Religion & Law

Kansas lawman forced to defend license for challenging Planned Parenthood

Posted on February 16, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "But in Kansas, a very different scenario is unfolding, one that pro-life activists plan to expose in a webcast Tuesday night. State officials are seeking to strip the law license of former Attorney General Phill Kline for pursuing his criminal case against Planned Parenthood?s cover-up of child rape, the only case of its kind against the abortion giant in U...

PA: Corbett Fires State Employees After Gosnell Abortion Horrors

Posted on February 16, 2011
LifeNews: ?This doesn?t even rise to the level of government run amok. It was government not running at all. To call this unacceptable doesn?t say enough. It?s despicable,?? Corbett said.

WY: Lawmakers Seek To Intervene In Same-Sex Divorce

Posted on February 16, 2011
KJCT8.com: "The lawmakers, including House Speaker Ed Buchanan, are represented by the Alliance Defense Fund. The fund is an Arizona-based Christian civil rights group that has litigated against same-sex marriage in California."

Yakima adopts prayer policy, opponent still wants to sue

Posted on February 16, 2011
KNDO.com: "The fact that they're using the A.D.F. which has a political agenda against gays, reproductive right for women, those kinds of things, to me that's not what Yakima needs to be represented by", says Guillen. During the meeting Mayor Micah Cawley rebutted that the city is only getting guidance from the ADF on the prayer issue, not any other topics.

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Yakima council adopts prayer policy

Posted on February 16, 2011
Yakima-Herald: "The new policy was crafted from model language offered by the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of lawyers whose stated goal is to defend freedom of religious expression. Council members say they expect the group to defend the city against legal action ...

Sebelius gets earful re: conscience rules

Posted on February 16, 2011
One News Now (includes photo of Matt): Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, applauds lawmakers' desire to see those laws enforced, not repealed. "It's right for the members of the United States House to be concerned that the administration of the federal government would decide not to enforce those laws," says Bowman, "especially in light of the fact that the Alliance Defense Fund has represented already three clients in...

County faces lawsuit for denying church permit

Posted on February 16, 2011
Times-Herald: Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for The Alliance Defense Fund, said he doesn't think there has been a formal decision rendered by the DOJ. "The Department of Justice frequently takes quite a bit of time to investigate," Stanley said. "All Souls just didn't have the time to wait around...

House Members Confront HHS on Conscience Protections

Posted on February 16, 2011
Charisma Online (includes photo of Matt Bowman): ?Medical professionals should not be punished for holding to their beliefs, and they should not be forced to perform abortions against their conscience,? says ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. ?Members of the House are justified in asking why the Obama administration would be seeking to repeal such protections, especially in light of the recent examples of abuse involving ADF clients...

Churches Under Attack

Posted on February 16, 2011
Bob Ellis writes at Dakota Voice: "This update from the Alliance Defense Fund shows just a few of the assaults on religious freedom?some by ?protected? groups and some by government itself at the behest of ?protected? groups . . . "

Prep work on Shreveport site for Louisiana College law school could top $10 million

Posted on February 16, 2011
TheTownTalk.com: "The event also featured the introduction of the law school's dean, J. Michael Johnson, a Shreveport native who was senior legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund. A call seeking comment from Johnson was not returned Tuesday...

Casey Mattox: UC Davis?s Discriminatory Non-Discrimination Policy

Posted on February 16, 2011
Casey Mattox writes at Speak Up Blog: The University of California-Davis has an interesting twist on its nondiscrimination rule.  In its definition of ?religious discrimination? UC Davis goes out of its way to make clear that the policy protects all students regardless of their religious beliefs ? unless those beliefs are Christian ...

UC-Davis policy defines religious discrimination as Christians oppressing non-Christians

Posted on February 16, 2011
ADF-allied attorney sends letter on behalf of Christian students objecting to definition that singles out Christians as oppressors

California Supreme Court to consider key issue in battle over same-sex marriage

Posted on February 16, 2011
LA Times: "The California Supreme Court will decide Wednesday whether to plunge back into the legal battle over same-sex marriage."

NY Times attacks Montana Congressman for accusing federal judge of activism

Posted on February 16, 2011
The NY Times Editorial, titled Danger Threats: "Representative Denny Rehberg, a Republican and Montana?s House member, boasts that he brings Made-in-Montana solutions to Washington. His latest, proposed last week in a speech advocating states? rights to the State Legislature, is to put a judge 'on the Endangered Species List...

Egypt?s Constitution Revision Panel Appointed; Impact On Religious Pluralism Is Uncertain

Posted on February 16, 2011
Religion Clause Blog: "Egypt's military council yesterday selected an 8-member committee to quickly recommend revisions to the country's constitution."

GA: Church Sues Over Denial of Zoning Permit

Posted on February 16, 2011
Religion Clause Blog: "The complaint (full text) in All Souls Church of God in Christ, Inc. v. Coweta County, Georgia, (ND GA, filed 2/11/2011) claims that applications by other religious and non-religious organizations that are predominately White have received more favorable treatment...

Putting Politics Over Security, Obama Moves to Unionize TSA

Posted on February 16, 2011
Heritage Foundation: "Last night, on a purely partisan 47?51 vote, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have stopped government unions from organizing Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees."

With GOP rifts on cuts, McConnell faces test to unite colleagues

Posted on February 16, 2011
The Hill: McConnell predicted during a radio interview last week that ?Senate Republicans are going to unify around whatever reduction they can get out of the House,? and he re-emphasized that point Tuesday. ?We?ll see whether the Senate wants to establish different priorities,? he said...

D.C. Residents Strongly Favor Restoration of Endangered School Voucher Program

Posted on February 16, 2011
AFC: "Seventy-four percent of D.C. residents want Congress to restore and expand the highly effective D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, according to a Lester & Associates poll released today by the American Federation for Children (AFC)."

PJI: Church Wins Zoning Discrimination Case at Ninth Circuit

Posted on February 16, 2011
"The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that the city of San Leandro illegally discriminated against a church by not allowing it to use its own property for worship services. The church, Faith Fellowship Foursquare Church, is represented by staff attorneys with Pacific Justice Institute...

Police: Church attack by Islamists foiled in northern Nigeria

Posted on February 16, 2011
AP: "Police say they've foiled a church attack engineered by a radical Muslim sect in northeastern Nigeria."

Law to protect German kids? right to noise

Posted on February 16, 2011
AP: "Germany is so desperate to encourage people to have more children that the government is proposing a bill allowing citizens under six to laugh, shout and play at any volume."

Obamacare Requires New IRS Army Of 1,054

Posted on February 16, 2011
"The Internal Revenue Service says it will need an battalion of 1,054 new auditors and staffers and new facilities at a cost to taxpayers of more than $359 million in fiscal 2012 just to watch over the initial implementation of President Obama's healthcare reforms...

PA: Baldwin Man Refuses To Take Down Crosses

Posted on February 16, 2011
CBS Pittsburgh Local: "A Baldwin man is refusing to take down his lighted crosses. Carl Behr said he isn?t going down without a fight at a Baldwin Borough Council."

Poll: Majority of Republicans Doubt Obama?s Birthplace

Posted on February 16, 2011
Roll Call: "A slim majority of Republicans are still in disbelief that President Barack Obama, now in his third year in office, was born in the United States and therefore is legally eligible to be president, according to a poll by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling...

SC: State mulls limiting insurance to restrict abortions

Posted on February 16, 2011
Midlandsconnect.com: "Health insurance companies would only be able to offer coverage of abortions if people pay a separate premium in South Carolina under a proposal that critics say would effectively end all insurance for the procedures."

WV Senate Passes Bill to Limit Insurance for Abortion

Posted on February 16, 2011
WHSV.com: "No regular health insurance policy, public or private, could cover abortion services in West Virginia under legislation advancing in the House of Delegates."

UK: Sovereignty? We gave that away ages ago

Posted on February 16, 2011
Daily Mail: "How long does it take for a simple message to sink in? During and since the Commons debate on prisoners? voting rights, there have been regular allusions to Britain?s or Parliament?s ?sovereignty?. Such sovereignty has not existed since we became members of the EU, or Common Market as it was then called, in 1973...

Vienna: Woman convicted of ?denigration of religious doctrines? for calling Mohammed a pedophile

Posted on February 16, 2011
Europe News: The court based "denigration of religious doctrines? on the fact that Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff had characterized Mohammed as "pedophiliac? because ? according to Islamic legend ? he had sex with nine year-old Aisha. In the court?s view, this was "denigrating? because Mohammed did not have sex exclusively with children but also with grown women, and stayed with Aisha until his death when she was eighteen years old...

U.S. Government Shuts Down 84,000 Websites, ?By Mistake?

Posted on February 16, 2011
Torrent Freak: "The US Government has yet again shuttered several domain names this week. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security?s ICE office proudly announced that they had seized domains related to counterfeit goods and child pornography. What they failed to mention, however, is that one of the targeted domains belongs to a free DNS provider, and that 84,000 websites were wrongfully accused of links to child pornography crimes...

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