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BOSTON COLLEGE LAW SCHOOL Letter from the Dean Dear Alumni and Friends of Boston College Law School: There are several lessons for the legal community, and for Boston College Law School, in the brouhaha provoked by Roy Moore over the Ten Commandments. Moore was elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in November of 2000. The following year he installed a granite monument about the size of a washing machine in the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building. Inscribed on it are the Ten Commandments. Moore said he did it to fulfill a campaign pledge "to restore the...

Site last updatedNovember 3, 2003 Morality Continues to Decay November 3, 2003 Of the ten moral behaviors evaluated, a majority of Americans believed that each of three activities were “morally acceptable.” Those included gambling (61%), co-habitation (60%), and sexual fantasies (59%). Nearly half of the adult population felt that two other behaviors were morally acceptable: having an abortion (45%) and having a sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex other than their spouse (42%). About one-third of the population gave the stamp of approval to pornography (38%), profanity (36%), drunkenness (35%) and homosexual sex (30%). The activity that garnered...

U.S. Opposes Money for Troops Jailed in Iraq By PHILIP SHENON ASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — The Bush administration is seeking to block a group of American troops who were tortured in Iraqi prisons during the Persian Gulf war in 1991 from collecting any of the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Iraqi assets they won last summer in a federal court ruling against the government of Saddam Hussein. In a court challenge that the administration is winning so far but is not eager to publicize, administration lawyers have argued that Iraqi assets frozen in bank accounts in the United...

<p>Heavens, the civility of it all. Exactly one month from today, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will square his shoulders and step out on a stage at Texas A&M University to receive a significant honor.</p> <p>The Massachusetts Democrat has been selected to receive the 2003 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service on Nov. 7, directly from the hands of former President George H.W. Bush himself.</p>

And Won't Rush Be Pleased to Get a Card By JOYCE WADLER A flack for the new movie "Potluck" told us excitedly that "half the cast was either in prison or rehab." Press agents exaggerate, of course, and as far as we could determine, only two actors in the film are or were so indisposed: TOMMY CHONG, sentenced this month to nine months in prison for conspiring to sell bongs over the Internet, and JASON MEWES, reportedly in rehab. A prison sentence, of course, is no reason to shirk one's promotional duties, so we called Mr. Chong in the Taft...

New firm with Bush ties consults on Iraq - - - - - - - - - - - - Sept. 30, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- A company that was created to help clients take advantage of business opportunities in Iraq is made up of businessmen associated with President Bush, his family and his administration. The connections drew criticism Tuesday from Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who called for an independent oversight board to ensure that Iraq reconstruction money is doled out fairly. New Bridge Strategies, on its Web site, says it will ``seek to expedite the creation of...

Bush abandons troop-protection plan A decision by the White House and a GOP-dominated Congress would leave troop-transport jets vulnerable to missile attack. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Paul J. Caffera Sept. 27, 2003  |  Even as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made headlines this week by announcing that up to 20,000 fresh troops may be called to Iraq, President Bush and members of the congressional leadership were quietly abandoning a plan to protect troop-transport airliners from missile attack by terrorists or Saddam loyalists. The measure, first advanced by the Pentagon, would have begun...

Bin Laden family's US exit 'approved' BILL ANDREWS THE United States allowed members of Osama bin Laden’s family to jet out of the US in the immediate aftermath of September 11, even as American airspace was closed. Former White House counter-terrorism tsar Richard Clarke said the Bush administration sanctioned the repatriation of about 140 high-ranking Saudi Arabians, including relatives of the al-Qaida chief. "Somebody brought to us for approval the decision to let an aeroplane filled with Saudis, including members of the Bin Laden family, leave the country," he said. Mr Clarke said he checked with FBI officials, who gave...

Fox Sues Humorist Al Franken Over Slogan The Associated Press Monday, August 11, 2003; 5:15 PM NEW YORK - Fox News Channel has sued liberal humorist Al Franken and the Penguin Group to stop them from using the phrase "fair and balanced" in the title of his upcoming book. Filed Monday in Manhattan, the trademark infringement lawsuit seeks a court order forcing Penguin to rename the book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." It also asks for unspecified damages.

British panel: al-Qaida may be stronger - - - - - - - - - - - - July 31, 2003 | LONDON (AP) -- The war against Iraq did not significantly diminish al-Qaida and may even have hampered the struggle against the terrorist network, a British parliamentary committee said Thursday. Osama bin Laden's organization continues to pose "a substantial threat" to Britons, even after the capture of many its leaders, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said in a report on the war against terrorism. When the United States made its case for war against Saddam Hussein, it...

It only costs $3500 to run for Governor in the upcoming California runoff! Surely we can get 3500 Freepers to contribute $1 each? Jim Robinson for Governor of California!!!

The Moussaoui nightmare The so-called 20th hijacker looked like a slam-dunk case for federal prosecutors. Now everything has changed. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Eric Boehlert July 11, 2003 | By now, government prosecutors hoped to have a guilty conviction already in hand for Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker who was indicted 90 days after the 9/11 terrorist attack. Instead, the case is teetering on the brink. The high-profile trial of the only man charged with 9/11 crimes was supposed to be quick, clean and transparent, a shining example of how...

'We know who we are. We know what it is to discover love. We know that love is costly' The Church of England is tearing itself apart over the appointment of an openly gay, though celibate, bishop. Here, a gay vicar from northern England, writing anonymously, describes his experiences of working within a system which appears set on destroying its gay brethren, one by one Tuesday June 24, 2003 The Guardian Holy week, 1995. After years of hard work with the council, community groups, commercial sponsors, developers, and hard working lay volunteers, we were about to unveil the plaque on...

If We Knew Where It Was -- Why Don't We Know Where It Is? By John Cory TO correspondent in Saudi Arabia t r u t h o u t | Perspective Monday 09 June 2003 I am not an educated man, and there are plenty of folks who will tell you that I am not all that smart either. But I have a few questions about this WMD thing over in Iraq. Now I know a lot of smart people are writing about this, but I thought I would ask my questions in the hope that some of those...

Army Probes Colonel's Marriage Proposals Wednesday June 11, 2003 3:59 PM FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - Army commanders said Wednesday they are investigating allegations that a colonel proposed to dozens of women in the United States and Canada after meeting them through Internet dating services. Some of the women compiled a list of more than 50 women to whom Col. Kassem Saleh proposed, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Saleh, 50, is already married, the women say. They want him punished but it's not clear that such behavior would violate either criminal law or military regulations. ``The commanders are aware...

GOP Senate hopeful Mark Foley announces he won't answer questions about his sexuality. Should voters care? - - - - - - - - - - - - By Jake Tapper May 23, 2003 | On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. -- a possible candidate for the Senate in 2004 -- held a conference call with a handful of Florida reporters that perfectly captured a dilemma in which he finds himself. The subject of the call was the same matter that he refused to directly address within the call, and it is the one that has quietly dogged him...

Appellate Court Rules Media Can Legally Lie. On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast. On August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous...

More than sodomy The Supreme Court is hearing a case challenging a Texas law against "homosexual conduct," but the real issue is whether the government can regulate private lives in the first place. March 26, 2003 | Conservatives and liberals alike have tended to avoid public debate about Lawrence vs. Texas, a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court that challenges a Texas law criminalizing "homosexual conduct" -- that is, sex between consenting adults of the same gender. The law is fundamentally un-American, but instead of opposition spanning the political spectrum, there have been the familiar unprincipled divisions along partisan...

The price of coming out in Jacksonville Outed to his parents then punished by school officials, a gay student goes to the ACLU By Jennifer Barnett March 21, 2003 Let's get this out of the way first: This story is largely one-sided. It's written primarily from the perspective of 14-year-old Thomas McLaughlin, his family and friends - their version of the harassment he says he's endured at the hands of several teachers and administrators at Jacksonville Junior High School because of his sexual orientation . It does not include any response from the educators involved. Those that could be reached...

No children allowed President Bush wants welfare recipients to marry -- but not have kids. Dec. 5, 2002 | I am one of those people who believe that President Bush's war on terrorism constitutes, among other things, a very impressive distraction for Americans who might otherwise pay attention to scary federal policy changes. So successful is this adrenaline-packed diversion that we have missed not only significant political maneuvers, but also a flurry of environmental rollbacks that rush us, unceremoniously, down the path to extinction. In at least one case, however, it isn't distraction as much as confusion that paralyzes us...