Christian conservatives rally in support of Alito nomination News
Christian conservatives rally in support of Alito nomination

[JURIST] Christian conservatives on Sunday rallied in support of US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito [official profile; JURIST news archive] and called for reforms to the federal judiciary, during Justice Sunday III [advocacy website; FRC press release]. The rally, sponsored by the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family [advocacy websites], was organized to protest recent federal court decisions on the separation of church and state, including the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky [opinion] prohibiting the display of the Ten Commandments at a Kentucky courthouse. Rev. Jerry Falwell said that if Alito were confirmed to the Supreme Court it would be the biggest victory for Christian conservatives in thirty years. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) told those attending the rally at a Philadelphia church that liberal judges are "destroying traditional morality, creating a new moral code and prohibiting any dissent" and that confirming Alito and other "honorable jurists" is "the only way to restore this republic our founders envisioned." Santorum criticized Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee [AP report], who he said were "poised to drag these hearings into the gutter." The committee's confirmation hearings on the Alito nomination begin Monday at 12:00 PM ET. AP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase…

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.