Daily Archives: February 16, 2010

WHOTV.com: “The 167 people, who represent a number of faiths, held a Statehouse news conference Tuesday to argue that unions based on love ‘must be honored.’ . . . Bryan English, a spokesman for the conservative Iowa Family Policy Center, says his group can’t find biblical justification for supporting gay marriage rights.”

Quad City Times: “Iowa likely won’t be the 15th state to legalize medical marijuana any time soon, but there has been plenty of talk about the idea with two bills in the Legislature and a possible recommendation on legalization Wednesday by the state pharmacy board.”

MLive.com: “The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan today drafted a letter to Royal Oak Police Chief Christopher Jahnke asking him to return ‘unlawfully seized’ medical marijuana to a registered user.”

LifeNews: “Backers of a personhood-abortion ballot measure in Nevada that would define unborn children as a person beginning at conception, or fertilization have appealed a judge’s decision.”

The Gazette: “Euthanasia is already a reality in Quebec hospitals, the president of the federation of Quebec medical specialists, told a National Assembly committee yesterday . . . Geoffrey Kelley, chairman of the committee, explained that MNAs will hear about 30 expert witnesses on “dying with dignity” to prepare a paper for a travelling public consultation this fall.”

WorldNetDaily: “A proposal by the Maine Human Rights Commission to establish a broad right for ‘transgender’ boys to use girls restrooms in all Maine schools will be the subject of a public hearing scheduled by the commission March 1.”

Union Leader: “Residents of the state’s 13 cities won’t be voting next month as towns across the state consider a resolution looking to settle the definition of marriage at the ballot box, rather than in Concord.”

Deutsche Welle: “A heterosexual couple in Austria is fighting for the right to enter into a registered civil partnership – introduced for homosexual couples in January 2010. Under current law the couple will be denied that right – but they have vowed to take the case to the country’s constitutional court to overturn what they says is a discriminatory legislation.”

SCOTUS Blog reports the following dates on these cases of interest:

Mon. Apr. 19 — Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (08-1371) — right of religious student group to benefits at public college without sacrificing beliefs

Wed. Apr. 28 — Doe No. 1 v. Reed (09-559) — right of ballot measure petition-signers to have their identities kept confidential

KansasCity.com (AP): “Women seeking abortions in Missouri would have to receive information about the fetus and wait 24 hours for the procedure under a bill in the state Senate.”

WTAQ.com: “ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union is up in arms over a Republican lawmaker’s plan to keep track of children attending state-funded child care centers . . . ”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The federal appeals court in Atlanta on Tuesday said Fulton County had presented ample evidence to justify an ordinance banning the sale, possession and consumption of alcohol at adult entertainment establishments.”

Zanesville Times Recorder: “Treatment of the tiniest political miscalculation by the leader of the Ohio House last week showed wedge issues are as powerful as ever this election year. The decision by Democratic Speaker Armond Budish to deny recognition on the legislative floor to a teen who had won a National Right to Life oratory contest snowballed from a routine show of leadership muscle to a cable news-sized gaffe within a matter of days.”

Wall Street Journal Blog: “The Oklahoma Tax Commission, the organization that reviews and approves applications for personalized license plates in the Sooner State, has reportedly allowed the following to appear on the state’s plates: STR8FAN and STR8SXI. But the Tax Commission has denied a college student’s request to put IM GAY on his license plate . . . ”

Front Page Magazine: “In light of the most recent attacks in Nag Hammadi and the extrajudicial arrests and detainments of Coptic young people that followed, it is time for pressure on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to take action on Egypt’s human rights abuses. No piece of legislation is a magic pill, especially a non-binding resolution. But it is a first step, it would raise the issues, and it would provide opportunity for briefings and hearings on the condition of Copts and other minorities in Egypt. Such efforts are needed to convince the Egyptian government that America is still committed to human rights and religious freedom.”

CNNgo.com: “. . . a new book, ‘Save the Boys,’ that has one simple warning for Chinese society: our boys are becoming more girly. A combination of popular culture and an education system that inhibits masculine development is to blame, it adds. ”

“Attending Mass at Holy Name Cathedral was supposed to be one of the final Valentine’s Day weekend treats for Cindy White and her husband, who had traveled to Chicago from Hampshire, Ill., to celebrate the romantic holiday. Instead, the couple found themselves wading through nearly 100 men and women who had gathered outside the cathedral Sunday morning to protest the Catholic Church’s opposition to gay marriage and other stances that they see as unjust to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.”

Miami Herald: “A student who set up a Facebook page to complain about her teacher – and was later suspended – had every right to do so under the First Amendment, a federal magistrate has ruled.”

Tennessean.com: “The Wisconsin-based http://www.ffrf.org/”>Freedom from Religion Foundation says the housing exemption gives churches an unfair advantage because they can compensate their leaders with tax-free housing. Other nonprofits, such as the foundation, can’t do that. So it’s suing the federal government to outlaw the housing allowance . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “Incorporated into the bill, titled “On the Prevention of Family Violence,” which deals with a variety of issues, is a clause that says, ‘It is forbidden for persons holding parental power over children to implement corporal punishment, cause psychological pain or to humiliate them in any other form . . . ‘”

LifeNews: “A controversial bill that critics say would significantly infringe on the rights of parents to bring up their children according to their values has passed first reading in the Polish parliament.”

El Paso Times: “In August, the City Council voted 7-1, with Rep. Carl L. Robinson dissenting, to give health benefits to the gay and unmarried heterosexual partners of city employees. Ever since, a group calling itself El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values has been trying to overturn that decision. The group is now circulating a petition that seeks to force a citywide vote on the issue on Nov. 2.”

LifeSiteNews: “That trend, says the pro-life group, is evident in data collected in the past two months since Operation Rescue released a report that showed that over two-thirds of the nation’s abortion clinics have closed in the past 18 years . . . When Project Daniel 5:25 was released last December listing every abortion clinic in the United States, records showed 713 locations. Since then five abortion facilities have closed, although two more have opened, bringing the number down to 710 . . . ”

Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “There’s a move afoot to recall Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). New Jersey law authorizes such recalls, but it seems likely that the U.S. Constitution does not allow a state to force the removal of a senator based on a recall vote.”

“In what pro-life advocates are hailing as a brilliant legislative move, Virginia lawmakers stripped Planned Parenthood funding from its own bill to sponsor pro-abortion license plates. The plate bill now sends the proceeds from sales of the plate to a state fund that actually helps pregnant women . . . ”

LifeNews: “‘The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant,’ the statement will say. ‘Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead — forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?’”

Catholic Culture: “Pope Benedict stressed that the dignity of the person must be anchored in natural law, which is not subject to change. He noted that ‘history has shown how dangerous and damaging a state can be when it proceeds to make laws that touch the person and society, while itself claiming to be the source and principle of ethics.’”

CCFON: “As a result of the ‘expanding’ law, Eugéne Sutorius, a leader of NVVE (Nederlandse Vereniging voor een Vrijwillig Levenseinde), a euthanasia lobby group in the Netherlands, is leading a new group of academics who are demanding the legalisation of euthanasia for people who are simply ‘tired of life.’”

AP: “Police in Malawi say they have arrested a man in what they describe as a sweep against homosexuals. There is a debate over gay rights in this conservative southern African country, sparked by the trial of a gay couple charged with unnatural acts and gross indecency, felonies for which they could be imprisoned for up to 14 years . . . ”

Austin American Statesman: “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has intervened in a first-of-its-kind Travis County same-sex divorce case, arguing that the women involved, who were married in another state, may not be legally granted a divorce because Texas law defines marriage as between a man and a woman . . . ”

The Americano: “In Mexico, amidst protests from pro-abortion groups in that country over recent initiatives to protect the unborn at the state level, Carmen Alba, director of the Institute for the Rehabilitation of Women and the Family (IRWF), cautioned that abortion is neither a “solution” nor a definitive end to a woman’s ‘problem.’”

New Haven Register: “But with emotions running high on both sides in a close election, Breyer said there never was a worry there would be mobs in the street or a revolution after the Supreme Court made its ruling [Bush v. Gore]. ‘That characteristic is a national treasure,’ Breyer said.”

East Valley Tribune: “The problem, he said, is that the screening panels are sometimes top-heavy with people who have donated funds to electing lawmakers who support abortion rights or ‘far-left appointees’ of the State Bar of Arizona.”

Mike Adams writes at Townhall: “Muslim students are not always cowards. But the Muslim Student Union (MSU) is often the least tolerant and most cowardly student group on a given college campus. The gulf between the speech they prevent and what they practice with administrators’ consent is enormous. What follows is a summary of a recent, and increasingly typical, incident. I have included links to video of the incident for verification. I have also included the chancellor’s complete contact information so that ‘infidels’ can express disgust with unchecked Muslim bigotry and intolerance on our nation’s campuses . . . Readers of this column need to watch this five-minute video . . . ”

“The Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme court says this fall’s retention election for three of the state’s seven justices will be the test of a generation. The state’s high court has faced heavy criticism after striking down the law that banned on same sex marriage.”

Phyllis Schlafly writes at Townhall: “The Senate’s decisive defeat of confirmation of radical labor lawyer Craig Becker is the first tangible result of the Massachusetts Miracle, which made Scott Brown the 41st Republican in the U.S. Senate.”

WQAD.com(includes video): “Leaders in one community’s school district will turn to guidance from a higher power as they forge ahead with their first consolidated school year. The Mercer County School Board agreed to hold a prayer before their meeting.”

Religion Clause Blog: “An article yesterday from JTA discusses the differences of opinion within the Jewish community over which side to support in the pending Supreme Court of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez.”

LawCrossing: “Baylor announced today that Kenneth Starr has been chosen as the university’s 14th president. ”

Religion Clause Blog: “A Kentucky state trial court judge has ordered two highway billboards that display religious messages to be taken down within 60 days, finding that they violate state highway beautification laws . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: Business Week reports last week that the lower house of Mexico’s Congress has approved a constitutional amendment that formally establishes separation of church and state.”

Wicked Local (GateHouse News Service): “Legislation filed last week by State Sen. Cynthia Creem would include text messages and other electronic communication in state laws preventing adults from sending obscene messages to minors.”

AP: “Roughly 40 percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home, according to new Commerce Department figures that underscore the challenges facing policymakers who are trying to bring affordable broadband connections to everyone.” The report also reports usage data based on race and income.

ABC 13 (AP): “A North Carolina middle-school teacher has been suspended after reacting angrily on her Facebook page that she was subjected to a ‘hate crime’ by Christian students.”

Though Saletan’s criticism is less shrill than NARAL’s, he makes the same basic attempt to draw the square peg of “pro-choice” beliefs through the round hole of pro-life mothers who highlight the personhood of their preborn children.

The Quincy Cove: “The question now before the Supreme Court [in Perdue] is whether a reasonable attorney’s fee award under a federal fee-shifting statute ever be enhanced based solely on quality of performance and results obtained when these factors already are included in the lodestar calculation? . . . the Alliance Defense Fund, one of the seven groups that signed the Liberty Brief, said that its attorneys ‘function as private attorneys general, representing clients to vindicate their constitutional rights’ . . . But there’s an even better remedy: Limit the fees that all attorneys can collect in these cases. This sounds counterintuitive to free-market supporters, but let’s remember, attorneys are agents of the state. Restricting even a ‘private’ attorney’s compensation is no different than fixing the salary of any other government bureaucrat.”

LifeNews: “Senate Democrats are confirming comments last week from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a top aide and saying that the reconciliation idea to railroad the pro-abortion government-run health care bill through the Senate is on the table even with the upcoming White House health care summit.”

Family Policy Council of West Virginia: “The Family Policy Council of West Virginia (FPCWV) today announced results of a poll . . . Among its findings, the poll revealed that 78 percent of registered democrat voters agree that marriage should be defined as one man and one woman. When asked whether lawmakers should allow a judge to redefine marriage or invalidate West Virginia’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), 84 percent of registered democrat voters said that voters, not judges, should define marriage . . . ”

Tony Mauro writes at the Law.com (National Law Journal): “If two U.S. Supreme Court vacancies materialize this spring, they may have the same impact on the nation’s capital that two heavy snowfalls have had this month: gridlock, paralysis and frayed tempers.”

“The NCAA Football Rules Committee agreed Wednesday to bar players from displaying words, numbers, logos and other symbols in the anti-glare ‘eye black’ they underline their eyes with. Though not mentioned in the decision, former college football star and outspoken Christian Tim Tebow has been credited by numerous media and bloggers as having had an influence on the move . . . ”

AP: “Martin was visiting his native island to present a study conducted by the nonprofit Ricky Martin Foundation, a group advocating children’s rights globally. The 91-page report concludes that sex tourism and human trafficking are serious problems in Puerto Rico . . . ”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed suit against Los Angeles County officials over a constitutional free speech issue . . . ‘The way they are applying it, they have a rule that says you can’t do any expressive activities within 100 feet of any door,’ [Jonathan Scruggs] notes. ‘And they are interpreting that to include doors that are emergency exits that aren’t being used.’”

Sea Coast Online: “The town of Hampton is close to settling a federal lawsuit filed by two Christians who claimed they were wrongly arrested by police at Hampton Beach in 2008 for preaching the word of God . . . At the time, ADF Senior Counsel Joseph Infranco said the lawsuit was filed to challenge what they call ‘vague’ state law regarding disorderly conduct, which they claimed inhibited free speech by prohibiting ‘loud or unreasonable noises in public’ without any method to determine what constitutes a ‘loud and unreasonable noises.’”

Winston-Salem Journal: “County commissioners aren’t the only group split on the contentious issue of public prayer. Faith leaders are divided, too . . . Board members are getting swamped with e-mail calling for an appeal, thanks in part to an organized effort by the local N.C. Partnership for Religious Liberty . . . A national group called the Alliance Defense Fund is paying the county’s legal bill, but won’t pay the American Civil Liberties Union in the event of a loss.”

Ken Blackwell writing at FOX News: “On the West Coast, the Christian Legal Society (CLS) is under assault from the Hastings Law Center of the University of California . . . David French, speaking for the pro-family Alliance Defense Fund, says: ‘The Left is trying to create a right that destroys a right. As of now, there is simply no widely recognized right of private citizens to join any private expressive association they want to join — regardless of their belief or conduct. In fact, even in the campus environment, only the courts of the Ninth Circuit have forcibly opened private associations to non-adherents.’”

Justifying Religious Freedom: The Western Tradition
E. Gregory Wallace, 114 Penn St. L. Rev. 485

“If religion is nothing more than ‘transcendental moonshine’ or silly superstition–on the same level as fortune telling or believing in ghosts–it makes little sense to constitutionalize its protection. The fact that we have a Religion Clause suggests that religion is something more than foolishness, but what? Until we consider carefully what makes religion distinctive and worth protecting, we will never understand why we protect religious freedom or why we have a Religion Clause.”

Balancing Civic Values and Parents’ Free Exercise Rights
Darryn Cathryn Beckstrom, 45 Gonz. L. Rev. 149 (2010)

“Federal courts, legal scholars and parents alike are currently debating the presence of controversial topics in public school curricula, including topics related to homosexuality and sex-education, and whether such topics are suitable for young children. Parents increasingly claim the teaching of controversial topics in the classroom violates their free exercise rights under the First Amendment. These parents experience varied success in federal courts when seeking relief under such a claim. This Article attempts to balance the state’s interest in inculcating students with civic values and parents’ right to control the religious upbringing of their children. While the state should promote the inculcation of civic values, the state must be careful to prevent values indoctrination. Parents should have some control over their child in the public school realm in order to uphold the values of self-governance and limited government in a liberal democracy and pluralistic society. This Article defines and evaluates values indoctrination, a legal theory that is underdeveloped in the Free Exercise Clause jurisprudence. This Article argues that courts should permit parents, when raising a free exercise claim, to contend that values indoctrination in public schools places a burden on their free exercise rights, therefore allowing them to meet the threshold requirement for raising a free exercise claim. When this occurs, society can uphold both the interests of the state and parents.”

Is Hate Speech Becoming the New Blasphemy? Lessons From an American Constitutional Dialectic
Justin Kirk Houser, 114 Penn St. L. Rev. 571 (2009)

“This Comment will attempt to shed light on how the United States’ prior experience with blasphemy speech regulation can positively inform current approaches to hate speech. Important international comparisons will also be made where appropriate. In part one, the Comment will analyze the connection between the history of blasphemy regulation and the development of hate speech regulation.”

Nonincorporation of the Establishment Clause: Satisfying the Demands of Equality, Pluralism, and Originalism
Rupal M. Doshi, 98 Geo. L.J. 459 (2010)

“This Note will begin by describing the origins of the First Amendment and its meaning to the Framers who drafted it. Part I will also briefly describe the history surrounding the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in order to shed light on the principles of the First Amendment that were later incorporated in the twentieth century. Part II will narrate the evolution of modern Establishment Clause law since incorporation and will describe some of the approaches that have been applied to resolve establishment disputes and their respective shortcomings. Part III will begin by describing Justice Clarence Thomas’s view of the Establishment Clause and its proper position in the Court’s jurisprudence. Part III will also attempt to imagine what a state without an Establishment Clause restriction would look like by applying the nonincorporation principle to different categories of establishment cases. This Note will conclude by arguing that disincorporation is not a far-fetched ideal. In fact, not only is it possible, it is desirable. The suggested approach to evaluating Establishment Clause cases– disincorporating the Establishment Clause and applying other constitutional principles in its place to resolve states’ establishment issues–will lead to consistent, predictable, and rational results that further the ends of pluralism.”

Jamal Greene, Heller High Water? The Future of Originalism (June 3, 2009). Harvard Law & Policy Review, Vol, 3, 2009; Columbia Public Law Research 09-208. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1413801

“This Article considers the future of originalism in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. It argues that, although Heller is in many ways a triumph for proponents of originalism, it might also represent a high water mark for the doctrine and for the political movement that supports it. There is little reason to believe that the cases of relative first impression that originalism feeds on will be readily available in the near future, and the politics of the Court and of the country do not augur the appointment of additional originalist judges. These observations recommend that progressive advocates focus on availing themselves of the nation’s ethical shift to themes of change and mutual responsibility, so as to emphasize the Constitution’s dynamic future rather than its static past.”

Freedom From Religion: RLUIPA, Religious Freedom, and Representative Democracy on Trial
Anthony Lazzaro Minervini, 158 U. Pa. L. Rev. 571 (2010)

“In Part I of this Comment, I review the history of federal protection of religious exercise from the ratification of the Constitution to the enactment of RLUIPA. In Part II, I summarize the judicial interpretations of RLUIPA’s Equal Terms provision. Finally, in Part III, I argue that the Eleventh Circuit’s interpretation in Midrash is preferable because it recognizes legislative supremacy and effectuates the will of the American people as expressed in the text of the statute enacted by their elected representatives.”

Sex, Privacy, and Webpages: Creating a Legal Remedy for Victims of Porn 2.0
Ariel Ronneburger, 21 Syracuse Sci. & Tech. L. Rep. 1 (2009)

“The problem of regulating the world of Porn 2.0 thus persists. This paper addresses this problem by proposing an amendment to the CDA, creating potential liability for service providers who fail to at least investigate claims of non-consented pornography. The proposed amendment is modeled on The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (‘OCILLA’) portion of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (‘DMCA’). If a service provider is on notice that it is hosting copyrighted material, OCILLA requires the service provider to remove the material from its servers in order to obtain safe harbor from copyright infringement charges. Thus, service providers must act upon notice of hosting copyrighted material. According to this Article’s proposed amendment to the CDA, online service providers would have a similar duty to act upon notice that they are hosting nude images of unconsenting individuals.”

Olatunde C. Johnson, The Story of Bob Jones University v. United States: Race, Religion, and Congress’ Extraordinary Acquiescence (February 12, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1552173

“On May 25, 1983, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had authority to deny tax-exempt status to Bob Jones University, Goldsboro Christian School, and other private and religious schools with racially discriminatory educational policies. The Court relied on the statute’s broad purpose and placed significant weight on Congress’ failure to enact legislation to overturn the IRS policy. A complete account of the legislative history, provided here, both supports and undercuts the Court’s opinion. More importantly, this story provides an account of the dynamic interaction among a Supreme Court critical of racial integration, a Congress divided on this issue, and a presidency at war with itself. In the end, the story suggests that Bob Jones may have a limited role in shaping interpretive methodology, but that the case reveals how all three branches of government (as well as the public) interact to shape a statute’s meaning.”

International Council on Human Rights Policy, ICHRP, Sexuality and Human Rights (2009). SEXUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS, ICHRP, Geneva, Switzerland, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1551221

“In early 2008, the Council decided to begin work on the subject of sexuality and human rights. The theme is both vast and controversial, and the Council’s initial aim is to clarify the essential elements of a policy discussion of sexuality and sexual rights from a human rights perspective, and by doing so perhaps enable discussion to progress.”

Associated Press: “A state House panel has approved legislation that further regulates the practice of abortion in the state.”