Daily Archives: October 27, 2009

The opinion in River of Life Kingdom Ministries v. Village of Hazel Crest, No. 08-2819 (7th Cir., Oct. 27, 2009) begins:

Before CUDAHY, MANION, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge. River of Life Kingdom Ministries (“the Church”) attempted to relocate its congregation from a crowded warehouse in Chicago Heights to its very own property—a dated fixer-upper in a blighted community in the Village of Hazel Crest. The problem was the Village had a zoning ordinance in place that designated the area a “Service Business District.” The ordinance permitted a number of commercial uses for the property, but not religious services. The Church was aware of this ordinance, but it bought the property anyway hoping it would receive a special use permit, a form of relief, which, unbeknownst to the Church, was no longer available under the current zoning ordinance.

So the Church sued the Village under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”) to allow it to relocate to the business district. Before the case could be decided on the merits, the Church filed a motion for preliminary injunction to allow it to relocate to the property in the interim. The district court denied the motion and the Church appealed.

We conclude that the Church has only a slim chance of success on the merits and that any irreparable harm it may suffer does not significantly outweigh the potential harm to the Village. As a result, we affirm the district court’s denial of the Church’s motion for preliminary injunction.

ReadWriteWeb: “Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time.”

Boston Globe: “Nightlight Christian Adoptions contended in a lawsuit that the government’s new guidelines will decrease the number of human embryos available for adoption. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth called that assertion speculative . . . For Nightlight to have grounds to sue, Lamberth ruled, potential embryo donors have to choose to donate their embryos for research and not for adoption.’

CNA: The president of the College of Catholic Lawyers of Mexico, Armando Martinez, expressed regret this week that the Mexico City Legislative Assembly is not concerned with ‘real social problems’ and is instead dedicated to promoting gay ‘marriage’ through a reform of the Civil Code.”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Michael Medved Show last week to discuss indoctrination in the public schools.

The MP3 runs just under 35 minutes.

Related ADF Press Release: ADF attorney available to media after trial in Tenn. suit over Bible reading at recess

Christian Newswire: “We are excited to announce that a set of the ‘Foundations of American Law & Government Display’ has been accepted by the Madison County Commissioners to be hung in the Madison County Government Complex.”

“A federal court has dismissed an appeal by a Christian fraternity that tried to force the University of Florida to recognize it as an official organization.”

Ethic and Religious Liberty Commission: “ERLC President Richard Land submitted testimony Oct. 26 for hearings by the D.C. City Council and the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics, expressing opposition to the same-sex marriage bill and asking that District residents be given the opportunity to vote on marriage.”

“‘Right to abortion?” he asked. ‘Come on. Nobody thought it violated anything in the Constitution for 200 years. It was criminal.’ The same, said Scalia, is true of homosexual sodomy.”

Boston Globe: “Since 1994, sexual orientation has been grounds for asylum in the United States. That’s when former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ruled in a case that persecution based on sexual orientation could be potential grounds for asylum.”

Christian Newswire: “Children of God for Life announced today that Neocutis, a bio-pharmaceutical company focused on dermatology and skin care is using aborted fetal cell lines to produce several of their anti-aging skin creams.”

Catherine Rampell writes at the NY Times (Statistical charts included): “But in many states, and on many other gay rights issues, the lag seems to go in the opposite direction: legal and policy responses (whether from the legislative or judicial branch) lag behind much more liberal popular opinion.”

“Maine Gov. John Baldacci (bahl-DAH’-chee) is urging residents to vote against repealing the state’s same-sex marriage law while acknowledging his past opposition to gay marriage.”

LifeSiteNews: “As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aims to seal the abortion-expanding health care bill in an early November vote, pro-life lawmakers, led by Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, are locked in a dead heat race for votes with Democratic leadership. According to Stupak, the Democratic leadership intends to keep a stranglehold on any pro-life amendment effort, which they acknowledge would likely otherwise succeed.”

“Essay contest winner Om Prakash is entitled to his opinions, but his JFQ article showed little evidence of serious research beyond the usual polemics produced by the California-based Michael D. Palm Center and other homosexualist groups . . . ”

CNSNews: “Claims that the U.S. military’s policy of discharging openly homosexual soldiers threatens national security by reducing troop numbers are not supported by data from the Defense Department, according to the Center for Military Readiness (CMR).”

Religion Clause Blog: The State Department yesterday submitted to Congress its 2009 Report on International Religious Freedom as required by Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

Law.com (Texas Lawyer): “For the first time in almost 20 years, the Texas Supreme Court has proposed comprehensive changes in the state’s disciplinary rules for lawyers, including major amendments to conflicts rules and a new rule prohibiting lawyers from having sex with clients.”

ADF attorneys Austin R. Nimocks and Tim Tracey appeared on the the Don Kroah Show to discuss the “DC Marriage Initiative of 2009″ and “The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Union Act of 2009.”

The MP3 runs just under 11 minutes.

Washington Post: “But many Afghans, he [Matthew Hoh] wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there — a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected. While the Taliban is a malign presence, and Pakistan-based al-Qaeda needs to be confronted, he said, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.”

“A professor – with an eerily similar name as the eugenics advocate and founder of Planned Parenthood (Margaret Sanger) – is coming to West Virginia . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “The New York Times reported yesterday that high school football fans in a Georgia town have found a way to respond to the school district’s ending the practice of cheerleaders carrying banners with Biblical quotations onto the field . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “Section 163 of Malta’s Criminal Code outlaws publicly vilifying the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion (the country’s official religion), or those connected with it. The Police v. Rokku Abdilla, (Ct. Cr. App., Oct. 23, 2009), a decision handed down last week by Malta’s Court of Criminal Appeal, interprets this provision.”

Providence Journal: “State lawmakers on Tuesday will consider a bill to make indoor prostitution a crime, but empower judges to erase any record of charges for convicted prostitutes after one year.”

NY Journal: “A doctor’s constitutional right to courtship and marriage was not violated by New York state regulators who, in revoking his license, faulted his consensual sexual relationship with a patient who later became his fiance, an appeals court has ruled.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Both sides have filed appeals with the 9th Circuit in C.F. v. Capistrano Unified School District, the case in which California high school student Chad Farnan and his parents sued history teacher James Corbett for making remarks hostile to religion.”

“The time has come to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Enacted 13 years ago when the idea of same sex marriage was struggling for acceptance, the Act is a relic of a more tradition-bound time and culture.”

The Hill: “The GOP could lose its fifth of five big special elections in two years — a development that has Republicans asking why the irregular races continue to bedevil their party, even as it rebounds in other ways. Some say Republicans haven’t learned from their losses in three conservative districts last year, nor from an upstate New York special election in March. ”

David French, Director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, writing at Phi Beta Cons: “As I type this post, my colleagues at the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom are arguing a critical case before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The subject: the use and abuse of mandatory student activity fees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.”

AP: “A Paris court on Tuesday convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than half a million euros – but stopped short of banning the group as requested by prosecutors.”

One News Now: “In an alleged attempt to protect free speech on the Internet and prevent Internet service providers (ISPs) from implementing a tier system for broadband use, the FCC has decided to craft rules and regulations to guide ISPs. Once the rules are crafted, they will be posted for public comment and a final decision will not be handed down until early next year.”

The Ruth Institute Blog carries this speech by Pat Fagan of the Family Research Council at the World Congress of Families. It begins: “SUMMARY The ‘monogamous’ and the ‘polyamorous’ cultures have totally different approaches to life, with religious worship and monogamous marriage being the defining differences in their different approaches to the sexual act. Coexistence necessitates that the differences be observed by giving parents of both cultures control over the programs that cause conflict: education, adolescent health and sex education. Monogamous men need to act to obtain this for the sake of their own children.”

AP: “The Tennessee Court of Appeals at Nashville has ruled in favor of a rezoning that would allow a Bible-based theme park to be built in Rutherford County.”

RealClearPolitics:”Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to ‘change the United States of America,’ the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles and the people of this country.”

East Valley Tribune: “The Arizona attorney general has sent letters to 19 of the state’s nonprofit school tuition organizations asking them to explain why they didn’t spend 90 percent of donations on scholarships for private school students as required by law.”

ABC News: “Eleven years after Matthew Shepard’s death, President Obama will sign the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill into law during a White House signing ceremony Wednesday afternoon, White House officials confirm.”

Catholic News Agency: “Colombia’s Attorney General, Alejandro Ordonez Maldonado, announced that he would be asking the country’s Constitutional Court to overturn a ruling that would force schools to teach students that abortion is a right.”

ABC 7: “A D.C. City Council committee held its first hearing Monday on a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in the city, a hearing with a marathon list of witnesses and strong emotions on both sides of the issue.”

Baptist Press: “Citizens of America’s capital rallied Sunday in an effort to persuade the District of Columbia government to permit them to vote on the legalization ‘of same-sex marriage.’”

Jurist: “Germany’s constitutional court on Thursday ruled [press release] that surviving partners in a registered civil partnership have a right to collect under the occupational pension scheme for civil service employees.”

Christianity Today: “In mid-July, New Hampshire judge Lucinda Sadler ordered 10-year-old Amanda Kurowski into public instruction . . . ‘I think it’s widely regarded as a dangerous precedent if it’s allowed to stand,’ said [Mike] Johnson, whose group represents Kurowski’s mother. ‘We don’t want courts to be in the business of comparative theology.’”

Associated Press: “A gay Brazilian man has been denied asylum by the Obama administration and won’t be reunited with his Massachusetts husband in the U.S., the husband said Monday.”

The Meridian Star: “Hood said pedophiles use file sharing programs like Limewire to download child pornography. But before anyone can download anything from a file sharing site, whether it’s child pornography or something more innocent like music, they are prompted to agree to the file sharing site’s terms and conditions. Those terms and conditions include permission for other people to look on your computer for files they can download.”

The Grand Rapids Press: “Calvin College professors will find out Monday whether the college’s governing board will withdraw a controversial memo ordering them to follow Christian Reformed Church teachings against homosexuality and same-sex marriage.”

NY Times: “Divorce tends to be emotionally gut-wrenching for the people who go through it (not to mention those around them). But most couples don’t realize that divorce can also be among the most ruinous financial moves anyone can make.”

Google News (AP): “The Czech Republic’s top court on Tuesday adjourned until November 3 its hearing on a challenge to the Lisbon Treaty by Eurosceptic senators.”

The Daily Princetonian: “For the 2010-11 academic year, the University will be offering a gender-neutral housing option in Spelman Halls. The pilot program will permit gender-neutral occupancy in the apartment-style rooms of Spelman, eliminating the requirement that draw groups for Spelman must have four students of the same gender. The program is not expected to affect any other dorms during its first year.”

National Law Journal: “In its fourth annual report on how women are faring in the profession, the National Association of Women Lawyers has, for the first time, zeroed in on women as rainmakers. The conclusion: Women are ‘surprisingly weak’ in bringing in new business.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Monday against the city of Milwaukee on behalf of several pro-life advocates to end a long pattern of harassment.

Dallas Morning News: “Dallas movie executive Stephen Jarchow has made thousands of deals in his 17-year entertainment career, but none with more potential punch than his recent acquisition of a URL. The 58-year-old chairman of Here Media Inc. bought gay.com, the preeminent Web site for gays and lesbians.”

Philippine Information Agency: “The homosexual community received a boost with the organization of the Davao del Norte Gay and Lesbian Federation during a one-day gender and development (GAD) orientation program for gays sponsored by the Provincial Government.”

Stars & Stripes: “A panel of legal scholars has suggested that Congress remove sodomy as a crime punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a recommendation that could boost efforts to end a ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.”

Deseret News: “A school district serving a remote area of northern Arizona and southern Utah long dominated by a polygamist sect is poised to emerge from a state takeover implemented nearly four years ago because it finances were in disarray.”

CNSNews: “Two amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act introduced in the House of Representatives’ current session would add language allowing “permanent partners” to sponsor their foreign-born “spouses” to become naturalized citizens.”

Courthouse News Service: “A group of parents seek to stop a high school in the Las Vegas suburb or Henderson from mounting two plays, ‘Rent’ and ‘The Laramie Project,’ because the productions about gay characters are ‘not suitable for students.’”

Associated Press: “More than 150 potential jurors, including 10 women in prairie dresses and braids, crammed into a makeshift courtroom Monday as jury selection began in the first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist sect’s ranch last year.”

Argus-Press: “The Corunna Board of Education voted Monday to remove a club project in a display case at Corunna High School that highlighted the acceptance of homosexuality and alternative lifestyles.”

WorldNetDaily: “A Christian minister who has spent time in jail . . . is warning that the federal legislation . . . is ‘one of the most dangerous pieces of federal legislation in the history of our nation’ . . . Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, told WND the move is alarming because ‘this would be the very first governmental and societal disapproval of a sincerely held religious belief, held by a majority of Americans, namely that homosexual behavior is immoral.’”

Associated Press: “A man accused of advising straight immigrants to claim homosexuality — and potential persecution in their home countries — when they applied for asylum has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.”

WAOW: “The bill would require that schools offer more information than just abstinence only teachings, including contraceptive options.”

Lynn D. Wardle, Restructuring Democracy or Lawlessness? Critical Reflections on in Re Marriage Cases (May 1, 2009). Nexus Journal, Vol. 14, p. 91, 2008-2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1440336

“This essay will review why that decision is more serious than judicial legislation. Then it will explain why that decision exceeded the competence of the court, and why the opinion was fatally flawed in form as well as substance. The magnitude of the victory of passage of Prop 8 is reviewed, and the role of the court as an agent of the people, not their master, in interpreting the constitution is discussed. Finally, the connection between judicial lawlessness in assuming to create new constitutional rights and mob lawlessness is briefly considered in the conclusion.”

Same-sex “marriage” and religious liberty: Life after Prop 8
Robin Fretwell Wilson, 14 Nexus: Chap. J. L. & Pol’y 101 (2009)

“This Essay argues that the moral clashes over same-sex relationships certainly exist but are not resolved by Prop 8–far from it. Tensions over same-sex relationships have erupted across the world and the United States as more and more governments have recognized not just same-sex marriage but civil unions and same-sex adoptions. Regardless of how the California Supreme Court rules on the challenges to Prop 8 now before it, California still allows civil unions and same-sex adoption and bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in places of public accommodation.”

The Bush Administration’s Midnight Refusal Rule: Upsetting the Emerging Balance in State Pharmacist Refusal Laws
Jane W. Walker, 46 Hous. L. Rev. 939 (2009)

“Termed ‘conscience’ or ‘refusal’ laws, proponents argue that without them, employers and state medical boards may discriminate against religious pharmacists. In support of their argument, proponents point to the traditions of protecting religious freedom and personal autonomy in the United States. By contrast, opponents are outraged that such laws permit a pharmacist to interfere with a patient’s autonomy rights, as well as her constitutionally protected right to contraception. At its core, the debate pits two seemingly equal sets of rights against one another–the pharmacist’s autonomy and religious rights versus the patient’s autonomy and reproductive rights.”