Daily Archives: April 23, 2010

Soeren Kern writing at The Brussels Journal: “Baltasar Garzón, a high-profile Spanish judge and leftwing champion of the legal doctrine of universal jurisdiction, has been charged with abuse of power. Spanish Supreme Court investigating magistrate Luciano Varela charged Garzón with knowingly overstepping his jurisdiction by launching an illegal investigation into political crimes committed during and after the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War.”

Washington Post: “Archie Comics announced Thursday that Riverdale High will enroll its first openly gay character in September.”

Christian Science Monitor: “The Obama administration will soon face the first test of its policy toward human rights in China, after American officials announced on Thursday that they would resume human rights talks with Beijing in Washington next month . . . US State department spokesman Philip Crowley said he expected the two governments to have ‘a candid discussion’ of religious freedom, Internet freedom, and the rule of law.”

Jamestown Sun: “A proposed North Dakota constitutional amendment would strengthen religious freedoms in the state two decades after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakened them, the proposal’s supporters say . . . The measure says a person’s right ‘to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief may not be burdened unless the government proves it has a compelling governmental interest’ in regulating the behavior.”

Wall Street Journal: “Yet despite all these options, the rates of unplanned pregnancies remain high: Almost half of all pregnancies in the U.S.—some 3.1 million a year—are unintended, according to the most recent government survey, from 2001. One out of every two American women aged 15 to 44 has at least one unplanned pregnancy in her lifetime. Among unmarried women in their 20s, seven out of 10 pregnancies are unplanned.
An updated version of those numbers from the 2006 National Survey of Family Growth is expected to be released next month. But population experts don’t anticipate much change; the rate of unplanned pregnancy was the same in 1994, and smaller studies have found that even newer birth-control methods haven’t made much of a dent . . .” (The article contains several charts)

Religion Clause Blog: “In Canada last October, British Columbia’s Attorney General decided that instead of appealing the dismissal of polygamy charges that were filed against the leaders of two FLDS factions, the province would instead ask the British Columbia Supreme Court for clarification on the law’s constitutionality . . . ”

Religion Clause: “JoongAng Daily reports on the decision that held students’ religious freedom must be respected even by private mission schools because students are assigned to the schools through a random lottery instead of by their own choice.”

“the Kentucky Supreme Court held that a $10 million state appropriation for construction of a pharmacy school at a Baptist college violates the provision in Kentucky’s Constituiton that prohibits public funding of ‘any church, sectarian or denominational school’ . . . ”

Canadian Constitutional Foundation: “If ever Canada’s Senate needed an opportunity to demonstrate its value by imparting ‘sober second thought’ to the legislative process, that moment arrived on April 13, 2010, when Bill C-232 landed on Senators’ desks. A private member’s bill promulgated in the House of Commons by New Brunswick NDP member Yvon Godin, C-232 would require that all future judges appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) be able to understand both French and English ‘without the assistance of an interpreter.’”

Religion Clause Blog: “Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist yesterday signed SB 2126, a bill that dramatically expands Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program.”

U. of Dallas News: “In [Jennifer Roeback] Morse’s opinion, the legalization of no-fault divorce is the most destructive redefinition of marriage. ‘No-fault divorce takes away the permanence feature of marriage,’ Morse said. ‘Legally speaking, you do not have a binding contract.’ People now approach marriage with a different mentality, knowing that it is not necessarily permanent. Through the spread of contraceptive technology, marriage has been redefined in a second way. ‘We have removed the idea of childbearing being central to marriage,’ said Morse. ‘It has turned sexual activity into a sterile recreational activity.’”

Findlaw (AP): “Republicans are stepping up their criticism of the Securities and Exchange Commission following reports that senior agency staffers spent hours surfing pornographic websites on government-issued computers while they were supposed to be policing the nation’s financial system.”

Vikram David Amar and Alan Brownstein write at Findlaw: “In this column, we discuss an interesting case on which the Supreme Court heard oral argument this week. It concerns student First Amendment rights and a public university’s efforts to combat discrimination and promote diversity. The dispute arose when the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco (a public law school) refused to grant official recognition to the Hastings chapter of the Christian Legal Society (which we will refer to as “CLS” or “the Society”), a national organization of lawyers and law students devoted to upholding Christian ideals . . . ”

ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on KTVK 3 TV to discuss the National Day of Prayer ruling. This video is a few days old, but it does provide a good overview about the National Day of Prayer. The Obama administration has since announced that it will appeal the ruling. | The MP4 Video runs just over 4 minutes.

AP: “Declaring themselves short of patience, Democrats set an initial showdown vote for next Monday on legislation to clamp new regulations on the financial industry while Republicans insisted on more bargaining . . . ”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed suit against Montana over an employee charitable gift fund . . . ‘[O]ur client is the Montana Family Foundation (MFF), and they applied to participate in this program and to be able to receive donations from state employees,’ [ADF Attorney Jonathan Scruggs] explains. ‘But they were turned down because there is a rule in the eligibility requirements that says you cannot be essentially pervasively sectarian. You can’t be too religious.’” | ADF News Release

Religion and Values: “The Alliance Defense Fund has sent letters to mayors across the country telling them that it is OK to observe the National Day of Prayer on May 6.” | ADF News Release

Pew Forum (RNS): “On Thursday (April 22), the Justice Department said it would appeal the decision, capping a week of political uproar from conservatives after Judge Barbara Crabb of Madison, Wis., issued her April 15 ruling. The Alliance Defense Fund . . . has sent an update to mayors saying Crabb’s ruling “should not disrupt your local observance” of the prayer day . . . ‘I think observances like this can and will continue, but it would be a real shame if the government couldn’t acknowledge the importance of it,’ [ADF Attorney Mike Johnson] said.”

ADF attorney Joel Oster appeared on Reality Check Live with Mike and Clairie Monokian to discuss the National Day of Prayer ruling and other cases. | The MP3 runs just over 13 minutes.

ADF attorney Greg Baylor appeared on Washington Watch Weekly with Tony Perkins to discuss the National Day of Prayer ruling. | The MP3 runs just over 9 minutes.

The New American: “The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments April 19 to decide whether or not a public institution can deny recognition to a student group if the group requires that only practicing Christians can be members . . . ‘Forcing CLS to have an atheist lead its Bible studies is as absurd as the College Democrats being forced to elect Republican officers — which under the current Hastings policy is indeed required,’ argued ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Gregory Baylor], who is assisting in arguing the case before the Supreme Court.”

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on a “A Call to Decision” with Pastor Butch Paugh to discuss various battles for Religious Freedom in our nation. | The MP3 runs just over 38 minutes.

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the National Day of Prayer ruling. | The MP3 runs just over 5 minutes.

AP: “The Vatican will finance new research into the potential use of adult stem cells in the treatment of intestinal and possibly other diseases, officials announced Friday.”

Jim Daly, CEO of Focus on the Family, has this commentary at the Washington Post on the National Day of Prayer ruling. He writes: “To even the casual observer, Judge Crabbs’s decision was a curious and perplexing one. After all, there have been federally recognized days of prayer in America for as long as there have been stars on the flag . . . ”

AP: “President Barack Obama says the government must enact immigration reform at the national level – or leave the door open to ‘irresponsibility by others.’”

Citizen Link: “Alabama and New Hampshire have both killed bills that would have expanded gambling. In Alabama, SB 380 would have allowed a vote this November on electronic bingo, but it was pulled from consideration by the sponsor . . . ”

Citizen Link: “Four political action committees are targeting incumbents who voted for the health care reform law, despite their ‘pro-life’ claims.”

The Hill: “A new government report from Rick Foster, the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), finds that President Barack Obama’s new healthcare reform law would cost $828 billion over the next decade while saving $577 billion.”

The Hill: “A controversial bill approved by Arizona’s state legislation is helping to push the immigration debate to the forefront of the U.S. Senate. A legislation would allow Arizona’s state police to check the documents of people they suspect are illegal immigrations, and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, has said she will decide whether to sign the legislation soon . . .”

Catholic League: “If a 17-year old guy has sex with an older guy for twenty years, and continues to have sex with him at the age of 38—while he is married with children—is there anyone who would believe his claim that he was sexually abused? The answer is yes: the New York Times would . . . Why would the New York Times try to sell this so-called abuse story with a straight face? For two reasons: it wallows in stories designed to weaken the moral authority of the Catholic Church, and it is so gay-friendly as to be gay-crazy.”

NY Daily News: “The country’s top financial watchdogs turned out to be horndogs who spent hours gawking at porn Web sites as the economy teetered on the brink, according to a memo released Thursday night.”

Rush Limbaugh writes at the Wall Street Journal: “Conservative protest is motivated by a love of what America stands for.”

Washington Times: “A senior official at Amnesty International quit the human rights group this month after raising an alarm over its ties to a former Guantanamo Bay detainee and what she describes as his pro-jihad group. Gita Sahgal, who headed the gender unit at Amnesty’s office in London, said she was especially worried about Moazzam Begg and Cageprisoners’ support for ‘jihad in self-defense’ and radicals such as Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Yemeni cleric who is suspected of having ties to al Qaeda.”

Mike Newdow, Question to Justice Scalia: Does the Establishment Clause Permit the Disregard of Devout Catholics? (April 22, 2010). Capital University Law Review, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1594374

“In June 2005, Justice Antonin Scalia contended that ‘the Establishment Clause…permits the disregard of devout atheists.’ This statement is extraordinary inasmuch as it appears to reverse an inexorable (albeit, at times, wandering) trend toward true equality. Thus, where individuals had previously been treated as less than equal on the basis of race (e.g., Dred Scott v. Sandford), gender (e.g., Bradwell v. State) and national origin (e.g., Korematsu v. United States), those odious decisions are no longer good law. In his McCreary dissent, it seems that Justice Scalia sought motion in the opposite direction: toward overturning equality, in the one constitutional arena where the Supreme Court had not previously proclaimed such a manifest animus toward minorities: religion.”