Monthly Archives: October 2009

CitizenLink: “Arizona students were asked to create thousands of ornaments for this year’s national Christmas tree — but officials specifically directed them not to include religious references. Jonathan Scruggs, staff counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), called that instruction ironic. ‘The whole origin of Christmas is religion,’ he said.”

AP: “A Pittsburgh-area community college caught up in a free-speech dispute says it will no longer require students to get approval to pass out leaflets.”

“Salazar vs. Buono . . . Erwin Chemerinsky and Joseph Infranco debate the case and its possible implications, including whether any religious symbol should be permitted on government land and who should have the standing to sue over such displays . . . Today’s topic: Who should have standing to sue over displaying religious icons on public land?”

LifeNews: “More and more teenagers and college students are preparing for the next Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, where the ubiquitous red tape will be present again . . . Over the past few years many schools have tried to stop students from participating and quash their First Amendment rights. Every year, attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund defend these students and file lawsuits to protect their rights.”

Gary Palmer writes at the Alabama Policy Institute: “In addition to trying to convince the American public that our health care system is bad, Democrats have also promoted the false argument that our choices for reform are limited to keeping the system the way it is now or dumping the system we have entirely and adopting a government-run health care system. Yes, I am aware that the liberal media and some of the Democrats are saying that the public option is not a government takeover of the health care system. But the truth is they all know the government plan will eventually put insurance companies out of business and everyone will eventually be in the government-run system. These are not our only options for reform.”

AP: “The future of the European Union hung in the balance Friday as Ireland’s voters decided once again whether to ratify a treaty aimed at making the 27-nation body more decisive and effective.”

The Center for Vision & Values: “Our currency is headed for a free-fall off a cliff in the international foreign-exchange markets. Why is this almost a certainty? . . . Economic warfare against the United States is now a very real possibility. Should China and a like-minded group of other non-citizen holders of U.S. debt wish to diversify away from an excessive exposure to the U.S dollar, then our government’s ability to secure financing could become seriously questioned. In addition, our ability to conduct foreign policy and military operations anywhere in the world would also have to factor in the calculus of future financing. ”

The Role of History in Judging Disputes About the Meaning of the Constitution
Jeffrey S. Sutton, 41 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 1173 (2009)

“What makes Heller and Boumediene noteworthy is that all nine Justices agreed that they should consult the historical record; they disagreed only over how to read that record. And while these two decisions were the 2007 Term’s most high-profile cases, they were not the only ones premised on the Court’s reading of history.”

“A judge in Dallas ruled on Thursday that the state court on which she sits has the jurisdiction to hear a divorce suit by a gay couple who were married outside Texas where same-sex marriages are banned.”

Beliefnet (RNS): “But as the [Dalai Lama] returns for another visit to the nation’s capital next week (Oct. 5-10), there is a White House-sized hole in his itinerary . . . The perceived snub has angered human rights advocates, who say it reflects an early pattern in Obama’s foreign policy to sideline religious freedom in favor of other issues like trade and climate change.”

Peter Wood writing at National Review Online, Phi Beta Cons: “St. Louis University’s silly decision to dis-invite David Horowitz to speak on campus has produced the very ‘derision’ that SLU said it was trying to avoid. We have a rare celestial alignment of the AAUP, NAS, John K. Wilson, and Erin O’Connor, among others, who agree that the SLU administrators have betrayed basic principles of academic freedom and plain good sense.”

Chicago Now: “State Sen. Heather Steans on Thursday filed the Equal Marriage Act, a bill that, if passed, would allow same-sex couples to marry in Illinois and guarantee them the state rights afforded to all married couples, including health care decision-making and hospital visitation rights. The bill also states religious institutions wouldn’t be required to perform any marriages inconsistent with their religious practices.”

Today, David French, Director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss this: Trashing free speech: Oregon State Univ. piles student paper’s distribution bins next to dumpster

The MP3 runs just over 32 minutes.

Writing at the Wall Street Journal, Jeffrey Collins reviews a new book by Peter H. Wilson: The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy. Collins writes: “It also offers a bracingly novel interpretation. Historians typically portray the Thirty Years War as the last and goriest of Europe’s religious wars—a final bonfire of the zealots before the cooler age of enlightened statecraft. Mr. Wilson severely qualifies this conventional wisdom. It turns out that the quintessential war of religion was scarcely one at all.”

Gordon G. Chang writes at the Wall Street Journal: “The Communist Party is becoming increasingly divorced from its subjects.”

CNSNews: “The first published report of the work done by pregnancy resource centers around the United States was unveiled Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Stories told by some of the women at the event revealed the need for and benefits of the pregnancy centers.”

The report is here.

Macleans: “High schoolers in P.E.I. are having sex, and they need condoms. That’s the message from Hep’d up on Life, a publicly funded health group fighting to reduce sexually transmitted infections among teenagers on the Island. Currently, no schools in P.E.I. have condom dispensers; only a handful offer counselling programs where students can obtain contraceptives. Hep’d up hopes that will soon change: it wants to place condom dispensers in every high school across the province.”

Kurt Westergaard writing in The Daily Princetonian: “In light of what has later been claimed about Jyllands-Posten’s intentions to deliberately and gratuitously offend 1.2 billion Muslims, I should point out that the paper’s rationale was a far different one. In the months leading up to the publication of the cartoons, Islamists had launched one attack on Danish free speech after another.”

Via City of Seattle Legislative Information Service: “A RESOLUTION urging Seattle voters to vote ‘approved’ on Washington State Referendum 71 thereby retaining Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5688 which would expand the rights and responsibilities of state registered domestic partners to equal those of married spouses.”

Associated Press: “Russia’s ban on the Church of Scientology is illegal, the European Court of Human Rights said Thursday in a binding ruling . . . The Church of Scientology of Russia said the ruling “sets another important precedent to protect the rights of all other religious communities in Europe,” according to a statement from spokeswoman Nina de Kastro.”

Spiegel Online: “Europe is watching Ireland anxiously on the eve of the second referendum. And while the ‘yes’ camp seemed to be in the lead for weeks, the aggressive campaign against the Lisbon Treaty now appears to be swaying undecided voters.”

My FOX 8: “According to the Triad Equality Alliance, the purpose of the billboard is to open minds and eliminate prejudice. The billboard is part of a five-year campaign. The first billboard went up along I-40 in 2004 and this billboard will remain up for two months.”

Webster University Journal: “Members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Questioning Alliance (LGBTQ) and the Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) presented an open and frank discussion on religion and sexual orientation.”

St. Louis Dispatch: “Washington University officials have apologized to St. Louis University for suggesting the Catholic school participated in a postgraduate medical program that trains physicians to perform abortions.”

AP: “Nevada’s secretary of state issued domestic partnership certificate No. 1 at the state Capitol on Thursday as a state law providing many of the same legal rights as marriage to gay and straight partners went into effect.”

San Francisco Examiner (AP): “The Obama administration Wednesday defended an Education Department official over advice he gave a gay student about sex 21 years ago. The official, Kevin Jennings, says he should have handled the situation differently when he told the boy he hoped he had used a condom during a sexual encounter with an older man.”

ADF attorney Nate Kellum and David Fowler, President of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, appeared on the Chris Fabry Live Show to discuss cultural issues raised by Breakpoint’s Chuck Colson: Are we ready for what may be coming in the next 12-24 months? Will Christian values survive?

The MP3 runs just over 27 minutes.

ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Heather Gebelin Hacker writing at the ADF Center for Academic Freedom’s Academic Freedom File blog: “The Sheeran settlement was a great outcome not just for pro-life students, but for every student at the Community Colleges of Spokane . . . CCS policies actually allowed administrators to require students hosting an outside speaker to present opposing points of view! In fact, that was an administrator’s initial response to Beth Sheeran’s request to hold her pro-life event—it was ‘too one-sided’ and since ‘Washington is a pro-choice state,’ they would also have to include pro-choice information . . . The victory does not come free from a sense of foreboding, however. These ‘Stop The Hate’-type programs seem to have become vogue among administrator-types, and are cropping up at increasing numbers of schools.”

“Over the next two decades the pile grew to colossal heights, $36.9-billion by mid-2008. Harvard spent the money on many things. But not a dollar went to increasing the number of undergraduates it chose to bless with a Harvard education . . .”

The Blog of the Legal Times: “Courts in Montgomery County, Md. are launching a new program to safeguard domestic abuse victims. The pilot project will allow victims to file to temporary protective orders without ever stepping foot in court, where they can be at risk of being attacked by their abusers.”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on KWTO with Mary Reichard to discuss violations of free speech and religious freedom in public schools and the National Free to Speak Campaign, a joint effort of Gateways to Better Education and the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)

The MP3 runs just over 40 minutes.

The Grand Rapids Press: “Calvin College professors are asking the board of trustees to withdraw a memo ordering them to follow the Christian Reformed Church’s teachings against homosexuality and same-sex marriages . . . The memo also has created a flood of commentary by Calvin alumni, students and faculty contributing to a Facebook page titled: ‘‘Calvin Students, Alum, Faculty and Staff Questioning ‘The Memo.’”

ADF attorney Erik Stanley appeared on Ave Maria Radio with Al Kresta to discuss the second annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday.

The MP3 runs just over 13 minutes.

ADF Pulpit Initiative information page

ADF Media: Pastors ready for second annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday on Sept. 27

CNN: “Money to bury Detroit’s poor has dried up, forcing struggling families to abandon their loved ones in the morgue freezer.”

Freedom From Religion Foundation, represented by Michael Newdow, sued two NH public school districts and Congress on behalf of several parents and students who objected to the voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in school.

“Liberals who used a bogus ‘right to privacy’ to violate the right to life of unborn children now seek to annihilate the real right to privacy of everyone in their quest to socialize medicine.”

Pacific Justice Institute: “A dance teacher who was terminated after another teacher complained about the mention of God in her music has announced her intention to appeal an adverse decision of the San Diego County Superior Court. The teacher, Kathy Villalobos, is represented by Pacific Justice Institute.”

NJ.com: “State laws banning electioneering at polling places also apply to groups trying to educate voters about their rights and media conducting exit interviews, the state Supreme Court ruled today. The court said the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey can’t hand out voter-rights cards within 100 feet of a polling place and expanded that prohibition to exit polling within the same distance.”

In Re: Attorney General’s “Directive on Exit Polling: Media and Non-partisan Public Interest Groups,” No. A-47-08 (N.J. Sept. 30, 2009)

LifeSiteNews: In an address to the Brazilian bishops on Friday, Pope Benedict XVI on Friday criticized legalized divorce as one effect of secular influences that ‘seem bent on demolishing’ the family . . . ‘The only recognized foundation seems to be individual subjectivity, expressed in a desire to live together.’ The pope criticized the ‘so-called extended and mobile family which increases the number of ‘fathers’ and ‘mothers,’ and leads to a situation today in which the majority of those who feel orphaned are not children without parents, but children with a surplus of parents.”

So far this speech not found in English. Lifesite news links to it in Portuguese.

LifeSiteNews: “Earlier this month, the Department of Home Affairs of the government of South Africa announced its intention to develop an “inter-departmental protocol” on preventing child pornography . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “For some time, Euro-watchers have believed that, should the Irish voters say Yes to the Lisbon Treaty on Friday, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will take the job as first President of the newly constituted state of Europe. Now the Daily Mail newspaper reports today that Blair’s appointment ‘will be rushed through as quickly as possible,’ according to government sources.”

Law.com (The American Lawyer): “Think you’ve got it tough? You could be a student at Harvard Law School, where big firm recruitment is down 20 percent, the Harvard Crimson reports.”

Law.com (National Law Journal): “Acting on pending petitions filed before and during its summer recess, the Court announced it would add 12 new cases to its argument docket, including the Chicago case, a sequel to the landmark D.C. v. Heller decision from June 2008. ”

AP: “Ireland’s voters would inflict ‘extraordinary uncertainty’ on the European Union if they fail to ratify the 27-nation bloc’s reform treaty, Prime Minister Brian Cowen said Thursday.”

“The commission staff had concluded there was not enough evidence to justify an investigation.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Friedlander v. Port Jewish Center, (2d Cir., Sept. 30, 2009), the 2nd Circuit agreed that a New York federal district court lacked jurisdiction over a breach of contract claim by a rabbi against her former congregation.”

“In sum, unless Congress specifically excludes abortion from coverage, it is a certainty that abortion will be part of that package . . . ”

“Christianity is plummeting in America, while the number of non-believers is skyrocketing.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Rundus v. City of Dallas, (ND TX, Sept. 16, 2009), a Texas federal district court rejected a claim brought by a Christian evangelist seeking damages for the refusal by the State Fair of Texas to allow him to pass out religious literature on sidewalks inside the fairgrounds . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “But only 47 percent of Americans now feel abortion should be legal in all or most cases . . . Meanwhile, 45 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases . . . ”

Washington Post: “Opponents of charter schools are going to have to come up with a new excuse: They can’t claim any longer that these non-traditional public schools don’t succeed. A rigorous new study of charter schools in New York City demolishes the argument that charter schools outperform traditional public schools only because they get the ‘best students.’ This evidence should spur states to change policies that inhibit charter-school growth. It also should cause traditional schools to emulate practices that produce these remarkable results.”

Religion Clause Blog: “The Jewish Press reported yesterday that for the first time, some 14,000 young students from 50 yeshivas in New York City will be able to access tutoring services paid for by the No Child Left Behind Act’s Title I program.”

C-FAM: “This week, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will vote on a resolution that calls on European states to achieve ‘universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services’ including ‘safe abortion’ by 2015 . . .”

The source of the resolution is a report prepared by UK parliamentarian and longtime abortion rights advocate, Christine McCafferty: Fifteen Years Since the International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action (ICPD)

European Centre for Law and Justice response memo: Memorandum on the Draft Recommendation and Explanatory Memorandum: Fifteen Years Since the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action

Council of Europe

Gazette Times: “The Oregon State University student group that publishes The Liberty, a conservative-leaning journal, has sued OSU officials, arguing that the university has discriminated against the journal by arbitrarily limiting the opportunities for its distribution . . . [Executive Director of The Liberty] Will Rogers is being represented in the lawsuit by attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, a national legal alliance founded in 1993 by prominent Christian leaders. One of those attorneys, Heather Hacker, said Wednesday that staff members of The Liberty ‘just basically want to be treated like the Barometer . . . That’s just basic fairness.’”

WorldNetDaily: “The U.S. Forest Service has banned the name of Jesus from decorations being assembled by children in Arizona for a blue spruce from the state that will become the Capitol Christmas Tree this year, and a legal firm is challenging the censorship. ‘Banning Christmas from the Capitol Christmas tree is just absurd. Christian students shouldn’t be discriminated against for expressing their religious beliefs,’ said Jonathan Scruggs, litigation staff counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.”

LifeNews: “Arizona courts could have dealt a more severe blow to a new omnibus abortion law that protects medical workers and women considering abortions. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys made gains in federal and state court Tuesday against groups seeking to block the enforcement of new legislation . . . ‘We are pleased that the federal court acknowledges the importance of a woman being fully informed before making one of the most critical decisions of her life,’ [said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden].”

OneNewsNow: “The Alliance Defense Fund has filed to intervene in lawsuits designed to bar several pro-life laws passed in Arizona. Two major pro-abortion groups, including Planned Parenthood, have filed the lawsuits. ADF senior legal counsel Steven Aden tells OneNewsNow the Arizona laws under attack are common-sense protections for women and the unborn.”

USA Today: “The Transportation Security Administration plans to install 150 security machines at airport checkpoints that enable screeners to see under passengers’ clothes.”

AP: “Police ordered protesters to disperse at the Group of 20 summit last week with a device that can beam earsplitting alarm tones and verbal instructions that the manufacturer likens to a ‘spotlight of sound,’ but that legal groups called potentially dangerous . . . It was the first time the device was used in a riot-control situation on U.S. soil . . . ”

Marci Hamilton writes at Findlaw: “So if Hollywood’s elite is going to whitewash fundamentalist polygamy and excuse Polanski because of his artistic achievements and his charm – while ignoring their predatory sexual acts — then its members must also excuse most of the rest of the child predators in the United States, too. Let us be absolutely clear: Those shielding Polanski are choosing the sex abusers over children. It is an either-or choice.”

Home of the Mother (Video at the link): “What is going on? Why is there so much pressure from all sides to continue this slaughter of innocent lives? What interests are behind the world-wide promotion of abortion? What can we do to help? These and many other questions are answered in this most recent HM Television production. Hear the testimonies of professionals who are working intensely to promote the value and dignity of human life from the moment of coneption until natural death! Juan José and Marta, parents of Ignatius, a new-born baby with Down-Syndrome, share their experience and Dr. Bernard Nathanson, former abortionist, tells his heartrending and hope-filled story.”

CitizenLink: “A federal judge has thrown out a challenge to the state’s new pro-life law, but an Arizona state judge is putting certain provisions of the same law on hold . . . Steven H. Aden, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said the law has the backing of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Whenever Planned Parenthood and The Center for Reproductive Freedom team up, something dies.”

CitizenLink: “The cheerleaders from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School made signs to encourage fans and players. They used Bible verses as their motivation . . . After one complaint, the school created an area outside the stadium for the banners . . . ‘There are many legal groups out there,’ [Bruce Hausknecht, legal analyst for Focus on the Family Action] said, ‘like the Alliance Defense Fund, that will defend these schools and religious freedom for free.’”

Michigan State Senator Tupac Hunter: “For some time now, I have been very concerned with the explicit billboards along 8 Mile Road promoting topless bars and other sexually-oriented businesses . . . Today, Michigan is one step closer to ridding our communities of these inappropriate billboards. Recently, the Senate has cooperated in a bipartisan fashion to pass my legislation . . . Senate Bill 266 would restrict the kind of suggestive and inappropriate images we now see on billboards.”

Politico: “Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been quietly assembling the blueprint of a presidential campaign and will announce Thursday the support of a group of high-level political strategists and donors, complemented by a handful of top new media consultants, POLITICO has learned.”

“The Alliance Defense Fund has launched a new Web site designed to be a fully integrated resource for members of the news media covering stories on ADF cases and its related areas of legal expertise.”