Mirror of Justice: Religion & Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Religion & Law

Mirror of Justice

Dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.

Post Frequency: 46.4/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 15:50:36

We shouldn't ban Sharia law

Posted on November 10, 2010
You may have heard that an Oklahoma court enjoined the newly enacted state ban on the use of Sharia (and international law) in court. The opinion is now available. Here are the plaintiff's claims [P]laintiff asserts that the moment Oklahoma?s...

Two Cheers for Facebook

Posted on November 09, 2010
I just read an insightful and sometimes touching essay on the positive uses of Facebook in building relationships ? particularly long-standing relationships - by Ellen Painter Dollar at the Episcopal Cafe. It is an essay that pointed me to uses...

Charles Taylor on "Secularism"

Posted on November 09, 2010
An interesting essay, from The Hedgehog Review, by Charles Taylor: It is generally agreed that modern democracies have to be ?secular.? There is perhaps a problem, a certain ethnocentricity, involved in this term. But even in the Western context the....

The Pope's homily at the Sagrada Familia

Posted on November 09, 2010
The full text is available here. Here is a taste: This church began as an initiative of the Association of the Friends of Saint Joseph, who wanted to dedicate it to the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home formed by...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

"The Most Depressing Statistic in America"

Posted on November 09, 2010
Joe Carter writes, at First Things: Forget the unemployment rate or level of GNP, if you want one statistic that reflects the level of decline in our country you have to look no further than the percentage of out-of-wedlock births:...

Shifts in charitable giving

Posted on November 09, 2010
A new study finds that while giving to churches is down (measured as average annual giving per member), giving to religious charities is up (measured as size of average annual donation). This is intriguing, and I wonder if part of...

Justice Scalia, law, morality, and judging (again)

Posted on November 08, 2010
At Commonweal, David Gibson shares some thoughts about a recent speech by Justice Scalia in which the latter said, among other things, that "there's no such thing as a Catholic judge." Gibson also writes: Scalia?s near-indifferentism to the morality of...

Law's Certitudes: The Bible, the Cross, and "Belief"

Posted on November 07, 2010
Something has been irritating me about Establishment Clause jurisprudence for some time. At least one source of my pique was crystallized in, of all things, a very recent New York criminal case: People v. Knowles, a decision of the appellate...

Perspectives on the Concept of Doctrine

Posted on November 05, 2010
Many thanks to our newest member, Marc DeGirolami, for his November 3rd contribution ?On the Idea of Doctrine.? It may be possible to consider that other disciplines such as economics, political science, literature, the physical sciences, etc. rely on doctrines,...

"Absurd and Ferocious Violence" in Iraq

Posted on November 05, 2010
I'm surprised that this horrifying incident is not being covered and discussed more widely (or maybe I'm just missing it). The New York Times reported, a few days ago, that 58 people were killed, in the Our Lady of Salvation...

"Reforming the Pro-Choice Market"

Posted on November 05, 2010
Our colleague, Richard Stith, has this essay up at First Things, "Reforming the Pro-Choice Market." Richard argues, among other things, that: Some pro-life leaders have advocated repeal of ?Obamacare,? because it requires the public in various ways to fund abortion...

Republicans and divisive moral issues--then and now

Posted on November 05, 2010
What are the lessons of the 2010 midterm elections for Republicans? Some Republican-friendly commentators, such as Dick Morris, suggest that the key lesson is that the Party should eschew divisive moral issues, such as abortion and marriage, and stick to...

Religious Legal Theory Conference Postscript

Posted on November 05, 2010
We've just finished up the annual (we can say that now) Religious Legal Theory conference over here at St. John's. The two keynoters, Steves Smith and Shiffrin (or as Dean Simons had it, "morning Steve" and "afternoon Steve" -- I...

"Schism, Plague, and Late Rites"

Posted on November 04, 2010
Michael McConnell has posted on SSRN a new essay, "Schism, Plague, and Late Rites in the French Quarter: The Strange Story Behind the Supreme Court's First Free Exercise Case." Here's the abstract: On November 9, 1842, Father Bernard Permoli performed...

New law blog rankings

Posted on November 04, 2010
Prof. Caron has new law-blog rankings up at TaxProf Blog. MOJ continues to do well, and to grow. Thank you! (And, tell your friends!).

#ihadanabortion

Posted on November 04, 2010
In the same vein as the "I had an abortion" t-shirts, the latest trend is the #ihadanabortion hashtag on twitter. Both are designed to remove any stigma from the decision to have an abortion. Consider this explanation: Just as always,...

Entity and Identity

Posted on November 04, 2010
Usha Rodrigues has posted a new paper, "Entity and Identity." Judging by the abstract, it should be of interest to those of us who care about associational life: The function, indeed the very existence, of nonprofit corporations is under-theorized. Recent...

Legislating Morality

Posted on November 04, 2010
Micah Watson, at Public Discourse, explains why we "can't help but legislate morality": ?You can?t legislate morality? has become a common turn of phrase. The truth, however, is that every law and regulation that is proposed, passed, and enforced has...

Many pro-life Democrats lose

Posted on November 03, 2010
The Christianity Today politics blog has a pretty up-to-date tally of how pro-life Democrats (that is, Democrats "who voted for the original Stupak-Pitts Amendment (which would have banned abortion funding in the health care bill) and final passage of the...

Personhood amendment fails in Colorado

Posted on November 03, 2010
Story here: Amendment 62 would have changed the state constitution - stating that a person is a person "from the moment of biological beginning." That, in effect, would outlaw abortions in Colorado. But, opponents feared it would reach much further,....

School choice in the Supreme Court

Posted on November 03, 2010
Today (in a few minutes, actually) the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a school-choice and church-state related case out of Arizona, called Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn. (To learn more about the case, check out this...

Senator Kelly Ayotte, Villanova Law '93

Posted on November 03, 2010
A moment of pride and promise at Villanova Law! Kelly Ayotte, Villanova Law Class of '93, has been elected to the U.S. Senate. Ayotte is the first Villanova Law alum to serve as a U.S. Senator. We are very proud...

On the Idea of Doctrine

Posted on November 03, 2010
The idea of doctrine is unusual as a feature of scholarly attention. The only two spheres of academic learning that I can think of which rely on the idea of doctrine are law and theology. One might even say that...

A Flannery fix

Posted on November 02, 2010
?If you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it?s the gas you breathe. If I hadn?t had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would...

Theology, Our Constitution, Islam, and the St. John's Conference

Posted on November 02, 2010
I am giving a talk on Friday at St. John?s Religious Legal Theory Conference on ?Theology and Our Constitution.? One of my preliminary points is that it is not possible to interpret the Establishment Clause in a way that would...

"There is no Catholic vote . . .

Posted on November 02, 2010
. . . but on social policy, everyone now speaks Catholic," suggests Jody Bottum. I (deliberately) held off on posting this until the pre-election-type discussions were over (or, at least, moot), because I think Bottum's claim is an interesting one,...

One of the most important religious freedom cases in years?

Posted on November 02, 2010
Professor Friedman notes, over at the "ReligionClause" blog, that a petition for certiorari (full text) was filed in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC. In the case, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that parochial school...

Lithwick on the Red Mass and the State of the Union

Posted on November 02, 2010
"Will more Supreme Court Justices attend this year's Red Mass [or, as she puts it, 'Red Mass'] than next year's State of the Union?", Dahlia Lithwick asks in this Slate piece. After recalling how the President's (inaccurate) description of the...

The Election: The Problem with the current political arrangements

Posted on November 02, 2010
"As is the case every several years, we are asked to tune in briefly to decide which impersonal agent in the society will work to effect the common good ? whether the market or the government. We are then expected,...

Elshtain on Sovereignty

Posted on November 02, 2010
I had the chance to (finally) read Jean Bethke Elshtain's Gifford Lectures, "Sovereignty: God, State, and Self." Wow. Run, don't walk, to . . . Amazon and buy it. Here's just one review: Dismissed by most political theorists as a...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

The Justice Mills Lawyer’s Relief Act of 2007 or Multiple Avenues of Appeal of a Comprehensive Permit Still Available.
Topics: Administrative Appeal; Zoning Appeal; Mootness; Housing Ap...

Enlarging Time to Appeal Land Use Decisions in the Interests of Justice
In Gregory v. Borough of Avalon, the Appellate Division evaluated ...

Mirror International Prenuptial Agreements
We frequently recommend mirror prenuptial agreements for people wi...