The voting continues on the top blogs. The Turley blog was selected as one of the 100 top legal blogs by the good people at the ABA Journal. It currently holds the number one spot for law professor and legal theory blogs. The tally shows the Turley blog with 387 votes with Mirror of Justice with 234 votes. The voting ends on January 2nd. You have done well Turley bloggers.
Continue reading “The Turley Blog Leads in Vote on Best Law Professor and Legal Theory Blogs”
Category: Religion
The first of Pardo’s victims was an eight-year-old girl who answered the door. She will survive by she was injured in the face.
For the full story, click here.
Best wishes to everyone celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah. Our kids get to double dip on both holidays in a play to spread our bets between the two religions of the parents. We have just finished placing the last present under the tree in Chicago. We can now look forward to three hours of sleep before the C-Day invasion. As my gift to you, I have linked a truly inspirational holiday video: Jingle Bells played on microwave ovens below.
Continue reading “Happy Holidays!”
A Christmas controversy is brewing in Pensacola, Florida where Tonia Thomas, 35, claims that she was fired because he insisted on greeting callers with “Merry Christmas” rather than Happy Holidays. Her former employer, Counts-Oakes Resorts Properties Inc., insists that there were other reasons for her termination but outside groups have come to Thomas’ aid in suing the company. In the meantime, Muslims are debating whether they can say “Merry Christmas.”
As states grapple with limitations on same sex marriage, polygamy, and other moral legislation controversies, scientists may have introduced another areas of potential challenge: the ban on first cousins. The premise for barring first cousins was always based on rather shaky science. Now, scientists are challenging any medical or public policy basis for the prohibition — raising constitutional questions of why consenting adults can be barred from such marriages.
Continue reading “Kissing Cousins: A New Question of Discrimination In the Wake of New Studies”
It appears that neither judges nor police officers in Douglasville, Georgia have heard of the use of a scarf for religious purposes or, more likely, didn’t care about the religious practice. Lisa Valentine was arrested after she was ordered to remove the scarf, or hijab. Valentine, who goes by the Muslim name Miedah, refused and tried to leave the courthouse when she was barred by officers who took her to appear before Judge Keith Rollins who appears to have a little judgment as training as a jurist. He jailed her for 10 days.
The Iranian regime celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in true Iranian fashion: they shutdown the respected Center for Defenders of Human Rights in Tehran. The group was planned a celebration of the Universal Declaration when the police raided their office and charged it with such unspeakable crimes as “publishing statements, writing letters to international organizations, and holding press conferences.”
Continue reading “Happy Anniversary: Iran Raids Leading Human Rights Organization”
A Saudi court has refused to annul the marriage of an eight-year-old girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man. The Unayzah court says that it would prefer the girl to remain married to the man until she reaches puberty — a curious solution to child abuse. The girl’s divorced mother has been trying to annul the marriage.
Continue reading “Saudi Court Refuses to Annul Marriage of 8-Year-old to 58-Year-Old Man”
S
chool officials in Celina, Texas have not only decided to violate federal law but they have decided to flaunt their refusal to comply with constitutional rulings of the Supreme Court. The school continues to incorporate Christian prayers into its games. In a recent game, Celina coach Butch Ford said: “Our goal (against Liberty Hill) was to play with the joy of the Lord in our heart so we’d play excited all of the time, and we wouldn’t be down no matter what happened….” They might not be the only ones “excited all of the time” that they play.
Continue reading “Pray to Play: Texas School Defies Supreme Court on Prayer at Games”
An interesting decision by an Ohio Municipal Court was just posted in State of Ohio v. Bontrager, (OH Munic. Ct., June 24, 2008). The court explored a free exercise challenge by Adam Bontrager who refused to install a septic tank because the use of electricity would violate his Amish beliefs. In the end, sewage treatment trumped free exercise.
Continue reading “Ruling: Amish Man Loses Religious Challenge to Septic Tank”
Planned Parenthood of Indiana is reeling from the disclosure of an undercover video showing a counselor telling a woman posing as a 13-year-old girl that she doesn’t care about the age of the man who impregnated her — a violation of state law. The video below was shot by an anti-abortion group called Live Action.
In a surprising reversal, California Attorney General Jerry Brown asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to overturn Proposition 8 on the grounds that it violates basic rights guaranteed in the state Constitution. Brown had said that he would be duty bound to support the initiative in the courts. Traditional marriage advocates are now moving to retroactively invalidate the marriages of same-sex couples married before Proposition 8 passed in a the new round of litigation. Continue reading “Brown Seeks to Overturn Proposition 8 as L”
Rebecca Hancock, 49, of Jacksonville, Florida may be done with the Grace Community Church and Rev. T. Scott Christmas, but they are not done with her. Hancock left the church after it demanded that she leave her boyfriend Frank Young because of their “sexually immoral relationship.” Her children, however, remained in the church. Now, the church was told her that if she does not leave the church, her sins will be exposed to the entire community.
Continue reading “Father Christmas’ Naughty List: Pastor Plans to Publicly Expose Sins of Former Parishioner”
Algeria — that ray of light for civil liberties — is pushing its plan to take its own limitations on free speech global with a proposal to ban criticism of religion as a form of discrimination. The proposal before the United Nations is being supported by Muslim and African nations.
A major controversy is brewing in England over a a fashionable Indian restaurant that barred the seeing eye dog of Alun Elder-Brown, who is legally blind. The owners explained that Muslims consider dogs to be unclean and offensive. This is only the latest such case in England and the United States.
Continue reading “Dogma: Blind Man’s Dog Barred From Restaurant as Offensive to Muslims”