Daily Archives: July 20, 2009

Caller.com: “Two men were stabbed multiple times outside a strip club in the 5400 block of Staples Street Sunday morning.”

USA Today: “The Greenbrier’s new owner said Thursday he plans to open a small casino at the four-star southern West Virginia resort by fall, and he wants the dice rolling and cards being dealt at a full-scale gambling operation by April 1.”

LifeSiteNews reports: “The federal Conservative government introduced legislation in June to give the state greatly expanded power of surveillance of electronic communications and access to the personal information of Internet users. The Department of Justice’s communiqué on the proposed legislation says the intent of the bill is to thwart child pornography and identify criminal activity on the Internet.”

TelevisionBroadcast.com: “The House Rules Committee has rejected a bill that would have blocked the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine or enacting proposed localism regulations for the next fiscal year.”

The Hill: “None of the changes significantly affect the chamber’s action last week in passing by voice vote an amendment by Leahy that expands the federal definition of hate crimes to include crimes targeting victims because of their sexual orientation, gender or disabilities.”

LifeNews reports: “Hundreds of thousands of Americans literally owe their lives to the Hyde amendment, budget language in Congress that has significantly reduced abortions by stopping federal taxpayer funding for them. However, the amendment doesn’t have the power to stop abortion funding in health care.”

LifeSiteNews reports: “One of the Republic of Ireland’s leading pro-life lobby groups has warned Irish voters that a vote for the Lisbon Treaty will be a vote against the country’s constitutional protections for the unborn.”

WCOW.com: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking the Wisconsin State Assembly to stop opening sessions with prayer.”

Freedom from Religion Foundation press release

ADF Media has issued this correction to erroneous news reports in connection with the Ocean Grove litigation in New Jersey.

Protect Marriage Washington provided this report last week: “With just eight days to go before the R-71 mailing deadline of July 22, we continue to mail out petitions by the hundreds daily! If just a fraction of the nearly 75,000 petitions we have distributed are return to us signed, we will have the signatures.”

http://protectmarriagewa.com/

Cleveland.com: “This requires Ohio’s 611 public school districts to allow students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, without deleting or altering any of its words . . . Paddling and other forms of corporal punishment in public schools is out. This was a Strickland idea that survived largely unscathed through the budget process.”

LifeNews: “A top member of the Senate who is pushing the bill for government restructuring of health care through the chamber is defending the inclusion of abortion in it. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut says covering abortions respects the religious views of Americans.”

Asia News: “The climate of distrust and general insecurity has led to the re-emergence of the project related to the plain of Nineveh, the establishment of a Christian enclave in the north. It would become a buffer zone between Kurds and Arabs and is opposed, with some distinction, by the majority of Christian leaders. Based on humanitarian grounds and security, it actually hides beneath the surface economic interests and a series of attractive business deals for the construction of housing.”

Stuart Taylor, Jr., writing at The Ninth Justice (National Journal): “Indeed, I wonder whether the Obama team itself may even have suggested to the nominee that rejecting the Obama philosophy — as well as disavowing the apparent meaning of her years of ‘wise Latina woman’ speeches — would be the best way out of a tight spot, for reasons explained below.”

Associated Press: “The chairman of the Republican Party on Monday called President Barack Obama’s plan to overhaul health care ‘socialism,’ accusing the president of conducting a risky experiment that will hurt the economy and force millions to drop their current coverage.”

Voice of the Martyrs: “A Bible school run by Vice-President of the Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA) Pastor Shi Enhao was raided on July 16 at 11:30 a.m. (Beijing time) in Suqian city, Jiangsu province.”

Mark Hamblett reports at Law.com: “The decision to bar Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan from the United States because he contributed to a charity that supports Hamas is heading back to a lower court following a decision Friday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

ADFMedia.org: “The Daily Kos and a few other bloggers have misrepresented the position of ADF on the current Hate Crimes Bill based on some selective quoting. . . . ADF has never claimed and does not claim that some people deserve ‘overly-equal’ rights and some deserve ‘no rights at all.’ Indeed, ADF opposes ‘hate’ crimes legislation precisely because we believe that all Americans should have the same rights.”

Daily Kos link

Family Policy Council of West Virginia Blog:”In a unanimous vote on Thursday evening, Kanawha County school board members voted unanimously to remove “sexual orientation” from the proposed cultural diversity policy. This comes after much debate over the controversial wording which would have created a special class of students in Kanawha County public schools.”

William McGuinness reports in The Advocate: “Brian Raum, senior counsel for the fund, told the Star-Ledger that because the pavilion is private property, the church could ban same-sex unions on the property because they go against the church’s religious beliefs.”

Washington Post: “Nor have the camps become much of an issue for the American public, even though annotated images of them can be quickly called up on Google Earth and even though they have existed for half a century, 12 times as long as the Nazi concentration camps and twice as long as the Soviet Gulag. Although precise numbers are impossible to obtain, Western governments and human groups estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have died in the North Korean camps.”

National Law Journal: “It turns out that confirmation isn’t the only thing judges want from Congress. Federal judges are hoping a new set of lobbyists with strong Democratic ties will be able to push their agenda on Capitol Hill, including laying the groundwork for what judges view as a long-overdue salary increase.”

Text of President Obama’s speech to the NAACP, via the White House website: “But make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America. (Applause.) By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender. (Laughter.) By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. (Applause.) By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God. (Applause.) By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights. (Applause.)”

Tony Mauro writes at the National Law Journal: “Solicitor General Elena Kagan plans to make her first argument before the Supreme Court on Sept. 9 in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the so-called “Hillary – The Movie” case.”

LifeSiteNews: “‘The people of California want marriage to remain as the union between one man and one woman; they made their voice clear last November at the polls,’ said Alliance Defense und Senior Counsel Brian Raum. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys represented ProtectMarriage.com, the official proponent and campaign committee of Proposition 8, which was allowed to intervene as a defendant in the lawsuit in May. ‘We are pleased that the court dismissed the challenge to Proposition 8, which asked the court to nullify the voices of more than 7 million California voters.’”

BBC: “The Supreme Court has asked the government and human rights groups which campaigned against the law to respond to the petition. Two judges said they would resume deliberations on 14 September.”

Steve Ayers reports in the Verde News: “The controversy over a cross that hung in the town gymnasium for more than four years arrived on the Camp Verde political scene with a bang, just two weeks ago. On Wednesday, it left with barely a whimper.”

The YouTube video is here.

Religion Clause Blog: “In anticipation of this year’s holiday season, the Washington state Department of General Administration last week issued a Pre-proposal Statement of Inquiry and a letter announcing the start of a rule-making process on use of public areas of the Capitol campus.”

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on the Paul Clayton Show to discuss the controversy over prayer in Jesus’ name in the Pennsylvania legislature and elsewhere.

The MP3 runs just under nine minutes.

Chuck Colson has this Breakpoint report on the challenge to religious expression in the schools and the National Free to Speak Campaign.

The MP3 runs just under four minutes.

ACLU Press Release: “However, the Senate version of the hate crimes bill lacks the strong protections for speech and association included in legislation passed by the House of Representatives in April. The American Civil Liberties Union believes that without the speech and association protections included in the House bill, the Senate hate crimes legislation could have a chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech and membership.”

Andrew Ian Dodge reports at Pajamas Media: “In the UK, there are 2,034 offenses per 100,000 people, way ahead of second-place Austria at 1,677. The U.S. has a rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, Canada has 935, Australia has 92, and South Africa has 1,609.”

Jeffrey Pieters reports in the Rochester Post-Bulletin: “Olmsted County commissioners last week heard a presentation from a victim services advocate who described the start of a program asking Rochester hotels to voluntarily curtail their offerings of pay-per-view porn movies.”

Gary Palmer, president of the Alabama Policy Institute, writes: “Just as the Constitution gives the President the power to nominate, it gives the U.S. Senate the responsibility to fully and publicly evaluate each nominee’s fitness for appointment as a federal judge before voting either for or against the nominee. In Sotomayor’s case, as with any federal judge or Supreme Court nominee, what Senators are expressing with their votes is their view on issues such as those above.”

BBC: “HIV rates among gay men in some African countries are 10 times higher than among the general male population, says research in medical journal the Lancet.”

Stephanie Warsmith reports in the Akron Beacon Journal: “Discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is now prohibited by the City of Akron. The city issued equal employment and anti-harassment policies Friday that added these classifications, as well as ancestry and military status.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Bondi is head of an organization known as the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church of America. He holds services in his home which are attended each week by ten to 15 people. The cooperative has threatened to terminate his lease saying he is in violation of a lease provision that limits use of homes to residential purposes. ” Religion Clause Blog links to the complaints.

Canopus Realty Corp. v. Bondi, (Sup. Ct. Putnam Co., filed 7/2/2009)

York State Division of Human Rights v. Canopus Realty Corp., (Sup. Ct. Putnam Co., filed 7/14/2009)

Dan Gilgoff reports at God & Country: “Tucked into the president’s schedule this afternoon: a closed-press meeting with the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—better known as the Mormon church—and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the highest-ranking Mormon in the U.S. government.”

Alex Newman reports in The New American: “For more than two decades, anybody who is HIV positive has been prevented from entering the United States. But with President Barack Obama’s support, the ban will likely expire soon, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) taking public comments until August 17. The department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will then make the final decision.”

Taranaki Daily News: “Anti-abortion group Right to Life is essentially seeking a ban on all abortions by arguing embryos should be given full human rights.”

Patrick Knox reports in the Basing Stoke Gazette: “Condoms are to be dished out free to boys as young as 13 in a bid to slash teenage pregnancy rates and sexually-transmitted diseases. Plans are in the pipeline to introduce drop-in clinics to schools in north Hampshire where condom cards will be available.”

Catholic League: “If the Bush administration had said that it wants to seek ‘common ground’ on gun control, and then decided to subsidize handguns in high crime areas, it would have been condemned from high heaven.”

Associated Press: “That could soon change, as more than 100 lawmakers in the House and about 20 in the Senate have signed onto bills that would add the United States to the 19 countries that already recognize same-sex couples for immigration purposes.”

AP: “Iran’s supreme leader told politicians Monday not to disturb the country’s security in a strong warning to the opposition to back down after one of its top figures called for a referendum on the government.”

David Boies writing in the Wall Street Journal: “There are those who sincerely believe that homosexuality is inconsistent with their religion — and the First Amendment guarantees their freedom of belief. However, the same First Amendment, as well as the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses, preclude the enshrinement of their religious-based disapproval in state law.”

Robert Pear and Adam Liptak report in the New York Times: “Peter R. Orszag, the White House budget director, asked whether he was prepared to say that ‘no taxpayer money will go to pay for abortions,’ answered: ‘I am not prepared to say explicitly that right now. It’s obviously a controversial issue, and it’s one of the questions that is playing out in this debate.’”

Ian Hunt reports at politics.co.uk: “Religious issues have begun to dominate the by-election campaign in Glasgow North, with the Scottish National party (SNP) candidate’s membership of Catholic group Opus Dei taking centre stage. David Kerr, a former BBC journalist, admitted being a member of Opus Dei recently, but has made several statements assuring voters religion will play no part in the campaign.”

Romanian President Traian Basescu enacted new amendments to the country’s civil codes Friday that provide strong, new protections for marriage.

Lawrence Messina reports for the Associated Press: “Lawyer Jordan Lorence of the national Alliance Defense Fund, which is aiding the council’s campaign, told the interim committee that courts in nine of those states have declared such laws unconstitutional. Lorence added that three of those states — New York, Washington and neighboring Maryland — saw higher courts reverse those rulings. Three other states — Alaska, Hawaii and California last year — are among the 30 to amend their constitutions to define marriage as between a woman and a man.”

New Jersey Star-Ledger: “The decision was welcome news to the Alliance Defense Fund, which argued the camp meeting association has a constitutional right based on religious freedoms to say how its property is used. ‘We’re very happy that the court of appeals remanded the case back to the district court,’ said Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. ‘Ocean Grove will have the opportunity to seek a ruling from the federal court regarding the First Amendment rights.’”

OneNewsNow reports: “Salt Lake City Alliance Defense Fund attorney Frank Mylar represented Dickson. ‘This other party was living with my client and it was in a lesbian relationship — and my client and the other party separated and cut off their relationship,’ he recalls.”

CBN News reports: “‘The people of California want marriage to remain as the union between one man and one woman; they made their voice clear last November at the polls,’ Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Brian Raum said. ‘We are pleased that the court dismissed the challenge to Proposition 8, which asked the court to nullify the voices of more than 7 million California voters,’ [he] added.”

Joanne A. Epps writing at the National Law Journal: “Few professions have been spared in the current economic crisis, with the business of law unquestionably among the most affected. As firms conduct mass layoffs for the first time in history and client frustration over billing structures hits new peaks, we may have reached a tipping point.”

Tony Mauro writes at the National Law Journal: “At least three Sonia Sotomayors were portrayed before the Senate Judiciary Committee at its four-day confirmation hearing last week . . . Finally, and for Republicans the scariest of all, was the soon-to-be-unleashed Sonia Sotomayor who will reveal her long-hidden liberal stripes once she joins a Supreme Court that can do absolutely anything it wants.

“A doctor has been removed from an adoption panel because she refuses to endorse applications by homosexual couples.”

Regent University Law Review: “But under the American Psychological Association’s (“APA”) potential forthcoming policy on therapies involving homosexuality (“Policy”), psychologists may no longer be able to make certain recommendations based on a patient’s religious faith, and religious patients may no longer be able to receive the breadth of counsel they need.”

University of Chicago Law Review: “Constitutional interpretation, as it is usually conceived, looks to the past— to an old text, to history, to precedent, to tradition—in an effort to limit political majorities. But over the last generation or so, a different approach to the Constitution has emerged. That approach, which might be called modernization, tries to anticipate trends in public opinion instead of taking lessons from the past; and a modernizing court, instead of facing down popular majorities, yields when it finds out that it has misgauged public opinion. This modernizing approach has characterized the Supreme Court’s recent work in many disparate areas, including, among others, the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment and the limits on sex discrimination imposed by the Equal Protection Clause.”

SSRN: “This Article, while not offering a full precedent doctrine, does recommend three specific precedent rules. First, precedent should be followed when it is necessary to avoid imposing enormous costs. Second, precedent should be followed when it is entrenched-when the precedent enjoys strong support that is comparable to that enjoyed by a constitutional amendment. Third, precedent should be followed when it corrects the results of a failure in the original super majoritarian process of making the Constitution, such as the exclusion of African Americans.”

SSRN: “One of the most persistent criticisms of originalism – and also one of the most powerful – is that originalism is not a viable interpretative methodology because of the tremendous change that has occurred since the Constitution’s original meaning was created. The Constitution’s original meaning arose in contexts so dramatically different from our own, the criticism goes, that a Constitution whose meaning is limited by those contexts would be unworkable in today’s world.”

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review: “Believing it is time for sexual minorities to enjoy the same rights and protections enjoyed by other people, I ask in this article whether sexual identity has already been established as a fundamental human right, and if not, why?”

SSRN: “It is my theory that the interests of the United States as expressed by the political branches, particularly the Executive branch, will prove to be the significant factor in explaining judicial decision-making in this area. Only in cases where the political branches have failed to state a preference will the attitudinal model prevail.”

SSRN: “It concludes, contra the most vigorous critics, that Reagan’s inaction on AIDS more reflected his libertarian political instincts than any particular hatred of lesbians and gay men.”

SSRN: “This paper assesses the impact of state supreme courts on controversial public policies by studying the enactment of state constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage. I find that institutional differences among state supreme courts and state constitutional systems can account for when same-sex marriage amendments are likely to pass.”

SSRN: “In this paper I explore how the relationship between politics and religious faith in the United States might be seen as part of the narrative of secularism that defines most other Western countries, even as the differences in the American experience might suggest an evolution of this narrative. My thesis is that President Obama might embody a means for faith and politics to co-exist in the post-secular age.”