William Bentley Ball, former League board member and the attorney who represented Jim Zobrest and his family, has alerted the Catholic League to a significant analysis of last summer's Zobrest decision by Professor Jesse Choper, a noted constitutional scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. As you may remember, Jim Zobrest is the profoundly deaf [...]
League members figure prominently Proposition 174 may have been defeated in California, but the curtain has been raised on a new group vowing to keep the issue of school choice before the voters. According to Catholic News Service, Americans for School Choice plans to organize successful school choice ballot initiatives in at least five states in [...]
By Karen Lynn Krugh We kept our Catholic League national office special assistant busy this month. She attended two conferences o f interest to Catholic League members. Here's her report. October was conference month. In an attempt to keep up on current Catholic issues, including the new Catechism and current perspectives on Catholic philosophy, I spent [...]
John Pantuso, Catholic League Newsletter editor since December 1986, has been elected chair of the Lay Salvatorian National Board. Lay Salvatorians share in the mission and charism of the Society of the Divine Savior (Salvatorian Fathers and Brothers) and the Congregation of the Divine Savior (Salvatorian Sisters). John and his wife Joanne, who will celebrate their [...]
The Catholic League's Massachusetts Chapter has vehemently protested a presentation on "date rape" at Newton North High School which included a series of graphic rape jokes intended to "loosen up the audience." One joke reportedly involved a nun being raped repeatedly on a subway train and begging for more. The program, "Calling It Rape," was performed [...]
On November 16, President Clinton signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, legislation which requires a "compelling government interest" to justify the imposition of restrictions on religious practices. This legislation was proposed in the wake of the Supreme Court's 1990 decision, Employment Division v. Smith, in which the Court abandoned the long standing "compelling interest" [...]
In addition to his many media contacts during October and November, Catholic League president Bill Donohue had a few other engagements worthy of note: On October 17, he received an Outstanding Citizenship Award from the National Traditionalist Caucus for his work on the ACLU. On October 25, he was elected to serve on the board of [...]
On October 25, Catholic League president William A. Donohue met in Washington with Senator Dan Coats of Indiana to discuss the senators "Families First" bill. The Family, Investment, Retirement, Savings and Tax Fairness Act of 1993 - to use its full name - represents a major reform of the Federal budget and the tax code. It [...]
Students at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana were treated to this tasteless cartoon in their daily paper. It originated with the Dayton Daily News and cartoonist Mike Peters. A tip of the hat to Mrs. George L. Mihad of Muncie for passing this gem along to us. Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News was [...]
In what must surely rank as a textbook case of cruel and unusual punishment, an Indiana judge has sentenced fourteen members of Collegiates Activated to Liberate Life (CALL) to attend an eight-hour Planned Parenthood educational seminar. They must also pay $7,100 in restitution to the two clinics at which their pro-life demonstrations took place. A Planned [...]
