Daily Archives: May 5, 2010

The Medical News: “At a time when ‘donation after cardiac death’ (DCD) has become an important approach to increasing the number of transplant organ donors, a provocative new study shows changes in brain activity occurring in response to withdrawal of life support, reports the May issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).”

ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg appeared on KFUO with Roland Lettner to discuss this: Distinguished military chaplains announce opposition to overturning ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law | MP3: 23:55

ADF Attorney Joe Infranco appeared on Common Sense with Shea Daily to discuss the Mojave Desert cross ruling.

The mp3 runs approximately 20 minutes.

ADF attorney Austin R. Nimocks appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the National Day of Prayer and the DC marriage case.

The MP3 runs approximately 34 minutes.

Deutsche Welle: “A court in Lithuania has withdrawn the permit for a Gay pride parade in Vilnius, citing security concerns and lack of police manpower. The decision has shocked the organizers of the parade and the country’s President.”

LifeNews: “‘The UWHC and other medical facilities involved made the right decision to terminate this covert program, which threatened to require pro-life employees to violate their consciences by participating in the killing of pre-born, developed babies,’ ADF Legal Counsel [Matt Bowman] told LifeNews.com today.”

Catholic News Agency: “The Association of Spanish Soldiers called on military officials this week to respect and preserve religious traditions in the country. The statements came in response to a recent directive by the military to exclude Mass from official military ceremonies.”

Christian Today: “Conservative leader David Cameron has come out in support of a Christian Tory parliamentary candidate following a report in the Observer that a church she founded tried to ‘cure’ homosexuals of their ‘demons’ . . . Mr Cameron defended Mrs Stroud and her ‘very clear statement’ during an interview with BBC Asian Network. Asked if he believed homosexuality could be cured, he said: ‘I don’t believe that, and she [Stroud]‘s actually put out a very clear statement to say she was completely misreported; she believes in gay equality.’”

Philly.com: “Burlington County school board voted Tuesday night to pull a book depicting teenage homosexuality from its high school library shelves after protests from a local conservative group.”

Christian Today: “Compass Direct News is reporting that four Christian families in southeastern Bangladesh left their village on Sunday, under mounting pressure by Buddhist extremists to give up their faith in Christ.”

National Law Journal: “Declining to overrule a 19-year-old precedent, the New York Court of Appeals narrowly held Tuesday that a same-sex partner who has not adopted her partner’s biological child cannot assert visitation rights under New York law. That conclusion came in Debra H. v. Janice R. (pdf), 47, an opinion in which the court also cleared the way for a lesbian to seek visitation with a non-adoptive child born to her former partner in a Vermont civil union, but only because the doctrine of comity requires New York to defer to the law of Vermont, which recognizes her as a parent.”

Charles Murray writing in the New York Times: “As an advocate of school choice, all I can say is thank heavens for the Milwaukee results. Here’s why: If my fellow supporters of charter schools and vouchers can finally be pushed off their obsession with test scores, maybe we can focus on the real reason that school choice is a good idea. Schools differ in what they teach and how they teach it, and parents care deeply about both, regardless of whether test scores rise.”

FoxNews: “The powerful Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, David Obey, D-Wis., is expected to announce on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in 2010 . . . ”

Reuters: “Egyptian Christians have called for government action against the author of a widely read novel they say insults Christianity, in an unusual case that puts freedom of expression in Muslim-majority Egypt under fresh scrutiny.”

USA Today: “Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican who may have national ambitions, is endorsing Rand Paul for Senate in Kentucky. DeMint announced today that his political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund, will be backing Paul in the May 18 primary.”

ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at speakupmovement.org/university: “The Associated Press reports that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has reinstated two homosexual men in a relationship with one another to its clergy roster . . . I am concerned that some government entities have taken it upon themselves to ‘push’ religious groups to make changes like the ones the ELCA made. The application of sexual orientation non-discrimination rules to religious groups violates one of the core definitions of religious freedom: minimizing government influence upon religious choices.”

Charisma: “The NDOP Task Force has partnered with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) for a Save the National Day of Prayer campaign, which has more than 250,000 supporters on its Facebook page . . . ‘The tradition of our nation has been to allow different official prayer proclamations … and there are just a lot of groups out there that do not like that history, and so they’re actively seeking to change our history,’ said [ADF Attorney Joel Oster], who was part of the ADF team that represented NDOP Task Force Chairman Shirley Dobson in the 2008 lawsuit, which named her as a defendant.”

New Zealand Herald: “The lowest divorce rate in 29 years is not a sign couples had a smooth ride in 2009 – rather, it shows Kiwis now avoid marriage unless they’re truly committed, says a relationship counsellor at New Zealand’s biggest provider.”

Europa Press Release: “The European Commission has today closed legal proceedings against the Czech Republic on two directives prohibiting discrimination . . . The main points of the infringement case for the Employment Equality Directive (see also (IP/08/155) were: . . . rules on recruitment of customs officials included discriminatory conditions related to sexual orientation . . . The Czech Republic has amended its legislation on all those points, notably by adopting a comprehensive Anti-discrimination Act. As a result, the Commission now considers that Czech Republic has properly transposed the Directives.”

In Character: “A new study from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com finds that more than 22% of girls ages 13-19 say they have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude images of themselves. And, the study finds, these racy images are also getting passed around: One-third of teen boys and one-quarter of teen girls say they have had nude/semi-nude images — originally meant to be private — shared with them. Read the full study here [PDF].”

NPR: “Male porn stars have been known to don all sorts of interesting attire — but one thing you’ll seldom see them wear is a condom. For years, a group called the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been lobbying to make condom use mandatory. The companies that make erotic films have long resisted that step, but now there are signs that change is coming.”

My FOX Boston: “Most kids we talked to say, seeing nudity online is totally normal, and they just brush it off. But that’s exactly what concerns parents who worry when it comes to sex, kids are becoming desensitized. ‘I think it desensitized them because they make the body, I feel a lot of these sites you go on and you’re able to see the body is not a big deal and your body is not special, and it is special,’ says a local mother.”

Pakistan Christian Post: “The 18th Amendment to the Pakistani constitution, landmark legislation which aims to strengthen democracy and prevent the military from taking power in Pakistan, has avoided the issue of the controversial blasphemy law that has come to haunt Pakistan’s minorities such as Christians, Ahmadi Muslims and Hindus over the years in Pakistan.”

El Paso Times: “Sabrina J. Hill and her longtime girlfriend, Therese ‘Tee’ Bur, were legally married Monday in San Antonio after being unable to get a marriage license in El Paso . . . The marriage of two women from rural Hudspeth County has put a spotlight on Texas laws and has El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal asking the state attorney general for clarification. Hill, 60, was born with both male and female organs and is listed as a man in her birth certificate. But her current identification has her as a woman.”

OK Gazette: “The poll asked 500 statewide registered voters if the government should repeal the policy that allows homosexuals to serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual preference a secret. Just more than 48 percent disagreed with repealing the policy, while a little more than 34 percent wanted repeal.”

Wall Street Journal: “Amid the Greek debt crisis, support for adoption of the euro in Poland fell below 50% once again from the highest-ever reading last year. Considering how closely Polish politicians follow opinion polls and, Poland may follow the footsteps of Sweden and indefinitely delay euro zone entry.”

Vancouver Sun: “A pro-life group at the University of Victoria has filed a petition with the B.C. Supreme Court, saying it has illegally been denied club funding on campus.The lawsuit, filed Monday by Youth Protecting Youth against the UVic Students’ Society, says it has not received the funding normally given to student clubs since September 2008.”

Telegraph: “China is considering measures to force all its 400m internet users to register their real names before making comments on the country’s myriad chat-rooms and discussion forums, in a further sign of tightening controls on freedom of speech.”

LifeSiteNews: “In what may be his first public statement on the situation of 88 pro-life protesters arrested on campus last May, University of Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins has suggested that the protesters deserve to continue facing up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine because they were unruly and led by individuals who ‘threatened peace and order.’”

Copenhagen Post: “Danish parliament passed a vote giving equal adoption rights to couples in registered partnerships yesterday, but without the support of the government . . . Danish homosexuals could previously adopt as individuals or adopt the children of their partner under the step-child adoption laws. Figures from Statistics Denmark show that of the 712 step-child adoptions in 2007, 103 were from couples in a registered partnership.”

LifeNews: “Proving that one vote does indeed matter, the Kansas state Senate today failed to override a veto by Governor Mark Parkinson of a pro-life bill . . . ”

LifeNews: “News of a teenager who was taken to New Jersey from her foster mother and allegedly pressured by city health department officials to have an abortion is drawing outrage from pro-life advocates.”

Winnifred Fallers Sullivan writing at The Immanent Frame: “Justices Kennedy, Alito, and Scalia argued that the cross, in the context of a war memorial, was not best described as sectarian. In the words of Justice Kennedy, ‘one Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion.’ What does he mean? What is ‘more than religion’? Is the ‘more’ America? Or is the ‘more’ humanity? Is the ‘more’ necessarily secular? Is it indeed more, or is it less? . . . Over the last thirty years or so, for a complex set of reasons—including, I think, fear of scientific naturalism, the hardening of political divisions, and the stakes involved in owning pieces of the cultural landscape—universalism has fallen on hard times. Judges cannot cope any better with this than the rest of us.”

LA Times: “Tall girls fetch more cattle because their daughters will quickly grow and can be married off to fetch even more cattle,” said the chief, shooing a stubborn fly. “A tall girl can command 60 to 100 cattle from a suitor. A short girl may get 20 head, and, sometimes, short girls overstay their welcome in the father’s home and end up fetching only five cattle. By then, a tall girl has already borne five children.”

Daily Report: “For the second year in a row, an opening on the U.S. Supreme Court has generated talk about whether Leah Ward Sears, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, would be tapped for the job. The Daily Report has covered her career since she was a judge on the Fulton County Superior Court and was appointed to the state high court in 1992. We have followed her in elections during which opponents focused on her writings about hot-button social issues such as statutory rape, sodomy and gay marriage. In 2004, Sears gave us a list of what she found to be her 10 most important decisions. In 2009, we analyzed her impact on the court she was about to depart, finding she was helpful to criminal defendants in cases that split the court but was a hard-to-predict vote in close civil cases . . . ”

GLAA Forum: “Nimocks cited the CAA’s one explicit limitation on the right of initiative (appropriation of funds) as somehow showing that the right of initiative was otherwise co-extensive with the Council’s right to legislate. Basically, appellants’ position rests upon a static conception of the law, which is convenient for them since post-Dean facts and changes to the law have rendered it inapplicable. There was little if any direct reference to Dean. I did not hear any reference to the argument made previously by appellants that there is no discrimination because gays and lesbians can marry members of the opposite sex. But naturally there were frequent interruptions by the judges, so who knows what arguments Nimocks would have gotten to if he had the time. As it was, though, he did a lot of repeating of himself.”

North Carolina Family Policy Council: “‘The ACLU and its allies should not be able to demolish war memorials based on the objection of one person who can’t seriously claim to have suffered harm from it,’ said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel [Jordan Lorence] in a statement. ‘Americans want memorials to our nations’ fallen heroes protected. Congress was doing just that when it transferred the land under this memorial to the veterans’ group that cares for it.’” | ADF News Release

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence writing at speakupmovement.org/university: “The Washington Post Monday contains an article on judicial activism. This article shows a subtle, but significant distortion in the definition of the term, so that liberals can attack the current Supreme Court as being dominated by conservative ‘activists.’ The Washington Post shallowly and erroneously defines ‘judicial activism’ as a court striking down a law passed by Congress. Is the Post seriously arguing that the proper role of courts is simply to affirm every law passed by Congress? That is obviously wrong, and is not the definition of ‘judicial restraint.’ And there is an application of this wrong understanding of ‘judicial activism’ to the university realm that I am concerned about.”

Rees Lloyd writing at NewsWithViews.com: “The decision is a great victory for veterans, and a great defeat for the ACLU, which by its secular-cleansing fanaticism has become the Taliban of American liberal secularism . . . the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of The American Legion Department and the Alliance Defense Fund was co-founded by ADF Vice President Joseph Infranco and me. For the first time, the American Legion entered the litigation in the Mojave Desert and Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial cases, appearing as amicus curiae in briefs in the California Court of Appeal, the U.S. District Courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.” | ADF Veteran’s Memorials Project

Vermont Public Radio: “Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group, is sending out letters to mayors and governors saying that the day of prayer is constitutional. ADF attorney Michael Johnson believes the decision will be overturned, especially if it gets to the U.S. Supreme Court. ‘Their whole case is premised upon the idea that just because they claim to be offended by it, they should be able to challenge the National Day of Prayer statute and have it struck down,’ he says. ‘We disagree with that. The First Amendment simply doesn’t provide any of us with a right not to be offended.’”

Knox News: “A packed meeting room joined Waters and commissioners to recite the Pater Noster at the first meeting after AU wrote its threatening letter. At the next meeting, praying folk literally ringed the courthouse in Sevierville to show support for the right to pray in public . . . Perrin Anderson, communications director for Waters, told me by e-mail that Waters’ office has spoken to representatives of the Alliance Defense Fund, the Christian Law Association and the American Center for Law and Justice, organizations that provide pro bono legal services when issues of religious liberty are at stake.” | For more information see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/state-tennessee+topic-prayer/

CitizenLink: “Austin Nimocks, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, said the case has implications far beyond the Beltway. ‘In America, we respect the right to vote,’ he said. ‘This is about a basic, fundamental right that undergirds our entire democratic system in America, and here it’s happening in the cradle of liberty.’” | Oral Argument Audio

Metro Weekly: “The Alliance Defense Fund attorney representing Jackson and the others, David Austin R. Nimocks, argued that the BOEE was incorrect. He told the court on Tuesday the definition of initiatives provided for by the CAA is specific and that the D.C. Court of Appeals has held that the two procedures addressed in it are those relating to ”responsible fiscal management” and ”the right of initiative for everything else.’” | Oral Argument Audio

The Alliance Defense Fund obtained a letter Friday from the Wisconsin Department of Justice stating that the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics has abandoned its plans to provide full-service, second-trimester abortion services in a jointly operated facility.

Charisma: “‘This is about the fundamental right to vote,’ Nimocks told Charisma. ‘The citizens of D.C. are trying to exercise that fundamental right. That’s why the Court of Appeals is interested in this case … and we’re very hopeful they will uphold that very fundamental premise, that the citizens have the right to exercise their voice.’” | Oral Argument Audio

My FOX DC: “Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund argued that the city’s charter authorizes referenda in all subject areas save one: appropriations. ‘This case is about the people’s right to legislate,’ declared ADF attorney Austin Nimmocks. ‘What the Council did here is inconsistent with the charter.’” | Oral Argument Audio

OneNewsNow: “Attorney Austin R. Nimocks, Jr., with the Alliance Defense Fund, argued before the Court of Appeals on Tuesday. ‘The charter of the District of Columbia, like the constitution of a state, is a preeminent document,’ he explains. ‘And the charter of DC says citizens…have the right to vote on any topic other than budget matters.’” | ADF News Release | Oral Argument Audio

WJZ (AP): “The city’s law on ballot initiatives specifically prohibits bringing measures that would violate the Human Rights Act. However, attorney Austin R. Nimocks of the the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents Jackson and other gay marriage opponents, said that limitation goes against the city’s charter . . . ‘Whatever the council can do, the people can do, he told the judges.” | ADF News Release | Oral Argument Audio

The Blog of LegalTimes: “Arguing on behalf of the plaintiffs, Alliance Defense Fund attorney [Austin Nimocks] said applying the Human Rights Act restrictions on discrimination to the initiative process contradicts D.C.’s Charter Amendments Act. The latter statute amended the D.C. Home Rule Act in 1977 to create the initiative process.” | ADF News Release | Oral Arguments Audio

Times Record News (AP): “[T]he federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, nor do the vast majority of states, including Pennsylvania. Even with a valid out-of-state marriage license, gay and lesbian couples in those states face uncertainty, extra legal bills and inevitable rebuffs that straight couples avoid . . . ‘The government cannot issue a divorce for a marriage it doesn’t recognize,’ said ADF senior legal counsel [Austin Nimocks].”

Prayer and Action: “An open lesbian, Demeo’s nomination was stalled longer than any other White House appointee because of her extreme support for same-sex ‘marriage.’ Why is that significant? Because today, Demeo sits on the very bench that will decide the fate of marriage in our nation’s capital: the D.C. Superior Court . . . The arguments kicked off this morning. In an unusual twist that reflected the importance of this case, all nine judges met to hear the suit. FRC’s Peter Sprigg was in the courtroom during the trial. Peter reports that [Austin Nimocks] of the Alliance Defense Fund was brilliant in his defense of the people’s right to vote–much stronger that the counsel for the District.” | Oral Arguments Audio

AnnArbor.com: “Lawmakers in the Michigan Senate are demanding the state’s public universities report on how they’re protecting the religious beliefs of students in counseling degree programs, nearly a year after an advocacy group sued Eastern Michigan University on behalf of student Julea Ward . . . In April 2009, the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom, a conservative public interest group focusing on religious freedom sued EMU alleging Ward’s civil rights were violated when she was dismissed from her counseling degree program at EMU because of her religious beliefs regarding homosexuality.”

Parlementario.com [Google Translation]: “After 12 hours of debate, the House approved the amendment of Civil Code for two people of the same sex can marry. Now is the turn of the Senate. The session was adjourned until Wednesday at 14 to treat the income of the initial approval of the Senate to change the sharing of the tax check.”

How can you establish a relationship with a person who, by hiding a smile or a glance — those universal signs of our common humanity — refuses to exist in the eyes of others?

ADF attorney Austin R. Nimocks appeared on Fox 5 News to discuss the DC marriage battle. The MP4 video runs just under 2 minutes. | Austin also appeared on ABC News 7. The MP4 video runs 2:30 mins.

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Connecticut and Americans United for Separation of Church and State today filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that the Enfield Public Schools’ decision to hold their high school graduation ceremonies at a Christian church is an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion . . . A copy of the legal complaint can be read at: www.aclu.org/religion-belief/does-v-enfield-public-schools-complaint”

WTOPNews.com: “The D.C. Council has passed a measure to legalize medical marijuana, sending the bill to Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty . . . ”

BBC: “Parents should be banned from smacking their children, the deputy head of the Council of Europe has said.”

Times Picayune: “Charter schools will outnumber traditional schools two to one in the Recovery School District next school year, in an effort to rapidly shrink the roster of schools under the state-run district’s direct control.”

Christopher Brooks writes at the National Law Journal: “The retired chief justice of Georgia would be a politically savvy choice for Obama for several reasons, including some conservative leanings.”

Kathleen Parker writes at the Washington Post: “When Bill Clinton said in 1992 that he wanted to make abortion safe, legal and rare, many Americans applauded. Even if one dismisses this as rhetoric, it is a sentiment shared by the large middle and provides nearly everyone a thread of hope. But how does one get to “rare” in a sexualized world where choice is a sacrament? The only plausible answer is through education, but of what should that education consist? Most everybody over the age of 10 knows how to apply a condom these days. And moral education — the kind that might suggest remorse over the ending of a life — is frowned upon.”

An Alliance Defense Fund attorney will be volunteering in his personal capacity to participate Thursday in a “prayer flight” over the greater District of Columbia and greater Richmond, Va., area to commemorate the National Day of Prayer.