Daily Archives: November 24, 2009

“A federal court ruled Tuesday that two pro-life organizations represented by Alliance Defense Fund and Center for Arizona Policy attorneys will be allowed to defend legislation passed in Arizona this year to protect pregnant women and their children. The protections are being challenged by a pro-abortion group that is seeking to tear them down on behalf of a Tucson abortion clinic.”

“Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have received a favorable response to a letter sent on behalf of a Christian ministry Monday to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center that urged the Alabama facility to reconsider its decision to prohibit the showing of a new creation adventure documentary.”

EuropeNews: “Christian accused of trying to convert Muslim teenager found shot on Mogadishu street. Islamic extremists controlling part of the Somali capital of Mogadishu this month executed a young Christian they accused of trying to convert a 15-year-old Muslim to Christianity.”

Europe News: “As of Saturday, November 21, 2009 the Egyptian town of Farshoot, located 300 miles south of Cairo, and the neighboring villages of Kom Ahmar, Shakiki and Ezbet Waziri, have been the scenes of massive Muslim mob attacks against Coptic Christian inhabitants.”

CNA: “The president of the College of Catholic Lawyers of Mexico, Armando Martinez, criticized a proposed measure this week that would make homosexual unions equal to marriage.”

Catholic News Agency: “‘We are pleased at the ethics panel’s decision and look forward to full resolution in writing so that Baby Gabriel’s life will no longer be in danger,’ said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman.”

The Hill: “Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman has “reconceded” in New York’s special House election.”

PhillyBurbs.com reports on planned protests of topless dancers at Just Sports. “The residents will begin picketing the bar at 7 a.m. Monday and continue picketing for several weeks.”

NY Times: “. . . party officials said on Tuesday, if the Republican National Committee approves a proposed resolution at its meeting in Honolulu in January that would bar the committee from backing candidates who failed to support at least seven of 10 positions that the resolution describes as essential to being a Republican in this environment. The resolution was unveiled by conservative committee members on Monday, underlining the divisions between different wings of the party about how to go forward . . . ”

“Family Court Judge William Cohen awarded custody of the 7-year-old to Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven on Friday after finding the biological mother, Lisa Miller, in contempt of court this year for denying Jenkins access to the girl.”

PNJ.com: “Attorneys for the Santa Rosa School District have asked a federal judge to quash a request by a Christian educators group for volumes of e-mails pertaining to the legal battle over faculty-led prayer.”

ADF files suit against Osceola County for enforcing unconstitutional library policy prohibiting religious use of public meeting room.

Leonard Link: “A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia ruled on November 24 that the Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court had properly accorded full faith and credit, as required by the U.S. Constitution, to a North Carolina judicial decision awarding primary legal and residential custody of a child to two gay men (who are registered California domestic partners) . . . Prashad v. Copeland & Spivey, 2009 Westlaw 4030852 (Va.App., Nov. 24, 2009).”

“What [the Republicans are] doing doesn’t make any political sense, because it is going to cause them to get primaries, while it lets vulnerable Democrats off the hook.”

LifeSiteNews: “The falling and aging population will result in the eventual disintegration of Germany’s generous social welfare programmes, including old-age pensions, the report warns.”

Christian Newswire: “As the Chinese government continues to repress house churches and human rights defenders, members of the international community are taking bold actions for change . . . ”

Alex Schadenberg writes at LifeSiteNews: “Many people will have read the story of Rom Houben, the Belgium man who was diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) for 23 years, but who in fact had a condition known as Locked-in Syndrome.”

NJ.com: “At a curriculum forum in the Middle School library last night, about 30 parents shared their opinions of the text and of teacher Brian McGrath’s assignments on the topic. Some accused the school of trying to indoctrinate their children into Islam. At least one called for the book to be banned.”

WSOCTV: “Operation Save America, an anti-abortion group, was at Cox Mill High School. Members waved signs and handed out flyers to students as they went into school.”

Southwest Times Record: “Although the LeFlore County Commission tabled a decision regarding establishing an American Heritage Park that would house monuments on the county courthouse lawn, the unveiling of a planned Ten Commandments monument at the courthouse on Pearl Harbor Day will proceed, Charlie Horsley said Monday . . . In June, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled Haskell’s monument was unconstitutional because it has ‘the impermissible principal or primary effect of endorsing religion.’ And in October, the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit alliance of Christian attorneys based in Arizona, asked the Supreme Court to review the appeals court ruling.”

CNSNews: “. . . Rigali said that people need to follow a well-formed conscience, and that a well-formed conscience would recognize that abortion is ‘absolutely wrong’ and that there is ‘no way in the world’ a health care bill can be supported if it includes a provision allowing tax dollars to go to abortion coverage.”

Legal Blog Watch: “Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Georgia issued a ruling that a 2009 graduate of the online law school Northwestern California University School of Law is not eligible for bar admission in that state. A year ago — almost to the day — the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reached the opposite result, deciding that a graduate of the wholly online Concord Law School would be allowed to take the Massachusetts bar examination.”

Daily Herald: “Despite objections from a national group opposed to the practice, religious invocation before Wheaton City Council meetings does not appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.”

Boston Globe: “Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, sending an early signal about the fiscally conservative, socially moderate administration he hopes to build, selected as his running mate yesterday Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei, a veteran lawmaker who is also openly gay.”

Ohio.com (AP) reports that Americans United for Separation of Church and State is complaining that too many city council prayers are led by Christians.

David Kopel has this post at the Volokh Conspiracy discussing how the health care bill could impact 2nd Amendment rights. Gun Owners of America has been analyzing the bill and point out several provisions of concern some of which are mentioned by Kopel.”

Gun Owners of America: Slimy Politics Help Advance ObamaCare In The Senate

AP: “A special-action lawsuit filed Monday by the Arizona Education Association challenges legislation dealing with such topics as teachers’ seniority rights in layoffs and deadlines for school districts to decide whether to renew contracts.”

AP: “An Indian government investigation released Tuesday into the 1992 demolition of a mosque by a raging mob reportedly accused top Hindu nationalist politicians of complicity in the attack that sparked nationwide ethnic riots, leaving 2,000 people dead.”

AP: “A Belgian man wrongly diagnosed as vegetative for 23 years told The Associated Press Tuesday that the discovery he was fully conscious brought him a feeling of rebirth after decades of loneliness and frustration.”

Breitbart carries this video from MSNBC that discusses these kinds of cases.

US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works: “Specifically, I will discuss the systematic and documented abuse of the scientific process by an international body that claims it provides the most complete and objective scientific assessment in the world on the subject of climate change – the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.”

The Australian: “Kevin Rudd will move to overturn legislation passed by the ACT government allowing gay couples to hold public, legally binding ceremonies as they form civil unions.”

National Post: “A Federal Court judge has ordered the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration to consider the credibility of a woman’s claim that she will be the victim of an ‘honour killing’ if deported to her home country of Pakistan.”

Russia Today: “A court in central Russia has fined a mosque cleric who called for prayers too early in the morning, thus disturbing children in their sleep.”

Times Online: “A straight couple who want to become the first hetrosexuals in Britain to form a civil partnership will launch a legal challenge after a council refused their request. Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, both 25, said they want the same legal rights as a husband and wife, but did not want to enter an institution that is closed to homosexuals.”

“[T]he equality argument of the Goodridge majority makes an invalid assumption that the traditional laws regulating marriage as the union of one man and one woman . . . treat homosexual people in an unequal way . . . They do not . . . ”

HSLDA: “On November 19, the New Hampshire House Education Committee met to review the work of its five study committees. There were several attempts to amend the retained bill to impose onerous new regulations on homeschoolers. These amendments failed to pass by tie votes. Finally the committee voted 14–6 to recommend killing the last of two bills intended to increase homeschool regulation.”

Joanna L. Grossman writing at FindLaw: “The plaintiffs in these cases(a group of Westchester taxpayers in one case, and a group of New York State taxpayers represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, in the other) claimed that the governmental directives are illegal because, they say, they are inconsistent with New York state law. Two same-sex couples who are legally married in another jurisdiction were permitted to intervene in the case to defend the directives.”

OneNewsNow: “ADF attorney Matt Bowman explains the infant’s situation. ‘He has trouble breathing. He has some other difficulties, but he’s in stable condition and his mother wants his care to continue,’ explains Bowman. ‘We believe that a disability should not be a death sentence, and that the doctors at that hospital who were threatening to withdraw his care over the mother’s objection should not have done so and were violating the law.’”

“‘I think this will be played out in the courts,’ Makrush said, referring to a federal lawsuit the Alliance Defense Fund filed on the school’s behalf in September.” (Idaho Statesman)

The Church Report: “‘A disability should not be a death sentence. No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is not worth saving,’ said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. ‘Doctors at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital need to do the right thing and make sure Baby Gabriel gets the treatment he needs to live. He is loved by his mother, is in stable condition, and could live for a long time. The hospital’s treatment–or lack thereof–of this helpless little boy is simply inhuman.’”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Alliance Defense Fund brought a lawsuit against the Charter Commission and state officials Sept. 1 in federal court on behalf of the charter school arguing for the school’s right to use religious texts as part of its curriculum. A Wednesday letter from the group addressed to Baysinger threatens to sue the state panel if it continues to seek information regarding the school’s possible use of the Bible and other religious texts.”

Wesley J. Smith writing at Secondhand Smoke, First Things: “An attorney affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund has used litigation to stop a Tennessee hospital from unilaterally withdrawing life support from an infant.”

WorldNetDaily: “‘The ethics panel formally agreed not to withdraw his care,’ the organization said this afternoon. ‘ADF attorneys are withdrawing their motion for temporary restraining order but will not withdraw the complaint until a written agreement is finalized.’ ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said he’s pleased with the ethics panel’s decision and looks forward to full resolution in writing so the baby’s life will no longer be in danger.”

Christian Post: “‘We are pleased that the path has now been cleared for the government to grant Davis citizenship without forcing her to violate her religious beliefs,’ said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. ‘The government should not be forcing applicants for citizenship to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs in order to become a citizen, especially when the same requirement is not placed on natural-born citizens. We are glad that the government has stopped this double-standard.’”

CitizenLink: “‘The government cannot require churches to abide by stricter rules than it places on other non-commercial signs,’ [Cortman] said. ‘The Constitution prohibits government officials from singling out religious groups for that kind of discrimination.’”

Fox-11 (AP): “Alliance Defense Fund attorney David Cortman, who represents the church, says he’s disappointed that the injunction was denied, but is pleased the case will go to court.”

The American Prospect: “This is why the judge in the case has asked the plaintiffs . . . and the defendants (supporters of Prop. 8, represented in this case by Charles Cooper, former assistant attorney general under Ronald Reagan, and the conservative Alliance Defense Fund) to address a broad range of issues, from whether gay people make suitable parents to whether a person’s sexuality is susceptible to change. In effect, the court’s primary undertaking will be to define ‘gay’ — and to determine whether it is in the interest of the state to discriminate against people who fall into that category.”

National Journal: “There’s ‘a visceral sense that this [Catholic lobbying] went way over the line — even if as a technical matter, it didn’t violate the law,’ said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.”

Herald-Citizen: “The city’s Planning Commission will consider an ordinance tonight that would amend the zoning code pertaining to adult businesses — regulations that would add new standards as far as business locations, but guidelines that would also open up more probable sites within the Cookeville city limits.”

The Church Report: “Over the weekend, the Ames Library Board voted 6 -1 to allow the continued display and distribution of the magazine Sex, Etc. in the teen section of the public library. Sex Etc. is a free periodical written ‘by teens, for teens,’ and published by Answer, a sex education advocacy group based at Rutgers University.”

LifeNews: “ADF told LifeNews.com: ‘The agreement between the hospital and Baby Gabriel’s mother has not yet been put in writing. ADF attorneys are withdrawing their motion for temporary restraining order but will not withdraw the complaint until a written agreement is finalized. Until then, the lawsuit is still active. We are pleased at the ethic’s panels’s decision and look forward to full resolution in writing so that Baby Gabriel’s life will no longer be in danger.’”

Minnesota Star Tribune: “. . . teacher candidates must embrace — and be prepared to teach our state’s kids — the task force’s own vision of America as an oppressive hellhole: racist, sexist and homophobic . . . The task group is part of the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative . . . ”

The Report: Race, Class, Culture, Gender

2 News (AP): “The case will set precedent, said the Alliance Defense Fund’s senior legal counsel, David Cortman . . . ‘The reason is, we have claimed, prohibiting the use of religious texts in the classroom violates the schools’, the teachers’ and the students’ federal constitutional rights,’ Cortman said.”

Volunteer TV (CBS): “Attorney John Threadgill represents the Palmer family as part of the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed suit against the hospital. There was also an emergency motion in court today to, according to the ADF, save the life of Gabriel. That was postponed.”

LifeNews: “Caitlin Bruce is the victim of a forced abortion that saw abortion practitioner Alberto Hodari and a staffer forcibly restrain her as she screamed no. Now, Bruce has given an interview to a local television station where she describes how Hodari and his associate ‘ripped the life’ out of her.”

Rebecca Hagelin writes at Townhall: “The marriage promise is the foundation upon which happy families are formed. When a man and woman are mature and selfless enough to do what it takes to stay true to their promise, everyone wins. The social science data is very clear on the many benefits of sound marriages for husbands, wives and children.”

The Oregonian: “Teachers are likely to win the right to wear religious clothing such as turbans, yarmulkes, crosses and headscarves in public schools when the Oregon Legislature meets in February, elected officials say.”

Columbia Law School: “Under the First Amendment, a healthcare provider’s religious beliefs should be accommodated, bu
Steve Aden, senior legal counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, and Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney in the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, tackled this question in a recent debate at Columbia Law School . . . ”

More Information here

WHO: Allan Carlson, President of the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society
WHEN: Friday, December 4, 2009 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Family Research Council
Media Center
801 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
RSVP: 800-225-4008 or online at www.frc.org (click on Events)
The lecture will be available via live webcast at www.frc.org — Please RSVP for the webcast
Complimentary lunch will be provided.

NCPA Policy Digest: “Optimism that the District’s federally funded school voucher program will be allowed to flourish is fading. Leading Democrats say that they are open to letting new students enter the program, but efforts to make that a reality seem to have stalled. Indeed, it appears that some Democrats’ idea of saving the program is simply to let it slowly wither away, says the Washington Post.”

APP.com: “The state Legislature kicked off the lame duck session Monday with Democrats picking new leaders but both houses failing to advance a gay marriage bill that will die with the Republican governor-elect unless it’s signed before his Jan. 19 inauguration.”

Confessions of the Church: Discriminatory Practices by Religious Employers and Justifications for a More Narrow Exception
Jessica R. Vartanian, 40 U. Tol. L. Rev. 1049 (2009)

“This note is not meant in any way to discount or undermine the beneficial role of religion in America, and its purpose is not to criticize religious employers for making personnel decisions based on religious doctrine or belief. Rather, because employment discrimination is one of the great evils that plague our society, courts should hold religious employers accountable for their discriminatory employment actions absent evidence of a religious motivation.”