Daily Archives: August 31, 2009

Boston Herald: “Ben & Jerry’s is temporarily renaming popular ‘Chubby Hubby’ ice cream ‘Hubby Hubby’ beginning today to celebrate the start of legalized gay marriage in its home state of Vermont.”

Washington Post: “Bishop Harry Jackson is refusing to relent from his campaign to stop same-sex marriage in the District, despite the drubbing he took before the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics this summer. Jackson sent out a statement Monday stating that he and other opponents of same-sex marriages would file an initiative request with the elections board Tuesday.”

Hays Daily News: “A Mulvane woman who claims the city violated her free speech rights at a city council forum will get the opportunity to make her case in federal court . . . ‘We hope it sets the precedent that town officials must respect all viewpoints when they are giving access to people to a public forum, to the community,’ said Joel Oster, an attorney with Alliance Defense Fund in Leawood, Kan. ‘They cannot discriminate based upon one person’s views.’”

Star-Ledger: “A mosque in Elizabeth, Dar-ul-Islam, is spearheading a national prayer gathering next month in Washington, D.C., that organizers are billing as the first event of its kind — organized prayer for tens of thousands of Muslims outside the U.S. Capitol building.”

The Beacon News: “The Waterleaf Women’s Center at 2849 E. New York St. should be open for business within a couple of weeks, although the center was dedicated Sunday afternoon by Catholic clergy and about 75 supporters from the community.”

Forbes: “In Malaysia, Islam is the state religion. Higher education, the bureaucracy and vast swathes of the economy are operated as a kind of spoils system almost exclusively for Malays, whom the state defines as Muslim. Race and religion determine everything from your odds of getting into medical school to the amount you’re expected to put down for an apartment. The conversion laws, based on sharia, bring to mind the Eagles’ classic ‘Hotel California’: You can check in (to Islam) any time you like, but you can never leave.”

Politico: “A group calling itself the Stand4MarriageDC.com Coalition says it will file tomorrow to put an initiative on same-sex marriage on the ballot in the District in November.”

Christian Telegraph: “150 Iraqi Christians have sought refuge in the Cathedral of St. Enechubeng to ask the immigration authorities to reconsider the decisions to refuse their asylum applications in Sweden, reports Christians of Iraq.”

“With the Referendum 71 signature-check now nearly complete, state election officials say they’ve now confirmed that sponsors turned in more than the bare minimum needed for a spot on the November statewide ballot.”

Northland News Center: “District Court Judge Eric Hylden granted the Norshor Experience a temporary restraining order against the city of Duluth, allowing the business to continue serving liquor.”

Maine Family Policy Council: “How radical is the homosexual rights agenda? The answer will surprise even those who think they know all about the homosexual rights movement. A recent decision by the Maine Human Rights Commission shows that a law passed several years ago is beginning to be felt in ways far beyond what even radical homosexual activists imagined.”

ACLU: “A federal appeals court ruled today that a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State challenging government funding of a religious group youth home in Kentucky can go forward.”

LifeSiteNews: “A London court will hear arguments today about whether an obstetrician has a duty of care to the unborn child, reports the Toronto Star. The issue will be taken up as a preliminary proceeding to a malpractice suit brought by a Rockford family against Guelph General Hospital, where their son was born eight years ago.”

CNSNews: ‘According to the Obama administration’s mid-session budget update, the federal government will have to borrow nearly 40 percent of its total expenditures in 2010. The report, “Mid-Session Review, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2010 . . . ”

“In March, Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the district after school officials had censored the word ‘God’ from student-made posters promoting National Day of Prayer and See You at the Pole events.”

LifeSiteNews:

“Despite the warnings of pro-life Catholic leaders that the public honoring of pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy by the Catholic Church would lead to an enormous scandal, the Boston Archdiocese hosted an elaborate televised funeral Mass for the senator this past Saturday. The service, presided over by Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, included prayers of the faithful endorsing health care reform and homosexualist policies, and a eulogy by President Obama, who remembered Kennedy as a champion for those who had none . . .”

Posted: 08/31/2009

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Category: Sanctity of Life

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Source: www.lifesitenews.com

Tags: Category: Sanctity of Life, Topic: Abortion, Topic: Congress

LifeNews: “Militia activist Scott Roeder says he wants to use a justifiable homicide defense in connection with charges that he shot and killed late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller.”

LifeNews: “Advancing a pro-abortion health care bill that could lead to rationing medical care and having a pro-abortion president who is making taxpayers fund abortions appears to come at a cost for the abortion advocates who lead Congress. More political analysts are predicting pro-life gains after the 2010 elections.”

Proponents of homosexual behavior and the ACLU attempt to prevent faith based funding of KBH . . .

Asia One News (AFP): “A Saudi lawyer has demanded a public apology from a number of Danish dailies that reprinted a controversial cartoon of Prophet Mohammed in February 2008, Danish media reported on Sunday.”

Broadcasting & Media: “The FCC’s report to Congress on the state of media-screening technologies, due by the end of this month, comes to two broad conclusions, but does not suggest any action items beyond opening an inquiry prompted by its survey of the current content-control landscape for a variety of media. That inquiry includes a request for better data, something that should come as no surprise for followers of the current commission. The FCC’s two conclusions: 1) There is no universal ratings system in place, and 2) better educating parents on how to use the existing systems would likely help drive adoption.”

Sacramento Bee: “Diskin and others have formed Lodi United, a group of religious and nonreligious who will meet Wednesday in response to the debate over prayer at the town’s City Council meetings . . . The council will discuss the invocations for the first time at its Sept. 30 meeting, which has been moved to the 900-seat theater in Hutchins Street Square to accommodate the expected crowd.”

How Appealing posts about this upcoming event at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on September 18th

ADF allied attorney John Anthony Simmons appeared on Lifeline (KFAX) with Crag Roberts to discuss the case of a home-schooled girl who was ordered to public school to diversify her exposure to other faiths.

The MP3 runs just over eight minutes.

Related ADF media information page: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school

Jay Mathews writes at Ed News: “It’s not easy being E. D. Hirsch, Jr. If the inventive 81-year-old had been a business leader or politician or even a school superintendent, his fight to give U.S. children rich lessons in their shared history and culture would have made him a hero among his peers. Instead, he chose to be an English professor, at the unlucky moment when academic fashion declared the American common heritage to be bunk and made people like Hirsch into pariahs.”

Amazon: The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

Minneapolis Star-Tribunea: “Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday it received Food and Drug Administration approval for its over-the-counter version of the emergency contraceptive Plan B, which is made by Barr Pharmaceuticals unit Duramed.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Continuing its efforts around the country to challenge invocations offered to open city council meetings, the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced yesterday that it had written to the mayor of Toledo, Ohio and the City Council president objecting to sectarian prayers that have been offered by clergy at Council meetings.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Yesterday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that, in its latest encounter with the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, the Minnesota Department of Education is investigating whether the charter school improperly used state funds to subsidize mosques on its two campuses.”

Hans A. von Spakovsky writes at the Wall Street Journal: “Criticizing a candidate for public office can get you into a great deal of trouble in America these days. Just ask Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit that a D.C. district court ruled in violation of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law when it produced a critical, 90-minute documentary about Hillary Clinton during last year’s presidential campaign.”

Janice Shaw Crouse writes at Townhall: “. . . in the view of the United Nations, sexuality education is the responsibility of ‘education and health authorities’ not parents . . . Excluding parents from the process keeps them from being aware of how frequently ‘sexuality education’ indoctrinates against traditional values, especially ‘discrimination based on sexual orientation.’”

Connecticut Law Tribune: “On Aug. 20, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that U.S. District Judge Dominick Squatrito’s injunction against all religious paraphernalia went too far. It ordered the removal of the collection jar and prayer literature from the postal counter, with further instructions that the district court divide the church and post office areas of the room . . . [Jeffrey A. Shafer] argued the case before the Second Circuit, and is a senior litigation attorney for ADF. Speaking generally, he said his clients would like to make it harder for a citizen like Cooper to make a federal case out of mere ‘discomfort’ over a religious display.”

OneNewsNow: One of the latest cities to be challenged [on public meeting prayer policy] is La Crosse, Wisconsin — a community that took applicable legal advice offered by ADF . . . ‘Thankfully they’ve done what so many cities have done already,’ says [Mike] Johnson, ‘and that is, they have adopted a model invocations policy that we drafted at the Alliance Defense Fund to protect this [practice] — and they’ve told the Freedom From Religion Foundation they’re going to stand for this practice.’”

OneNewsNow: “A Minnesota city has had a change of heart over use of city property by religious groups — and without a lawsuit . . . ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg says his firm contacted city officials in July, sharing with them that the access policies were illegal. ‘We sent the city a letter that explained the situation, laid out what the law was and laid out what their policy was, and just said this is very, very unconstitutional,’ says Blomberg.”

Boise Christian Living Examiner: “A New Hampshire court recently ordered 10-year old homeschooler, Amanda Kurowski, to public school because she defended her Christian faith too vigorously . . . ‘It is not the proper role of the court to insist that Amanda be ‘exposed to different points of view’ if the primary residential parent has determined that it is in Amanda’s best interest not to be exposed to secular influences that would undermine Amanda’s faith, schooling, social development, etc.,’ explained the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Colorado Statesman: “Supporters of a ballot proposal to bring back a slightly altered form of last year’s controversial ‘Personhood’ Amendment have a more immediate goal: to become the first initiative campaign in Colorado to be run entirely by volunteers . . . Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund . . . wrote in a recent letter that many pastors may want to speak in defense of life and in support of the amendment, but could be deterred for fear that their church’s federal tax-exempt status would somehow be endangered.”

Law.com (New York Law Journal): “Five months after ordering the Food and Drug Administration to allow the marketing of the emergency contraceptive Plan B to 17-year-olds without a prescription, a Brooklyn federal judge has refused to allow three Christian lobbying groups who oppose abortion to challenge the ruling . . . Steven H. Aden, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, who also represented the intervenors, said the groups were evaluating their options but declined to comment further on whether they would appeal.”

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Glen Lavy will be available for media interviews Tuesday after his testimony before the Goshen City Council on a proposed “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” ordinance.

Baptist Press: “The Obama administration’s guidelines for federal funding of stem cell research that results in the destruction of human embryos have been challenged in court, and a lawyer behind the suit says he thinks its ‘chances are very good.’”

KTUU (AP): “Anti-abortion advocates kicked off their campaign in Anchorage for an initiative that would require parental consent for minors to have an abortion.”

WCAX.com: “Vermont’s gay marriage law is set to go into effect on Tuesday, September 1st. Supporters of same-sex marriage already are gearing up for what promises to be an emotional week.”

Christian Post: “[Amanda Kurowski's] strong Christian beliefs were reason enough for a New Hampshire court to order her out of homeschooling and into a public school . . . Although there is no dispute that Amanda is excelling academically and is generally interactive with her peers, her religious beliefs were seen as being held a bit too sincerely, Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney John Anthony Simmons explained . . .”

WorldNetDaily: “A Christian homeschooled girl was ordered by a New Hampshire court this week to attend a public school because her faith is a ‘bit too sincerely held and must be sifted, tested by, and mixed among other worldviews’ . . . Thankfully, attorneys working with the Alliance Defense Fund have filed motions with the court, asking it to reconsider the order . . .”

“. . . federal appeals court has ruled that an effeminate gay man must be allowed to pursue a Title VII claim alleging that he was targeted for harassment because he failed to conform to ‘gender stereotypes.’”

“Without the social ideal of marriage between husband and wife . . . the prospects for limited government, civil society independent of the state, and a robust, free-market economy go out the window.”

The National Law Journal: While the high-profile, Ted Olson- and David Boies-managed legal fight against California’s Proposition 8 captures headlines, a carefully planned case quietly underway in Massachusetts federal court could be the gay marriage test with the greatest national impact . . . Although he called the Massachusetts challenges ‘well-planned and coordinated,’ Brian Raum, senior counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund, which supports the 1996 law, said, ‘I think all four suits are serious challenges. We are confident they ultimately will not prevail. The federal law is clearly constitutional.’ . . . Outrage then shifted to the law’s supporters who felt the procreation argument was a major leg in the law’s defense. ‘The government has an interest in creating unions that lend themselves to responsible procreation such that kids are raised with their married biological mother and father,’ said Raum, whose Alliance Defense Fund is an amicus party in Smelt.”

Gill v. Office of Personnel Management

Com monwealth v. U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services

Mirror of Justice points out that Fordham University has posted a transcript of the debate held on April 28 featuring the following individuals . . .

Federal Funding and the Regulation of Embryonic Stem Cell Research: The Pontius Pilate Maneuver
Robert J. Levine, 9 Yale J. Health Pol’y, L. & Ethics 552 (2009)

“I plan to focus on the typical response of the federal government to issues of the type that are presented by embryonic stem cell research and cloning and to evaluate the consequences of this typical response.”

Constitutional Constraints on the Regulation of Cloning
Robert A. Burt, 9 Yale J. Health Pol’y, L. & Ethics 495 (2009)

“Broadly speaking, I will evaluate four different constitutional challenges to a total ban [on cloning]: 1) that such regulations violate researchers’ constitutional right of free scientific inquiry; 2) that such regulations violate individual rights to reproductive freedom; 3) that the former Executive Branch restriction imposed an unconstitutional condition on the availability of government funding; and 4) that neither reproductive nor therapeutic cloning is a permissible subject for congressional enactment, but that both are reserved exclusively for state regulatory authority. Exhaustively evaluating these four possible constitutional objections would require writing at least a small textbook on constitutional law; I will instead be suggestive rather than exhaustive.”

Secular Constitutionalism Vindicated
Frances Raday, 30 Cardozo L. Rev. 2769 (2009)

“Secular constitutionalism guarantees a neutral public space for equal participation by those of religious belief and non-belief alike, and private space for matters, including religious matters, in which the state may not enter. What I aim to discuss in this paper is the benefits of secular constitutionalism for democratic regimes when contrasted with the alternatives and the alternatives are the non-secular: religious diversity, pluralism or theo-democracy. On this analysis, followed with examples of constitutional adjudication of the clash between each of the monotheisms and human rights, I argue that secular constitutionalism is essential to human rights.”

Introduction: Can Constitutionalism, Secularism and Religion Be Reconciled in an Era of Globalization and Religious Revival?
Michel Rosenfeld, 30 Cardozo L. Rev. 2333 (2009)

“Distilled to its core, modern constitutionalism is the necessary byproduct of the Enlightenment and, above all, of the latter’s essential grounding in a secular vision. In a nutshell, the essential tenets that animate the Enlightenment project are threefold: the radical separation between the realm of Faith and that of Reason; entrusting the ruling of the public sphere exclusively to the dictates of the realm of Reason; and the promotion of liberty and equality for all . . .”