Daily Archives: March 26, 2010

The Rockport Pilot: “The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas has submitted a public records request which was sent by mail as well as by facsimile for information regarding a Nativity scene allegedly placed on the grounds at Fulton Navigation Park. The request, dated March 11, was sent to both the Aransas County Navigation District and the Town of Fulton.”

AU: “Americans United for Separation of Church and State today asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a church in Gainesville, Fla., that posted a sign opposing a mayoral candidate. Dove World Outreach Center erected a sign on its property reading, “No Homo Mayor.” The reference is to Craig Lowe, a mayoral candidate who is gay.”

EurActiv: “300 objectors have filed a lawsuit against the Spanish government’s “leftist stance” on education, challenging compulsory ‘anti-Christian’ classes for school students before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) . . . The suit, filed this month by lawyers from the Alliance Defence Fund (ADF) and Professionals for Ethics, calls for the adoption of ‘provisional measures’ preventing the Spanish government from obliging children to sit the course.”

Freedom from Religion Foundation: “The Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which won a major victory in federal court overturning Wisconsin’s Good Friday state holiday 14 years ago, has asked the Revisor of Statutes Bureau to quit listing Good Friday as a state holiday in the official version of the Wisconsin State Statutes.”

WCTV.tv: “The Georgia State Senate today voted to prevent women in Georgia from being forced to have an abortion against their will. [Under Senate Bill 529], authored by Sen. Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville), criminal abortions will include unlawfully coercive abortions, or with the intent to prevent a birth based on the gender or race of the unborn child.”

CBS: “Commandant Gen. James Conway, the top officer in the Marine Corps, told Military.com Friday that straight soldiers will not be asked to share rooms on base with openly gay soldiers if the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is repealed.”

The Christian Institute: “The Government’s controversial and far-reaching Equality Bill passed its remaining stages in the Lords this week while concerns about its impact on religious liberty persist. The Government tidied up Lord Alli’s amendments that allow civil partnership registrations to be held in churches. But an amendment aimed at rescuing faith-based adoption agencies from being closed down by homosexual equality laws did not get voted on.”

WorldNetDailya: “A lawsuit has been filed against the Spanish government over mandatory classes that expose children to sexually explicit images and bash Christian beliefs . . . ‘Americans should take note of this case because this sort of situation is not restricted to Spain,’ said [Roger Kiska], legal counsel for ADF based in Europe. ‘Many parents would be dismayed to know that there are organizations in the U.S. that have attempted to persuade school districts to use similar types of curriculum.’”

Las Vegas Sun: “The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of Davis and two newspapers, today asked the full U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case and overturn a decision by a three-judge panel of the court upholding the state’s ban on prostitution ads. ACLU lawyer Allen Lichtenstein wrote in his petition: ‘Because brothels are licensed in Nevada, commercial speech concerning them is constitutionally protected.’” | See full post for related items.

Christian Post: “‘Exodus International believes that every human life, regardless of an individual’s sexual behavior, is of inestimable worth to God and that defending this principle is foundational in offering a Christian response to any issue,’ reads a statement issued by the Board of Directors of Exodus International and its North American membership. ‘Exodus International has not and will not support any legislation that deprives others of life and dignity including, but not limited to, Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009.’” | EXODUS International

Randy Barnett has posted draft language at the Volokh Conspiracy.

Christian Post: “Attorneys with a Christian legal firm plan to appeal a recent ruling against a Christian counselor who was laid off after she referred a lesbian to another counselor. ‘A counselor who is a Christian shouldn’t lose her job for upholding the highest professional standards,’ said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Brian Raum on Friday.”

Student Press Law Center: “Lawyers for The Liberty, an independent publication at Oregon State University, filed a motion for reconsideration after a judge ruled in favor of the university in a lawsuit filed by the paper . . . Though lawyers for the Liberty filed a motion for immediate relief, which would have required the university to allow the newspaper to again be distributed on campus, it was withdrawn after the university amended its fixed bin policy and allowed the paper to distribute again, said [Heather Gebelin Hacker], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund representing the Liberty.”

Chicago Sun Times: “Parents with students in the lowest-performing elementary schools in Chicago could obtain vouchers to move their children into better-performing private schools under a plan that passed the Illinois Senate on Thursday.”

Topeka Capital-Journal: “Kansas House OKs bill keeping semi-nude dancers, clients 6 feet apart.”

Telegraph: “Married couples are less likely to split up than those who live together, according to the Office for National Statistics.”

Charlotte Observer: “A 2008 law says government bodies can have a prayer by a designated chaplain, that members pray on “an objective and rotating basis” or that local religious leaders pray.”

Bruce Carton writes at Legal Blog Watch: “It has taken me a while to realize the scope of this, but I now see that there is a good-sized army of young lawyers who have taken to the blogosphere with a common mission: to alert any wannabe lawyers out there to the futility of such a decision . . . ”

Gary Palmer and Harold See write at the Alabama Policy Institute: “This past week, Congress passed a health care act that both supporters and opponents say will put control of important aspects of our lives in the hands of the federal government. It is a mistake to think the uproar is merely about a health care act. Congress has diminished the states, making them in many ways mere instruments of its will, diminishing local freedom to experiment, and producing near fiscal bankruptcy, both to the states and the nation. At least 36 states have introduced legislation against the implementation of the act. These actions, known as nullification, fail to address the major problem and have limited chance of success. Nullification is designed to persuade Congress to alter its action; this Congress appears immune to persuasion. Other states have sued, claiming that the act is unconstitutional. These efforts will likely be futile because of the federal courts’ expansive reading of federal power. Even if they are successful, repealing one act does little to address Congress’s habitual overreaching . . . Patrick Henry wrote, ‘If there be a real check intended to be left on Congress, it must be left in the State Governments.’ A state-initiated constitutional amendment, backed by grassroots support, should be directed at restraining the abuses of the national government, thereby restoring the kind of self government intended by the Constitution.

Medical News Today: “State legislatures in Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee recently acted on several abortion-related measures. Summaries appear below . . . ”

NY Times: “A Manhattan judge on Friday reversed a city decision to close 19 schools for poor performance, ruling that education officials engaged in ‘significant violations’ of state education law and failed to follow proper process in closing the schools.”

McClatchyDC.com: “Kentucky risks losing $42 million a year in federal transportation funds if lawmakers approve a billboard deregulation bill aimed at saving a ‘Hell is real’ sign along Interstate 65, according to federal officials . . .”

FRC Blog: “In February, the NIH proposed to redefine the meaning of “embryonic stem cells” in their Guidelines. The primary purpose is to make more embryos, including younger embryos, available for research. The move continues the patients and successful adult stem cells . . . ”

Mark Steyn has this commentary in the Orange County Register discussing hidden taxes in “health care” reform and the possibility of a forthcoming VAT tax. He concludes: “Which is to say that right now the future lies somewhere between the certainty of decline and the probability of catastrophe. What can stop it? Not a lot. But now that your ‘pro-life’ Democratic congressman has sold out, you might want to quit calling Washington and try your state capital. If the Commerce Clause can legitimize the ‘individual mandate,’ then there is no republic, not in any meaningful sense. If you don’t like the sound of that, maybe it’s time for a constitutional convention.”

Anat Shenker-Osorio writes the Huffington Post: “Forward-thinking feminists have long refused to take their husbands’ names. This practice reeks of the notion of women as property, barred from exercising control over their economic affairs.”

Times Online: “Thanks to breastfeeding, organic purees and eco nappies, the baby has become a tyrant, says a bestselling book in France . . .”

Nicholas Bakalar writes at the NY Times: “The National Center for Health Statistics this month published a new analysis of data on marriage and cohabitation that concentrated on relationships in the context of childbearing . . . Among white men, 55 percent of those who said religion was ‘very important’ were married, compared with 35 percent of those for whom it was ‘not important.’”

Wall Street Journal: “AT&T Inc. plans to take a noncash $1 billion charge in the first quarter in anticipating the impact of changes brought by the nation’s health-care overhaul. The Dallas-based telecommunications giant is the latest—and largest—company to take a charge to account for the increased costs under the new health-care plan . . . ”

The Oregonian: “Now, state Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, wants to see that they don’t get milder material such as Playboy magazine. ‘Prisoners should be focused on rehabilitation rather than on personal gratification,’ said Smith.”

Alva Review-Courier (AP): “Kansas legislators approved two bills Wednesday aimed at the strip club industry and protecting victims of child pornography.”

Punch: “New Primate of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, has restated the position of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria against the practice of gay marriage in the church.”

The Obama Administration and International Law

Harold Hongju Koh
Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State
Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law
Washington, DC
March 25, 2010

Since this is my first chance to address you as Legal Adviser, I thought I would speak to three issues. First, the nature of my job as Legal Adviser. Second, to discuss the strategic vision of international law that we in the Obama Administration are attempting to implement. Third and finally, to discuss particular issues that we have grappled with in our first year in a number of high-profile areas: the International Criminal Court, the Human Rights Council, and what I call The Law of 9/11: detentions, use of force, and prosecutions . . .

Some, including a number of the panelists who have addressed this conference, have argued that there is really more Continuity than Change from the last administration to this one.

To them I would answer that, of course, in foreign policy, from administration to administration, there will always be more continuity than change; you simply cannot turn the ship of state 360 degrees from administration to administration every four to eight years, nor should you. But, I would argue—and these are the core of my remarks today– to say that is to understate the most important difference between this administration and the last: and that is with respect to its approach and attitude toward international law. The difference in that approach to international law I would argue is captured in an Emerging “Obama-Clinton Doctrine,” which is based on four commitments: to: 1. Principled Engagement; 2. Diplomacy as a Critical Element of Smart Power; 3. Strategic Multilateralism; and 4. the notion that Living Our Values Makes us Stronger and Safer, by Following Rules of Domestic and International Law; and Following Universal Standards, Not Double Standards . . . [click the link to read more]

CNET: Workers at Internet network operation centers around the world are trying to figure out why traffic to sites such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook was redirected to servers in China this week, giving Web surfers around the globe a glimpse of what Chinese Internet users see when they try to access those blocked sites . . . ‘This was a real world example of the Net security industry’s worst nightmare,’ he said. ‘And last night it happened.’ . . . ‘The wider problems are that it appears that someone in China can disrupt Facebook for someone in California,’ he said. ‘It appears we can no longer see the Internet as a friendly shared resource and that strict boundaries will have to be put in place. The problem is the technology is not really there to make that happen.’”

Christian Post: “An Islamic mob stopped construction of Santa Maria Immaculata Catholic Church in Citra Garden, West Jakarta earlier this month even as government officials in Yasmin Park, Bogor, West Java halted work on an Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) building.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys will appeal a judge’s ruling against a licensed counselor fired after she referred a person seeking same-sex relationship counseling to a colleague

Christian Legal Society v. Martinez suit will be subject of law school debates next week

NY Times: “Alexander Lebedev, a Russian billionaire who was once a K.G.B. agent stationed in London, struck a long-awaited deal to buy The Independent newspaper on Thursday, little more than a year after he acquired another of Britain’s respected major papers, The Evening Standard of London . . . ”

Telegraph: “The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the new industry regulator, has clarified guidelines in the revised code, which states that staff can opt out of handing out the pill or the morning after pill. The so-called ‘conscience clause’ has been criticised and The National Secular Society had been campaigning to get it scrapped.”

NY Daily News: “It was a startling voice of protest at a startling venue. Covered head-to-toe in black, a Saudi woman lashed out at hard-line Muslim clerics’ harsh religious edicts in verse on live TV at a popular Arabic version of ‘American Idol.’”

Americans United for Life: “Dr. Charmaine Yoest, President and CEO of Americans United for Life, the nation’s first pro-life public interest law firm said: ‘Americans United for Life is offering the full assistance of our legal team to any state that wishes to respond legislatively to the anti-life provisions in the new health care reform law.’”

The Press Register: “Owners of Good Vibrations, an adult novelty store currently located on South State Street, Lynn Logan and Eddie Browning presented to the board a request to move to a downtown location . . . ‘Based on studies, this kind of business tends to decrease property value and needs to be located in a place that this will not affect the value,’ Barber said. ‘Industrial areas are the obvious answer.’”

Letter to the Editor of the Canton Repository: “A recent ruling from the very liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco should encourage Lake Local Schools’ board to reinstate the word God in its values statement . . . Hopefully, the Lake school board will heed the request of parents and students who want God restored to their values statement. Legal associations would reportedly extend free legal assistance to Lake schools, among them the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization with an impressive record.”

“The California Supreme Court has ruled against the Hare Krishnas in their free-speech challenge to a ban on soliciting donations inside the Los Angeles International Airport.”

Missoulian: “An organization called NotMyBathroom.com announced this week its opposition to a city ordinance that would protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “An eight-year-old policy specifically targeting pro-life clubs has been overturned at Auckland University this week, according to a media release from ProLife New Zealand . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “Earlier this month, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a New York-based public interest law firm that seeks to expand abortion access globally, released a report titled, ['In Harm’s Way: The Impact of Kenya’s Restrictive Abortion Law.'] The report and a related video (which was highlighted on CNN this week) were first made public at a CRR side event at the Beijing +15 UN Commission on the Status of Women.”

Patrick J. Buchanan writes at Townhall: “Each new report of settlement expansion, each new seizure of Palestinian property, each new West Bank clash between Palestinians and Israeli troops inflames the Arab street, humiliates our Arab allies, exposes America as a weakling that cannot stand up to Israel, and imperils our troops and their mission in Afghanistan and Iraq. As this message has now been delivered by Gen. Petraeus to his commander in chief, Obama simply cannot back down again . . . ”

ADF attorney Doug Napier appears in several news broadcasts covering this week’s hearing on the Gilbert zoning battle over religious gatherings in homes. Each MP4 runs under 3 minutes. |3 TV News AZ | CBS 5 KPHO | NBC 12 Phoenix | CBN

Breitbart (AP): “A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled Friday that it lacks the authority to overturn a Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban on soft money fundraising by the RNC and other national party committees.”

Stateline.org: “The question of whether states should sue over federal health care reform is a legal matter that is quickly turning into a partisan wedge issue, pitting governors against their own attorneys general in states where they come from different political parties . . . ”

Gilbert Watch: “[The Code] was interpreted by an intelligence who . . . resorted to ‘his best professional judgment’ to rule that a ‘small scale religious assembly’ described seven adults in the private home of a pastor. Therefore, the administrator reasoned, the church meetings could not be held in the home. This Zoning Intepretation, written by Senior Planner/Zoning Administrator, cost Pastor Sutherland $305, payable to the Town of Gilbert . . . on 3/10/2010, the 10-page Appeal from the Alliance Defense Fund’s attorneys was hand-carried and faxed to the Town of Gilbert’s Board of Adjustment. Did the Council know about this Appeal? Did anyone act on it? No. Not until the Media contacted the Council on 3/12/2010 did anyone at the Town act. Now, under the glaring lights of the media spotlight, the Council took action.”

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman writing in The Washington Examiner: “Cathy DeCarlo of Brooklyn and her family followed the health reform debate more closely than some others might have. Cathy is Catholic and a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Less than a year ago, the federally-funded hospital forced her to assist in a 22-week dismemberment abortion, despite her tearful pleas that she be spared the horror. President Obama’s health reform executive order on abortion claims to protect the conscience rights of pro-life health providers like Cathy. But on closer reading, the order proves to be yet another presidential action that makes every pro-life health care provider a potential ‘next Cathy DeCarlo.’”

Washington Post, D.C. Wire: “In its first direct vote on the issue, the U.S. Senate has rejected an amendment to the health care reconciliation bill that would have stopped same-sex marriage in the District until a referendum could be held. Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) had introduced that amendment; the full Senate rejected it early this morning by a vote of 59 to 36, with five members not voting.”

AP: “Zimbabwe’s president says gay rights will not be protected in a constitution being drawn up under a power-sharing deal.”

AP: “Some groups have held events throughout the month, although Black Marriage Day, which celebrates matrimony in the black community, falls on the fourth Sunday in March. The founder estimates more than 300 celebrations are being held this weekend. The aim is to try to stabilize, if not reverse, the trend of non-commitment within the black community. Studies show blacks are less likely to marry than other ethnic groups and more likely to divorce and bear children out of wedlock.”

Blog of the Legal Times: “U.S. District Judge Mary Murguia has sat in the District of Arizona since 2000, when she was among the last Clinton judicial nominees confirmed by the Senate.”

SCOTUS Blog: “In the first major court ruling to apply the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the en banc D.C. Circuit Court on Friday unanimously struck down a ceiling on contributions to independent political groups that want to spend money directly to support or oppose candidates for the presidency and Congress.”

SpeechNow.org, et al., v. Federal Election Commission (Circuit docket 08-5223)

Volokh Conspiracy Coverage

CNS News: “The Islamic-led drive against the ‘defamation’ of religion achieved its lowest-ever level of support in a United Nations vote Thursday, despite attempts to breathe new life into the flagging campaign by linking it to the recent Swiss vote banning the construction of minarets.”

WJZ13 (AP): “The GOP leader in Maryland’s House of Delegates wants state lawmakers to pass legislation that would invalidate a recent Attorney General opinion on gay marriage.”

AP: “Authorities in two Indonesian provinces said Friday that they will not comply with a controversial anti-pornography law they say would stifle traditional Balinese and Papuan culture.”

C-FAM: “At the recently concluded session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Nicaragua came up against intense and concerted international pressure from fellow United Nations (UN) member states over the abortion ban the Latin American country’s National Assembly adopted unanimously into law four years ago.”

AP: “Figuring out what it will mean for retirees will take longer, but analysts said as many as 2 million could lose the prescription drug coverage provided by their former employers, leaving them to enroll in Medicare’s program.”

Capitol Weekly: “The vast majority of Tom Campbell’s supporters in his bid for the GOP nomination to take on U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer don’t know that he supports gay marriage, according to a new poll by a national anti-gay marriage group. Only 2 percent of current Campbell supporters were aware that he explicitly supports same-sex marriage and opposed Proposition 8, the 2008 initiative that ended these marriages in California.”

FoxNews: “Residents of Stephenville, Texas, say they’re furious that a local university will allow the performance of a play in which a gay Jesus shares a kiss with Judas and marries two apostles in a same-sex ceremony.”

OneNewsNow: “Elmira Police arrested and jailed Julian Raven in relation to another arrest in 2007 when he and other Christians entered a public park to pray for the participants of a ‘gay pride’ event . . . ‘We have a peaceful speaker being arrested, and our Constitution protects people like Julian and their ability to engage in that kind of speech’ [Joel Oster said].” | ADF News Release

Jam Showbiz: “Actor Matt Damon has branded the concept of marriage ‘a ridiculous idea’ – because his wife drives him ‘crazy’.”

World Magazine: “Big government did not create marriage,” said [Jennifer Roback] Morse, who recently spoke to students at The King’s College in New York City, as part of the school’s Distinguished Visitors Series. “Government does not create marriage. Marriage is a natural reality that preexists the state.”

ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg appeared on the Katherine Albrecht Show to discuss the recent Gilbert, AZ zoning case involving restrictions on religious activities in homes and the dangers of this rising trend around the country.

The MP3 runs approximately 15 minutes.

“If gay service members are allowed to serve openly, the military will face another tough question: Should gay partners be entitled to military benefits?”

The state Supreme Court, Lash wrote, has described a ‘fundamental right’ as ‘”inherent in man’s nature,” among the “basic rights of human beings,” and among the “Hallmarks of Western Civilization.”‘ The argument that a same-sex marriage passes such a test is ‘unsupportable,’ the judge continued.” [post update links to the opinion]

“President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected, and raise the federal debt to 90 percent of the nation’s economic output by 2020, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday.”

A federal decision issued this week illustrates the danger of believing that the President’s executive order on health reform will prevent federal funds from being used on abortion.

National Law Journal: “The school announced on Wednesday that David Meyer will take over the dean’s post in July. Meyer, now associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Illinois College of Law, will replace interim dean Stephen M. Griffin. Griffin assumed the school’s top administrative position after former dean Lawrence Ponoroff stepped down in 2009. ”

Joshua E. Perry and Jeffrey P. Bishop, Life, Death (Panels), and the Body Politic (March 25, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1578344

“In this timely and provocative essay, the authors argue that concerns about government intervention at the end-of-life in the form of ‘death panels’ articulated by those on the political right is at the same time both nonsensical and natural, given the overt politicization of life and death in the United States. The irony, of course, is that it was the political right that most recently and dramatically fueled the government intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo. The unfortunate consequence of such governmental and political encroachment into life – no longer a bioethics, but a biopolitics – is that the intensely private moment of our death, when we are supposed to be surrounded by our friends and family, has become increasingly difficult – and susceptible to the sort of government intervention lampooned by the ‘death panel’ discussion.”