Daily Archives: December 9, 2009

ACLU: “In a statement reaffirming his support for the mission of the American Civil Liberties Union, philanthropist David Gelbaum explained today why his generous financial contributions to the ACLU and two other charities will be greatly reduced this year . . . ”

LifeNews: “The Coburn amendment would ensure that health care providers do not have to participate in the performance of abortions.”

Seattle Times: “The Snohomish County Council has passed an ordinance requiring that bikini barista stands with partially nude employees or sexually suggestive signs be licensed as adult entertainment.”

Blog of the Legal Times: “Newdow and Ritter this week filed what they called an emergency motion to block the court clerk from making reference to God in the opening cry before the Dec. 15 oral argument. Today, a three-judge panel—Judges Douglas Ginsburg, Janice Rogers Brown and Brett Kavanaugh—rejected the request. The panel issued a one-sentence order that did not provide a detailed explanation. Click here for a copy of Newdow’s brief.”

” . . . instead will likely be introduced in the Assembly Judiciary Committee in preparation for a vote by the lower house.”

Bakersfield.com: “Bakersfield is the second city in Kern County to have prayers at city council meetings challenged by the Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc., a Wisconsin nonprofit with a membership of mostly atheists and agnostics.”

Maine Public Broadcasting Network: “The National Organization for Marriage spent more than $1 million in Maine to repeal the state’s gay marriage law last month. The group also filed suit against the state, challenging the financial reporting requirements for political action committees. The group has now expanded its legal challenge, in anticipation of next year’s legislative and gubernatorial elections nationwide.”

Christian Post: “There were nearly 2,200 abortion clinics in 1991, estimates Operation Rescue. Today, there are just 713 clinics.”

Related: Harvard Study: Planned Parenthood is an Abortion Business and Business is Bad

Judicial Watch: “Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Secret Service for denying Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for access to Obama White House visitor logs from January 20 to August 10, 2009.”

Patrick Courrielche writes at Breitbart Big Hollywood: “Enter Howard Zinn – an author, professor and American historian – who, with the help of Hollywood and the History Channel, intends to change the way our pre-K through high school children learn American history.”

“All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it.”

LifeNews: “A new undercover video released by the group that exposed Planned Parenthood staffers turning a deaf ear to potential cases of sexual abuse finds staff at a Wisconsin Planned Parenthood abortion center lying to women in abortion counseling about the development of their unborn child.”

The Union Leader: “Armed with religious icons, rosary beads and a satin-cloaked statue of the Virgin Mary, a small but determined group of Catholics met on the sidewalk in front of Catholic Medical Center yesterday to protest the erosion of Catholic ethical standards they say would result if the hospital affiliated with secular Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health.”

A lengthy list of comments below this article illustrates a huge cultural divide.

“The same-sex marriage movement appears likely to end a banner year with a string of stinging defeats that opponents say have undermined a core proposition of the movement – that the acceptance of gay marriage is, sooner or later, inevitable.”

CNSNews: “Instead the statement, to be adopted by E.U. heads of government at a summit in Brussels later this week, now says Jerusalem should become the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state, as part of a negotiated peace settlement.”

CNSNews: “When asked yesterday whether it is morally right to use tax dollars from pro-life taxpayers to pay for insurance plans that cover abortion, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) said that it ‘remains to be decided.’”

AFP: “Human rights deteriorated across the Arab world in 2009 with torture widely practised in several countries, namely Egypt, an Arab watchdog said in a report released on Tuesday.”

Liberty Counsel: “In the Minoa School District, parents received a letter from their school with strict limits that essentially ban all things Christmas from the school’s program.”

Fox News: “The Obama administration is warning Congress that if it doesn’t move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a ‘command-and-control’ role over the process in way that could hurt business.”

LifeNews: “A House-Senate Conference committee met Tuesday night to prepare an omnibus bill combining several spending measures that must be approved soon to fund the federal government. The omnibus bill includes a provision that would overturn a longstanding law that stops abortion funding in the nation’s capital.”

CNSNews: “Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), a co-sponsor of theNelson-Hatch amendment to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds from paying for any part of a health insurance plan that covers abortion, said he would not draw a ‘line in the sand’ and not vote for a Senate health care bill even if it does not include the prohibition language.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Yesterday’s Redding, California Record Searchlight reports on the progress of Merry Hyatt who is collecting signatures for a proposed ballot initiative (full text) that would require public schools to ‘provide opportunities to its pupils for listening or performing Christmas music at an appropriate time of year.’”

CNSNews: “Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) told CNSNews.com that using tax dollars from pro-life Americans to pay for insurance plans that cover abortion is morally correct.”

Heritage Foundation Foundry Blog: “Conscience protections become yet another banner of liberty trampled by the health care reform stampede, even as its sponsors seek to assure Americans that the overhaul is an expansion of freedom . . .”

Ilya Somin writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “The ongoing discussion over the law firm partner who decided to reject all job applicants with Federalist Society membership raises the question of how common discrimination against Federalist Society members really is in the law firm world . . . ”

Randy Barnett, Nathaniel Stewart and Todd F. Gaziano writing at the Heritage Foundation (Legal Memorandum #49): “Any power to establish a national health care program simply does not entail the distinct constitutional power to compel persons to purchase a contract of insurance from a private insurance company.”

Related event at the Heritage Foundation today including live video.

Religion Clause Blog: “Forum 18 reports that under the 2002 Extremism Law, the publications will now be added to the Justice Ministry’s Federal List of Extremist Material and banned throughout the country.”

Religion Clause Blog: “. . . The court acquitted a street preacher on seven charges, finding that six of the charges infringed his rights to free expression and freedom of religion . . . ”

The Hill: “Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is on the fast track to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). The Associated Press has declared Coakley the winner of the Democratic primary in Massachusetts’s special election on Tuesday . . . ”

BusinessInsider: “A long-time donor for the A.C.L.U. won’t be making his usual gift this year — a gift that made up 25% of the civil liberties group’s budget . . . Sources inside the A.C.L.U identified the donor as David Gelbaum . . . ”

Paul Belien writing at Hudson New York:

On the eve of the referendum, the Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf had already warned that the ban on constructing minarets might constitute a violation of the freedom of religion as expressed in the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights. Widmer-Schlumpf said that under international law Switzerland is bound by the Convention. However, that is not entirely correct. Unlike the EU countries, Switzerland is not bound by Strasbourg’s interpretation of the COE’s Human Rights Convention.

The Council of Europe (COE) is one of the few international organizations which Switzerland has joined. The Council has the same flag and anthem as the European Union (EU), which for many years was housed on the same premises in Strasbourg, but it is a different organization. Based in Strasbourg, the COE observes whether human rights are respected in Europe. Apart from Belarus, all the European nations – including Russia, the Caucasian states and Turkey – are COE members. While the EU has 27 member states (all of them also COE members), the COE has 47. The COE’s main institution is its court, the European Court of Human Rights.

EducationNews.org: “Texas’s charter school law is one of the nation’s weakest, according to a study released today by the national nonprofit Center for Education Reform. In terms of providing children with access to great public schools, Texas ranks 25th in the country with a D grade, the report indicates. Thirteen states, in total, received Ds.’

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss this: U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear lawsuit against UC-Hastings.

The MP3 runs just over 7 minutes.

Katholische Nachrichten: “The three Irish applicants try in the process A, B and C v. Ireland to enforce a ‘right to abortion in Ireland, and finally as a precedent for all of Europe.’ This case was a ‘key event’ not only for Ireland and Europe, but also for the U.S., says the American legal expert Glen Lavy.” [Original in German. Excerpt via Google Translator]

Magyar Kurir [Excerpt via Google Translator from Hungarian]: “The court allowed a four-abortion organizations, including two Americans, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and the Family Research Council (FRC) [to] enter the trial. Nobody has the right to decide that an innocent life is unnecessary . . . said Roger Kiska, legal adviser to the ADF. Glen Lavy . . . pointed out that the outcome of the case is very important for America, as . . . local courts in other jurisdictions [monitor] such judgments, it is incorporated into their practice.”

Wall Street Journal Editorial: “Charter schools reached a new milestone this year. According to the Center for Education Reform, more than 5,000 charters are now operating in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Considering that the first charter didn’t open until 1992, and that these innovative schools have faced outright hostility from teachers unions and the education bureaucracy, their growth is a rare gleam of hope for American public schools.”

Reuters: “The legalization of same-sex marriage faces a critical test in New Jersey this week that advocates on each side of the controversial issue argue will shape the fate of gay-marriage battles across the nation . . . In the District of Columbia, a city council vote on same-sex marriage is set for next week, with a win likely . . . ‘Ultimately we would support the right of New Jersey citizens to vote on the measure themselves,’ said Austin Nimocks, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund that opposes same-sex marriage.”

San Diego Union-Tribune: “‘Regardless of the makeup of the panel, they are bound by Supreme Court precedent, and that precedent is on our side,’ said Joe Infranco, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund. That group, which advocates on behalf of Christian religious beliefs in courts, was one of many organizations that filed ‘friend of the court’ briefs in the case.”

Catholic News Agency: “‘No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless,’ commented Roger Kiska, ADF legal counsel. ‘Ireland’s constitutional amendment defending innocent life is under attack, and the stakes are high for all of Europe.’ ADF Senior Counsel Glen Lavy said the case is ‘pivotal’ not only to Europe but to America as well, because American courts increasingly consider what other countries are doing when deciding their own cases. ‘Because this case could be the Roe v. Wade of Europe, its impact upon the U.S. should not be underestimated,’ he added.”

One News Now: “A pro-life group warns that Senate Democrats are attempting to use the end of the year omnibus funding bill to “smuggle” in the removal of three longstanding bans on government-funded abortion.”

“Twenty-one votes are needed for passage in the upper house, which Democrats control 22-18, and at least three Democrats . . . have said they will vote against it . . . ”

Grove City College Center for Vision and Values: “Dinesh, your last book was “What’s So Great About Christianity,” which did quite well, and which we profiled in a series of Q&As last year (Part I, Part II, Part III). It led to, among other things, an ongoing fascinating series of public debates you’ve had with Christopher Hitchens. It appears that your latest book, ‘Life After Death: The Evidence,’ came from those experiences. Tell us what prompted this book—which, for the record, I recommend as a Christmas gift for both believers and (especially) non-believers . . . ”

AP: “More than a year after Michigan voters approved a ballot proposal that loosened restrictions on embryonic stem cell research by allowing people to donate embryos left over from fertility treatments, another heated debate begins.”

AP: “In a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday event, the Nevada Democrat urged his colleagues to reject Sen. Ben Nelson’s amendment to stiffen curbs on abortion in the worked-over health care bill.”

The Advocate: “The Tangipahoa Parish School Board unanimously agreed Tuesday night to change the word ‘prayer’ to ‘invocation’ in its policy on prayers before board meetings, a policy under challenge in a federal court lawsuit . . . The board’s attorney in the federal case, Mike Johnson of the Alliance Defense Fund, requested the changes, Assistant Superintendent Thomas Bellavia told the policy committee.”

WorldNetDaily: “Gerald Chipeur, an ADF-allied attorney who argued the case before the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta this fall, said, ‘There is no place for thought control in a free and democratic society.’ He continued, ‘The tools of censorship should not be available to prohibit freedom of expression in Canada. There is no circumstance in a free society where limitations on political or religious debate can be justified.’”

Mercury News: “‘Why are women being singled out here? It’s so unfair,’ Boxer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. ‘We don’t tell men that if they want to … buy insurance coverage through their pharmaceutical plan for Viagra that they can’t do it.’”

Mercury News fails to mention that there is key difference between Viagra and Abortion. In an abortion somebody always dies.

NCPA Policy Digest: “Within two years of having sex for the first time, half of teenage girls may be infected with at least one of three common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), according to a new study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Often, those girls are infected by the age of 15.”

“The U.S.’s debt burden will climb to 97.5 percent of gross domestic product next year from 87.4 percent, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast in June.”

The Hill: “Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele suggested Democrats should strip Reid of his leadership position if he does not apologize for the comments, but Senate Democrats on Tuesday defended him.”

Ross Douthat writing at his NYT blog: “Here’s the glass half-full take on the National Marriage Project’s annual ‘State of Our Unions’ report, which tackles the Great Recession’s impact on American wedlock. As it turns out, the strain of the downturn hasn’t pushed the divorce rate higher; instead, economic stress seems to have made American marriages slightly more stable overall, as couples develop a ‘new appreciation for the economic and social support that marriage can provide in tough times,’ as the study’s lead author, Brad Wilcox, puts it.”

CNN: “They’re known as ‘alienation of affection’ suits, when an ‘outsider’ interferes in a marriage. The suits are allowed in seven states: Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.”

Understanding the Lobbying Efforts of a Church: How Far Is Too Far?
Chase Manderino, 2009 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 1049

“This Comment focuses on how to best address the tension between a church’s right to free speech and the potential for excessive entanglement between church and state through the lobbying restriction. An analysis of the origin of the lobbying restriction demonstrates that Congress has placed a meaningful restriction on church activities. Although a restriction on church lobbying helps prevent excessive entanglement between church and state, the restriction’s ambiguity makes adequate enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’ or the ‘Service’) difficult and at the same time discourages lobbying that would be beneficial for the church and society.”

Collaborated Death: An Exploration of the Swiss Model of Assisted Suicide for Its Potential to Enhance Oversight and Demedicalize the Dying Process
Stephen J. Ziegler, 37 J.L. Med. & Ethics 318 (2009)

“Over time, however, patients, families, and physicians began to question whether medicine’s ability to artificially extend the lives of the dying was really in the patient’s best interest. A ‘right to die’ movement subsequently emerged, a social movement motivated in large part by a desire to regain control over the dying process. As the movement continued to evolve, a myriad of options became associated with the so-called right to die such as living wills, health care proxies, and even physician-assisted suicide (PAS) (a procedure where a physician provides a lethal dose of medication to a terminally ill patient who intends to hasten their own death through self-administration of the substance). While each one of these end-of-life options remain unique, all arguably are evidence of a desire to promote patient autonomy and demedicalize death. (One could also argue that the right to die movement is also biological and evolutionary; motivated by a species desire to establish a niche, maintain equilibrium, and ensure future survival in response to medicine’s artificial interference with the dying process). And while most matters relating to the withdrawal and withholding of treatment may raise some controversy in domestic policy and clinical practice, PAS remains far more controversial.”