Daily Archives: October 20, 2009

“Both the family and the Church stand in the way of socialism’s triumph, former US Senator Rick Santorum told Christians gathered for the 17th International Week of Prayer and Fasting last week. The pro-life champion warned attendees, however, that both institutions are under heavy attack from Obama-administration policies.”

News Channel 9: “Dozens of people gathered outside the Hamilton County Courthouse to protest about gay marriage today. But these folks were not opposed to gay marriages in Tennessee . . . they believe same-sex marriages should be allowed.”

Guam Pacific Daily News: “As the domestic partnership bill approaches key action by senators soon, the local Catholic Church leadership and some of the island’s senators met yesterday morning in a dialogue initiated by the church.”

The Northern Light: “In the state of Alaska girls 13 and over can have an abortion without their parents’ consent. A recent citizen’s initiative approved to continue on as a petition by Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell aims to change this law. However, it has sparked debate over the initiative’s legitimacy.”

Hattiesburg American: “The Board of Supervisors this morning agreed to rewrite a proposed zoning ordinance that would have placed severe requirements to establish adult clubs/bookstores, limiting them to particular areas.”

Examiner.com: “One of the ways the members of Turlock’s City Council freely exercise their Christian religion, is with an invocation before their meetings. Until August 13, the invocations often ended ‘in Jesus’ name.’ . . . the Wisconsin based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), in a letter sent August 13 to Mayor Lazar and members of the Turlock City Council, argues that such prayer goes beyond free expression to an establishment of religion by the state . . . ”

Breitbart (AP): “The Vatican announced a stunning decision Tuesday to make it easier for Anglicans to convert, reaching out to those who are disaffected by the election of women and gay bishops to join the Catholic Church’s conservative ranks.”

C-SPAN, American and the Courts: “Two of Justice John Paul Stevens’ former law clerks joined a panel discussing his legacy on the Supreme Court at an event hosted by the University of California. Justice John Paul Stevens is currently 89 years old. He’s only hired one law clerk, instead of his usual four, for the 2010 Supreme Court term, which is usually an early indicator that he may be considering retiring.”

FRC Mapping America: “Adults who are currently married are less likely to have committed adultery than adults who are divorced or separated.”

AP: “In the Middle East, civil marriage doesn’t exist and no religious authority will perform an interfaith wedding. Lebanon and Israel are different in that they recognize civil marriages as long as they’re performed abroad, and the closest venue abroad is Cyprus, 150 miles from Lebanon and 230 miles from Israel.”

LifeNews: “Heather Gebelin Hacker, staff counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, presented oral arguments today in the case. Hacker said, ‘Pro-life student groups shouldn’t have a price tag placed upon expression of their beliefs. Forcing any student group to pay for insurance in order to exercise their right to free speech guaranteed under the First Amendment is unconstitutional.’”

ADF attorney Austin R. Nimocks appeared on the Jody Hice Show to discuss recent developments in the battle for marriage around the nation.

The MP3 runs just over 17 minutes.

ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Jody Hice Show to discuss the murder of James Pouillon, a prolifer murdered for protesting abortion outside a Michigan High School.

The MP3 runs just over 16 minutes.

“The disclosure will remain blocked until the Supreme Court can act on a coming appeal by sponsors of the referendum, known as Referendum 71.”

Japan Times: “There were about 256,000 abortions in 2007, or 9.3 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49, the lowest figure so far, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The number had been decreasing steadily since the 1950s, when there were between 40 and 50 abortions per 1,000 women of child-bearing age.”

The Olympian: “Words were fired back and forth between anti-abortion protesters and Olympic College students and community members on Oct. 7. Repulsed by the graphic content of signs from the Kitsap Anti-Choice Project, students responded by making signs of their own and attempted to expel the group from campus.”

“Judge Robert Oberbillig ruled that the issue was covered by a 2005 injunction against the Sheriff’s Office in which the department required a court order to transport an inmate to an abortion clinic.”

Washington Times: “A coalition of Democratic governors, Blue Dogs, Congressional Black Caucus members and labor is appealing to the Federal Communications Commission, asking it to slow its push to regulate the Internet through network neutrality rules.”

“. . . parents themselves will soon need to satisfy a government functionary that they know how to bring up their own children.”

Minnesota Free Market Institute: “Last week, climate skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton spoke to an audience of over 700 in St. Paul. The event also featured the national premiere of a new documentary from the Cascade Policy Institute titled ‘Climate Chains.’”

“Czech President Vaclav Klaus indicated over the weekend that he would finally sign the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty.”

Dayton Daily News: “A state law designed to protect children from pornography and predators on the Internet is too vague for the average citizen to know what is prohibited and what is permitted, according to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.”

Atheism Examiner: “As requested by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the city of Chesapeake, Va., is telling clergy who pray before City Council meetings that their prayers must be nonsectarian.”

AllAfrica.com: “Up to 60 per cent of all new sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and Aids, occur in those aged 15 to 24. And that number could rise if there isn’t a significant change in the sexual behaviour and practices among Kenya’s youth.”

“. . . the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would restrict federal funds for states that discriminate in adoption or foster programs on the basis of marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity.”

WorldNetDaily: “A survey launched by university faculty members in Texas is raising alarms over its suggestion that there should be additional laws ‘that would affect members of the Christian Right.’”

CCFON: “The Government is being urged by a group of powerful MPs to axe references to Christianity from the constitutions of Britain’s far-flung outposts because they could undermine homosexual rights in these territories.”

CNSNews: “. . . Jennings said in 1997: ‘I can envision a day when straight people say, “So what if you’re promoting homosexuality?” . . . In a February 2000 speech, Jennings predicted at a GLSEN conference that the cause of making homosexuality acceptable would succeed in elementary school.”

Marie Stopes International:”“Today’s report reveals the state of the nation’s sexual health and contraceptive habits, and we are delighted that the majority (88 per cent) of women ‘at risk’ of pregnancy used at least one method of contraception, with the most popular methods being the pill (38 per cent) and the condom (37 per cent respectively). However, Marie Stopes International is concerned that the two most popular methods are those which are subject to incorrect or inconsistent use, which may result in unplanned pregnancy.”

The Media Line: “Egypt’s attorney general is referring two officials to a criminal court on the grounds that they authorized hundreds of marriages to under-aged girls.”

Northwest Florida Daily News: “On Oct. 22, 2008, the task force executed a search warrant at Matthew Ray Palmer’s apartment. On a laptop computer in the kitchen, they found suspected child pornography during a ‘cursory inspection.’ The warrant authorized them to search the premises, as well as computers.”

Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney David Dye will be available for media interviews after oral arguments Wednesday in Deeter v. Harner. Dye and ADF-allied attorney Andrea Shaw, both with the Lancaster firm of Clymer & Musser, P.C., are representing a Perry County man in a parental custody battle over his daughter with the husband of his deceased ex-wife.

University of Alberta, The Gateway: “The insurgents in question are members of Guerrilla GayFare Halifax, an LGBTQ group that plots secret monthly “takeovers” of local bars. Inspired by the success of similar groups in cities throughout Canada and the United States, GGF launched its first takeover in February 2008, targeting Tribeca, a popular nightclub in downtown Halifax.”

Catholic News Agency: “Fr. Jenkins’ tenure has featured continued controversy over the school’s Catholic identity, especially concerning the invitation to President Barack Obama to speak at the university’s commencement ceremony and to receive an honorary degree.”

The Daily Coloniala: “GW law students had a rare opportunity to hear Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy speak on the topic of judicial review last week considering that Justices tend to steer clear of public events, remaining insulated from the public.”

The Local: “An opinion piece by Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson in which he labels Muslims a major threat has been reported to Sweden’s highest legal official by the Centre Against Racism (Centrum Mot Rasism).”

CNSNews: “White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told high school students in May 2009 that one of her favorite political philosophers was Mao Tse Tung, the Communist dictator responsible for the death of millions of people, and she explained why his philosophy was important for achieving personal and political goals.”

BBC News: “Mr Brown told the committee of MPs, chaired by Commons Speaker John Bercow, that Labour would ‘increase support for LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] candidates’ at the next general election. He added that civil ceremonies between gay MPs could take place in the Palace of Westminster.”

Christian Newswire: “Michigan has joined with dozens of other States that are seeking affirmation of personhood rights for all humans.”

UPI: “A married British doctor faces sentencing for attempting to spike his girlfriend’s drink to induce abortion, court records showed.”

Christian Post: “Though Rasmussen Reports’ last survey in July concluded with a nearly three-way tie between Huckabee and former Govs. Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, Huckabee came out on top in their latest survey, which found 29 percent of likely Republican voters nationwide saying they would vote for Huckabee in 2012, while 24 percent prefer Romney and 18 percent Palin.”

Pacific Justice Institute: “Another student has come forward to confirm that a school counselor administered a pregnancy test to a 12-year-old classmate at Seven Hills Middle School in Nevada City last spring, without her parents’ knowledge. The girl who was forced to take the pregnancy test, identified in court documents as C.R. to protect her privacy, is being represented by attorneys with Pacific Justice Institute in a lawsuit against the counselor and school district.”

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann write at Townhall: “If your household income is $66,000 a year, slightly above the national average, Obama’s health care bill will require you to spend 12 percent of your income — about $8,000 a year or almost $700 a month — to buy health insurance before you get any federal subsidy.”

Daily Leader: “‘We are informed by counsel that this exact issue has been litigated in federal court,’ Clopton said. ‘The decisions of the federal courts completely support the policy of the district in this regard.’”

Robert L. Bernstein, chairman of Human Rights Watch from 1978 to 1998, writing in the New York Times: “Now the organization, with increasing frequency, casts aside its important distinction between open and closed societies. Nowhere is this more evident than in its work in the Middle East. The region is populated by authoritarian regimes with appalling human rights records. Yet in recent years Human Rights Watch has written far more condemnations of Israel for violations of international law than of any other country in the region.”

ADF Allied Attorney Steven Francis, writing in the Traverse City Record-Eagle: “The freedom to publicly speak about, for, or against, any and all conceptions of God or gods must be carefully protected against slow erosion through threats of violence by militant groups, government-imposed speech codes, and anti-religious, mainly anti-Christian, regulations in educational and civic settings.”

First Things, Postmodern Conservative: “It’s amazing the extent to which our ways of taking about abortion and race-conscious policies are indebted to what might be called O’Connor’s enlightened cynicism or nonfoundationalist judicial stateswomanship. ROE, the sophisticated thought now is, might have been judicial activism, but it would now be equally judicial activism to reverse it.”

OneNewsNow: “The event website offers numerous resources for participants, including a letter written by the Alliance Defense Fund that explains to schools their students’ right to stage such an event. The letter is designed to assist students if their school harasses them about participating in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity.”

The Recorder: “A Newark, Calif., woman and her husband sued drugmaker Bayer in federal court in San Francisco on Monday, saying she suffered a debilitating stroke after taking the company’s popular birth control pill Yaz for a month . . . Hundreds of such suits filed around the country by Danko and other lawyers in the past month or so are just ‘the tip of the iceberg’ . . . ”

TCU Daily Skiff: “The Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom recently issued ‘red lights’ to TCU, the University of North Texas and other local colleges telling them that their free speech codes are unconstitutional.”

York Daily Record: “The Harrisburg-based Independence Law Center and Alliance Defense Fund, Christian law group, are representing Boyer and his son.”

Telegraph: “It is extraordinary that it should have taken a judgment by the Information Tribunal last week to force the Department of Health (DoH) to release the statistics it holds on late abortions. It is also disgraceful . . . The ProLife Alliance and its barrister Paul Diamond are to be congratulated on taking the matter to the Information Tribunal, and winning. We hope now, finally, that there will be an open debate on the merits of late abortions – and we deeply deplore the Government’s dogged attempts to prevent one.”

The Ruling

Robert F. Blomquist, Beyond Historical Blushing: A Plea for Constitutional Intelligence (October 6, 2009). Cardozo Law Review de novo, p. 244, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1483893

“Seth Barrett Tillman has provided constitutional law “gamers” with two hard-hitting legal think pieces—one, a full-blown article in Penn State Law Review, the other, an abridged version of that article in Cardozo Law Review De Novo—evaluating and critiquing Professor Geoffrey R. Stone’s Melville B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture and Essay published in the UCLA Law Review. In this modest and concise Essay, I seek to praise Tillman’s intellectual virtues (while empathizing, in part, with Professor Stone). My pivoting gambit and larger purpose, however, is to urge legal scholars, jurists and lawyers to strive for what I call contextual constitutional intelligence in playing the vital game of interpreting our American Constitution.”