Daily Archives: October 8, 2009

Acton Institute Power Blog: “The reported decline in religious life is an omen that virtue-driven local charity will decline, the passion to pursue the good will wane, and Americans will look to government to guide, protect, and provide. As we turn our lives over to government control, our capacity for independent thought and action are compromised. The real ‘opiate of the masses,’ it would seem, is not religion but the lack of it.”

Catholic Register: “A sea of empty chairs on the floor and a virtually empty gallery greeted Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde’s opening speech on the first hour of debate on her bill to legalize assisted suicide Oct. 2. Only about 20 MPs were present, scattered along the margins.”

London Evening Standard: “A church has accused a London council of shrinking its congregation by restricting the amount of noise worshippers can make during services. The Immanuel International Christian Centre in Walthamstow was ordered to keep its amplified music and sermons quieter after a neighbour complained.”

KGMI: “The Bellingham City Council is looking to take a position on two state ballot measures, but first, council members will hear what you have to say about it . . . The council is considering opposing the Eyman initiative and supporting the “Everything but Marriage” proposal.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “A new KING5/SurveyUSA poll shows that next month’s vote on whether to uphold the state’s new ‘everything but marriage’ same-sex domestic partner law will likely be close.”

Law Library of Congress: “Effective as of 2010, the Flanders Educational Council will implement a recently issued ban on the wearing of Islamic headscarves in public schools located in Flanders.”

David French, Director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, writing at National Review’s Phi Beta Cons blog: “While there’s no shortage of excellent websites commenting about campus issues, there is a crying need for more places for students to tell their own, first-hand tales of life at the modern leftist university. At the Alliance Defense Fund’s new website, we’re creating a specific space for these stories.”

Boston Herald: “In an exclusive, emotional statement to the Herald, the desperate mother of twins suing to learn the identity and medical history of the sperm donor who fathered her children claims her daughters have “potentially fatal health issues” and deserve to know their dad.”

The Chattanoogan: “Belmont University announced today the opening of a College of Law, the first new law school in Middle Tennessee in nearly 100 years.”

Gary Palmer, president of the Alabama Policy Institute: “U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in December 1995, has issued a ruling that could help bring some clarity to the issue of bingo operations in Alabama . . . The limitations on ‘charity bingo’ outlined in Judge Smith’s opinion should encourage local officials to enforce Alabama’s laws and will hopefully encourage the Alabama State Supreme Court to rule on this issue. Smith’s ruling should also give pause to those pushing for ‘charity bingo casinos’ in other areas of the state who have predictably responded that Smith’s ruling does not apply to them.”

Albert Mohler: “The American conscience remains deeply divided over the question of abortion. Tragically, we have never experienced a sustained, reasonable, and honest discussion about abortion in the society at large. One step toward the recovery of an ethic of life would be an honest discussion about the actual agenda behind the push for abortion on demand. Proponents of abortion rights do everything they can to hide the ugliness of the agenda behind the comments made by President Nixon and Justice Ginsburg. Nevertheless, the truth has a way of working itself into view.”

“The House voted by a wide margin on Thursday to expand the definition of violent federal hate crimes to cover those committed because of a victim’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.”

“What do liberal proposals in Congress and state legislatures on marriage, health care, welfare, and employment rights have in common? All will profoundly damage two of our country’s most important rights: freedom of conscience and belief.”

Associated Press: “Monterey city officials have agreed to replace a giant redwood cross cut down by vandals at a state beach park.”

Tennessean: “About a month after the services were stopped, Wigal contacted the ACLU, which sent a demand letter to Metro Parks explaining that the policy was unconstitutional because it burdened the church’s rights to free speech and exercise of religion.”

Associated Press: “Honduras’ coup-installed leader is resisting calls by diplomats from across the hemisphere to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya, at one point angrily telling the visitors they ‘don’t know the truth or don’t want to know it.’”

LifeSiteNews: “A homosexual man who is suing Canadian Blood Services (CBS) for the right to donate blood was found to be infected with syphilis and gonorrhea after having lied repeatedly on the questionnaire about his sexual history. An Ottawa court heard the case this week.”

The Australian: “A push to introduce a charter of human rights in Australia is set to reignite the gay marriage debate with predictions the High Court judges would be empowered to rule on the issue. A report prepared by the National Human Rights Consultation Committee has today recommended that Australia have a statutory charter of rights, in the form of a Human Rights Act.”

ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on Caplis and Silverman to discuss the Mojave Desert cross case, Salazar v. Buono.

The mp3 runs just over 10 minutes.

Star-Telegram: “Chicas Locas has been stripped of its permit to operate as an all-nude club in west Arlington. On Friday, a state district judge upheld the city’s decision earlier this year to revoke the club’s sexually oriented business permit because of reported criminal activity, including drug use and prostitution. That order was expected to go into effect Wednesday, City Attorney Jay Doegey said.”

BBC: “Children as young as four are to become the youngest in Scotland to be given sex education lessons under a new curriculum from Glasgow City Council.”

“It doesn’t matter whether an unmarried couple is gay or heterosexual – they cannot adopt a child together.”

National Post: “There is an ongoing debate about how to regulate prostitution, but it is not up to a court hearing a constitutional challenge of Canadian laws to decide what constitutes an ideal regime, a lawyer for the federal government said.”

Catholic News Agency: “The spokesperson for Right to Life in Spain, Gador Joya, has challenged the country’s Vice President, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, to be consistent and act on comments she made on a local radio station. Joya is urging her to withdraw the proposed reforms of Spain’s abortion laws, which according to the vice president, have fractured Spanish society.”

Christian Post: “Social conservatives are calling upon Christians in California to rally against a bill that – if passed – would pressure schools into honoring the late Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in a major city.”

First Amendment Center: “The long-running establishment-clause dispute over a Latin cross that has stood for 75 years as a war memorial on federal land in California’s Mojave Desert finally reached the Supreme Court yesterday. But by the end of the hourlong argument before the justices, it appeared to be less about the establishment clause and more an inquiry into the procedural oddities of the case, and about the latest effort by Congress to end the controversy.”

How Appealing has two roundups of coverage dealing with Supreme Court arguments in Salazar v. Buono, the Mojave Desert cross case: Supreme Court debates legality of Mojave cross | “Religion Largely Absent in Argument About Cross”

UPI: “The world’s Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, or 23 percent of the total population of 6.8 billion, a study released in Washington indicated.”

Washington Post: “‘People are beginning to realize that immigrants, minorities and minors are being enslaved right here in the District,’ said Mark Lagon, executive director of Polaris Project, a Washington-based organization working with D.C. officials to end coercive labor and sex exploitation.”

Chicago Tribune: “Backers of gay rights are pushing to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA. They are buoyed by a growing acceptance of same-sex marriage — six states have made it legal — and changed political realities in Washington: For the first time since the law passed in 1996, Democrats are in charge of both the White House and Congress.”

Religious Clause: “In Elijah Group v. City of Leon Valley, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92249 (WD TX, Oct. 2, 2009), a Texas federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing challenges . . . to a zoning ordinance of the City of Leon Valley, Texas . . . The magistrate concluded that nothing requires the city to change its zoning Master Plan and rezone property just because the applicant is a church.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “An Allegheny County court awarded the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh more than $15 million in endowments, bank accounts and other assets that a secessionist diocese had sought to retain.”

Associated Press: “A Northeast Philadelphia couple accused of praying for their sick 2-year-old rather than taking him to a doctor have been ordered to stand trial in the boy’s death.”

Exchange Magazine: “The American Family Association (AFA) is calling for the defeat of a so-called ‘hate crimes’ bill, which House Democrats in Congress have put on the fast track by attaching it to a defense appropriations bill. The measure may come up for a vote as early as Friday.”

Courthouse News Service: “The father of a middle-school student ordered to remove an ‘Abortion is not Healthcare’ T-shirt on the day of President Obama’s speech to students claims the school’s dress code amounts to ‘draconian censorship of religious and political speech’ . . . He is represented by Randall Wenger of the Independence Law Center and David Cortman of the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Student Press Law Center: “The Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit Sept. 30 against Oregon State University on behalf of the school’s unofficial student paper, The Liberty, seeking to reverse the school’s removal of newspaper distribution bins from campus . . . ‘The Liberty and the students really just want to be treated equally,’ said David Hacker, the [Alliance] Defense Fund attorney working on the case. ‘They want to put their bins back on campus and be treated equally with The Daily Barometer.’”

White House Press Office: “David Huebner is the head of the China Practice and the International Disputes Practice at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, where he specializes in international arbitration and mediation . . . He has been active in non-profits, community organizations, and professional associations such as the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, International Chamber of Commerce Commission on Arbitration, Los Angeles Committee on Foreign Relations, and Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).”

Bangor Daily News: “State education commissioner Susan Gendron is asking the Attorney General’s Office to help settle whether Maine’s gay marriage law will affect curriculum in public schools.”

Ian C. Bartrum, Same-Sex Marriage in the Heartland: The Case for Legislative Minimalism in Crafting Religious Exemptions (September 30, 2009). Michigan Law Review First Impressions, Vol. 108, No. 8, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1480799

“This commentary cousels legislative caution in creating exemptions to Iowa’s nondiscrimination law for those with religious objections to same-sex marriage.”