Daily Archives: January 4, 2010

“Adherents call it responsible non-monogamy or polyamory, and the nontraditional practice is creeping out of the closet, making gay marriage feel somewhat last decade here in Massachusetts.”

Gazette Online: “Gov. Chet Culver and legislative leaders say the upcoming session will focus on budget problems, but activists are working to get gay marriage on the agenda.”

Local News 8 (AP): “Stan Penfold, who was elected to represent the liberal Avenues and Capitol Hill areas, is thought to be the council’s first openly gay member.”

BBC: “Identity cards carrying details of a person’s religion are required by law in Egypt for employment, education, and access to any public services. International rights groups say they are also used to discriminate in areas such as employment. Lawyer Peter Ramses Al Nagar says he is now representing 3,200 Christians who are forced to live under a Muslim identity.”

BBC News: “Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade has apologised to the Christian minority for comparing a controversial statue to Jesus Christ.”

Compass Direct: “Nearly 50 Muslim members of a community in northern Algeria blocked Christians from holding a Christmas service on Saturday (Dec. 26) to protest a new church building in their neighborhood.”

LifeNews: “The number of euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands rose significantly in 2009 compared with 2008. There were reportedly 200 more deaths under the law, but pro-life advocates say those numbers are likely lowball estimates given the underreporting in the Dutch system.”

Stephen Shapin writing in the London Review of Books: “For the Darwin Day Foundation (whose advisory board includes Dawkins, Dennett, Wilson and Pinker), as for other sponsors, Darwin Day is less about a historical figure than an occasion for extending versions of scientific materialism and rationalism to ever new cultural domains, encouraging an appreciation of ‘science and the role of humans in developing the Scientific Method that permitted the acquisition of an enormous amount of verifiable scientific knowledge, that is now available to modern humans.’ The centre of gravity of Darwin Year has been a celebration of secularism, a crusade against rampant religiosity and ‘public ignorance of science.’ Darwin has been figured as the Scourge of the Godly.”

Richard W. Garnett reviews David Novak’s In Defense of Religious Liberty at First Things: “Novak’s focus, in his Defense, is on a different version of religious liberty: the ‘freedom of a religious community to bring its moral wisdom to the world’—to ‘sing the Lord’s song on strange ground.’ It is a freedom that is ‘exercised for the world, even though many in the world may resist it.’ So often, discussions and debates about law, religion, and policy are animated by a concern about keeping religion in its place and cataloging the circumstances in which religion is to be permitted to make its claims and present its vision. Always lurking, it is thought, is the danger that religion will be ‘imposed’ on the civic, the political, or the secular. Novak’s case, though, is again consonant with John Paul II’s: ‘The Church proposes; she imposes nothing.’”

The ACLU has posted this report in connection with the case involving efforts by a former lesbian partner to remove the custody of a child from its biological mother.

Champion Newspaper: “Agnes Scott College and Georgia Perimeter College both have Christian student organizations, as do most colleges throughout the state and nation . . . But what if one of those principles violates the school’s anti-discrimination policy? . . . ‘Christian students have the right to gather as Christians for a common purpose and around shared beliefs,’ said Gregory S. Baylor, Alliance Defense Fund’s senior legal counsel, in a statement.”

Lambda Legal has posted this press release on behalf of the former lesbian partner who seeks to remove a child from the custody of her natural mother.

Boston Globe (AP): “A prominent demographer says New Hampshire and Maine aren’t in danger of losing one of their U.S. House seats each based on the Census Bureau’s 2009 population estimates. But the picture may change in another decade.”

Boston Globe (AP): “Gay marriage opponents have begun a grass-roots effort to challenge New Hampshire’s new gay marriage law by raising the issue at town meetings this spring.”

PRI: “In 2002 there were 11 public schools in the US offering single-gender classrooms. Now, there are 91 single-gender schools.”

NY Daily News: “A study, which found that young children whose parents spank them perform better at school later on, isn’t winning high marks with child development experts. The research, by Calvin College psychology professor Marjorie Gunnoe, found that kids smacked before age 6 grew up to be more successful . . . ”

KansasCity.com: “Advocates say making it easier for parents to pick schools could improve academic performance, encourage parents to get more involved in their children’s education and reduce drop out rates. But critics question whether open enrollment policies do much to improve academic performance, caution that it could affect school funding and make planning more difficult and worry that the discussion could lead to a voucher system with public money going to private schools.”

The ACLU Blog of Rights carries this post summarizing so called “sex education” developments in several states.

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss legal threats that we face in 2010.

The MP3 runs just over 34 minutes.

Law.com (The American Lawyer): “American Lawyer names the firm its Litigation Department of the Year. The department has marquee partners, a very deep bench and a guiding sense of creative calm in the face of crisis that helps make it greater than the sum of its parts . . . But no case has more riding on it, and for more people, than the challenge that Olson has mounted on behalf of two gay couples against California’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. In May 2009 Olson shocked conservative supporters by joining forces with David Boies, his foe in Bush v. Gore, to file suit seeking to overturn Proposition 8.”

DomaWatch: Perry v. Schwarzenegger

LifeNews: “Congressional Democrats are seriously examining the possibility of skipping the formal conference committee process in an attempt to railroad the pro-abortion health care bill through the House and Senate . . . ”

LifeNews: “Should Congress approve and President Barack Obama sign the pro-abortion health care bill pending in Congress, a pro-life legal group says it would likely file a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. Liberty Council would file a legal challenge.”

The NY Times carries this propaganda by Jeffrey Gettleman who writes: “Human rights advocates in Uganda say the visit by the three Americans helped set in motion what could be a very dangerous cycle.”

. . . A Tipping Point . . . the case of Don Mendell.

The Dartmouth: “PhotoDNA, a new child-pornography tracking technology developed in part by Dartmouth computer science professor Hany Farid, may soon enable Internet service providers to better curb the availability of online images depicting child pornography. The technology was donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in December.”

ABC: “Houston Mayor Annise Parker says her swearing-in as the first openly gay head of the nation’s fourth-largest city marks a milestone for the gay community but that it’s just ‘one step toward a tomorrow of greater justice.’”

“Malaysians are flocking online to debate a contentious court ruling that allows local Roman Catholics to use the word Allah as a translation for God.”

Times: “In a shift in strategy ahead of the general election, the government is abandoning its long-standing ambivalence towards wedlock, conceding that children fare better if their parents are together. A green paper to be published in January will outline new measures to shore up ‘stable parental relationships””

“Republican attorneys general in 13 states say congressional leaders must remove Nebraska’s political deal from the federal health care reform bill or face legal action, according to a letter provided to The Associated Press Wednesday.”

Catholic Culture: “The couple say that their daughter has been denied entrance into an archdiocesan pre-school program because she has not received all required vaccinations.”

NPR (includes audio): “When the Supreme Court reconvenes in January, the first big case it is expected to decide could redefine the role of corporations in financing federal campaigns. The decision is expected to reflect the will of the conservative justices, who remain in the driver’s seat on the high court.”

“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton won praise in June after pushing to extend many federal benefits traditionally provided to diplomats’ spouses to gay and lesbian partners. Since then, unmarried heterosexual couples have been lining up to ask for benefits too.”

Jake Tapper, writing at ABC News: “President Obama recently named Amanda Simpson to be a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department. In a statement, Simpson, a member of the National Center for Transgender Equality’s board of directors, said that ‘as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.’”

Law.com (The National Law Journal): “In his year-end report on the state of the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. refrained from repeating the call for pay raises for federal judges that he has issued in recent years.”

Law.com (The Recorder): “San Jose, Calif.-based U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel is on the White House short list for the open spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to a person briefed on the matter. The opening came when Judge Alvin ‘Tony’ Schall announced in August that he would take senior status.”

Teresa S. Collett writing at the University of St. Thomas Law School’s Law Social Justice blog: “Abortion is justified on the basis that the child will be born handicapped, or was conceived through an act of violence, or will be poor and must struggle for survival from the very beginning . . . We presume that we can know the future of the child, with a certainty superior to that of God’s. Thus the intentional taking of a human life becomes an act of mercy rather than injustice. Yet it is an odd mercy that kills the subject of its concern, and a strange faith that elevates the time-bound and particular judgments of man over the deliberate creative act of God.”

Religion Clause Blog: “A High Court judge in Malaysia has vindicated the free exercise rights of a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, in an oral opinion handed down today.”

Religion Clause Blog:  ”The move came after Americans United and the ACLU threatened to sue the Enfield school system which also uses the Cathedral, and made preliminary inquiries of South Windsor.”

“Walker’s New Year’s Eve surprise is a critical step in his evident ongoing effort to turn the lawsuit into a high-profile, culture-transforming, history-making, Scopes-style show trial of Proposition 8’s sponsors . . . ”

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the Elane photography litigation involving a small company in New Mexico that refused to photograph a same sex “wedding ceremony.”

The MP3 runs about 34 minutes.

ADF Media Information Page: ADF to appeal court decision against NM photographer

Religion Clause Blog: “In Aaarhus, Denmark yesterday, a 28-year old Somali man broke into the house of cartoonist Kurt Westegaard armed with an axe and a knife, shouting that he wanted to kill the 74-year old Westegaard.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Ireland’s new blasphemy law came into force yesterday. It prohibits intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of any religion by publishing or uttering grossly abusive insults to matters held sacred by the religion.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Edward W. Taylor Jr., of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization, is objecting to the decision by the Allegany County(MD) Board of Commissioners to allow a monument honoring the U.S. Constitution to be placed on the county court house lawn . . . The problem, however, according to opponents is that the new monument will contain an engraving that it was donated by Citizens for a Secular Government.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Today’s Lynchburg (VA) News & Advance reports that the all-volunteer Muslim Chaplain Service, which for the first time was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from the state, wants more state funding so it can hire more imams to serve prisoners.”

Christian Action League: “According to an Alliance Defense Fund report, on Oct. 20 student Brianna Cardwell wore a T-shirt featuring the word ‘abortion’ crossed out and spent time between classes passing out fliers explaining her pro-life views. ‘Pro-life students shouldn’t be punished for expressing their beliefs,’ ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman wrote in a press release regarding his organization’s Nov. 24 letter. ‘Brianna was simply exercising her constitutionally protected right to free speech but was censored by school officials fearful of urban legends regarding the so-called “separation of church and state.”‘”

he December 2009 Marriage Law Digest, edited by Bill Duncan of the Marriage Law Foundation, is now available online at http://www.marriagedebate.com.

LA Church & State Examiner: “Gateways to Better Education and the Alliance Defense Fund are calling for Religious Freedom Sunday to be a national event in which churches honor the educators within their congregations and inform their members about the freedom of religious expression for students from kindergarten through 12th grade have at school.”

John Fund writes at the Wall Street Journal: “A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows that if he were running for re-election today, Mr. Nelson would lose to Nebraska’s GOP Governor David Heineman by a stunning 61% to 30%. Only three years ago, Mr. Nelson won his current term with a solid 64% of the vote.”

Letter to the Editor in the Albany Times-Union: “Raum and his organization, the Alliance Defense Fund, may believe that preserving marriage requires restricting it, but I would argue that the opposite is true. As stated by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, ‘civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life’s momentous acts of self-definition.’”

“A Christian woman in Virginia who was ordered to turn over her daughter to her former lesbian partner in Vermont did not do so by the set deadline, a lawyer for the second woman reported.”

ChattahBox: “The Montana case has drawn wide national attention, with advocates for physician-assisted suicide weighing in on the side of Baxter and his doctors lining up against conservative groups like the Alliance Defense Fund and the Family Research Council sided with Montana’s attorney general against physician-aided suicide.”

WorldNetDaily: “A case brought by a church ministry in Chicago against city officials after they applied zoning and administrative rules to prevent the group from offering housing to victims of Hurricane Katrina has been revived by judges at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals . . . The city of Chicago sued World Outreach Conference Center to shut its outreach ministry and community center, even though the building had operated as a community center since 1926, according to officials with the Alliance Defense Fund, which helped fund the work on behalf of the church.”

NJ Star Ledger (AP): “Gay rights advocates in New Jersey plan to rally in Trenton today as part of their last-chance effort to persuade lawmakers to legalize gay marriage.”

USA Today (includes video of Brit Hume): Hume forecasts Woods will recover as a golfer but “…Whether he can recover as a person depends on “his faith. He’s said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redeption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.’”

USA Today: “Internal Revenue Service agents already try to catch tax cheats and moonshiners. Under the proposed health care legislation, they would get another assignment: checking to see whether Americans have health insurance.”

NCPA: “Home-schoolers in Michigan are not required to take standardized tests, as they do in other states, but Michigan home-schoolers sometimes take them voluntarily. The results from these tests are very impressive, says the Mackinac Center.”

Reuters: “Chinese police arrested thousands in a drive against Internet pornography throughout 2009, officials said, vowing a deepening crackdown that critics say is being used to tighten overall censorship.”

LA Times: “With the economy still struggling, the lawmaker’s libertarian views are getting serious attention.”

MyWay (AP): DeMint also said, “What I want is a few hours of debate on Mr. Southers to fix the nation back on security and get politics, especially union politics, out of our security apparatus.”