Criminal justice reform, faith leaders and an Oklahoma County Commissioner are urging the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board and Gov. Kevin Stitt to back clemency for death row inmate Julius D. Jones, whose claims of racial bias have been rejected by appeals courts. “For over 20 years, (Jones) has been on Oklahoma’s death row, though…Read More
Education is “ground zero” in the fight for religious freedom, the U.S. Attorney General told an audience at the Notre Dame Law School on Friday. While speaking on the threats posed to freedom of religion in the U.S. by aggressive secularism, Attorney General William Barr told law students that nowhere is the threat to religious…Read More
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a block on an Ohio law banning abortions on the grounds of a diagnosis of Down syndrome. Former Governor John Kasich signed the law nearly two years ago, but it has not yet been able to come into effect. The court’s decision comes amid Down Syndrome Awareness Month,…Read More
The Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty stems from its view on the sacredness of human life and the value of mercy, said U.S. bishops in a roundtable discussion about capital punishment Oct. 10. The discussion, which was livestreamed by Catholic News Service, took place on the World Day Against the Death Penalty and…Read More
A federal appeals court is considering a Mississippi law ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The law was signed in 2018 but is not currently in effect. The law allows abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy only when the mother’s life or a major bodily function is in danger, or when the unborn…Read More
Senators have introduced legislation that would require states to report abortion statistics to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control, including in all cases where babies survive botched abortions. The Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act of 2019 would make certain Medicaid family planning funds to states conditional upon their gathering and reporting comprehensive…Read More
The Supreme Court will consider an abortion case this term after it announced last Friday that it will hear a challenge to Louisiana’s abortion law. Louisiana’s Unsafe Abortion Protection Act requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, defined as within 30 miles of the abortion clinic; when then-Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed…Read More
Senator Mike Braun (R., Ind.) is sponsoring new legislation requiring abortion providers to dispose of the remains of aborted fetuses through either burial or cremation. The senator introduced the Dignity for Aborted Children Act late last week in the wake of news that more than 2,200 fetal remains had been discovered inside the Illinois home…Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court will begin its 2019-2020 term with a thunderclap: a trio of cases that could result in the extension of federal employment protections that now bar discrimination based on “sex” to encompass workers who identify as “gay” or “transgender.” “When Title VII passed in 1964, there is no question that Congress at…Read More
A federal judge temporarily blocked Georgia’s abortion ban Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones temporarily blocked the implementation of the law, which was scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1. Jones’s actions follow a June lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, according to WSB-TV Atlanta. Jones ruled…Read More