsel [Joseph Infranco].”

The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Rejecting the arguments of the former librarian, Scott A. Savage, and the Alliance Defense Fund, which backed him, Judge William O. Bertelsman of U.S. District Court found no evidence that the university had violated the free-speech rights of Mr. Savage after he recommended freshmen read David Kupelian’s The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom (WND Books, 2005).”

Operation Rescue: “Plans to expand abortions via the Internet without the on-site presence of a licensed physician have been placed on hold by Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa, (PPECI), after a representative from that group prematurely told a reporter that the controversial chemical abortion scheme was slated to expand to Cedar Rapids and Dubuque . . . ”

LifeNews: “In the latest development in the race for the open U.S. Senate seat in Florida, Governor Charlie Crist is coming under fire for removing the pro-life section of his campaign website. This comes on the day the legislature sent him a bill that would allow women to see an ultrasound of their baby before an abortion.”

Medical News Today: “In an April letter to Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (R), the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund — a Christian legal group — claims that UWHCA has paid residents nearly $60,000 since 2007 for training at Planned Parenthood. The letter was sent on behalf of Pro-Life Wisconsin. ADF alleged that the payments violate state law and requested a formal opinion from Van Hollen.”

Inside Higher Ed: “A legal battle set off by the selection of a book . . . came to a close on Monday — when a federal judge rejected a former librarian’s lawsuit against the university . . . The former librarian . . . was on a committee that was assigned to task of picking a book for the freshmen to read. During the deliberations, he suggested an anti-gay book — and his recommendation and the comments he made about the book led to an intense debate among faculty members at the university . . . [David French], senior counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, a group that has defended the rights of religious individuals and that backed Savage in this case, said via e-mail: ‘We are disappointed that the federal district court applied Garcetti to further limit academic freedom.’”

Indiana’s NewsCenter: “‘At their legislative session, the Allen County Commissioners will consider whether to employ the Alliance Defense Fund as an additional council to the lawsuit that’s been filed regarding the patient safety ordinance,’ said Mike Green, spokesman for the Allen County Commissioners Office.”

The Globe and Mail: “A Toronto sexual assault complainant known as N.S. had no inkling last year that she would ignite a nationwide debate by asking to testify wearing a niqab . . . ”

Baptist Press: “Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land has joined other evangelical leaders in opposing an immigration reform proposal if it continues to treat homosexual partners the same as heterosexual married spouses.”

Hat tip: Religion Clause Blog

Religion Clause Blog: “According to Haaretz, Israel’s Knesset yesterday approved a bill that for the first time in Israel allows women between the ages of 20 and 35 to donate their eggs for couples having difficulty conceiving a child . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “Many who undergo these exorcisms are minors. Prosecutors and child welfare agencies are reluctant to interfere with the practice because of First Amendment religious freedom concerns.”

Heritage Foundation Morning Bell: “This morning White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and budget director Peter Orszag will release a memo directing all federal agency heads ‘to develop plans’ to cut at least 5 percent from their budgets by ‘identifying programs that do little to advance their missions or President Obama’s agenda.’ This spasm of fiscal responsibility can mean only one thing: the Obama administration is about to go on another wild spending binge. And sure enough Politico reports that while Blue Dogs in the House managed to whittle what was a $200 billion ‘jobs’ bill down to $146 billion last month, the Senate is now larding it back up again with a $24 billion Medicaid bailout and a $23 billion teachers union bailout.”

AP: “All but a handful of countries in the 27-nation bloc are violating EU deficit limits and their ability to reduce debt is critical to maintaining trust in their economies, keeping borrowing costs down, avoiding national defaults and restoring faith in the 16-country euro.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court derailed a key part of Arizona’s campaign finance system on Tuesday by at least temporarily blocking extra money for publicly funded candidates outspent by privately financed rivals or targeted by independent groups’ spending.”

BeliefNet Blog: “According to several recent studies, there is growing evidence that the demand for sex with children is driven in part by Internet pornography. ”

The Alliance Defense Fund sent letters Monday to 151 governmental entities urging them to end unconstitutional policies on their books that restrict or forbid access to public meeting rooms for religious purposes.

AP: “Dutch voters seeking fiscal discipline and tighter immigration laws appear ready to back a new right-wing government in a national election Wednesday – and may even double their support for strident anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders . . .”

The Hill: “Organized labor faces an Arkansas showdown with the Democratic establishment on Tuesday. Unions and their allies have spent more than $6.5 million to take down Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and turn Arkansas into yet another symptom of a national anti-incumbent mood.”

A Right to Bare All? Female Public Toplessness and Dealing with the Laws the Prohibit
Danielle Moriber, 8 Cardozo Pub. L. Pol’y & Ethics J. 453 (2010)

“First Amendment jurisprudence rests on subjective determinations and balancing. The rights granted under the First Amendment focus on regulating speech, not conduct. If a woman is engaged in unassociated nudity, or nudity that is not intertwined with ‘speech’ or a ‘message’ separate from the nudity, the nudity is mere conduct and is not entitled to First Amendment Protection. If, however, the nudity is not ‘nudity for nudity’s sake’ and is associated with speech as part of a specific message, it will likely fall under the protections of the First Amendment. As a result, general prohibitions on female toplessness are usually constitutional. Ironically, because protesting is highly valued and generally protected as political speech, when women are protesting topless bans, their specific expression will likely be permissible. Any law in the jurisdiction that generally prohibits unassociated nudity, however, will not consequently be overturned. Therefore, due to the Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence, activists should not seek to change applicable laws in the courts. Rather, activists should focus their efforts on state and local law making bodies in order to accomplish their goal of gaining topless equality.”

Sexing Skinner: History and the Politics of the Right to Marry
Ariela R. Dubler, 110 Colum. L. Rev. 1348 (2010)

“The meaning and scope of the constitutional right to marry are notoriously contested, as are the politics of advocating for an expansive right to marry. As a new way into these well-trodden debates, this Essay revisits the history of Skinner v. Oklahoma, the 1942 Supreme Court opinion that, in the context of striking down a state eugenics law, constitutes the clearest initial articulation of a constitutional right to marry. It argues that Skinner emerged from a set of on-going public conversations about the relationship among marriage, procreation, and sexual freedom. Read in this context, Skinner not only struck a progressive blow against eugenics laws, but also bolstered a more conservative set of links among marriage, sex, and procreation. This Essay suggests that Skinner‘s view of the right to marry reflects a historical moment when marriage was the sole site of licit sexual behavior–a regime of ‘marriage exclusivity.’ By contrast, our current constitutional regime is one of ‘intimate pluralism,’ in which nonmarital relationships are likewise entitled to constitutional protections. Ultimately, as cases about the rights of same-sex couples percolate through the courts, these models offer courts alternative routes to defining the scope of the contemporary right to marry, and the meaning of that right might vary depending on which model courts adopt.”

Fundamentalism, the First Amendment, and the Rise of the Religious Right
Randall Balmer, 18 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 889 (2010)

“The collusion between rationalists and evangelicals-between Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson-that produced the First Amendment has bequeathed to the United States a vibrant and salubrious religious culture unmatched anywhere in the world. The First Amendment, just as Adam Smith predicted in his 1776 treatise on capitalism, The Wealth of Nations, set up a free market for religion, where religious entrepreneurs (to extend the economic metaphor) are free to peddle their wares in the marketplace without either prejudice or favoritism from the state. . . . The success of this religious marketplace renders all the more confounding the recent attempts by fundamentalists, especially the leaders of the Religious Right, to countermand the First Amendment. The very charter that ensured their success became a target as leaders of the Religious Right, many of whom claimed to be Baptists, sought to collapse the distinction between church and state by means of prescribed prayer in public schools, the use of taxpayer vouchers for religious schools, and the display of religious symbols in public spaces.”

Created After Death: Kentucky Law and Posthumously Conceived Children
Barry Dunn, 48 U. Louisville L. Rev. 167 (2009)

“This Note discusses the inheritance rights, or lack thereof, of posthumously conceived children in Kentucky when a genetic parent dies. References are mostly gender neutral, though no reported case involves a posthumously conceived child of an intestate mother. Part II of this Note explains the history of assisted reproduction techniques, the common law treatment of non-marital children, children’s Social Security benefits, and the treatment of posthumously conceived children in other jurisdictions. Part III analyzes Kentucky’s current framework for the intestacy rights of posthumously conceived children and discusses possible alternatives for the General Assembly. Part IV proposes statutes for the General Assembly’s adoption. This Note concludes by arguing that Kentucky’s interests are best served by passing the will alternative, meaning posthumously conceived children may not inherit, but may be provided for by will.”

Genetic Plastic Surgery: How Neoeugenics Creates a Culture of Stage Moms
James A. Long, 7 U. St. Thomas L.J. 203 (2010)

“Legislators are faced with a number of considerations when deciding if and to what extent neoeugenic procedures should be regulated or even required. Among these are the woman’s autonomy in making reproductive decisions, the subjectivity of the unborn child, the degree to which the police powers would allow the state to require neoeugenic procedures, and whether there is a compelling state interest that would justify a regulation of neoeugenics. One immediate example is evidence that a directive approach (meaning gene therapy is expressly recommended) compromises a woman’s autonomy; therefore, a legislator can support a regulation of neoeugenics requiring doctors to take a non-directive approach (meaning the doctor merely informs the patient of her options) in order to respect the woman’s autonomy. This paper attempts to provide a framework for dealing with these types of considerations. Given this country’s colorful history in the eugenics era, building a solid legal framework will help ensure that the mistakes of the past are not revisited.”

Fundamentalist Challenges to Core Democratic Values: Exit and Homeschooling
Catherine J. Ross, 18 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 991 (2010)

“This Essay explores the choice many traditionalist Christian parents (both fundamentalist and evangelical) make to leave public schools in order to teach their children at home, thus in most instances escaping meaningful oversight. I am not primarily concerned here with the quality of academic achievement in the core curricular areas among homeschoolers, which has been the subject of much heated debate. Instead, my comments focus on civic education in the broadest sense, which I define primarily as exposure to the constitutional norm of tolerance. I shall argue that the growing reliance on homeschooling comes into direct conflict with assuring that children are exposed to such constitutional values.”

Good Medicine: Why Pharmacists Should be Prescribed a Right of Conscience
Michael E. Duffy, 44 Val. U. L. Rev. 509 (2010)

“In Part II, this Note explores the primary source of controversy for pharmacists- interfacing with drugs labeled as contraceptives-and the reasons why many pharmacists object to these medications. This Part then examines the role of conscientious objection throughout the history of the United States military and in the medical profession in the United States of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to demonstrate that respect for conscience has long been a part of American law . . . Part III analyzes the debate over the value of pharmacist conscience laws and their constitutionality by briefly exploring: whether inconvenience is an adequate justification to require pharmacists to dispense medications to which they object; the differences between substantial and incidental burdens on constitutional rights; the extent of protection for the free exercise of religion after Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith; the difference between alleviating a government-imposed burden on religion and extending free exercise rights; and whether a duty to dispense medications even exists. Finally, Part IV examines the importance of preserving medical ethics and the ability of healthcare providers to exercise their consciences, offers recommendations to pharmacists on how to avoid conflicts with their patients over conscientious objection, and proposes a model right-of-conscience statute.”

God of Our Fathers, Gods for Ourselves: Fundamentalism and Postmodern Belief
Frederick Mark Gedicks, 18 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 901 (2010)

“There is the God whose death was widely predicted, and there is the God who today is alive and well, but they’re not the same God. The God who died is the God of Christendom, who bound together Western society with a universal account of the world that did not survive the advent of postmodernism; this God, indeed, is dead. The God who remains alive is the one adapted to postmodernism; the vitality of that God is on display in contemporary American religion, especially in the spirituality movement. The most pressing religious problem now confronting the world is posed by believers who refuse to recognize the postmodern condition that has brought about the demise of the first God and the rise of the second; I will refer to such believers as ‘fundamentalists.’ All three of these phenomena-the death of God, his rebirth in postmodernity, and his remnants in fundamentalism-are manifest in recent religion clause decisions, though there are also recent suggestions that the Court may be poised to take a fundamentalist turn. I will close with a suggestion linked to that most traditional of believing virtues, humility.”

The “Licentiousness” in Religious Organizations and Why It Is Not Protected Under Religious Liberty Constitutional Provisions
Marci A. Hamilton, 18 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 953 (2010)

In this Article, I will first briefly examine the beliefs and practices of the fundamentalist polygamists, primarily but not exclusively the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), which have led to a cycle of severe and entrenched child sex abuse. The point of focusing upon the fundamentalist polygamists is that their sexual abuse of children is grounded in their religious scriptures and beliefs. Therefore, if there is any religious liberty defense to furthering child sex abuse, they arguably would have the most powerful arguments. Second, I will survey the rich history that establishes that ‘licentious,’ or illicit, sexual behavior was never intended to be protected by free exercise protections in the history of the United States (or Canada), even if religiously motivated. It is beyond the reach of free exercise guarantees, whether in the state or federal constitutions. I will also look to First Amendment doctrine, which further supports categorical exclusions. Free speech cases already recognize this principle in the context of child pornography and exploitation, which are constitutionally unprotected activities. If the First Amendment was not designed to protect the act of creating images of children engaging in sex, it follows that neither should it protect the acts that lead to child sexual abuse itself. Third, I will extend this reasoning to contemporary cases and explain why carving out licentiousness from religious liberty’s reach can keep these cases from negatively affecting other aspects of the doctrine.”