Daily Archives: March 25, 2010

Lambda Legal: “Late yesterday afternoon, Lambda Legal and Mazzoni Center sought permission to file a friend-of-the-court brief in a federal lawsuit brought by the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America challenging the City of Philadelphia’s policy requiring nondiscrimination in the use of the City’s subsidies.”

Lambda Legal: “Late yesterday afternoon, Lambda Legal and Mazzoni Center sought permission to file a friend-of-the-court brief in a federal lawsuit brought by the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America challenging the City of Philadelphia’s policy requiring nondiscrimination in the use of the City’s subsidies.”

Blog of the Legal Times: “The Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the international news and financial services company, is introducing a new Web site to connect pro bono legal providers with nongovernmental organizations around the world.”

Buffalo News: “State Liquor Authority commissioners today yanked the liquor licenses from two local strip clubs after witnesses told authority investigators that the owners, including Rick Snowden, knew of both prostitution and drug dealing at the establishments raided earlier this month by the FBI.”

Seattle Post Intelligencer: “The Oak Harbor City Council approved a trio of laws to ban public nudity, and license and zone adult entertainment within city limits after more than four hours of public comment and discussion.”

AP: “The Texas Supreme Court is deciding whether to strip away a $5 entrance fee to watch nude dancers. The court heard arguments Thursday about whether the so-called pole tax, a fee mandated by lawmakers in 2007, is unconstitutional.”

Christian Post: “Police in Alipur have arrested a Christian woman on a baseless accusation of ‘blaspheming’ the prophet of Islam and tried to keep rights groups from discovering the detention, a Christian leader said.”

ADF attorney Dale Schowengerdt appeared on True News to discuss the resolution of the situation in Gilbert, Arizona involving restrictions on religious activities in homes.

The MP3 runs approximately 12 minutes.

ADF attorney David French appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss this: Judge rules professor’s opinion columns not protected by First Amendment.

The MP3 runs about 5 1/2 minutes.

ADF attorney Greg Baylor appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez case that is currently pending at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The MP3 runs approximately 32 minutes.

ADF Resource Page

SCOTUS Wiki

Mattias Caro writes at the Center for a Just Society: “The gay and lesbian lobby would have us think it’s now open season on discrimination in the Commonwealth . . . ”

Telegraph: “For a head of state to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night . . . ”

Yahoo News (AP): “Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Thursday declared passage of American health care reform ‘a miracle’ and a major victory for Obama’s presidency, but couldn’t help chide the United States for taking so long to enact what communist Cuba achieved decades ago.”

Civil Society: “The Charity Commission has been ordered to pay initial legal costs of £50,000 to Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) after losing its case in the High Court last week. The final amount has yet to be decided as the case still ongoing, with the Commission set to reassess its position on whether the charity can change its objects in order that it can refuse to allow homosexual couples to use its adoption services.”

KPHO: “[House Bill 2596] would give churches the ability to locate wherever they choose, regardless of local zoning rules . . . ‘It’s about creating a level playing field so that churches are not discriminated against,’ said Deborah Sheasby, legal counsel for the Center For Arizona Policy.” [Note: Bill number in original article appears to be incorrect. The modified number above comes from the Center for Arizona Policy's 2010 Legislative Agenda.]

The Jakarta Globe: “The Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled to maintain the controversial 2008 Anti-Pornography Law, but failed to put an end to a debate that has divided the nation for years . . . The law defines pornography as ‘sexual material made by people in the forms of pictures, sketches, illustrations, photos, writings, voice, sounds, motion pictures, animation, cartoons, poems, conversations, body movements and other forms of communication through various mass media or public displays that can arouse sexual desires and/or violate public moral values.’” | Washington Post

The Sydney Morning Herald: “Tony Abbott has told a gay radio station he regrets his choice of words on homosexuals and says he supports same-sex relationships. The socially conservative opposition leader has been criticised for telling the 60 Minutes program he would probably feel a bit ‘threatened’ by homosexuality.”

Christian Today: “The General Pharmaceutical Council has decided to uphold the right of pharmacists in the UK to refuse to dispense treatments that conflict with their religious beliefs. The new pharmacy regulator said it would retain an existing code of ethics when it replaces the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as the regulator of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians later this year.”

Christian Post: “A panel of theologians in The Episcopal Church released on Wednesday a draft document on the divisive issue of same-sex relationships, detailing the positions of the ‘traditionalists’ and the ‘liberals.’ . . . The 95-page paper . . . ‘Same-Sex Relationships in the Life of the Church‘ was drafted by the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops . . . ”

Virtue Online: Bishops’ theology committee publishes draft report on same-gender relationships

Boston Globe: “As long as Ireland has had pubs, Good Friday has been off-limits as a ‘dry’ holy day — until now.”

AP: “When California voters head to the polls in November, they will decide whether the state will make history again – this time by legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for adults.”

Christian Today: “The director of CLAAS UK, a Christian organisation supporting the persecuted church in Pakistan, says the country’s blasphemy law is being misused by extremists to harass Christians in spite of the government’s promises to protect the rights of minorities.”

Politico: “House Minority Whip Eric Cantor blamed top Democrats for ‘fanning the flames’ regarding threats to members of Congress — and says his office in Richmond was shot at earlier this week.”

LifeNews: “Two pro-life Republican lawmakers announced today that they were the victims of harassment and violence from people upset that they voted against the pro-abortion health care bill. Rep. Eric Cantor’s Richmond campaign office was shot at while Rep. Jean Schmidt received a harassing phone call.”

Mandatory classes with highly sexual, church-bashing content has nation in uproar;
ADF, Professionals for Ethics file suit with ECHR

The ongoing media effort to implicate the Pope in sex abuse allegations many of which date back decades has caused The Catholic League to issue a series of press releases in response. See the links below for a sampling of this battle.

OneNewsNow: “The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next month in what some say is one of the most important religious liberty cases before the high court in the past decade . . . ‘What’s at stake is the freedom of religious student groups to operate on campus — to be student religious groups,’ [Greg Baylor] states. ‘What Hastings College of the Law is trying to do is to force the Christian Legal Society to deny its faith in order to get the same benefits that other student groups on campus have.’”

LifeNews: “Attorneys with Americans United for Life are urging the Obama administration not to expand embryonic stem cell research beyond the ways in which it has already promoted the life-taking and ineffective research . . . ”

OneNewsNow: “A New York college has reversed course and will now allow a student to distribute a pro-life newsletter on campus . . . [Travis Barham] says the college, which did not have a policy on students distributing literature on campus, responded favorably to ADF. ‘We just commend Kingsborough Community College for respecting the dictates of the First Amendment once they received our letter, and [for] allowing Joseph to continue to distribute his pro-life literature on campus,’ he notes.”

“Liu . . . argues that judges (usually in an ‘interstitial’ role) may legitimately invent constitutional rights to a broad range of social ‘welfare’ goods . . . ”

PRWeb: “Kingsborough Community College has reversed their ban on student Joseph Hayon’s distribution of a pro-life magazine after receiving a letter from the Alliance Defense Fund . . . Lila Rose, UCLA student and President of Live Action, comments: ‘We are encouraged that Joseph used his voice for voiceless preborn children and was not silenced even when threatened. Institutions of higher learning should welcome open dialogue, not suppress it. We are thankful to the Alliance Defense Fund for vindicating Joseph’s rights. May more young people stand up and speak out for the rights of the unborn!’” | ADF News Release | Live Action

Public Policy Institute of California: “Among all Californians, residents are more likely to favor (50%) than oppose (45%) same-sex marriage for the first time in the PPIC Statewide Surveys.” Public Policy Institute of California: “Among all Californians, residents are more likely to favor (50%) than oppose (45%) same-sex marriage for the first time in the PPIC Statewide Surveys.”

Fox 8: “A state GOP leader is urging North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper to join 13 other states in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health care reform law.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Gov. Sonny Perdue said Thursday he will appoint a ‘special attorney general’ to challenge federal health care legislation signed into law this week by President Obama. Perdue made the announcement a day after state Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a Democrat running for governor, told Perdue, a Republican, he would not pursue a lawsuit . . . ”

MarylandReporter.com: “The state is refusing to accept a $60,000 agreement that the Office of the Attorney General reached with the American Civil Liberties Union and ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). The Board of Public Works Wednesday rejected the settlement that would have resolved a long-standing dispute over an Ehrlich-administration Maryland Transit Administration prohibition on political activity at public transportation properties.”

Compass Direct News: “Islamic militants in Somalia tracked down an underground church leader who had previously escaped a kidnapping attempt and killed him last week, Christian sources said.”

Polskie Radio: “The Centre of Islamic Culture, designed by KAPS Architekci, will be located in the close vicinity of the Blue City shopping centre, at the Zeslancow Syberyjskich roundabout just to the west of the city centre. The three-story building will have an 18-metre high minaret. But the characteristic sound of prayer will not be heard drifting over the city.” | More from Islam in Europe.

CathNews: “An Equal Opportunity Bill debated in the Victorian State Parliament could force religious institutions and schools to secularise or disband, some religious groups fear. ‘This sets up the (Equal Opportunity Commission) to be judge, jury and executioner with unparalleled powers,’ Australian Christian Lobby state director Rob Ward was cited saying in a report in The Age.”

Politics.hu: “The Constitutional Court yesterday upheld the same rights regarding property and inheritance for same-sex couples as for those in conventional marriages.”

Reuters: “A furious dispute has erupted in Cyprus after the ruling communists set their sights on the island’s wealthy Orthodox Church of Cyprus to help plug a runaway deficit. The island’s government says it wants to start a dialogue with the Church regarding the millions it says the church owes in unpaid taxes.”

Washington Post, Virginia Politicsa: “Del. Kathy Byron (R-Campbell) has joined Liberty University in a lawsuit challenging the federal health care legislation that it filed just before midnight last night.”

East Valley Tribune: “[SB 1305], which already has been approved by the Senate, would expand the existing law to say that no government funds can be used, directly or indirectly, to pay for a health insurance policy for workers which includes abortion as a covered service. The only exceptions would be to save a woman’s life or when an abortion is necessary to ‘avert substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.’”

UPI: “New legislation in Iceland will ban stripteases and prevent clubs from making a profit from employee nudity, authorities say.”

PrideSource (LGBT site): “The court must act on the review by April 8. The bill then will return to the president, who will have 20 more days to mull it over. If he signs it, it becomes law. If he vetoes it, Parliament is expected to pass it again, which would then force Cavaco Silva to sign it.”

AP: “All 41 GOP senators sent a letter to Obama on Thursday urging him not to appoint union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board when Congress goes into recess starting next week.”

“The military’s top uniformed officer has publicly admonished a three-star Army general for urging troops to speak out against allowing gays to serve openly . . . ”

Reuters: “The Pentagon made immediate changes on Thursday to make it harder for the U.S. military to kick out gay personnel, an interim step while Congress debates repealing the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.”

Ann Coulter writes at Townhall: “Since arriving in Canada I’ve been accused of thought crimes, threatened with criminal prosecution for speeches I hadn’t yet given, and denounced on the floor of the Parliament (which was nice because that one was on my “bucket list”).”

Washington Post: “Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) has introduced an amendment that would suspend the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples until the issue could be put before voters.”

The Hill: “Senate Democrats defeated 29 straight Republican amendments to the Democratic healthcare reconciliation bill before losing a key parliamentary ruling in Thursday’s early hours that will force the legislation back to the House of Representatives.”

Philip K. Howard writes at the Wall Street Journal: “The charter school movement is succeeding because it liberates teachers and principals from rules and regulations and holds them accountable for results.”

Daily Mail: “Americans who suggest Barack Obama should rot in hell are apparently deadly serious. Nearly a quarter of Republicans believe the Democrat president ‘may be the Antichrist’, according to a survey . . . More than half of the Republicans quizzed by Harris Poll, 57 per cent, believed the president was secretly Muslim, something he has consistently denied. And 67 per cent of Republicans who responded believed Obama was a socialist . . . ”

“This Comment concedes that Lawrence bars continued application of rational basis review to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ However, Lawrence effectively left the lower federal courts with the task of choosing between strict scrutiny and some form of heightened scrutiny. This piece argues that the courts should reject strict scrutiny review of state-sponsored discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as too restrictive on the military. It argues that an intermediate standard of review balancing the gravity of Congress’s reasons for enacting legislation like DADT against the liberty right recognized by Lawrence is an appropriate method by which to analyze DADT and other similarly compelling government policies. The Comment ultimately concludes that the federal courts should structure due process jurisprudence in such a way that the perceived needs of the U.S. military — for various policy reasons — can be seamlessly factored into an appraisal of DADT and other forms of state-sponsored discrimination under the Due Process Clause.”