Daily Archives: May 8, 2009

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the National Day of Prayer. The mp3 runs just under 35 minutes.

Katherine T. Phan writing in the Christian Post: “[T]he 1,400-member National Religious Broadcasters says Christian broadcasters and even pastors covering culturally unpopular views, such as preaching homosexuality as sin, could face prosecution just for expressing their religious views because their teachings could be blamed for inciting violence.

Legal groups specializing in constitutional rights, including the American Center for Law and Justice and Alliance Defense Fund, have also been working with the NRB to propose revised language for the bill.”

The Joplin Globe: “Jasper County is looking at a license application for a business adjacent to an adult-video store, but it has not issued approval for the operation, officials said Thursday.”

Martin Walker writing in The Wilson Quarterly:

Something dramatic has happened to the world’s birthrates. Defying predictions of demographic decline, northern Europeans have started having more babies. Britain and France are now projecting steady population growth through the middle of the century. In North America, the trends are similar. In 2050, according to United Nations projections, it is possible that nearly as many babies will be born in the United States as in China. Indeed, the population of the world’s current demographic colossus will be shrinking.

Associated Press: “Former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes and 21 others have been arrested after they marched on the University of Notre Dame campus to protest President Barack Obama’s upcoming commencement speech.”

Ray Henry reports in the Associated Press: “[T]he movement has stalled in Rhode Island, perhaps even lost ground, after a stalemate at the Statehouse, a loss in the state’s top court and continued opposition from religious leaders . . . Religion remains among the biggest hurdles. A recent survey by Trinity College in Connecticut showed 46 percent of Rhode Islanders identify themselves as Roman Catholic, a larger percentage than any other state. Given its size, the church carries political clout. On the last Inauguration Day, every statewide elected official began the morning with a special Mass at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, celebrated by Bishop Thomas Tobin.”

Laura Meckler reports in the Wall Street Journal: “The White House has begun bringing together a diverse group of abortion-rights supporters and opponents to help craft policies both sides can embrace: preventing unwanted pregnancies and reducing demand for abortion.”

Jillian Daley reports in the Statesman Journal: “The Keizer Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast went on as usual Thursday morning despite a letter of protest.”

Warning: graphic discussion

Daily Mail: “A paedophile ring has been smashed after eight men were found guilty of a horrifying catalogue of more than 50 child pornography and abuse charges”

Santa Rosa Press-Gazette: “On information and belief, no one either interceded and stopped Ms. Winkler or her husband or, if this was not possible, explained immediately after the prayer to the audience (and to Ms. Winkler) that the prayer at the school event was inappropriate, violated the Court’s order, and will not be accepted within the School District.”

NC Family Policy Council: “The North Carolina Senate gave final approval Wednesday afternoon to a bill that would grant special legal protections based on ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ for the first time in North Carolina history. SB 526—School Violence Prevention Act, passed by a vote of 26–22 after no senators stood to debate the bill during Wednesday’s third reading.”

AZ Republic: “HB 2357 would bar all forms of religious discrimination in schools and would specify that students are allowed to wear religious jewelry and apparel on campus. Crandall said spelling out these rights clearly would help prevent misunderstandings that can wind up in court.”

ChristianToday: “Two incidents of assault and one incident of vandalism against Christians and their properties were reported by three Indian states this week.”

Christian Post: “New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch has until next Tuesday to decide the fate of a gay marriage bill that was sent to his desk after final legislature approval was given on Wednesday.”

UnionLeader.com: “In a statement released yesterday, Bishop John B. McCormack urged Lynch to veto legislation that would extend the state’s marriage laws to include same-sex couples . . . We further believe that trying to redefine marriage on the run, with the slimmest of legislative margins and without a robust investigation into all possible conflicts between same sex marriage legislation and religious liberties is contrary to the spirit of New Hampshire.”

AP: Archbishop Raymond Burke, the first American to lead the Vatican supreme court, said Catholic universities should not give a platform, let alone honor, “those who teach and act publicly against the moral law.”

LifeSiteNews: “Johann Hari, a reporter for the Independent newspaper points out in a recent article for the ultra-leftist Huffington Post that, despite their official condemnation of sodomy, the leadership of European fascist movements is dominated by homosexuals.”

LifeSiteNews: “In an interview published in a Politics Daily article today, Bishop Wuerl said he disagreed with refraining from giving communion to manifestly pro-abortion politicians, which was equated with ‘Communion wielded as a weapon.’ ‘That’s the new way now to make your point,’ said Wuerl.”

The measure was intended to “energetically condemn the recent declarations of the Pope, who has prohibited the use of condoms and has warned that condoms can even bring about a greater risk of illness.”

LifeNews: “The budget Obama submitted to Congress urges the House and Senate to repeal a law sometimes called the Dornan amendment that has prevented tax-funded abortion in the District of Columbia for many years.”

LifeNews: “Before he took over the White House, President Barack Obama made it clear he would cut abstinence funding. He has followed through as his new budget eliminates all federal funding for abstinence-only education and replaces it with sexual education.”

WorldNetDaily: “‘Americans should not imagine that this type of government speech control only occurs overseas,’ Kiska noted. ‘ADF fights these types of battles in the U.S. all the time. But if the Constitutional Court in the Slovak Republic rules this police intervention legal, it will be yet another ruling that activist judges could point to in the future as a sort of precedent that U.S. courts should follow.’”

OneNewsNow: “‘What we don’t want to say is that it’s safer with respect to child pornography and child sex abuse online because there are more people everyday looking for child pornography, looking to abuse kids,’ [Pat Trueman] notes. ‘So the market for that kind of material actually grows even though the number of websites declined.’”

One News Now: “A Pentagon adviser is blasting what he calls an ‘egregious’ and ‘politically correct’ decision by the U.S. military to destroy Bibles sent to troops in Afghanistan.”

. . . ” this lawsuit begs the court to nullify the voices of more than 7 million California voters, as well as put an end to the federal law on marriage. We are pleased to be able to represent ProtectMarriage.com”

Jan Crawford Greensburg writes at ABC: “The White House has formalized its short list of Supreme Court contenders and asked six prospects to provide personal background information, with an intensive vetting process well underway, according to sources close to the process. The leading contenders on the short list: federal appeals court Judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood, and Solicitor General Elena Kagan, sources close to the process say.”

Religion Clause Blog: “AP reported yesterday that the Oklahoma House of Representatives, by a vote of 83-2, has passed HB 1330, the Ten Commandments Monument Display Act [full text, Word doc].” The law provides: “In the event that the legality or constitutionality of the Ten Commandments monument is challenged in a court of law, the Oklahoma Attorney General or Liberty Legal Institute is hereby authorized to prepare and present a legal defense of the monument.”

Elias J. Groll reports in the Harvard Crimson: “Harvard Law School will lay off staff members in response to budgetary constraints imposed by University administrators, acting Dean Howell E. Jackson said Monday.”

CitizenLink: “‘Thankfully, the Alliance Defense Fund has come in at no cost to us,’ Dr. Dobson said today. ‘It’s an effort to silence people like you and me. … I don’t think we’re going to cooperate with that.’”

CitizenLink: “Pat Trueman, special counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, said Craigslist should face prosecution. ‘Craigslist is certainly making it easier for sexual traffickers who want to traffic children and adults in America,’ he said.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: “Because of Thomas’ decision, Good News Clubs can be excluded from public school campuses after hours only if all outside groups are barred. To top it off, Alliance Defense Fund, the leading Religious Right legal organization, threatens litigation for every school district that doesn’t comply with the Milford decision.”

Daniel Patrick Maloney writes at Public Discourse: From the Clinton Administration to Nancy Pelosi, American family-planning policy continues to preserve the eugenicist principle that America would be better off if poor children were never conceived. In fact, Clinton tied Medicaid funding to state promises that it would save the government money in the long run by “averting births” of children who were likely to be a drain on the welfare system. But there is an alternative. The third in a three-part series.

365Gay.com: “Vote for Equality is the organizing arm of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, and with the help of dozens of volunteers, they are organizing a ’1,000-hour conversation’ – one-on-one conversations with California residents to find out what people really think about gay marriage through door-to-door canvassing and phone banking. By studying the conversations we have, we can gain insight about what really moves people and learn how to make future campaigns more effective.”

Bloomberg: “President Barack Obama’s first U.S. Supreme Court appointment probably will be drawn from a group of women who have achieved prominence in the law or politics, ensuring more diversity and possibly more real-world experience for the high court.” The report provides a list and some details on the purported short list candidates.”

Concord Monitor: “The deadline for opponents to collect at least 55,087 signatures will probably fall in mid-September, about the time the same-sex marriage law is due to take effect. However, the law would be stayed as soon as the signatures are submitted for review by election officials. And the timing of when petitions are turned in will determine whether the referendum can be scheduled for this November or June 2010.”

National Right to Life News and Views: “The pro-abortion movement sees federal ‘health care reform’ legislation as a golden opportunity to force-feed abortion into every nook and cranny of the health-care delivery system,’ explained NRLC Federal Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. ‘Their goal, as they sometimes put it, is to ‘mainstream’ abortion. They hope to use the structure of a federal health-care law to make abortion on demand accessible in every region of every state, paid for by taxes and by government-mandated private insurance premiums.’”

National Law Journal: “Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said Thursday that getting Dawn Johnsen confirmed to head his department’s Office of Legal Counsel is ‘probably my top priority.’”

Fulton County Daily Report: “The National High School Mock Trial Championship’s board reluctantly agreed to alter a computer-generated mock trial schedule to accommodate the religious observance of the Saturday Sabbath by the Maimonides School team of Brookline, Mass., whose members are Orthodox Jews, after Downs on Wednesday night notified the board that she would withdraw permission to use the Fulton County Courthouse if the board did not ensure that the team could participate fully in the event and honor their Sabbath obligations, which forbid them from engaging in any scheduled mock trial matches on Saturday.”

Houston Law Review: “Part II of this Comment shows what makes the Internet a unique medium of expression deserving special protection from outside forces, both public and private. Part III explains why regulation, a notion that seems counterintuitive to the ideals of free expression embodied in the traditional concept of the Internet, nevertheless proves necessary in certain, albeit limited, circumstances. Part IV discusses the most important methods of regulation that have been implemented, and how they should be manipulated in order to best promote the values of freedom of expression protected by the First Amendment . . .”

: “This article considers the Indonesian state’s attempts to regulate Islamic law on polygamy and mixed marriages, and to reform Indonesia’s Islamic courts, and the resistance that some Muslim groups have put up in response. It shows that the contest between the state and Muslim groups over the extent to which the state should enforce Islamic law is ongoing and is unlikely to end in the foreseeable future, but that the state clearly has the ‘upper hand’. This is largely because it controls the administration of law in Indonesia and because the majority of Indonesians appear to reject the expansion of the role of Islamic law.”

Rivista Antonianum: “This article, written for a European audience, reviews two explanations for the American tradition of no financing. One is “pluralist,” asserting that religious primary and secondary schools can better maintain their independence and identity without state aid because aid brings state regulation; and the second “cohesionist,” asserting that while nonsectarian religion is socially valuable, schools of particular denominations undercut social unity by separating children in their formative years and therefore should not be encouraged with government support.”

Northwestern University Law Review: “This short essay reviews the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum. The case addressed whether Summum, a religious group, had a right under the Free Speech Clause to put up a permanent monument of its Seven Aphorisms – its version of the Ten Commandments – in a local city park, given that the park already contained a number of other objects donated by various groups, including a more orthodox Ten Commandments display donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected Summum’s claim. This essay explains the background of the case, addresses the legal claims asserted by the parties, and discusses the Court’s opinion and its ramifications. It pays particular attention to the religious dimensions of the case, ones largely not explored by the Court. ”

Jean D’Aspremont, University of Amsterdam: “The paper aims at appraising whether domestic courts, because of different legal and institutional constraints, construe the systemic character of the international legal order differently from international courts and international legal scholars. After recalling the extent to which international law is applied and interpreted by domestic judges (I), this paper examines whether the principle of systemic integration of international law applies to domestic judges (II). It then turns to the consequences of the tendency of domestic judges to construe international law as a systemic and consistent order, and in particular, the elevation of domestic judges into architects of a consistent international legal order (III).”

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal: “This article reports on the thick layers of law applicable to claims of religious exception to public and private employment workplaces in the United States. It reviews the Supreme Court’s First and Fourteenth Amendment salient holdings, distinguishing public sector (government) workplaces, and the extent to which legislative bodies may and may not oblige private employers to “accommodate” religiously-asserted requirements.”

Minnesota Law Review: “The Bureau of Prisons policies governing abortion in prison effectively require potentially coercive religious counseling, empower prison administrators to “pass the buck” and control abortion access, and disregard the time constraints associated with pregnancy. Although these federal prison policies are facially constitutional and therefore survive substantive challenges, they are unconstitutional as applied because they deny pregnant offenders the constitutionally protected procedures that should accompany the right to abortion.”

Maryland Journal of International Law: “Modern critiques of international human rights law force us to confront at least two conceptual puzzles in the area of the claims of culture and religion. The first concerns the two concepts, often run together, of the secular (or secularism) and freedom, and the question of how rights – e.g. the right to freedom of conscience and religion – mediate between these purportedly universal or objective positions and the imagined subjective claims of particular religious or cultural norms. The second concerns the question of what we mean by ‘human equality’ and how this idea relates to deeply-situated issues of collective identity and culture.”

Il Politico: “Analysing the EU’s System of Government on the basis of the treaties establishing the Community and the Union leads to identifying five basic government functions, which are distributed in a complex system of checks and balances between the EU institutions and between the latter and member states’ institutions. Those five functions may be characterised as legislative function, which evolved over time from rule making to law making, the executive function which consists in implementing common policies, the supervisory function, consisting of judicial review and of oversight of member state’s compliance with their treaty obligations, the function of direction, consisting of policy guidance and programming, and an organic function consisting in institutional development. The new wording of the relevant treaty clauses by the Lisbon treaty clarifies the nature and distribution of these five functions and thus enable us to understand how separation of powers is organised in the EU.”

Alabama Law Review: “This Article argues that by framing judicial opinions as part of a shared, national palimpsest, commentators can underscore the interconnectedness among opinions and highlight the complexity of the relationship between opinions and precedent. Precedents – like the underlayers of a palimpsest – never go away, and they inform and shape the application of opinions in ways far more significant than simply serving as points of reference.”

SAIS Review: “This Essay advances an argument for rethinking the current terms of engagement of U.S. foreign policy with international law and institutions so as to avoid the current two extremes of power politics and imperial moralizing.”

Utah Law Review: “By using identity as a proxy for ideology, identity politics makes incorrect presumptions. It presumes, for example, that all African Americans favor affirmative action, all women are pro-choice, and all gays favor same-sex marriage. Such presumptions chill individual autonomy and distort public forum debate. Despite these harms, identity politics is supported and even encouraged by the Supreme Court’s equal protection doctrine.”