Daily Archives: April 13, 2009

Geoffrey A. Fowler writes at the Wall Street Journal: “‘If you learn what works in the Central Valley, you learn what works across the U.S.,’ Ms. McGehee said . . . Sitting in small groups, participants also were taught to make the issue personal, by condensing a narrative of their own experiences as a gay person into two-minute ‘story of self.’ Volunteers also taught how to organize homes and community centers into calling banks, and walked participants through the first steps of making a cold call to a voter . . .”

Christian Newswire: “On Tuesday, April 14, from 10:30 a.m. to the end of Mr. Obama’s speech, DC area Pro-life leaders and activists will protest at the entrance to Georgetown University at 37th and O Street. Their presence is to denounce Georgetown, who invited President Obama to speak, knowing the scandal and outrage surrounding his scheduled speech at Notre Dame on May 17 . . . ”

Burlington Free Press: “Vermont’s Legislature is considering a bill that, if approved, would make the state one of the first in the nation to grant legal protections to teenagers who send sexually explicit photos and videos to one another with their cell phones.”

The Review: “The biggest problem is how to deal with the legal issues created by this latest technological phenomenon. Detective Walker said a young person who takes a photograph of himself or another minor in the nude, or in a sexually suggestive position or engaging in sexual activity, is guilty of illegal use of a minor in a nudity- oriented material or performance. Sexting the photograph to someone under the age of 18 is another crime – disseminating material harmful to a juvenile.”

Mail Online: “Five agencies have declared themselves independent – and some have changed their names – to comply with laws that say they must allow homosexual couples to adopt children.”

Times Online: “A charity worker has been suspended after telling a colleague about his Christian beliefs against homosexuality, even though he says he is not homophobic and was merely responding to questions from a colleague about his beliefs.”

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal: “The juxtaposition has become more troublesome now that Wright is raising his children just around the corner. He’s down the street from a store he says is teaching men to treat women as sex objects and to pass those preconceptions on to the next generation. The effect can be obvious or subtle, Wright said.”

AP: “House Roads and Transportation Chairman Dale Martin said the plate was contained in a piece of legislation that became too cumbersome to handle.”

St. Petersburg Times: Legislation that would open the door to school prayer and discourage teaching evolution has been declared dead. Prospects don’t look good for a proposal to require ultrasounds for first-trimester abortions. Same goes for a bill to make marriage licenses more expensive for couples who don’t take a premarriage education course.”

Wisconsin State Journal: “Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposal to create a statewide domestic partner registry for same-sex couples would be unique in the nation if it becomes law and survives an expected legal challenge, experts and advocates said. That’s because no state that both bans gay marriage and prohibits other legal recognition of same-sex relationships — as Wisconsin does — allows domestic partnerships or civil unions.”

Michael Foust writes at the Baptist Press: “Chinese males under the age of 20 outnumbered females of that same age range by more than 32 million in 2005, due in large part to the government’s one-child policy and its citizens’ use of sex-selection abortion and even abandonment, according to a new study in the British Medical Journal.”

Andrew Koppleman writes at the Balkinization Blog: “Taking these eight states together, more than a fifth of the population of the United States lives in a jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex relationships as marriages or their functional equivalent.”

The Next Right: “44.3% of respondents to the General Social Survey 18-34 believe it is “never wrong” compared to 33.5% of respondents overall. Furthermore, 47.3% of respondents 18-34 said homosexual sex was “always wrong” compared to 55.6% of respondents overall.”

AP: “In Romania, decriminalizing incest among consenting adults is being considered as part of a wide range of reforms to the country’s criminal code. No date has been set yet for a parliament vote on the bill, and opposition to the proposal is fervent even among some lawmakers in the ruling coalition.”

Citizen Link: “Through TrueTolerance.org, parents can give professionally packaged information to school officials with an e-mail. The Web site is filled with information from legal experts, examples of pro-gay lesson plans that cross the line and fact-based counterpoints to the one-sided messages gay-advocacy groups frequently give public schools.”

St. Louis Today: “Last week, Kleinhans’ attorney, Robert Kister, filed suit in circuit court in Hillsboro. The suit asks the court to order the city to stop issuing tickets and to allow the store to remain open seven days a week. ”

. . . the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals . . . said there was a distinction between on-site and off-site businesses . . . Unfortunately for Erotic City, federal district courts in Missouri must follow the law of the 8th Circuit . . .

Marc Fisher writes at the Washington Post: “Catania argues that there is no better time than this year. Next year, an election year, would be more difficult. Fear of Congress is natural, but probably overblown, Catania says. ‘They’ve never actually reversed a law in the history of home rule; they’ve only prevented us from funding things’. . . ”

Click here for the full 19 minute CNN video (search on “laura”) of the April 9th interview.  Her comments regarding same sex “marriage” begin about 12:40 min. into the full video. A short You Tube clip of her comments on same sex …

ADF attorney Steve Aden appeared on the Jody Hice Show on April 10th to discuss the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2009 (H.R. 1822) that has been introduced by Cong. Trent Franks of Arizona. The purpose of the act: To prohibit discrimination against the unborn on the basis of sex or race, and for other purposes.

The archived April 10 audio file is available online here. It runs just over 26 minutes.

Related Post: Intellectual Conservative Arizona

One News Now: “In a rare move, the president of the University of Maryland chose to go against the vote of the university senate and retain prayer as part of the school’s annual commencement ceremonies.”

The Independent: “Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging. Johann Hari reports”

LifeSiteNews: “Julio Severo, one of Brazil’s most prominent pro-life and pro-family activists, has fled Brazil to escape federal prosecutors who sought him following a complaint of ‘homophobia’ filed against him for his unfavorable coverage of the nation’s Gay Parade in 2006, according to Severo.”

LifeNews: “Vatican officials have reportedly rejected the possibility of pro-abortion President Barack Obama selecting Caroline Kenney as his ambassador to the Holy See because of her position on abortion.”

Washington Post: “Education Secretary Arne Duncan has decided not to admit any new students to the D.C. voucher program, which allows low-income children to attend private schools. The abrupt decision — made a week after 200 families had been told that their children were being awarded scholarships for the coming fall — comes despite a new study showing some initial good results for students in the program and before the Senate has had a chance to hold promised hearings. For all the talk about putting children first, it’s clear that the special interests that have long opposed vouchers are getting their way.”

. . . Alliance Defense Fund attorneys submitted a motion to intervene Friday in a lawsuit that seeks to eliminate the California amendment as well as the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

One News Now: “Reading, Pennsylvania, is ruffling some feathers with an Easter cross shining from a city-owned tower. Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the Liberty University Law School, tells OneNewsNow they are hearing from the usual sources.”

The Grove City College Center for Vision and Values provides this Q&A on E.D. Hirsch, Jr.: In this latest edition, Dr. Paul Kengor, the executive director of the Center, interviews Dr. Jason R. Edwards, a research fellow with the Center …

San Francisco Chronicle: “Gigi Marie Somers was born male but has lived most of her life as a woman, and underwent sex-change surgery in 2005. She got a driver’s license with her new name and gender and sought a new birth certificate, but learned that Kansas was one of the few states that will not change a resident’s sex designation on a birth certificate.”

Somers v. Super. Ct. of San Francisco and County, No. A123445 (Cal. App. April 10, 2009)

“It’s courts that started this,” Mr. Koppelman said of the same-sex marriage movement.

LifeSiteNews: “The Republican Party of Massachusetts’ newly elected Chairman told a LGTB news service recently that the party will no longer take stances on social issues like same-sex “marriage” because she is against ‘legislating’ personal views.”

Fox News: “An Alabama congressman told local officials this week that he’s worried about the number of socialists in Congress, and he put the number already there at 17.”

LA Times: “Aides and family are on the list to attend the dinner, a follow-up to last year’s Seder. But Jewish leaders in the Washington area wonder where their invitations are.”

The American Humanist Association: “Attorneys for the 255 individual and 19 organizational plaintiffs in Newdow v. Roberts filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today.”

The Religion Clause Blog: “OFBNP executive director Joshua DuBois told those in attendance that the Office would put less emphasis on the Bush administration’s concern about equal access to grants. Instead it will seek the expertise of faith-based groups on policy goals such as fighting poverty, promoting responsible fatherhood, reducing unintended pregnancies, and enhancing inter-religious cooperation.”

AP: “China released its first human rights action plan Monday, pledging to improve the treatment of minorities and do more to prevent the torture of detainees but said that raising living standards would remain a central goal.”

Joanna Grossman writes at Findlaw: “In this column, I’ll trace the history of marriage rights for same-sex couples in Vermont and elsewhere, focusing as well on the likely motivation for the Vermont legislature’s decision to move beyond civil unions.”

Racine News: “Claiming that the case presents “several novel issues” and constitutes a matter of “significant public interest with statewide implications,” a panel of three judges on a State District Court of Appeals referred McConkey v. Van Hollen to the Wisconsin Supreme Court today.”

ADF Senior Counsel Joe Infranco: “On March 9, with a stroke of his pen, President Obama signed an executive order that provides federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The president’s terse but chilling justification was that “science should trump ideology.” The statement is a masterpiece of legerdemain, disguising its false premise and frightening implications while miscommunicating the nature and meaning of science.”

LA Times: “The jurist throws out a religious court’s decision awarding the scrolls to the woman . . . . On Monday, Superior Court Judge Zaven V. Sinanian ruled in Ohana’s favor based on what he believed may have been a conflict for one of the three religious judges, Rabbi Nachum Sauer. ”

The Religion Clause Blog: “In Youth Alive v. Hauppauge School District, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29017 (ED NY, April 6, 2009), a New York federal district court dismissed as moot most of the claims asserted by two high school students regarding difficulties in organizing and operating a Bible club at their school . . . A controversy remained however over the school’s failure to provide a paid advisor for the club, called Youth Alive. The court concluded that discovery is necessary as to this claim . . . ”

Taki’s Magazine: “As the Preamble to the Bill of Rights shows, the entire purpose of the Bill of Rights was further to delineate the limits on federal authority, because Antifederalists insisted that the unamended Constitution had not made those limits clear enough. The phrase “respecting an establishment of” was chose instead of “establishing” because the former could be read as banning congressional disestablishment of states’ established churches, as well as congressional attempts to establish a national church.”

The draft discrimination directive would make it illegal to offer goods and services only to particular sections of society.

Religion Clause Blog: “Tomorrow the Sikh Coalition will begin a campaign to convince the U.S. Army to permit Sikhs to serve in the military while wearing a turban, unshorn hair and a beard.”

Stanley Fish: “This sequestering of religion in a private space is a cornerstone of enlightenment liberalism which only works as a political system if everyone agrees to comport himself or herself as a citizen and not as a sectarian, at least for the purposes of public transactions.”

ISI Books: “Judges do not make the law, in other words, though that timeworn phrase is often used by those who ostensibly support Judge Bok’s perspective but cannot see the implications of its meaning. For Judge Bork is arguing for a deep level of legal discipline by judges. There is no “higher law” in the Constitution that can allow judges to pick and choose among their favorite moral principles to decide cases in defiance of the text and structure of the Constitution itself or in furtherance of an agenda of “living constitutionalism.”

Washington Post: “People seem to say that if you enter the world of commerce, you lose all your First Amendment rights” to free exercise of religion, said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization that has represented several businesses. “They . . . have become nothing more than vending machines, and the government can dictate the conditions under which they dispense their goods and services.”

Christian Post: “Alliance Defense Fund and Exodus International, the promoters of Day of Truth, are encouraging students to speak the ‘truth in love’ and engage in conversation about homosexuality.”

Michigan Daily: “Ward was then brought under review. A panel of professors questioned her on a number of other issues, including abortion and extra-marital sex, and she said she would still feel comfortable being able to discuss those issues with clients. The panel ruled that Ward was in violation of the code and the university dismissed her. On April 2, the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom filed suit against EMU on behalf of Ward, claiming that the university had violated Ward’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.”

Detroit Free Press: “The student, Julea Ward, said in the suit filed last week by the Alliance Defense Fund in U.S. District Court in Detroit, that she was unfairly punished after she asked that the client be assigned to another counselor.”

Cincinnati Enquirer: “More than a month after a controversial Butler County adoption policy surfaced that gives preference to married couples, the fate of that rule remains in limbo . . . Some groups expect a legal fight. In fact, a group of Christian lawyers called the Alliance Defense Fund has offered to help defend Butler County’s policy against legal challenges.”

World Magazine: “. . . Alliance Defense Fund attorney Jim Campbell. “The California decision really involves the right of the people to enact constitutional amendments in their state,” Campbell said. “While it involves the definition of marriage, the legal issue is very distinct from what we saw in Iowa, Vermont and D.C.”

World Magazine: “This could remake the courts into a “ruling oligarchy of unelected judges who view themselves as smarter than everyone else” and who indulge in their own policy preferences to force sweeping changes in accepted laws just because they think it is good for us, argues Jordan Lorence, a senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund.”

  SCOTUS Blog’s latest listing of Petitions to Watch includes this case:  Docket: 08-833 Title:  Oliver v. Quarterman Issue:  Does juror consultation of the Bible during sentencing deliberations  deprive a defendant of Sixth Amendment rights and what standard of proof should apply in …

AP on MyWay: “Missy Evans has harvested her dead son’s sperm and hopes to find a surrogate and one day raise her son’s child. It’s a decision that ethicists say raises troubling questions; one called the potential offspring a ‘replacement child.’”

NY Times:
. . . Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended the use of foreign law by American judges . . . The occasion was a symposium at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University honoring her 15 years on the court.

“I frankly don’t understand all the brouhaha lately from Congress and even from some of my colleagues about referring to foreign law,” Justice Ginsburg said in her comments on Friday.

A woman whose same-sex partner gave birth to a child does not have standing to assert parental rights after the couple broke up, a New York state appeals panel ruled Thursday in an unsigned, unanimous opinion.

ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of the pro-adoption Children First Foundation against the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission for repeatedly refusing to grant its application to run specialty plates with the “Choose Life” slogan.

NY Post: “Eleven federal, state and city levies add as much as 33 percent to the cost of New Yorkers’ cellphones, a Post analysis found . . . People trying to save money with multiline family plans are hit harder.”

StarTribune.com: “Maybe not. An intriguing possibility that could further prolong the Minnesota election dispute is an additional appeal to federal courts — something supporters have repeatedly urged Coleman to consider and he has refused to rule out.”

Engage: “Governments are applying rules banning “discrimination” on the basis of religion and “sexual orientation” to religious groups with increasing frequency. As interpreted by the courts, the extent to which the Constitution protects the freedom of religious groups to associate around shared religious commitments is not entirely settled. We believe, however, that a proper regard for religious liberty should move government to exempt religious organizations from such nondiscrimination rules. When government subordinates religious freedom to other public policy objectives, courts should—and must—find violations of the Constitution.”

Journal of Catholic Legal Studies: “Part I of this Note outlines the multiple avenues available for challenging a school chastity ring ban and explains why a Free Speech viewpoint discrimination analysis is the correct framework to apply.”

Duke Law Journal: “This Note explores a variety of fetal homicide laws that states have adopted, demonstrating that popular opinion has shifted toward recognizing this crime. It then directly confronts the objections that have prevented other states from adopting such laws: it first reviews the literature suggesting that the born-alive rule should be abandoned, as it is an obsolete evidentiary standard; it then argues that constitutionally protected reproductive liberties can be reconciled with, and in fact augmented by, punishing the killing of a fetus as a homicide.”

Northwestern University Law Review: “This Essay argues that the Supreme Court has an unmet obligation to account for the significance accorded to fetal viability in its abortion jurisprudence. Neither Roe nor Casey provided a constitutional justification for the viability rule, and Gonzales makes such a justification even harder to envision. Under the reasoning of Casey, if the Court cannot offer a principled constitutional rationale for requiring the ability to survive ex utero as a condition for state protection, then the Court should abandon the viability rule as an illegitimate and arbitrary line, inappropriate for judicial imposition.”

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law: “Pharmacists are placed in a unique position in this controversy. Pharmacists are licensed by the state yet some believe that they cannot comply with state requirements due to their individual religious beliefs.”