Daily Archives: June 17, 2009

NY Daily News: “Control of the state Senate was left in limbo Tuesday afternoon after a judge refused to rule on the legality of a GOP leadership coup.”

ABC40: “Four men who claimed to have lived at a nearby homeless shelter were arrested at the Fifth Alarm strip club on Worthington Street Monday night after police found them allegedly sitting in a stolen minivan with a large amount of crack cocaine, marijuana and BB guns.”

St. Petersburg Times: “Authorities are searching for a man they say shot another man in the parking lot of a strip club early this morning.”

The FRC Blog: “In the latest Mapping America, the General Social Surveys show that adults who lived with both biological parents as adolescents are less likely ever to be picked up or charged by police.”

“This movement has an obsession with kids, and there are no boundaries. It’s worse than anybody thought.”

Catholic Culture: “A PBS board has ruled that its New Orleans affiliate– which had been threatened with the loss of PBS programming– may continue its daily Mass broadcasts from the archdiocesan cathedral.”

Chuck Colson writes at the Christian Post: “But I think that Riley and the people at Pew have missed the real reason that Americans are both religious and tolerant. It’s because we remembered those lessons-we didn’t overlook them-the lessons, that is, that Christianity teaches about the dignity and sanctity of the person.”

Christian Newswire: “This is absolute nonsense! We know from almost every study on the topic that this is the exact opposite of the truth,” said Fr. Euteneuer. “Condom promotion has not stopped HIV in the developing world. And propagandizing young children about a value-neutral approach to sex, and telling them that they’ll be safe if they use condoms is exactly how you get them to start practicing sex before marriage.”

AP: We all have to acknowledge this is only one step,” Obama said in the Oval Office, where he signed a memorandum that made incremental changes to benefits offered to the same-sex partners of gay federal employees.

Marc Ambinder writing at The Atlantic: “What do gays want? They want the Recognizer in Chief, the Persuader in Chief, the Leader — to recognize them. They want visibility; they want acknowledgment that Obama doesn’t take their money and presidential support for granted; they want assurances — words and deeds — that Obama will fulfill his campaign promises. They want Obama to expend his political capital to get supermajorities in the Senate for legislation getting rid of the ban on gays in the military and ending discrimination against gays in the workplace.”

ACLU Wisconsin: “The Wisconsin Assembly just gave the green light to their version of the state budget this weekend. Contraceptive equity was one of the debated items: the policy would require all insurance companies that provide prescriptions to include contraceptive drugs and devices in their coverage.”

GLAAD: “The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and GLAAD’s National Board of Directors today announced that Jarrett T. Barrios, a former State Senator from Massachusetts who now heads a leading health care foundation, will serve as GLAAD’s new President. GLAAD works to achieve full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans through media advocacy and anti-LGBT defamation work.”

Washington Times: “My fear is they [Republicans] could give the bill up in order to get Democrats to join the majority,” said New York state Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long. “Some people are trying to use it as a bargaining chip.”

Patrick S. O’Donnell writing at Ratio Juris: Minimally, constitutionalism means government can and should be legally limited in its powers, and that authority is derived from and depends upon those limitations. Such constitutionalism, in principle when not in practice, is part and parcel of Islamic history. Indeed, in this minimal sense, all nation-states are “constitutional” states. In the Muslim world today, however, the baseline for discussion is liberal and, therefore, democratic constitutionalism, including the exemplary relevance of the archetype of Islamic constitutionalism: namely, the Charter of Medina, Muhammad’s compact with the Muslim and Jewish communities that constituted the first Islamic polity.

Keith L. Alexander reports in The Washington Post: “The plaintiffs are being represented by lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund, a religious advocacy law firm. A scheduling conference has been set for Sept. 18. The plaintiffs asked for an expedited hearing before then.”

Mike DeBonis writes at the Washington City Paper‘s City Desk blog: “The lawyers for the referendum proponents—Steven H. Aden, Austin R. Nimocks, and Brian W. Raum—are all affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian conservative legal advocacy group founded in 1994 by a group of politically active evangelicals (including Focus of the Family’s James Dobson). Aden is based in D.C., while Raum (who testified at a BOEE hearing) and Nimocks are from Scottsdale, Ariz.”

LifeSiteNews: “A sweeping change that would combine day care with kindergarten in Ontario schools is being proposed by Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. The plan would allow parents of 4- and 5-year-olds to leave their children at school from 7:30 in the morning to 6 in the evening.”

Concerned Women for America: “It attempts to elevate relationships outside of marriage as if they are the same as marriage. Marriage provides unique benefits to individuals, families and society that cannot be replicated by any other living arrangements. Marriage helps nurture children and reduces social and financial costs to society by promoting healthy behavior. Federal funds should not be a political tool to elevate partner arrangements to be treated similar to marriage.”

Catholic Leaugue: “Roeder was never involved in any pro-life organization, and von Brunn is an old man who was as much anti-Christian as he was anti-Semitic. In other words, it is nothing if not demagogic for Holder to exploit these two recent tragedies—committed by madmen, not political activists—as a rationale to promote this highly politicized piece of legislation.”

Mark Z. Barabak writes at the LA Times: “Frustrated by the expanded power of Washington, a growing number of state lawmakers are defying the federal government and passing legislation aimed at rolling back the reach of Congress and President Obama. While many measures are symbolic ones declaring the sovereignty of states, some Westerners are taking more dramatic steps. One Utah lawmaker wants to limit federal law enforcement in his state. In Montana, legislators enacted a bill that flagrantly ignores federal firearm restrictions, hoping to force a constitutional showdown.”

The Christian Institute reports: “The Conservative Party has included a ‘gay pride’ social event for the first time in this year’s conference schedule.”

The full text of the report is available here. For more visit the U.S. Department of State website.

John S. Adams reports in the Great Falls Tribune: “Planned Parenthood of Montana filed a complaint Monday with the Montana Human Rights Bureau over a provision in the state Children’s Health Insurance Program that prohibits coverage of prescription birth control.”

Catholic News Agency: “At least ten Catholic colleges and universities are promoting student internships with organizations whose missions or actions are directly opposed to Catholic morals, the Cardinal Newman Society charges. Some internships are with organizations that promote abortion or homosexual issues and include possible work in abortion ‘clinic defense.’ According the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), a Catholic higher education organization, a web page at Boston College lists as ‘Non-Profit Internship Sources’ two pro-abortion groups, the Feminist Majority Foundation and the National Organization for Women.”

Bonnie Erbe writes at US News and World Report: “The list of hypocrites who campaign against gay marriage is much shorter, but growing rapidly enough to ponder the question, who is doing the institution of marriage more harm: gays and lesbians who want in, or married heterosexual politicians who ignore their marital vows. Clearly, it is the latter.”

NY Daily News: “It was a compromise that was supposed to allow for religious headwear. The MTA would let uniformed workers wear turbans or Muslim head scarves, so long as they were blue and featured the MTA logo. But a group of activists and elected officials maintain that’s discriminatory.”

“The Obama administration has changed course and will now allow same-sex couples to use their spouse’s surname when they apply for passports with the US State Department, a gay activist group said today in Boston.”

Xinhua reports: “Nearly half of Chinese aged below 25 visit pornographic websites, exposing them to online crimes, an expert on youth study said in Beijing Wednesday.”

Fox News: “PBS board members have decided to enforce a rule barring religious broadcasts in a move that spells the beginning of the end for most spiritual shows like Catholic Masses and Mormon devotionals on public television.”

Associated Press: “Opponents of a plan to legalize video slot machines at Kentucky’s horse racing tracks packed the Capitol on Tuesday, urging lawmakers to reject the plan in anticipation of a possible vote later this week.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics on behalf of Bishop Harry R. Jackson and other D.C. voters, challenging its vote Monday to deny the people a say on the city council’s decision to recognize same-sex “marriages” from other jurisdictions. In the suit, ADF attorneys point out that the board disregarded a previous court ruling when rejecting a referendum that would allow voters to decide the matter.

Catholic League: “It never takes much to push secular buttons, but caving in to the voices of intolerance is shameful. That the religious gag rule is taking place in the age of Obama is not something that has escaped our notice. The stench is unmistakable.”

AP: “Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada has stepped down from his leadership post one day after admitting he carried on a extra-marital affair with a woman who was on his campaign staff.”

Harvard Law Review: “Cognitive illiberalism bothers the authors not only because it might produce erroneous judicial conclusions of the type they think occurred in Scott but because, as they put it, it ‘needlessly magnifies cultural conflict over and discontent with the law.’ This paper questions the premise of the article, which is that opinions like Scott cause more than a ripple among the populace. Further, even if the authors’ concern about the case’s effect on social cohesion is correct, this paper questions whether we should care, given the implications of the authors’ analysis for judicial review and Fourth Amendment doctrine.”

Associated Press: “The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday voted to give judges authority over how witnesses dress in court after a Muslim woman refused to remove her veil while testifying in a small claims case.”

William E. May writing at the Culture of Life Foundation: “Although the name is new, the reality is that for centuries there has been an ethical/moral discipline known as “medical ethics,” with a rich tradition in the Catholic Church and also in medieval Jewish and Islamic cultures. What is even more important is the fact that the normative principles and norms of the natural law, especially the natural law as “fulfilled” and perfected by the “new law” of the Gospel, are those that enable persons of upright conscience to make good moral judgments and choices regarding the issues debated among contemporary bioethicists.”

“But administration officials said the timing of the announcement was intended to help contain the growing furor among gay rights groups. Several gay donors withdrew their sponsorship of a Democratic National Committee fund-raising event next week . . . ”

OneNewsNow: “‘The people of [the District of Columbia] certainly have the right to retain the traditional definition of marriage,’ says the [Brian Raum], ‘but the board has decided to squelch that right — and we will be filing an appeal with the DC Superior Court on behalf of the proponents of the referendum.’”

Barbara Forrest in a letter to the editor of the Louisiana Advocate: “Readers should know that Michelle Ghetti, the Southern University law professor who is promoting HB340, also helped the LFF promote the creationist Louisiana Science Education Act in 2008. She also helped convince BESE to gut the policy implementing the LSEA on Jan. 13. Her Web page at the Southern University Law Center states her affiliation with the Alliance Defense Fund, whose purpose is to destroy the separation of church and state.”

WorldNetDaily: “‘Christian groups shouldn’t be prohibited from expressing their beliefs at public locations,’ said attorney Rick Nelson, who is allied with the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Jonathan Berr reports at Media World: “Nonetheless, PepsiCo CEO Indra K. Nooyi has not taken AFA’s advice to ‘remain neutral’ in the culture wars. The number two soft drink company sponsors gay pride parades and bought advertisements in Out, a magazine aimed at gays, which features sexually provocative photographs.”

Anna Malpas reports in the Moscow Times: “Two lesbians who were refused the right to marry at a Moscow registry office in May pressed ahead with their fight this week, filing an official complaint with the Tverskoi District Court.”

“The President will sign the memorandum and deliver remarks in the Oval Office today at 5:45PM EDT.”

Tresa Baldas reports in the National Law Journal: “Lawyers who specialize in divorce and and custody disputes say they have witnessed a flood of activity in family courts in recent months.”

AAP reports: “The poll, conducted for the lobby group Australian Marriage Equality, found strong support for same-sex marriage, including among Coalition voters. Of the 1100 respondents, 60 per cent were in favour of same-sex marriage.”

AP: “A federal appeals court has refused to reconsider the obscenity convictions of a Richmond man who discussed his fantasies about child sexual conduct in e-mails.”

U.S. v. Whorley, No. 06-4288 (4th Cir. Jun 15, 2009)

Richard Khavkine reports in the Star-Ledger: “In what is thought to be a first among New Jersey municipalities, the Maplewood Township Committee is expected to adopt a resolution Tuesday evening calling on state legislators to sanction same-sex marriage.”

Reuters: “Lithuania’s parliament gave final approval on Tuesday to a bill that a local human rights organisation said could ban the discussion of homosexuality in schools.”

Joseph Pagliery reports in the Miami Herald: “The city was dragged into federal court in April by a company that hopes to replace Barchetta Ristorante Italiano with a strip club, a move that caused city commissioners great concern.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet (via the North Carolina Family Policy Council): “More than half (54%) of all cases of HIV infection or AIDS among young people aged 13–24 during 2003–2006 were from male-to-male sexual contact. Thirty-four percent were from heterosexual contact.”

Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer report in the Herald-Leader: “Democratic House leaders are considering a plan to finance school construction projects with revenue generated by slot machines at racetracks, a move opponents described as a thinly veiled attempt to win support from otherwise reluctant lawmakers.”

ACLU press release: “U.S. terrorism finance laws and policies unfairly prevent Muslims in Ohio and around the nation from practicing their religion through charitable giving and undermine America’s diplomatic efforts in Muslim countries, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report out late last night.”

The report: “Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity”

Associated Press: “Civil rights groups are urging a hospital in central California to change its policies after employees briefly barred a lesbian from visiting her partner, who went into seizure at a gay marriage march.”

Associated Press: “Meanwhile, two federal lawsuits filed on behalf of gay couples seek to put the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court, including one by famed attorneys David Boies and Theodore Olson, who opposed each other in the famed election challenge in Bush v. Gore in 2000. Protect Marriage and the Alliance Defense Fund, two groups that backed Proposition 8, have asked a federal judge in San Francisco for permission to intervene in the latter case.”

CitizenLink: “Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, and the Alliance Defense Fund plan to file an appeal of the decision in Superior Court.”

Duquesne Law Review: “One of the most public and aggressive fights in the United States occurred not in a boxing ring or on Capitol Hill, but in an Illinois courtroom. At stake was custody of Baby Richard. On one side of the dispute was a sympathetic, suburban, adoptive couple. On the other, a deceived father fighting for the return of a son who had been secretly adopted. The ensuing custody battle, in which the biological father ultimately prevailed, caused Baby Richard to lose his adopted home of four years. To the enraptured public, the emotional transfer of Baby Richard from his adoptive parents to his father symbolized the intense and universal nature of fathers’ rights.”

Journal of Law and Policy: “This Article argues that the movement’s failure to emphasize that abortion serves women’s interest in, and respect for, motherhood divides it from its constituents and creates the vulnerability that the anti-abortion movement now exploits, contributing to the reduction of constitutional protections for abortion. Embracing abortion’s supportive relationship to motherhood is essential to the survival of the abortion right, as well as to the vitality of our continuing battle to redefine motherhood in conditions of equality.”

Journal of Law and Policy: “Yet, for all the differences in tone and focus, it appears that Carhart ultimately does not so much reject Lawrence as highlight an implicit weakness in its approach to protecting privacy rights. Carhart, after all, ultimately upholds the ban on “partial-birth abortions” not by denying that abortion is a constitutional right, but by finding the state’s imposition on that right to be reasonable. Lawrence had left the door open to just such limitations when it carefully carved out the question of marriage and other state laws conferring “formal recognition” on same-sex families.”

Journal of Law and Policy: “What was not so good about Roe was the Court’s almost exclusive focus on physician discretion. Don’t get me wrong: I love physician discretion. But the Roe Court focused on physician discretion almost to the exclusion of the woman’s decision-making power, and Roe therefore doesn’t reflect the extent to which the ability to make the decision is central to women’s lives.”

Journal of Law and Policy: “In the abortion context, the Supreme Court has increasingly shirked its duty to ensure both justice and truth. First, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court undermined the fundamental right to abortion by inviting laws premised on moral opposition to abortion. Yet its decision was dishonest, denying the conflict it created and purporting to leave the right to abortion intact; the decision has thus caused mischief and confusion in abortion regulation. Second, in Gonzales v. Carhart, the Court shunned its responsibility for truth, signaling its readiness to grant extraordinary deference to disingenuous legislative attempts to present morally based abortion restrictions as grounded in science.”

SSRN: “It is said that clear and unambiguous legal rules are essential for capitalism, liberalism, and democracy, since they allow for the legal certainty that these systems require. This paper argues that these claims are mistaken, and that the certainty we actually care about is often better-achieved by vague and indeterminate legal standards. The mistake derives from a confusion between the certainty and predictability of legal outcomes, and the certainty and predictability that actually matters – that of the world these outcomes generate.”

San Diego International Law Journal: “This article aims to critically examine the status of global administrative law within the already widely acknowledged notion of global constitutionalism.”