Daily Archives: November 16, 2009

Tips-Q: “This was not a ‘legislative issue’ as claimed by ADF. That is defined by the IRS pretty much as one would expect — matters before a legislative body. IRS regulations on campaign activity are somewhat ambiguous.”

Virginia Family Foundation: “The survey results found broad support among Democrats, Republicans and Independents for tax-credit scholarship programs and school vouchers. Democrats indicate support for tax-credit scholarships (64%) and school vouchers (53%). They are more likely to favor rather than oppose these policies by +43 percentage points and +15 percentage points, respectively.”

Michael C. Dorf writes at FindLaw: “I do not raise the foregoing examples because I think they conclusively show that there is no First Amendment right to sign a petition for a referendum without having one’s identity disclosed to the public. Whether there is such a right appears to be an open question. But given that there are legitimate concerns about the democratic process on each side of that question, the best answer may be to let the democratic process itself resolve them. In the Doe #1 case, that would mean affirming the Ninth Circuit and denying the claimed constitutional right.”

James Taranto writes at the Wall Street Journal: “Why? Because, he says, ‘America is in what I call a constitutional moment.’ Mr. Obama’s efforts to expand government power raise basic questions about the constitutional limits of that power. ‘The enumerated-powers argument is enormous,’ Mr. Lipsky says. ‘It’s just enormous, the ground that is open for contest here. . . . Right now, we’re at a moment where we’re not going to be able to turn to either the Congress or the executive branch for help on this.’ He believes ‘the only defense now, the only tool we have now, is the Constitution. That’s why I call it a constitutional moment, as opposed to a political moment.’ That makes it an auspicious moment for Mr. Lipsky’s new book, ‘The Citizen’s Constitution: An Annotated Guide‘. . . ”

Christian Telegraph: “According to a November 10 report from Compass Direct, approximately 40 Muslims armed with machetes and clubs attacked the World Possessor’s Church International in Namasuba, just outside the capital city of Kampala, Uganda, on November 1 while believers were holding a worship service, reports Voice of the Martyrs Canada.”

NC Family Policy Council: “The North Carolina Family Policy Council (NCFPC) joined several groups in filing a motion asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision to allow same-sex adoption in the state. ”

Rutherford Institute: “The time has surely come for an independent judicial appointments commission to be established … to take Supreme Court appointments out of the hands of politicians and beyond the reach of the political process…”–John W. Whitehead & John M. Beckett

Associated Content: “Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel presented Child AbuseWatch’s Child Advocate of the Year Award on Friday, November 13th, 2009 [to] Vicki Tucci Esq, Circuit Director, Guardian ad Litem Program, 15th Judicial Circuit spoke of the importance of all aspects of the child advocacy community in helping children . . . In 2002, Ms. Tucci attained the honor of Blackstone Fellow through the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Tennessean: “A lawsuit has been filed against the Cheatham County School Board alleging that school officials have promoted their own religious beliefs and allowed and encouraged public prayers at school events.”

ACLU Press Release: “Three Orthodox medics assert in discrimination charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that the Pikesville Volunteer Fire Company (PVFC) has illegally barred them from riding on calls, in violation of their religious rights and in retaliation for their involvement in an Orthodox emergency response organization. The medics – Dr. Matthias Goldstein, Brennan Gross, and Avrohom Green – were told last winter that because of their refusal to shave their beards on religious grounds, they could not ride with the company as medics.”

Christian Science Monitor: “The Supreme Court Monday declined to hear a challenge to a Miami school board decision that removed a book about Cuba from public schools. The book was seen as presenting too cheery a view of life in Cuba.”

Christian Legal Centre on the Christian Newswire: “Andrea Williams, Barrister-at-Law and Executive Director of The Christian Legal Centre:
“Christian faith in the UK is becoming a bar to office and the same could happen very soon in the United States. I hope the case studies I am bringing from Great Britain will illustrate the terrible threat this and similar moves now pose to Christians and all freedom-loving Americans.”

Paul Diamond is also mentioned in this report.

Reuters: “‘All eyes are on California now,’ said John Henning, executive director of Love Honor Cherish, a California gay rights group, and one of the leaders of an effort to gather a million signatures in order to place the measure on the November 2010 ballot in California. Signature-gathering began Monday after the state approved proposed ballot language.”

Christian Newswire: “Concerned Women for America (CWA) President Wendy Wright said, ‘David Hamilton’s litany of left-wing activist decisions makes him a dangerous choice to sit on a federal appellate court. Judge Hamilton has earned the opposition against his nomination to a higher court.’”

Charisma Magazine: “Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), said the campaign is an ‘all-too-obvious attempt’ to use the IRS to intimidate pastors. ‘Pastors and churches have a right to speak about biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment,’ Stanley said. ‘They can encourage their congregations to take a stand for marriage and can directly support legislative issues like Question 1 without running afoul of IRS rules.’”

The Audio of the Interview is available here. It ruins just over 5 minutes. The Laura Ingraham Show

Radio Netherlands Worldwide: “No prospects for the future, tired of life or suicidal? Anyone who wants to take matters of life and death into their own hands can get plenty of information on how to end it all from the Dutch Right to Die Association (NVVE). The association has made suicide tips available on a new website.”

LifeSiteNews: “‘The fury that comes from “gay” people against people like me can be vicious and vile, and it can hurt,’ he told LSN. ‘They stop at nothing to make me feel ashamed for my current stance on homosexuality, and to try to make me doubt what I have experienced in my life.’”

NC Register: “. . . Poland’s president, Lech Kaczynski, has said that Poland will never agree to remove crosses from its schools . . . ”

Law.com (National Law Journal): “Lawyers involved in the court-martial of the man accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, will shoulder incredible pressure from inside and outside the military to get it right, experts on military law say.”

“A hospital in the south of France has been found guilty of taking excessive measures when they successfully revived a newborn baby that had been declared stillborn.”

LifeSitenews: “The secretary general of the Spanish bishops’ conference, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino of Madrid, warned that Spanish Catholic legislators who vote in favor of a bill to liberalize abortion which is currently before parliament would publicly place themselves in an ‘objective state of sin’ and therefore may not receive Communion.”

Nathaniel Persily writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “The trajectories of opinion in this category of issues do not seem to be following a consistent pattern, and it is interesting to speculate why. I will focus in this post on gun rights, abortion, and same sex marriage.”

Orin Kerr writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “The basic dynamic of Ninth Circuit ‘liberal lion’ Stephen Reinhardt overturning a death sentence in a habeas case – and then the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Reinhardt — happens so often that it normally would not merit comment. But here’s a slight twist: Today the Supreme Court reversed Reinhardt for the third time in the same case, that of Fernando Belmontes, Jr.”

CNSNews: “The OIC is now attempting to have a key U.N. panel amend an existing international treaty to encompass supposedly religiously defamatory speech. Unlike the resolutions, changing the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) to cover religion would be legally enforceable.”

CNSNews: “Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday that the Obama administration will push for ‘immigration reform’ by giving the estimated 14 million people who are in the United States illegally ‘fair pathway to earned legal status.’”

Google News (AP): “Sexually spread diseases continue to rise, with reported chlamydia cases setting yet another record in 2008, government health officials said Monday . . . ”

UPI: “There is a coldness in the air. Thanksgiving is rushing forward. And people are beginning to plan, not their holiday shopping, but how they are going to put the particular symbols of their religion, a Nativity scene or menorah, on the local courthouse lawn.”

“Twenty four leading conservatives have signed a memo urging Republican senators to filibuster . . . ”

AP: “The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a student who complained that high school officials violated her constitutional rights when they turned off her microphone during her religion-tinged graduation speech.”

OneNewsNow: “ADF attorney Mike Johnson tells OneNewsNow a federal magistrate ruled against the county, saying the prayers mentioned Jesus too many times. ‘That’s precisely what the finding was,’ affirms Johnson. ‘It is rather incredible to believe that it’s come to that. I mean, the court specifically recognized that this county board’s selection process for invocation speakers, in the court’s word, “strived” to include a wide variety of speakers from diverse religious faiths.’”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) wants the accused Fort Hood shooter, Major Nadil Malik Hasan, charged with an additional murder . . . ‘The Uniform Code of Military Justice reflects the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which was passed in 2005 to protect unborn children,’ the attorney explains. ‘The law says that it is murder to cause the death of a child in utero at the time of the murder, regardless of whether the killer intended to kill the child.’”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is prepared to protect churches in Maine from the opposition of homosexual advocates . . . Stanley says his legal firm is doing this ‘because pastors and churches have a right to speak freely about biblical truths and to even support directly legislative efforts such as Question 1, which was on the ballot in Maine and rejected same-sex marriage in that state. So churches and pastors have nothing to fear from the IRS or from any other state agency on this issue.’”

The Christian Century: “With the stroke of a pen, President Obama expanded federal hate-crime laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories . . . ‘This law is a grave threat to the First Amendment because it provides special penalties based on what people think, feel or believe,’ said Erik Stanley . . . Stanley said some Christian ministers in other countries with hate-crime laws have been charged for inciting hatred against gays by preaching.”

LifeNews: “‘Respecting people’s First Amendment rights is worthy of praise, not punishment,’ said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel David Hacker. ‘The recall election against Steve was wrongly motivated and flawed. The entire process against him began because he stood up for the free speech rights of a pro-life group. In their haste to punish him for that stand, ASG members did not follow the law. Though we are pleased that they recognize this problem and reinstated Steve as president, we are disappointed with the ongoing and apparently relentless attempt to punish him by seeking to impeach him from office.’”

Winston-Salem Journal Editorial: “Judge Trevor Sharp of the Middle District of North Carolina found last week that the board’s prayer policy violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which bars government from establishing a religious practice . . . It’s time for commissioners to cut their losses and end this backward fight . . . The county is represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization.”

Nashua Telegraph: “Cornerstone Policy Research is holding a summit on conservative issues at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. National speakers include . . . Austin Nimmocks of the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Cornerstone Policy Research

OneNewsNow: “A California city has had a change of heart related to church activities in city facilities. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Daniel Blomberg explains that the case boils down to the fact that public facilities are indeed public facilities — and that churches, which are part of the public, have equal rights of access.”

Christian Post: “Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, however, reject the claim that churches violated IRS policy. ‘Pastors and churches have a right to speak about biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley. ‘They can encourage their congregations to take a stand for marriage and can directly support legislative issues like Question 1 without running afoul of IRS rules.’”

ChicagoNow.com: “Washington Blade, the nations oldest LGBT newspaper has been shut down by it’s publishers.”

SCOTUS Blog reports on the suit here and here.

Steve Goldman of Garden State Equality writes at NewJerseyNewsroom.com: “Our society should be celebrating Louise and Marsha. But because of the civil union law that falls short of marriage equality, they and their children are instead denied equal protection under the law.
New Jersey has been debating marriage equality for eight long years – far longer than any other issue in our collective memories. This is no rushed debate. For the sake of Louise and Marsha, and for families like theirs all across New Jersey, the time for the Legislature to act is now.”

Rees Lloyd writes in the Press Enterprise: “On Veterans Day, many Americans visited veterans memorials as Americans have for years. Today, however, veterans memorials on public land are under threat from establishment of religion clause lawsuits. These lawsuits are being filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on the behalf of individuals who complain that they are offended by the sight of a cross at a veterans memorial. Although generally unknown to most Americans, the ACLU seeks and receives millions in judge-ordered, taxpayer-paid attorneys’ fees in these cases.”

Veteran’s Memorials Project

The Arizona Republic carries this distorted report about the Attorney General’s attack on School Tuition Organizations.

Findlaw: “Professor Carl Tobias recently argued that Senate Republicans are keeping President Obama from appointing federal judges. He is wrong on both his facts and his conclusions. As a reminder, the Democratic majority is 60-40 in the Senate and 12-7 on the Judiciary Committee. This is their largest majority in more than 30 years. It is time for Democrats and their defenders to stop making excuses and trying to blame everyone else. Those who want to achieve power, and who have been given power by the American people, should take responsibility for their own political actions.”

Riazat Butt writes at The Guardian: “To people wondering why creationism was getting any kind of platform, Anglican priest Michael Roberts offers a reminder. Creationism is totally untrue. It exposes people of the book – many of whom, among them distinguished speakers at this conference, see no contradiction between evolutionary theory and their faith – to ridicule. And if it gains traction with governments or other authorities, then the public practice of science and research will be hindered.”

Washington Post: “Virginia Muslims are calling on McDonnell (R) to disavow comments made by the Virginia Beach religious broadcaster last week in response to the shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., in which Robertson asserted that Islam is ‘not a religion’ but a ‘violent political system’ and that those who practice it should be treated like members of a communist or fascist party.”

Examiner.com: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation, responding to complaints from concerned Indianapolis taxpayers, has sent a letter of strong objection to the Indianapolis Public School system for its policy of censorship of web content that promotes or provides information about ‘atheistic views.’ This policy, which also censors Wicca, Witchcraft, ‘voodoo rituals or any other for of mysticism,’ is unlawful because it violates the Free Speech Clause as unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, FFRF charges.”

The Badger Herald: “An e-mail sent by University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to inform students of a ‘prayer vigil’ for a student killed in the Fort Hood shootings was met with criticism from a Madison-based nontheism group, claiming UW-Whitewater was out of its jurisdiction as a public university to invite the student body to pray.”

NY Times: “President Obama has sent the Senate far fewer judicial nominations than former President George W. Bush did in his first 10 months in office, deflating the hopes of liberals that the White House would move quickly to reshape the federal judiciary after eight years of Republican appointments.”

ADF attorney Steven H. Aden writes at the Church Report: “Army prosecutors announced today that the accused Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, will face 13 counts of premeditated murder for the shooting rampage that also left dozens of others wounded. Sadly, the 14th victim of this tragedy has so far been overlooked.”

Andrew Trevor Williams, Taking Values Seriously: Towards a Philosophy of EU Law (November 11, 2009). Warwick School of Law Research. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1504067

“This article argues that the existing philosophy of EU law, such as it may be perceived, is flawed. Through a series of propositions it claims that EU law is infected by an underlying indeterminacy of ideal that has deeply affected the appreciation and realisation of stated values. These values, the most fundamental of which appear in Article 6(1) of the Treaty of European Union, have been applied in a haphazard fashion and without an understanding of normative content. The European Court of Justice has instead adopted a largely pragmatic approach that has focused on principles or virtues of governance rather than attempting to offer a way of satisfactorily defining values or ensuring their realisation. The underlying philosophy thus appears to be based on a theory of interpretation (of original political will) rather than a theory of justice. The recent decision in Kadi paradoxically offers both confirmation of the argument presented but also a judicial appreciation that a new direction may be desirable, one inspired by a law based on the predominance of fundamental values with particular emphasis on respect for fundamental rights.”

Joanna Erdman, Moral Authority in English and American Abortion Law (2009). CONSTITUTING EQUALITY: GENDER EQUALITY AND COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, Susan H. Williams, ed., pp. 107-132, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1499324

“This chapter uses the contrast and rejection of American authorities in Axon to expose a fundamental characteristic underlying the English constitutional approach to young women’s abortion care. It is a shared rather than contrasted characteristic in American and English law. The characteristic is moral authority, defined as the legal authority to protect a state interest in prenatal life through moral abortion decision-making. Both American and English abortion law seek to protect a state interest in prenatal life by entrusting decision-making about young women’s abortion care to third parties: the family, the court, and the medical profession. Neither constitutional approach vests moral authority in young women themselves.”