Daily Archives: March 10, 2009

Jennifer Roback Morse, writing at Public Discourse: Marriage is adult society’s institutional structure for protecting the legitimate interests of children. Marriage attaches mothers—and especially fathers—to their children, and attaches mothers and fathers to one another. As a result, marriage is …

Des Moines Register: But lawmakers amended the legislation to state that child care providers or parents would have to knowingly allow the child access to the obscene material to be guilty of child abuse. And the exposure would have to …

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday, March 11, will urge a federal appeals court to uphold the right of taxpayers to challenge …

Americans U. for Separation of Church and State:  ”Americans United for Separation of Church and State today praised the U.S. Senate for refusing to provide funding indefinitely for a controversial private school voucher plan in Washington, D.C. . . . …

AP: “The bill [LB443] from state Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial would prohibit businesses such as strip clubs and novelty shops from being within a quarter mile of child-care businesses, schools, homes, playgrounds, recreational facilities or churches.”

“Two proposed initiatives have been filed with the attorney general’s office for the 2010 elections – one would repeal Prop 8, the other would abolish civil marriages altogether.”

. . . officials at Kentridge High School in Seattle have refused to grant official recognition to the Truth Bible Club because they require their members to hold certain religious beliefs.

It looks like the vote in the full U.S. Senate for pornography attorney David Ogden is going to be tomorrow, Wednesday.

Alexander Bolton writes at The Hill:  Charles Freeman, the Obama administration’s choice to head the National Intelligence Council, has withdrawn from consideration after facing strong opposition from Senate Republicans. Freeman is the latest in a string of Obama administration appointees and …

“Courts do not have a veto power to override laws enacted by the elected representatives of the people.” said ADF-allied attorney Rebecca Townsend . . .

Joann S. Lublin and Ellen Byron write at the Wall Street Journal: In stepping down from a top post at Procter & Gamble Co., Susan Arnold , a longtime trailblazer at the consumer-products giant, becomes a hot commodity for other major corporations …

Gay City News: “In a press statement issued late in the day on March 5, Governor David A. Paterson announced four appointments to vacant positions in three of the state’s four Appellate Departments. Two of the four appointees are openly …

Burlington Free Press:  Same-sex marriage rights received the endorsement Monday of four Vermont professional organizations that cited research findings that “children of lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those of heterosexual parents to flourish.” . . .  Their …

Michael Spencer writes at the Christian Science Monitor: We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally …

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys asked a federal court Monday to throw out a lawsuit that claims government-issued proclamations which call on citizens to pray are unconstitutional.

Judges and politicians should never impose a system that knowingly deprives a child of a mom and a dad,” said Babione. “In this case, there are qualified married couples willing to adopt this child, so there is no reason whatsoever to ignore the law and place this child in a non-married household.”

AP: “Peg Luksik, who ran for governor three times in the 1990s, plans to challenge Arlen Specter for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010 and on Tuesday said she wouldn’t back down if fellow conservative Pat Toomey decides …

Maureen Mullarkey, writing in The Weekly Standard: Until now, donating to a cause did not open private citizens to a battery of invective and jackboot tactics. While celebrities sport their moral vanity with white ribbons, thousands of ordinary Americans who …

Robert P. George and Eric Cohen, writing in the Wall Street Journal: First, the Obama policy is itself blatantly political. It is red meat to his Bush-hating base, yet pays no more than lip service to recent scientific breakthroughs that …

Fox News: Senate Democrats are expected to win over just enough Republicans to move forward on a controversial $410 billion spending bill by the end of the night Tuesday. But it may come as no surprise that almost all of …

Hartford Courant: “A controversial bill that would change the way the Catholic church governs itself has been pulled and a public hearing planned Wednesday on the issue postponed until its constitutionality can be determined . . . ” Related:  Marriage …

“Science should trump ideology” is a code phrase that means science should trump the Fifth Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” . . . Let’s be clear about what this presidential decree is about . . . forcing all American taxpayers to pay . . .

Hannity’s America reported on a lawsuit recently filed by ADF against a Tennessee school district that covered up all student references to God. The mp4 video file runs just under 1 minute.   Related:  Mike Johnson on the Frank Pastore …

LifeSiteNews:  There is a growing culture of suppression among secularist governments that is using the doctrine of “tolerance and diversity” to push Christians entirely out of public life, Australia’s Cardinal Pell told an audience at Oxford University this weekend. The …

LifeNews: “President Barack Obama did more on Monday than just force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research that requires the destruction of human life. He also rescinded an executive order President Bush put into place funding adult stem cells and new …

Findlaw carries two commentaries by Douglas W. Kmiec discussing the pending Prop 8 litigation before the California Supreme Court: The California Supreme Court Hearing on the Validity of Proposition 8, the Initiative Banning Gay Marriage: How the Case Implicates the …

Jason Carlson writes at AwakenGeneration.com:  Many who oppose the Intelligent Design position will argue that as soon as you open the door to supernatural creation, you necessarily open the door to any and every version of supernatural creation ever postulated by …

One News Now:  Atheists have sued downtown Detroit for including churches in a local community improvement project. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Dale Schowengerdt says downtown Detroit wanted image repairs in preparation for the 2006 Super Bowl, so the City of …

“Here, the allegations of plaintiff ’s complaint, taken as true, set forth a medical malpractice claim based on the failure of her doctor to prevent the birth of an unwanted child. Although presented for the first time in a Colorado appellate court, this is a recognized claim for relief . . .”

Sacramento Bee: “Four months after the passage of Proposition 8, a new opinion poll released today shows California voters almost evenly divided over same-sex marriage but significantly more accepting of it than just three years ago . . . “

The AZ Catholic Conference is urging action on the following bill:  HB 2564 will protect women, parents, children, and the civil rights of health care providers.  Specifically, the bill’s provisions call for the following:  1) informed consent before abortions can be …

The Center for AZ Policy reports: Thanks to pastoral leadership and many residents who stood up and made their voice heard, the Flagstaff City Council decided on Monday not to adopt a remarkably broad ordinance adding “sexual orientation” and “gender …

Charleston Gazette: A new version of legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation – which proved too controversial to vote on last year – advanced from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. Although the premise of the bill …

CNSNews:  ”Six weeks after President Obama overturned a ban on federal funds going to non-governmental organizations that promote or perform abortions, the Australian government on Tuesday took a similar step . . . “

CNSNews: “Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, told the International Conference on Climate Change that the true aim of environmentalists is to stop global development, not save the planet.”

CNSNews: “A spokesman for Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said that while re-introducing the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) during the 111thCongress isn’t on his ‘immediate agenda,’ the congressman does plan to do so ‘sooner rather than later.’”

AP: “President Barack Obama on Tuesday embraced a new approach to public education that adds up to merit pay for the better teachers and longer days and school years for students.”

Kalamazoo Gazette:  Nearly 200 people spent four hours Monday night debating the morality, legality and propriety of a so-called anti-discrimination ordinance for Kalamazoo’s gay and lesbian community . . .  Mary Balkema, Kalamazoo County treasurer and former city commissioner, gave …

The Institute for Marriage and Public Policy has posted the latest edition of its Marriage Law Digest edited by William C. Duncan.

Religion Clause Blog: “Yesterday’s Los Angeles Times reports on an unusual suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in which the widow of an Orthodox rabbi is asking a civil court to confirm an award by a Jewish religious tribunal. A hearing is …

Watertown Daily Times:  The state Department of Transportation has reached a tentative settlement with Daniel W. Burritt, allowing the Gouverneur contractor’s religious messages on a parked tractor-trailer to stay alongside Route 11 . . .  “After reaching this settlement, we’re …

. . . the 11th Circuit determined that the Florida Family Policy Council does not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of Canon 3E(1) and 3E(1)(f) of the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct which was impairing receipt of responses to its judicial candidate questionnaires. . .

U.S. News and World Report: Obama’s Stem Cell Move, Rebuke Of Bush Win Media Praise The President’s unveiling of new Federal stem cell research guidelines is receiving glowing media coverage, with most reports including lead stories on two out of …

This article provides a practical and theoretical framework to discuss safe haven laws, which have come under attack by various adoption groups and legal scholars who claim the laws are ineffective. This article demonstrates that those unjustified attacks fail to recognize that increased usage of safe haven laws in states with strong public awareness programs has effectively reduced the number of infant deaths in those states.

In this essay I discuss John Rawls’s religious commitments as the developed over the course of his life and how attending to those commitments can inform and deepen our understanding of, and ability critically to evaluate, his political philosophy.

This Article seeks first to ascertain the controlling principles used in the past to resolve inter-jurisdictional disputes over controversial domestic relations. It then applies these principles to current inter-jurisdictional conflicts involving recognition of gay family relationships. Finally, it will discuss the tensions, constancies, and changes in this controversial area of conflict of laws.

In Part II, this Comment examines the new HPV vaccine and the potential public health consequences that may result from its introduction. In Part III, the Comment then addresses the legal framework surrounding mandatory vaccination in the United States and how the public health concerns underlying this framework do not justify mandatory HPV vaccination. In Part IV, this Comment posits that parental rights dictate that HPV vaccination should not be required as a prerequisite to school entry.

This Comment’s objective is not primarily to say why the Commandments are desirable to display, nor to frame a detailed legal case as to how they can be defended. The inquiry is limited to the interplay of theology and law in the historical argument for the Commandments–are public displays of the Commandments trapped between theological indifference on the one hand, or legal failure on the other? With the modest belief that the legal practitioners should take note of the theological implications of their arguments, and that the arguments should be informed by both the principle and the practical, we shall proceed: first, to examine the state of the court precedent; second, to consider the theological problems with the “historical” defense of the Commandments; and third, to suggest some routes which would avoid the theological problem.