Daily Archives: April 27, 2010

APB: “Hard work, thrift and philanthropy seem counter-cultural in a time and place where debt is pervasive, with individuals, families, companies and even the government borrowing increasing amounts of money.
Churches can offer American culture the gift of stewardship, Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission Director Suzii Paynter said . . . ”

Hollywood Reporter: “The latest news from Canadian TV is that the country’s first pay TV porn channel is going to air Oct. 28.”

Malta Today: “The Nationalist Party’s executive committee yesterday elected the first openly gay MP to Parliament to replace Michael Frendo, who was appointed Speaker to replace Louis Galea, who in turn took up a post with the European Court of Auditors.”

Honolulu Advertiser: “Gay rights activists are trying to give state lawmakers political cover by showing that prominent people in the community support civil unions. Activists are circulating a photo booklet of hundreds of people who back civil unions — from former Gov. Ben Cayetano to former Miss Universe Brook Lee — to demonstrate mainstream desire for equal rights.”

“If the trends continue, ‘the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships,’ says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. In the group’s survey of 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds, 72% say they’re ‘really more spiritual than religious.’” | LifeWay Research

The Sun: “Bosses of Swiss suicide firm Dignitas were facing jail today after the discovery of up to 300 urns containing human remains in a lake. British ‘suicide tourist’ ashes are believed to be in some of the caskets found at the bottom of Lake Zurich by police divers.”

ANSA: “Photographs of same-sex couples kissing designed to tackle homophobia are at the centre of a row in this northern Italian city, after Bergamo authorities decided they could not be displayed in public.”

ABC 2: “Earlier this year the county school board ‘un-blocked’ several web sites that provide information about the gay and lesbian lifestyle. That’s sparked complaints and protests from some parents, who say they should have been consulted before the change was made . . . The school board did not act on the issue last night. Its decision to comply with the state laws appears to be final — it’s not clear how or whether the board will address the petition and the complaints from parents.”

Associated Press: “The New Hampshire Senate is voting this week whether to repeal the state’s archaic ‘blue laws’ restricting business activity on Sunday. The unenforced laws date to 1883 and limit business activity ‘except works of necessity and mercy’ to repair mills and factories that couldn’t wait.”

Anniston Star: “In a faxed letter sent to Oxford Superintendent Jeff Goodwin April 23, the national nonprofit Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, claimed Oxford High band director Chris Pennington was violating students’ religious freedoms — protected under the First Amendment — and demanded the problem be corrected immediately. Specifically, the group alleged Pennington was routinely leading his symphonic band class in prayer. The group also alleged Pennington had threatened a failing grade for those symphonic band students who did not show up to perform a concert at a local Baptist church . . . ”

Ctr. for Reproductive Rights: “Today, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a challenge against Oklahoma legislation which prohibits a woman from getting an abortion unless she first has an ultrasound, is shown the ultrasound image and listens to her doctor describe the image in detail.”

Daily Comet (AP): “South Carolina legislators say they’ll try again next week to discuss a bill that would require women seeking an abortion to wait at least a day before having the procedure. A committee of House and Senate members were set to meet Tuesday to hash out differences in legislation passed by each chamber. One House member showed up but then left, meaning there weren’t enough members present to hold a meeting.”

CNA: “In an interview with Mexican columnist Sergio Sarmiento, Lianna Rebolledo, who was raped at the age of 13 but chose to carry her child to term, explained that ‘abortion is not the solution’ to an unplanned pregnancy, even ‘in cases such as rape.’”

Christian Science Monitor: “Smith’s breakthrough was to see ethics as an issue of social psychology. It was not something inherent in actions themselves that made them good or bad. It was how they affected other people, and how other people reacted to them. Because we are social beings, Nature has equipped us with a powerful empathy (Smith calls is sympathy) with other people. When we see them suffering, we are distressed; when we see them overjoyed, we share some of their happiness. This natural empathy steers us towards action which benefits our fellows, and causes us to approve of it; likewise it steers us against damaging action, and prompts our disapproval of such action.”

WPIX.com (4/25): “Thousands of Jews gathered outside the Israeli Consulate Sunday to protest President Obama’s position towards Israel.”

Christian Post: “The first protest will take place in San Francisco on Tuesday. Demonstrators will march through San Francisco’s financial district and arrive at Wells Fargo’s annual shareholder meeting to demand changes from the bank’s top executives and call for an end to practices that hurt the average American while benefiting those responsible for the economic crisis . . . ”

Keen News Service: “In an historic move, President Obama this month nominated an openly gay person, Edward DuMont, to a federal appeals court judgeship—the first such openly gay nomination at that level. He also becomes the first openly gay man to be nominated to a federal judgeship.”

Keen News Service: “U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker issued a warning on Sunday afternoon to Equality California and the ACLU, giving them 48 hours to turn over documents sought by the proponents of Proposition 8. If the groups fail to comply, they will be held in contempt of court and fined $2,000 per day each, according to the order.”

Salt Lake Tribune: “With a little nudge from the American Civil Liberties Union, four St. George high schools have approved Gay-Straight Alliance clubs for the first time. Starting in fall 2010, Desert Hills, Dixie, Pine View and Snow Canyon high schools will have after-school forums specifically for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students, along with their straight friends and allies.”

ADF Attorney David French writing at Phi Beta Cons: “Even as the Supreme Court holds the fate of student free association in its hands, recent days have seen some positive developments for free speech on campus, including a judge (potentially) giving administrators an involuntary spinal transplant, and a reaffirmation of classic First Amendment protections from an unlikely quarter.”

Times-Picayune: “Lengthy and passionate testimony in the Senate Judiciary A Committee today ended with a 3-1 party line rejection of a measure that would have expanded gay adoption in Louisiana. Senate Bill 129, which ended up as a combination of two measures by Sens. Ed Murray and J.P. Morrell, would have allowed unmarried couples to jointly adopt and allow an existing parent to petition a court to add a second adult as a legal parent.”

New York Times: “In 1978, when China began its bold, capitalist-style economic and social experiment known as Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, attitudes toward sex began changing fast, along with almost everything else . . . Swinging is just one of a slew of controversial habits arising from China’s sexual liberalization. Sadomasochism clubs, many organized online, are flourishing.”

Tallahassee Democrat: “Nearly 20 local clergy members and others stood in front of the Leon County Courthouse Monday to show support for revisions to Leon County’s human-rights code that’s designed to prevent discrimination . . . Leon County commissioners will vote tonight on allowing the proposed ordinance to move forward as it is currently written. They also will decide if it should be the subject of a public hearing on May 11 meeting.”

WRDW.com: “South Carolina legislators will try to reach a compromise on a bill to require women seeking an abortion to wait at least a day after getting an ultrasound or reviewing information on the procedure.”

Manila Bulletin: “In a circular, Internet service providers (ISPs) or network providers must now report to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) within seven days any form of child pornography being committed using their servers or facilities.”

INFORUM: “After a procession of people spoke in favor of a domestic partnership registry, the Moorhead City Council on Monday directed staff to draft an ordinance similar to one that established a registry in Duluth, Minn., last year.”

KTVU: “Sonoma County officials claimed they were protecting a victim in what has become a lawsuit involving visitation rights and the personal property of same-sex couples while embroiling the county in a national controversy.”

UPI: “Abortion will not be included in Canada’s Group of Eight maternal healthcare initiative for developing countries, the Canadian government said.”

Newt Gingrich writes at the Washington Post: “It was precisely my effort to place the Obama-Pelosi-Reid team in some historic context that led me to conclude that this is, indeed, a secular-socialist machine. While clarity may make some uncomfortable, such language is appropriate in explaining a movement of big government, high taxes, big bureaucracy, massive deficits and huge debt run from a politician-centric system of power.”

NY Times: “As many as 400,000 nonprofit organizations are weeks away from a doomsday. At midnight on May 15, an estimated one-fifth to one-quarter of some 1.6 million charities, trade associations and membership groups will lose their tax exemptions, thanks to a provision buried in a 2006 federal bill aimed at pension reform . . . ”

NBC Bay Area: “Craigslist revenue grew 22 percent last year, to $122 million, largely on the strength of increasing fees for “adult” advertising and no longer sending that money to charity.”

NY Times: Sex Ads Seen Adding Revenue to Craigslist

Mmegi Online: “In an interim ruling issued yesterday following an urgent application by both the EFB, as the first applicant and FoG, as the second applicant, Justice David Newman of the High Court ordered Kgafela and his regiments to lay their hands off the Family of God Church and all evangelical and Pentecostal churches in Kgatleng.”

Nebraska.tv: “The measure would put new restrictions on the locations of adult businesses such as strip clubs and stores that sell adult sex products. It has already passed the House and is scheduled for debate Wednesday in the Senate . . . ”

Amnesty International: “The Commission on Elections in the Philippines had initially refused to recognize Ang Ladlad (in English: Coming Out) as an official political party last November because in the Commission’s view the party tolerated ‘immorality’ and offended both Christians and Muslims.”

Christian Institute: “A retired British doctor has invited England’s top prosecutor to charge him for assisting a suicide, but critics fear the case is part of a wider campaign to change the law.”

The Local: “Just one day before taking her post, Lower Saxony’s new Social Minister Aygül Özkan has apologised to her fellow Christian Democrats for starting a heated political debate by suggesting that crucifixes don’t belong in German public schools.”

Casey Luskin writes at the Discovery Institute: “So the ACLU opposes advocating ID in public schools (because supposedly it’s religion), but would endorse attacking ID by discussing “flaws or weaknesses in intelligent design” in public schools. Using their own phraseology, they would support teaching ‘flaws or weaknesses’ of a ‘specific religious viewpoint.’ Is that legal? It’s certainly quite hypocritical for a group that claims to uphold the separation of church and state. To quote a law review article I recently published on this very point: “[Jurists] cannot treat these viewpoints like religion in order to strike down their advocacy, but then treat them like science … when they are being critiqued in order to sanction their disapproval. Either a viewpoint is religious and thereby unconstitutional to advocate as correct or critique as false in public schools, or it is scientific and fair game for both advocacy and critique in public schools.’”

This is Cornwall: “The battle to classify lap-dancing clubs as ‘sex establishments’ could end in European courts after a Westcountry businessman said changing licensing laws would be in convention of his human rights.”

Malaysian National News Agency: “Sex education will not be taught as a specific subject in schools as it has been imparted through other subjects, the Dewan Negara was told Tuesday.”

George Leef writes at the National Review Phi Beta Cons: “More people are figuring out something I’ve been saying for years: Law school is a bad value. Here’s a Chicago Tribune blog post discussing the point. Earning a law degree takes three years and costs around $150,000. Law-school costs have been going up steadily, while “good” legal jobs are now very scarce for new graduates . . . ”

Boston Globe (AP): “Minority members of a Connecticut legislative panel have agreed to allow a vote on Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s Superior Court judge nominees, who are all white.”

Advocate.com: “Mary Kay Henry, the out lesbian head of the California nurses’ union, has been selected to lead the Service Employees International Union, which represents 2.2 million workers in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Supporters of an initiative campaign to tax the earnings of couples making more than $400,000 annually want to make sure the state’s domestic partners are taxed at the same rate as married couples.”

DC Agenda: “U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to hold a vote this year in her chamber of Congress for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, according to her office . . . ”

Catholic League: “Because there isn’t a whole lot more to this story, it just underscores our accusation that the point is to cast doubt on the pope’s commitment to ending abuse. In other words, this is pure politics. Nonetheless, the story contains some unintended chestnuts. How so? It shows, without ever saying so, that homosexuality was once again the problem.”

Katrin Bennhold writing at the NY Times: Future Pope’s Role in Abuse Case Was Complex

Evangelical Examiner: “Back in November 2009, attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of a student, against the Bridgeton Board of Education after officials at Bridgeton High School prohibited her from expressing a religious viewpoint on the 6th annual Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity . . . Last Thursday, a federal court ruled that the Bridgeton Board of Education should not have prohibited a student at Bridgeton High School from expressing a religious viewpoint on the 6th annual Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity, a student-led event occurring outside of instructional time.”

“These days the personal is the political, even on children’s television. Not content to simply teach lessons about the alphabet or sharing, nearly every show has a worldview or a message to push . . . The men on kids’ shows tend to be either aged, and hence harmless, or young, and vaguely effete. . . . ”

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence writing at speakupmovement.org/university: “Is Justice Anthony Kennedy writing the decision in Salazar v. Buono, the case concerning an Establishment Clause challenge to the cross built on federal land in the Mojave Desert? How will this case impact the First Amendment rights of students on university campuses, and the ability of the universities to acknowledge our nation’s religious heritage?”

AP: “The Obama administration said Tuesday it will provide some but not all the materials a Senate committee wants on last year’s Fort Hood shooting rampage, setting up a potential legal showdown with Congress . . . ”

ADF Attorney Casey Mattox writing at speakupmovement.org: “It is simply absurd to tell groups that they can require people to act like they share the group’s views but not to limit its leadership to those who do actually share its views.”

The Mountain Press: “As a Washington-based legal group prepares to launch a First Amendment lawsuit against the county, officials here have already started weighing their legal options, having talked to an organization that defends in such actions. Though there has been no agreement with the Alliance Defense Fund, County Mayor Larry Waters confirms he’s met with representatives from the agency to get a little guidance on a church and state debate that has embroiled local officials.”

JURIST: “Brad Tuipi [Allied attorney, Alliance Defense Fund]: ‘Christian Legal Society v. Martinez is another example of the conflict between secular morality and religious morality. In secular morality, homosexuality is a wholesome lifestyle choice and should not be the subject of criticism or discrimination. In religious morality, homosexuality is sinful conduct. Where institutions include “sexual orientation” in their diversity and non-discrimination policies, people of faith sometimes find themselves under pressure to surrender their religious beliefs.’”

SeacoastOnline: “A federal judge has ordered the town to pay $35,000 in legal fees incurred by a pair of street preachers to defend themselves against their wrongful arrests, in addition to a $5,000 settlement to each and annulment of their arrest records . . . Those fees did not include representation the men received from the Alliance Defense Fund . . .”

CitizenLink: “[Mike Johnson], an attorney with ADF, said letters to city officials were designed to allay any fears. ‘Local observances of the National Day of Prayer are both lawful and appropriate, particularly since the event simply provides an opportunity for all Americans to pray voluntarily according to their own faith.’” | ADF News Release

OneNewsNow: “[Casey Mattox], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, attended the Supreme Court proceedings. ‘It certainly takes a particularly ridiculous policy like that of UC Hastings to have justices willing to say from the bench that these policies just make no sense at all,’ he observes.”

Telegraph: “A Muslim Frenchman accused of polygamy defended himself on Monday by saying that keeping mistresses was the French way of life.”

‘The Oklahoma Senate has voted to override Gov. Brad Henry’s vetoes of two abortion bills, meaning the bills become law without his signature . . . ”

“Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence and Family Research Council President and Marine veteran Tony Perkins will join veteran military chaplains at a press conference Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The event will announce the release of a letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, signed by more than 40 retired military chaplains. The letter addresses the chaplains’ religious liberty concerns with the proposal to overturn the law against the practice of open homosexual behavior in the military, frequently referred to as the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law.”

BBC: “Conservative election candidate Philip Lardner has been suspended for describing gay people on his website as ‘not normal’, the party has said.”

LifeNews: “Commonwealth’s Attorney R. David Stengel, State Attorney General Jack Conway, and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services all received copies of the tape . . . ”

John Elwood writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “In connection with those opps, Bristow Fellow Ileana Ciobanu and I compiled this list using DOJ and Federal Judicial Center records of all the judges who had been given recess appointments to Article III courts . . . ”

Jonathan H. Adler writes at Volokh Conspiracy: “Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, is also in the process of making a Supreme Court pick to replace retiring state supreme court justice Eric Magnuson. While it may not grab headlines, Pawlenty’s pick could reveal something about Pawlenty’s political aspirations.”

One News Now: “The nation’s largest public policy women’s organization is appalled at the way the Pentagon appears more committed to appeasing Muslims, than allowing a high-profile Christian leader to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to members of the military.”

Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute reviews a couple of books at “The Family in America.” She begins: “When first published in 1947, Family and Civilization was a significant book on the sociology of the family. Thanks to the Background imprint of ISI Books, it is back in print. In this classic, Carle Zimmerman brings clarity to the precise area of today’s greatest confusion: the definition and evolution of the family. Instead of the Triumphant March of Liberation presented by the Life Style Left, the late Harvard sociologist sees an ebb and flow of changes in family structure. Instead of a contrast between the nuclear family and the individualist family, Zimmerman contrasts three different family types. While he agrees with Marx and Engels that family structure is powerfully linked with economics and politics, Zimmerman is more analytical and less ideological. Providing evidence for some of his most fascinating claims sixty years later is The War between the State and the Family, by British scholar Patricia Morgan.”

Palladium-Item: “A few constitutional scholars are looking at a Greenwood, Ind., prayer case as a potential landmark in what seems like the never-ending saga of school prayer contests . . . There’s the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which walks in lockstep with its national parent organization in defending the outrageous and obscene under the broad guise of free speech, but seems hell-bent on striking down any semblance of religion from the public square, regardless how spiritually neutered and nonsectarian it gets rendered.”

The Templeton Foundation recently asked a group of scholars “Does moral action depend on reasoning?”  Some said no, some equivocated, and Princeton’s Robert George answered “Yes, by nature.” You can read these short answers on the Templeton site here. Public Discourse carries this article by Prof. George. It carries this tagline: “We should prefer natural law thinking to utilitarianism — here’s why.”

Tom Goldstein writes at SCOTUS Blog: “In 1995, President Clinton nominated Garland for an opening on the D.C. Circuit, and he received a hearing in December of that year. During that confirmation hearing, Garland was asked about ‘judicial activism.’ He answered that ‘[f]ederal judges do not have roving commissions to solve societal problems. The role of the court is to apply law to the facts of the case before it – not to legislate, not to arrogate to itself the executive power, not to hand down advisory opinion on the issues of the day.’ . . . Judge Garland is also the ‘short list’ candidate to replace Justice Stevens who is least likely to prompt a polarizing confirmation fight. He has broad support on both sides of the aisle, and he has few ideologically controversial rulings.”

National Law Journal: “The Massachusetts School of Law is taking a new approach to attracting would-be lawyers: It’s starting a two-year undergraduate college that will funnel students into its embrace. The American College of History and Legal Studies is expected to open in August in Salem, N.H., and will function as a sister school to the nearby Massachusetts School of Law in Andover, Mass . . . ”

Vatican Information Service: “Over these nine years, the Catholic presence in the world has grown from 1,045 million in 2000 to 1,166 million in 2008, an increase of 11.54 percent. Considering the statistics in detail, numbers in Africa grew by 33 percent, in Europe they remained generally stable (an increase of 1.17 percent), while in Asia they increased by 15.61 percent, in Oceania by 11.39 percent and in America by 10.93 percent. As a percentage of the total population, European Catholics represented 26.8 percent in 2000 and 24.31 percent in 2008. In America and Oceania they have remained stable, and increased slightly in Asia . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “Last Friday, Rasmussen Reports released a new poll of American adults on issues of religion in public life and the performance of the courts. Among the results: 64% believe judges’ rulings have been more anti-religious than intended by the country’s founders. 46% say the Supreme Court has been too hostile toward religion . . . ”

David Lat writes at Above the Law: “That idea: make judicial opinions anonymous or unsigned — i.e., turn every opinion into a “per curiam” — and maybe eliminate or greatly reduce separate opinions, too . . . This approach would, of course, reduce judicial accountability even further (which is pretty hard to do, considering that federal judges already enjoy life tenure). It would make the workings of the judiciary, already the most opaque of the three branches, even less transparent. And, on a personal note, it would make us sad, since fiery dissents by Nino are so much fun to read.”

Mercury News: “What worries [investigators] is that offenders are getting younger and the child pornography they are downloading from the Internet or creating themselves is brutal. ‘We have a suspect right now who’s 15 who has some of the worst child porn I’ve ever seen, involving infants and dead children,’ said San Jose police detective Kendra Nunes, who is part of the department’s child exploitation unit. ‘It’s scary.’”

Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett, Catholic Schools, Urban Neighborhoods, and Education Reform (March 31, 2010). Notre Dame Law Review, Vol. 85, No. 3, 2010; Notre Dame Legal Studies Paper No. 09-16. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1395676

“More than 1,600 Catholic elementary and secondary schools have closed or been consolidated during the last two decades. The Archdiocese of Chicago alone (the subject of our study) has closed 148 schools since 1984. Primarily because urban Catholic schools have a strong track record of educating disadvantaged children who do not, generally, fare well in public schools, these school closures have prompted concern in education policy circles. While we are inclined to agree that Catholic school closures contribute to a broader educational crisis, this paper shies away from debates about educational outcomes. Rather than focusing on the work done inside the schools, we focus on what goes on outside them. Specifically, using three decades of data drawn from the census and from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (“PHDCN”), we seek to understand what a Catholic school means to an urban neighborhood. We do so primarily by measuring various effects of elementary school closures in the Chicago neighborhoods where they operated for decades. We find strong evidence that Catholic elementary schools are important generators of social capital in urban neighborhoods: Our study suggests that neighborhood social cohesion decreases and disorder increases following an elementary school closure, even after controlling for numerous demographic variables that would tend to predict neighborhood decline and disaggregating the school closure decision from those variable as well. This paper discusses these findings and situates them within important land-use and education-policy debates.”

Passive Acknowledgement or Active Promotion of Religion? Neutrality and the Ten Commandments in Green v. Haskell
Stephanie Barclay, 2010 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 3

“This Note argues that the Tenth Circuit erred in finding that the monument in Haskell County violated the Establishment Clause. The Tenth Circuit failed to apply the controlling precedent of Van Orden v. Perry to find that the monument in Haskell County was a constitutionally acceptable, neutral acknowledgement of the religious history of this nation. Instead, the court incorrectly distinguished Van Orden both by using an unrealistic ‘reasonable observer’ standard requiring a clear secular purpose for the erection of the monument, and by incorrectly attributing the divisiveness surrounding the lawsuit to the unconstitutional effect of the monument.”

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights v. City of San Francisco: How the Ninth Circuit Abandoned Judicial Neutrality to Strike a Blow at Religion
Jonathan W. Heaton, 2010 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 101

“This Note will analyze the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Catholic League and explain how the court’s neutrality was compromised. Part II of the Note presents a summary of the facts and procedural history of the case. Part III then provides some context for the issues involved by discussing the background First Amendment Establishment Clause jurisprudence leading up to the Ninth Circuit’s decision. Part IV describes the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning and decision in Catholic League in detail, and Part V analyzes that decision to explain how the Ninth Circuit went wrong. Finally, Part VI offers a brief conclusion.”