Daily Archives: December 3, 2009

KTNV: “A state judge in Carson City has scheduled a Jan. 8 hearing for arguments challenging the description of a proposed ballot initiative that seeks to define a person and override Nevada’s abortion laws.”

Associated Press: “A court hearing has been delayed in a lawsuit challenging a new abortion law that requires women seeking the procedure to complete a lengthy question-and-answer form.”

Pierce County Herald: “Wisconsin’s largest school district is thinking about giving free condoms to students, to reduce the risk of sexually-transmitted diseases.”

FOX News: “Ireland’s lawmakers have opened debate on a bill to grant marriage-style rights to gay couples, a social milestone in a country long observant of Roman Catholic opposition to homosexuality.”

C-FAM: “Irish abortion laws and sovereignty stand in the dock next week when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) hears a challenge to Ireland’s constitutional protection of life ‘from conception.’”

LifeNews: “The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines 12-7 today for yet another pro-abortion judicial nominee from President Barack Obama.”

NYCLU: “The New York Civil Liberties Union today denounced the State Senate’s failure to pass legislation to give lesbian and gay couples the ability to marry in New York State, but expressed confidence that the marriage bill will pass in the near future.”

ACLU of Kentucky: “When I arrived at the Dirksen Senate Building it was teeming with activists from across the country. We all came with the single purpose of not allowing Congress to continue to use women’s bodies as their personal political playground.”

LifeNews: “Senators approved an amendment to the government-run health care bill today that calls abortion ‘preventative care.’ They voted 61-39 in favor of the Mikulski amendment that could make it so every health care plan in the United States would have to cover abortion.”

PRNewswire: “Americans United for Life President and CEO Charmaine Yoest said, ‘Despite years of research, human embryonic stem cells have yet to be used in real therapies for patients. On the other hand, adult stem cell research — ignored by the Obama administration — has proven effective and is already being used to treat over 70 different diseases and conditions . . . ”

CommonDreams.org: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will hear arguments Friday, December 4, in an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling that the Needville, Texas Independent School District (NISD) violated the U.S. Constitution and Texas state law by punishing an American Indian kindergarten student for wearing his long hair in braids as an expression of his heritage and religious faith.”

ACLU: “As the Senate debates health care reform, hundreds of Americans joined the American Civil Liberties Union and progressive and women’s rights groups today to ask Congress to protect women’s access to abortion care.”

SCOTUS Blog: “At Tuesday’s oral argument in United Student Aid Funds v. Espinosa, the Court grappled with whether an order discharging student loan debt absent an adversary hearing and a finding of undue hardship—in clear contravention of the Bankruptcy Code—is void.”

SLive.com: “State Sen. Andrew Lanza has sparked the ire of some fellow Republicans here — including a former GOP chair — with his vote against same-sex marriage.”

“Senate President Richard Codey later confirmed that the full Senate will vote on the measure on Thursday.”

Kenneth Anderson reports at the Volokh Conspiracy: “My law school’s Librarian and Associate Dean, Billie Jo Kaufman, sent around this latest newsletter from the Law School Admissions Council re a new study on how law schools move resources around in order to maximize USNWR rankings (thanks Billie Jo!). Here is part of the LSAC executive summary . . . ”

CNSNews: “The principal and a teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High School in Santa Barbara County, California are apologizing to parents for not following school district policy relating to a pro-homosexual workshop given to 8th grade students in a leadership class at the school.”

CNSNews: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), author of the Senate health-care bill that permits taxpayer dollars to go to insurance plans which cover abortion, responded to letters protesting the abortion funding in the bill with a letter of his own saying that he opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when there is a threat to the life of the mother.”

Wall Street Journal: “Deputy Attorney General David Ogden said he will step down from the Justice Department’s No. 2 post.”

Texas AG Press Release: “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit defending the constitutionality of the Texas Pledge of Allegiance.”

“A judge today slammed parents as ‘bigots’ for seeking to excuse their elementary-age children from controversial pro-homosexual curriculum . . . ”

David E. Campbell, John C. Green and J. Quin Monson writing at USA Today: “Polls showed that anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of Americans openly said they would not vote for a Mormon candidate for president. Mormons are hardly the only religious group to face such overt hostility. Polls show that Muslims, Buddhists and people without a religion are all viewed more warily by Americans. And as America becomes more religiously diverse, we can expect still more candidates from faiths that might be unfamiliar to many Americans, or those who profess no religion at all.”

SF Civil Rights Examiner: “. . . Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has pushed aside the President’s proposal and introduced a bill repealing DOMA but only granting federal rights to married same-sex couples. As of January 1, 2010, this would only cover four New England states and Iowa. Congressman Nadler has abandoned his President at the behest of marriage-only activists, groups like Marriage Equality, USA, who believe including anything but marriage would undermine the drive for same-sex marriage.”

Reason: “Gura explained in an earlier interview with Reason what that decision did to the Privileges or Immunities Clause: ‘The Slaughterhouse Cases declared pretty much that the only privileges and immunities protected by the 14th Amendment are those of national citizenship, rights that accrue out of the existence of the federal government, like the right to a passport or right to travel the waterways of the U.S. or to petition Congress.’ . . . By choosing to tell the Supreme Court that it should recognize Second Amendment rights as among the privileges or immunities the 14th Amendment was meant to protect, Gura is asking the Court to overturn Slaughterhouse. ”

The Hill: “Without an agreement from the minority, Democrats would either have to file cloture on each amendment, a process that takes days and requires 60 votes, or move to table the amendments, a procedural move that requires only 51 votes but that traditionally has been viewed by senators as harsh.”

Razib Khan writing at Secular Right: “Some of the most vociferous Left multiculturalists in fact are strong believers in the distinction between the civilized and barbaric, they simply draw lines closer in. For example, ‘heteronormative Red State patriarchal Christian’ is a long-winded way of saying heathen or infidel. To many multicultural Leftists I suspect non-Western cultures are like the mythical Prester John, a potential ally against the near enemy. But like Pester John the ally is an illusion and fantasy, just as Western Leftist’s pretense toward cultural neutrality and acceptance of differences is predicated on fundamentally ‘Eurocentric’ norms and values.”

Associated Press: “In the weeks since Maine voters handed the gay marriage movement its 27th electoral defeat in five years, other activists have voiced similar qualms about making marriage their main goal.”

CitizenLink: “‘There is so much more that unifies us in America than divides us, and one of those things is marriage and the family,’ [Austin R. Nimocks] said. ‘Over 50 million Americans have voted for marriage.’”

LifeNews.com: “In McCullen v. Coakley, the [The Life Legal Defense Foundation] is challenging the constitutionality of a 2007 law making it a crime to “enter or remain” on public sidewalks within 35 feet of abortion facilities . . . Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in federal court in January 2008 saying the law essentially eliminates free speech rights within the zone by restricting pro-life advocates from sharing their message with people entering.”

“Support for gay marriage in Trenton is draining away like water from a tub as nervous legislators scurry towards safer political ground.”

Baptist Press: “‘What it shows is that it’s not inevitable,’ Nimmocks told Baptist Press. ‘We’ve seen citizens in 31 out of 31 states vote to uphold marriage as one man and one woman. We’ve seen the New York legislature vote to uphold marriage as one man and one woman, and we’ve seen it from the West Coast to the East Coast, from the North to the South. It’s very encouraging to know that there’s so much that unifies us in this country all across this nation, and marriage is one of those big things.’”

LifeSiteNews: “One Democrat senator has thrown a critical wrench in President Obama’s health care plans by stating he will not support the measure unless it includes Hyde-amendment restrictions like those introduced by Rep. Bart Stupak in the bill’s House counterpart.”

LifeNews: “The National Institutes of Health, following Obama’s order, approved 13 embryonic stem cell lines for use by researchers conducting studies funded with federal funds.”

OneNewsNow: “‘What the First Amendment demands is an accommodation of all religious beliefs, including Christianity,’ [Nate Kellum] contends. ‘And it forbids the hostility toward any religious beliefs, including Christianity.’”

Catholic Culture: “Italian gay-rights activists have unleashed a barrage of criticism on Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, after the Mexican-born prelate was quoted as saying that ‘transsexuals and gays will never enter the heavenly kingdom.’”

Howard Rich writes at Townhall: “‘The House resolution establishes a scenario that would effectively exclude non-union employers from eligibility to work on program-funded contracts,’ a recent opinion-editorial published in the Houston Chronicle noted . . . The scam works like this . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “In McGuire v. Clackamas County Counsel, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111390 (D OR, Nov. 24, 2009), an Oregon federal district court rejected a magistrate’s findings that “claim preclusion” required dismissal of claims by the pastor-founders of a local church alleging that application of local zoning ordinances violated their free exercise of religion.”

Citizen Link Video: Focus on the Family Action has launched the Stand for Christmas Web site that allows consumers to give feedback on how naughty or nice retailers are being when it comes to the word “Christmas

Citizen Link: “Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn wants lawmakers to consider video slot machines at the state’s five horseracing tracks to generate revenue.”

Newsmax: “A group of lawmakers wants to give gay servicemembers the ability to testify before Congress without fearing they’ll be discharged under the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.”

The lawsuit was filed when students, under a 2004 version of school rules, were prohibited from distributing religious themed pencils and candy canes, as well as tickets to church musical and drama programs.

National Law Journal: “Like it or not, the U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of law schools profoundly influences the way those schools are managed, spend resources and are perceived internally and by the outside world.”

Law.com (National Law Journal): “In the wake of the Supreme Court’s refusal early Wednesday morning to hear the last-minute appeal of a Tennessee death row inmate, two justices clashed — one with some bite — over whether execution after lengthy delay is cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.”

Note the reference to authorities including Sir William Blackstone and foreign precedents.

Johnson v. Bredesen, No. 09-7839 (Thomas Opinion, Stevens Opinion)

AP: “The university suffered investment losses while also seeing more students than expected look for public service jobs, school officials said.”

“Gov. Paterson Thursday morning said he has no plans to re-introduce a gay marriage bill next year unless its passage is assured.”

AP: “More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found.”

Legal Blog Watch: “Documents provided this week by the U.S. Department of Justice under a Freedom of Information Act request show that it will spend more than $15 million for legal research this year. Of that, it will pay more than $5 million to each of the major legal research providers, WestLaw and LexisNexis, and pay $4 million for access to the federal judiciary’s PACER system.”

“Rick Jacbos, the leader of the 700,000-member Courage Campaign just told us that after spending more than $200,000 on ‘qualitative research’ into the issue in California that ‘We do not see a path to victory.’”