Daily Archives: November 9, 2009

Winston-Salem Journal: “A magistrate is recommending that Forsyth County be barred from allowing sectarian prayers at meetings of the board of commissioners . . . Mike Johnson, the ADF attorney representing the county, said final ruling is about a month away, and that he will be filing a brief outlining his disagreement with Sharp’s recommendation.”

Library of Congress: “Peru’s Special Revision Commission on the reform of the Criminal Code approved an amendment that would decriminalize abortions performed in cases of rape or congenital malformations of the fetus.”

Catholic News Agency: “Widespread anxiety exists among Catholic leaders in Venezuela who fear that President Hugo Chavez could try to confiscate churches, schools and other church property and try to ‘eliminate’ the work of the Catholic Church, a source close to the Venezuelan Bishops Conference has told Aid to the Church in Need.”

LifeNews: “College officials targeted Steve Macias for retaliation after they attempted to censor the speech of an off-campus pro-life group that ASG had already voted to allow to participate in a campus event . . . ‘Respecting people’s First Amendment rights is worthy of praise, not punishment,’ said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel David Hacker. ‘Steve Macias did exactly the right thing in his role as president, and now he is paying the price determined by those who wanted to censor this pro-life group.’”

WBZ (AP): “Police are investigating a pair of threats against gay marriage opponents in Maine.”

Kalamazoo Gazette: “Two days after Kalamazoo city voters approved an anti-discrimination ordinance to protect gays, lesbians and transgender individuals, a Washtenaw County Democrat introduced a House measure to overturn Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage.”

JURIST: “Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Friday that Italy is not bound by last week’s European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) ruling that displaying crucifixes in a public school classroom violates the European Convention on Human Rights.”

Catholic News Agency: “An abortion facility in Pensacola, Florida has announced that it will close . . . The Community Healthcare Center, which was dually licensed as an abortion clinic and as a clinical laboratory, faced a $413,000 fine after the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) found its lab license had been expired for 413 days.”

Everett Herald: “One proposal would clarify lewd-conduct offenses by employees who are visible to the public while clad in skimpy attire such as lingerie or pasties. The other would push the more blatantly adult businesses into special adult-entertainment zones. The laws would apply only in unincorporated Snohomish County.”

Sociological Images carries several graphs purporting to show the breakdown.

NY Times: “Q. Why study how gay marriage works in the Netherlands? A.The Netherlands let same-sex couples marry in 2001, so they have the longest experience for us to see what effects it might have.”

NY Times: “In New York, Democrats hold a shaky 32-to-30 majority in the Senate, and some senators oppose allowing the legislation to come to the floor for a vote.”

Zenit: “Here are the 12 Theses on Religious Freedom written by Dr. Martin Kugler of the Vienna-based human rights network Christianophobia in Europe, which is hosted by the nongovernmental organization Europe for Christ.”

http://christianophobia.eu/

FOX8 News: “A federal magistrate has recommended that prayers referencing Jesus and other sectarian deities made before meetings of the Forsyth County Commissioners are unconstitutional . . . The county was represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, which defended the county at no charge . . . The Alliance Defense Fund said it will press on, but also said it will not pay for legal fees should the county ultimately lose. Plyler says a loss would, right now, cost the county upwards of $100,000.”

Boston Globe (AP): “Vermont Judge Christina Reiss (“Rice”), whom President Barack Obama has nominated to the federal bench, is up for a confirmation hearing on Wednesday.”

Pacific Justice Institute: “One of the largest school districts in the Sacramento area is quietly moving to revise its student absence policy to make clear that parents will not be notified if their children in grades 7-12 leave school to get ‘confidential medical services,’ such as abortions, contraceptives and drug abuse counseling.”

LifeSiteNews: “The recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemning the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools could result in the removal of all public displays of a Christian origin in all public buildings of Europe under the newly passed Lisbon Treaty, a British legal expert has warned.”

LifeSiteNews: “Pro-life leaders Saturday afternoon are hailing the House’s decision to allow a voting opportunity on pro-life, Hyde-amendment language in the health bill as a major victory. However, with some sources suggesting that Democrat leadership is banking on later squeezing the pro-life amendment out of the bill in committee, some leaders are warning that the bill – with a whole bundle of dangers besides the federal abortion funding – is still too much of a threat . . . ”

Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “I’m pleased to be the first to report that the newly founded Voltaire Press at Duke University has just published Muhammad: The “Banned” Images. The book includes all the images that were omitted by the Yale University Press from Jytte Klausen’s The Cartoons That Shook the World — including the 12 Mohammed cartoons — plus many more historically significant items (a total of 31), together with brief discussions of the context behind each work.”

Denver Post (AP): “Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.”

CNSNews: “Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), who voted against the Pelosi health care bill that was approved by the House of Representatives Saturday night, said he fears that the government-run ‘public option’ health insurance plan the bill would create could kill the hospitals in his congressional district.”

The Hill: “Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the Democrats’ chief deputy whip in the House, said that she and other pro-abortion rights lawmakers would work to strip the amendment included in the House health bill that bars federal funding from subsidizing abortions.”

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom have issued a cease-and-desist letter to Sacramento City College officials after the president of the Associated Student Government was subjected to an illegal recall election for refusing to censor a pro-life group on campus.

Rep. Cao was the lone Republican to vote yes on the House Healthcare bill. The Hill reports: “According to a written statement released later that night, Cao explained that Obama had promised to help out the lawmaker’s district still devastated from Hurricane Katrina.”

AP: “Advocates [for marriage redefinition] remain pleased that they may finally get a vote for final legislative approval in the Senate. Still, they don’t know if there are enough votes to pass the bill.”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on Prime Time Chicago (Moody Radio) to discuss this: Court puts hold on policies used against ‘Abortion is not Healthcare’ T-shirt

The MP3 runs just over 9 minutes.

Liberty Counsel: “Liberty Counsel has launched its seventh annual ‘Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,’ pledging to be a ‘Friend’ to those who recognize Christmas and a ‘Foe’ to those who censor it.”

NCPA Policy Digest: “Want to be a happy married couple? Consider having kids. A new study found that having children boosts happiness. And the more, literally, the merrier. But unmarried couples shouldn’t expect to find greater happiness through child-raising. The study, published in the Oct. 14 online edition of the Journal of Happiness Studies, suggests that having children has little or no effect on boosting happiness among couples who aren’t hitched . . . ” (links to the study)

The Hill: “Sanders is staking out a far-left position . . . he intends to push for a bill that includes a government-run, public-option insurance component and refusing to guarantee his support on cloture votes.”

The city of Richmond has agreed to eliminate its ban on religious and church activities in its community centers after receiving a letter from ADF attorneys urging the city to cease the implementation and enforcement of its unconstitutional policy.

ADF attorneys help former Texas abortion clinic director fight baseless claims that she absconded with confidential information

“But my co-writer Harald said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right . . . We have to all . . . in the Western world … think about this.”

New York Times: “By many standards, the JFS applicant, identified in court papers as ‘M,’ is Jewish. But not in the eyes of the school . . . Because M’s mother converted in a progressive, not an Orthodox, synagogue, the school said, she was not a Jew — nor was her son. It turned down his application . . . In an explosive decision, the court concluded that basing school admissions on a classic test of Judaism — whether one’s mother is Jewish — was by definition discriminatory.”

USCCB Press Release: “‘Yesterday on November 3rd, the people of Maine voted to uphold the true nature of marriage as the union of one man and one woman,’ Archbishop Kurtz said in a November 4 statement. ‘The voice of the people in this country has spoken once again on the side of justice, in favor of the truth about marriage.’”

WLNS: “Newly released documents say a trucker took two nieces and a teen boy to school before fatally shooting an abortion protester and another man in a small Michigan town.”

ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman writing at JURIST: “In what’s commonly referred to in some circles as the ‘abortion distortion,’ the courts have abandoned their zealous protection of speech and thrown out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. Now, with the blessings of the courts, no longer are such regulations limited to prohibiting only unprotected conduct, they are prohibiting pure speech. And on a public sidewalk, no less.”

“Culture precedes politics. . . ”

Telegraph: “Unmarried couples who live together for just two years will be automatically entitled to half their partner’s estate if they die without a will, under proposals from the Government’s law advisers.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Today’s Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader reports that Luzerne (PA) County officials are likely to follow the lead of several other Pennsylvania counties and remove the property tax exemption from closed churches and religious schools.”

Religion Clause Blog: “A Florida federal district judge has largely rejected an attempt by the Christian Educators Association International to challenge the high profile and contentious consent decree entered into in March by the Santa Rosa County Florida school board to settle litigation brought by the ACLU challenging religious practices in the county’s schools.”

Minor Doe I v. School Board for Santa Rosa County, Florida, (ND FL, Oct 30, 2009)

The Telegraph: “One might have thought such provisions would have been quashed by the Act of Settlement of 1701, which forbade heirs to the Crown to marry Catholics. But in Royal Prayer (Continuum, £16.99), Mr Baldwin demonstrates that the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1661 is still in force and kicking.
The treaty was made for the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza (right), and stipulated that ‘Her Majesty and whole Family shall enjoy the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, and to that purpose shall have a Chapel, or some other place, set apart for the exercise thereof’.”

Religion Clause Blog: “. . . the bill does provide a ‘conscience exemption’ for members of religious sects whose tenets reject insurance benefits . . . ”

The Religion Clause Blog reports on this article in the NY Times: “. . . Muslims in the service face suspicion by some of their officers. Muslim soldiers are concerned about killing fellow Muslims in fighting and they hear condemnations of such killing in their mosques when they return from service . . . ”

“Since Christie opposes same-sex marriage and Corzine supports it, the upcoming lame-duck legislative session may be the last opportunity for a vote on same-sex marriage measure for at least four years.”

Paul Farmer writes at the Boston Globe: Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children must not be subjected to . . . life imprisonment without the possibility of release. Only two nations in the world have not ratified this convention: Somalia and the United States . . . ”

“Not so fast. President Obama’s victory dance yesterday for the House-passed health-care bill came as Senate foes — mainly Republicans with one key Democrat moderate — pronounced the measure mortally wounded, if not outright DOA.”

NewsMax: “Senate Republicans are gearing up to block the appeals-court nomination of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton, whose resume includes a stint as a fundraiser for ACORN, the community-organizing group recently tripped up by a series of embarrassing undercover videos. Conservative legal groups have described Hamilton as ‘ultra-liberal.’”

” . . . it’s about more than simply disagreeing with the gay activists. It’s about rebuilding an institution that has been neglected, abused, and underappreciated. It’s about re-teaching what a precious gift true marriage is . . .

Joshua Fairfield, Virtual Parentalism (September 30, 2009). Washington & Lee Legal Studies Paper No. 2009-08. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1480701

“Parents, not laws, ultimately protect children both online and offline. If legislation places adults at legal risk because of the presence of children in virtual worlds, adults will exit those worlds, and children will be isolated into separate spaces. This will not improve safety for children. Instead, this Article suggests that Congress enact measures that encourage filtering technology and parental tools that will both protect children in virtual worlds, and protect free speech online.”

Protecting Children in Virtual Worlds Without Undermining Their Economic, Educational, and Social Benefits
Robert Bloomfield and Benjamin Duranske, 66 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1175 (2009)

“Advances in virtual world technology pose risks for the safety and welfare of children. Those advances also alter the interpretations of key terms in applicable laws. For example, in the Miller test for obscenity, virtual worlds constitute places, rather than ‘works,’ and may even constitute local communities from which standards are drawn. Additionally, technological advances promise to make virtual worlds places of such significant social benefit that regulators must take care to protect them, even as they protect children who engage with them.”

Sex play in virtual worlds
Robin Fretwell Wilson, 66 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1127 (2009)

“This Article asks whether an adult who engages in virtual sex with a child may be subject to prosecution under existing laws prohibiting sexual exploitation of children and concludes that in many states the adult would be.”

From Privacy to Liberty: The Fourth Amendment After Lawrence
Thomas P. Crocker, 57 UCLA L. Rev. 1 (2009)

“This Article explores a conflict between the protections afforded interpersonal relations in Lawrence v. Texas and the vulnerability experienced under the Fourth Amendment by individuals who share their lives with others. Under the Supreme Court’s third-party doctrine, we have no constitutionally protected expectation of privacy in what we reveal to other persons. The effect of this doctrine is to leave many aspects of ordinary life shared in the company of others constitutionally unprotected. In an increasingly socially networked world, the Fourth Amendment may fail to protect precisely those liberties—to live in the company of others free from state surveillance and intrusion—the Constitution should protect.”

Mark Strasser, You Take the Embryos But I Get the House (and the Business): Recent Trends in Awards Involving Embryos Upon Divorce (September 24, 2009). Buffalo Law Review, Vol. 57, pp. 1159-1225, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1478032

“More and more couples must decide what to do with frozen embryos upon divorce. This article discusses the developing jurisprudence, comparing different approaches adopted or suggested in various jurisdictions. The article concludes that while the enforceable agreement approach has its own difficulties, it is far preferable to some of the other approaches currently proposed or adopted.”

Mark D. White, Same-Sex Marriage: The Irrelevance of the Economic Approach to Law (October 30, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1499996

“Several noted legal scholars, most prominently Richard Posner, have applied the economic analysis of law to the debate over same-sex marriage. In this note, I argue that the economic approach to law is ill-equipped to deal with the issues of principle, dignity, and rights that are at the core of the debate, regardless of the position taken on the issue.”

Paisley Currah, The Transgender Rights Imaginary (November 3, 2009). FEMINIST AND QUEER LEGAL THEORY, Martha Albertson Fineman, Jack E. Jackson, Adam P. Romero, eds., pp. 245-258. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1499347

“I suggest the solution is not to try find the ‘one perfect theory’ that would make sense of all these contradictory state constructions of sex, gender, and the relationship between them. Instead, we should, as a movement, be celebrating the incoherencies between them even as we continue to pursue rights claims in the here and now by invoking context-specific useful constructions of gender definition.”

Roel De Lange, The European Public Order, Constitutional Principles and Fundamental Rights (November, 02 2009). Erasmus Law Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2007. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1498326

“How is the notion of European public order/ordre public dealt with in the case law of various European courts? What does it refer to? Does it include fundamental values, and if so, are fundamental rights a part of these fundamental values?”

Frederic R. Kellogg, Holmes, Common Law Theory and Judicial Restraint (January 1, 2003). John Marshall Law Review, Vol. 36, p. 457, 2003. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1500302

“Judicial restraint is a subject properly bound with the interpretation, and hence the definition, of law. The nature and contours of what judges interpret dictate what is appropriate for them to do. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who was a scholar and a philosopher before a judge, espoused a pronounced form of judicial restraint in constitutional law. In form and explanation, Holmes’ judicial self-restraint is unlike versions found in recent literature. Rooted in a theory of the common law and associated with insights common among early American pragmatic philosophers, its most remarkable aspect is a radical form of nonintervention, not mere moderation. To be properly understood, it must be examined in light of a distinctive concept of law.”

Michael J. Perry, Liberal Democracy and the Right to Religious Freedom (November 9, 2009). The Review of Politics, Vol. 71, pp. 1-15, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1501446

“The right to religious freedom, according to international law, rests in part on respect for the ‘inherent dignity’ of every human being. Thus there is a prima facie link between the liberal-democratic justification and the Church’s 1965 justification. But as I argue in this essay, the appeal to human dignity is not an exclusive preserve of modern liberal democracy. Indeed, we can imagine a government that refuses to affirm the right to religious freedom because it wishes to save souls, and this precisely out of respect for human dignity of every human being. Such a view was proclaimed by the the pre-Vatican II Church. Thus the appeal to human dignity is not evidence of a fundamental shift by the Church. What then does account for the Church’s undeniable U-turn – its undeniable change of direction?”

George Letsas, Is There a Right not to be Offended in One’s Religious Beliefs? (June 1, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1500291

“The paper scrutinizes the normative claim that the legal right to freedom of religion requires respect for the religious convictions of believers when expressing oneself in public; or, put differently, the claim that there is a right not to be offended in one’s religious beliefs by the public expression of the views of others. This claim has been endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights in its judicial reasoning and is popular with many courts in Europe when reviewing criminal legislation that prohibits blasphemy, religious hate speech, or the disparaging of religious doctrines.”