Bush ‘faith-based initiative’ faces legal challenge News
Bush ‘faith-based initiative’ faces legal challenge

[JURIST] President Bush's "faith-based initiative" to get taxpayer funding to religious organizations to provide social services suffered a setback Friday when a three-judge panel of the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] reinstated a 2004 lawsuit brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) [advocacy website] on the grounds that the program may violate the constitutional separation of church and state. President Bush created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives [official website] and similar centers in ten federal agencies by executive order [text] in 2001 in an effort to help faith-based and community organizations receive federal funds to support various social programs. The lawsuit was originally dismissed when a judge ruled that taxpayers could not question appropriations made by the executive branch, but the appeals court held there was an exception to that when the appropriation used taxpayer money to promote religion. The FFRF previously won a lawsuit against the program [JURIST report] when a judge suspended a federal grant to a Christian college because it "amounted to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion". AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

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