Daily Archives: May 24, 2010

BBC: “Kenya’s Islamic courts are illegal and discriminatory, a panel of judges has ruled. The three judges said the Islamic ‘Kadhi’ courts favoured Islam over other faiths, and that this was unconstitutional as Kenya was a secular country.”

Lambda Legal: “The Boy Scouts are entitled to their beliefs, but they have no right to make the city of Philadelphia’s taxpayers foot the bill for their harmful discrimination against gay people.”

U.S. News & World Report: “One of the nation’s most prominent anti-abortion groups is seeking a delay in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in order to provide the Clinton library time to find and make public her key writings while a White House lawyer and later domestic policy aide.”

CTK: “Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka, the Catholic Church primate, agreed that court disputes about the ownership of St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle would not continue, in an agreement on joint care of the cathedral they signed in the church today.”

Wall Street Journal: “Shamala Sathiyaseelan has spent the better part of her children’s youth fighting for the right to raise them. A Malaysian woman of Hindu descent, she was married to her husband, Jeyaganesh, in a Hindu ceremony in 1998. In 2002 Jeyaganesh secretly converted to Islam. Days later, he ‘converted’ his children to Islam without consulting his wife and consequently obtained custody rights over the children from a Shariah court. Shamala protested in the civil courts, arguing that she is not bound by Shariah court rulings as a non-Muslim and that her children’s conversion is void. Now, the country’s highest court is hearing the appeal.”

Times Union: “The American Center for Law and Justice sent a letter to Schenectady school officials demanding Raymond Hosier be allowed to wear the beads to Oneida Middle School to honor his dead brother and uncle, and is featuring Raymond’s story prominently on its website today.” | ACLJ coverage

BBC: “A man who helped his wife to kill herself by placing a bag over her head will not face charges, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said. The CPS said there was sufficient evidence to charge Michael Bateman, 63, of Birstall, West Yorkshire, but it was not in the public interest to do so.”

Helsingin Sanomat: “A ban imposed on the wearing of Muslim headscarves in class has had to be rescinded at a school in Raseborg [Raasepori in Finnish*], west of the capital Helsinki.”

Catholic Culture: “Recalling that ‘it was blasphemy accusations that triggered anti-Christian mob violence in Gojra and Korian in summer 2009, leaving eight dead and at least 100 houses destroyed,’ the European Parliament passed a resolution on May 20 condemning religious intolerance in Pakistan . . . ”

The Coalition for the War Against Illegal Pornography is sponsoring a briefing on June 15th. More details here.
Hear recognized experts outline: The four leading harms of pornography; How existing law can and should be enforced
against illegal material; What Congress can do to protect and prosecute

Times of Malta: “Cohabiting couples should not receive Holy Communion, the Bishops of Malta and Gozo said in a joint statement today . . .”

TIME: “Germany is shrinking — fast. New figures released on May 17 show the birth rate in Europe’s biggest economy has plummeted to a historic low, dropping to a level not seen since 1946. As demographers warn of the consequences of not making enough babies to replace and support an aging population, the latest figures have triggered a bout of national soul-searching and cast a harsh light on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s family . . . ”

CNSNews: “New York City officials say a plan to tear down a building and put up a mosque near the World Trade Center site will need the approval of a commission that protects landmarks . . . ”

CNSNews: “Dr. Donald Berwick, nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that runs Medicare, published an article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), advising leaders of Britain’s socialized health care system: ‘Please don’t put your faith in market forces.’”

Christian Post: “The latest deportations bring the number of Christians who have had to leave Morocco to about 105 since early March. Christians and expert observers are calling this a calculated effort to purge the historically moderate country, known for its progressive policies, of all Christian elements – both foreign and national.”

Norwalk Reflector: “Madison smith has two mothers — or at least two women willing to hire a small army of lawyers to establish or slap down maternity claims. Madison, 6, lives in northeastern Columbus with the one woman who is indisputably her mother: Julie Smith, a 44-year-old deputy director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services . . . Smith is being represented by David Langdon, a Cincinnati lawyer best known for his work in conservative causes . . .”

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “The Supreme Court today granted review in a case the Alliance Defense Fund has been litigating on whether Arizona’s school tuition tax credit program violates the Establishment Clause. Actually, the Supreme Court consolidated two cases, Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn and Garriott v. Winn. You can find the court documents for the appeal here.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys will defend Arizona’s tuition tax credit program in the U.S. Supreme Court, the second time the matter has reached the high court in a lawsuit backed by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking to strike down the program.

“Wendy Maltz persuasively argues in the Psychotherapy Networker (a respected professional journal) that porn is bad for its consumers as well. Maltz decades ago used to recommend pornography to her clients. She now, together with many other analysts, has concluded that pornography distorts human relationships in very serious ways. It is a major cause of divorce and relationship difficulties. Maltz describes it as a cousin to sexual abuse.”

Fox News: “A top-ranking Republican over the weekend accused the White House of handing a “bribe” to Rep. Joe Sestak, as the Pennsylvania congressman held firm to his claim that the Obama administration offered him a job to sit out the Senate primary race against Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania. ”

LifeSiteNews: “The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has threatened legal action against a Texas sheriff, claiming he violated an inmate’s constitutional ‘right’ to an abortion by refusing to transport her to an abortion clinic. Sheriff Larry Fowler, however, said he would not use taxpayer funds to facilitate the deed . . . ”

“The compromise under discussion, according to sources, is to approve language repealing the law, but delay its implementation until after the Pentagon has studied the issue and analyzed its implications on the military.”

Mercury News: “Sen. Barbara Boxer, a polarizing Democrat whose approval ratings rarely have topped 50 percent even in the best of times. But if the opportunity appears ripe for a Republican takeover of a seat Boxer has held for almost two decades, less clear is which GOP candidate has the best chance of pulling it off. Is it former congressman Tom Campbell, whose stance favoring abortion rights would deprive Boxer of an issue she’s used to batter past GOP opponents? Or would Carly Fiorina — the first female after a succession of male opponents that Boxer has dismantled — give the senator the biggest fits? And then there’s conservative state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a favorite of party activists, who may be best able to harness ‘tea party’ anger at Washington . . . ”

Salt Lake Tribune: “The primary race between Cal Noyce and Arlyn Bradshaw is believed to be the first contest between two openly gay candidates in an election in Utah. And, based on District 1′s voting history, one of the two will likely win the November election and take his place on the council early next year.”

Room Eight New York Politics: “Now comes a burst of fresh energy from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo who in his battle cry online campaign kick-off announcement chose marriage equality as one of the select issues of his candidacy bringing hope to civil rights proponents across the state and nationally.”

NaplesNews.com: “The ambulance arrived at 12:50 p.m. and left with a patient on board a few minutes later, while a dozen abortion opponents were protesting on the sidewalk nearby . . . ”

“The November election will offer voters a stark choice on volatile social issues such as gay marriage and abortion, two legislative leaders agreed Friday . . . ”

LifeNews: “The Senate voted 32-11 to approve House Bill 3284, dubbed the ‘Statistical Abortion Reporting Act’ and the House approved it on an equally lopsided 88-8 margin. HB 3284 provides for the reporting of abortions performed in Oklahoma, the reasons abortions are sought, and the complications that result . . . ”

WhoTV.com: “With the primary just about two weeks away, the men who want to take Governor Culver’s job disagree about whether same sex couples should be able to adopt children . . . ”

Mercury News: “Defenders of California’s ban on same-sex marriage today urged a federal judge to reject a request to broadcast the final stage of the historic trial involving the legal challenge to Proposition 8 . . . ”

Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “I’ve long written about how workplace harassment law sometimes violates the First Amendment, so I was especially pleased to see today’s Rodriguez v. Maricopa County Community College Dist. (9th Cir.) (written by Chief Judge Kozinski, and joined by retired Justice O’Connor, sitting by designation, and Judge Sandra Ikuta) . . . ”

Irish Central: “A leading bioethicist has asked if women are safe in Catholic hospitals after an Irish nun was excommunicated for approving an abortion to save the life of a mother.” | Resources: Statements from the Diocese of Phoenix and St. Joseph’s | Info page from The Catholic Sun | Diocesan Q&A on the case | Related: Phoenix Catholic hospital defends abortion that took place there; bishop warns of excommunication | Phoenix Bishop Says Nun is Automatically Excommunicated for Rubberstamping Hospital Abortion

Archdiocese of Seattle: “The Assisted Suicide U.S./Canadian “Push Back” Seminar will be held Saturday, June 5 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel near Sea-Tac Airport, 18118 International Blvd., Seattle. The seminar is aimed at sharing information and developing strategies for effectively responding to the legalization of assisted suicide in Washington state and Oregon and preventing the spread of legalized assisted suicide to other areas . . . Speakers: . . . [Matt Bowman], Attorney, Alliance Defense Fund. Topic: Montana court decision: What does it mean? How can we fight it?”

ADF Attorney Casey Mattox writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “The litigation in CLS v. Walker, for example, terminated with a settlement agreement whereby Southern Illinois University agreed to exempt religious organizations from its religion nondiscrimination requirement and agreed that CLS’s nonmarital sexual conduct policies are not ‘sexual orientation’ discrimination. Ohio State University, Arizona State University, Boise State University, the University of Minnesota, Penn State, Rutgers, Washburn University School of Law, and many other universities have similarly entered into binding settlement agreements that would prevent them from applying nondiscrimination rules to prohibit religious student groups from limiting leadership and voting membership to persons who share their religious beliefs. Having contracted to protect these rights, these universities would remain bound by those contracts no matter the outcome of CLS v Martinez.”

NBC Connecticut: “Earlier this month, the ACLU filed suit over the Enfield public schools holding high school graduation in a Christian church. The two sides sat down last week for mediation, but couldn’t agree, so today they head to federal court in Bridgeport on Monday.” | For more information, see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/state-connecticut+category-religious-freedom/

Gallup: “Opponents of legalizing same-sex marriage continue to outnumber supporters in the United States, by 53% to 44%. However, opposition is now tied for the lowest Gallup has measured. Support was slightly higher, at 46%, in 2007.”

David P. Goldman (“Spengler”) writing at Asia Times Online: “More than the Koran’s sanction of wife-beating, the legal grounds on which the Koran sanctions it reveals an impassable gulf between Islamic and Western law. The sovereign grants inalienable rights to every individual in Western society, of which protection from violence is foremost. Every individual stands in direct relation to the state, which wields a monopoly of violence. Islam’s legal system is radically different: the father is a ‘governor’ or ‘administrator’ of the family, that is, a little sovereign within his domestic realm . . . ”

Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . . ”

Washington Post: “For weeks, they had planned for this moment, to stand behind the men in the main prayer hall of the Falls Church mosque as an act of protest. Usually, women at the mosque pray in segregated spaces away from the men, but these women, who came from outside the Dar al-Hijrah community, wanted to make a point.”

FoxNews: “Former state Sen. Scott Pruitt — a candidate for Oklahoma attorney general — plans to announce on Thursday that, if elected, he will sue the federal government for all expenses his state incurs as a result of illegal immigration, Fox News has learned . . . ”

Interfax: “‘The Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t strive to gain the state status – the Church is separated from the state, but is not separated from the society. The Church can’t decline responsibility for spiritual condition of the nation including its governing layers,’ the Patriarch said in his interview to the Vima Greek newspaper posted by the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.”

Spero News: “Bogor authorities (West Java province) ordered the closure of a local church building that belongs to Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI), a Christian group also known as Gereja Kristen Yasmin Bogor. This has outraged hundreds of faithful and induced the Indonesian Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to file an official protest.”

Charities Aid Foundation: “Britain is to provide contraceptives to help avoid unwanted pregnancies in Uganda, International Development Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell has announced.”

Christian Institute: “School children as young as eleven could be given lessons about rape, prostitution and pornography, but critics have warned that the lessons are ‘too explicit’ for youngsters.”

The Christian Institute: “The US biologist who created the world’s first synthetic cell has not created life, according to scientists . . . David Baltimore, a geneticist at California Institute of Technology, warned: ‘To my mind Craig has somewhat overplayed the importance of this’. He added: ‘He has not created life, only mimicked it’.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to vote by the end of the week . . . The House is expected to vote on a similar measure this week . . .

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss Idaho’s censorship of the Great Books in public charter schools. | MP3 – 7:37 mins | ADF Media information page

ADF Attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “I had the distinct pleasure to recently hear Dr. Ajai Lall from Central India Christian Mission speak. Dr. Lall started CICM many years ago as a church-planting and evangelistic outreach to India and the surrounding countries. His mission has been to spread the Gospel of Christ throughout India and, through God’s blessings, CICM has been wildly successful . . . Let Emmanuel’s story stand not just as an amazing page in church history, but let it stand as a witness to all Americans not to take religious freedom for granted. Let us exercise the religious freedom we do have and thank God that we live in a country where we don’t have to fear death or physical harm for holding and sharing our faith.”

Today’s Catholic: “Cenzon-DeCarlo is being represented in the case by attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian legal alliance dedicated to defending religious liberty, sanctity of life, marriage and the family. ‘Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist in abortions against their beliefs,’ said [Matt Bowman], the defense fund’s legal counsel, in a report from Catholic News Service.”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed suit against Montgomery County, Maryland, charging discrimination against pro-life pregnancy centers . . . ‘The government can’t create special speech rules just because people want to talk about pregnancy, and it absolutely can’t target pro-life speakers with these special requirements and fines,’ [Casey Mattox] contends.”

OneNewsNow: “A federal judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Idaho Public Charter School Commission’s ban on the use of religious texts in its curriculum may not be the last word . . . ‘There is no legitimate educational reason to censor such amount of large religious books just because they’re religious,’ contends ADF attorney [David Cortman].”

RH Reality Check: “Centro Tepeyac Women’s Center, which is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, claims that the disclaimer forces a set of ‘special speech rules’ that only pro-life speakers have to adhere to, where as pro-choice speech remains ‘unregulated.’ Lawyers for the Center so far have not addressed how stating that they do not have licensed medical staff on site violates their free speech rights.”

Washington Examiner: “Maryland agencies have started letting state employees with same-sex spouses enroll for health benefits . . . The change will likely cost the state, said [Austin R. Nimocks], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal team that supports opposite-sex marriage. ‘If you add people to insurance rolls it’s going to increase the cost,’ he said.”

Rapid City Journal: “One Rapid City pastor has accepted gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie’s challenge to defy federal tax law and endorsed Howie from the pulpit . . . Federal courts have upheld those tax-exempt conditions about political activity, most recently in 2000. But the Alliance Defense Fund . . . encourages pastors . . . to openly challenge the IRS and risk their tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) organization, in hopes that it might lead to a legal challenge and a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Johnson amendment.” | SD: Pastors urged to endorse candidates

CitizenLink: “TrueTolerance.org . . . is designed to assist parents who are faced with promotion of homosexuality in their local schools — and to empower them to defend their parental rights and protect their children . . . You can use the site, for instance, to counteract bad policies by offering a legally sound alternative that doesn’t politicize the issue — a model anti-bullying policy crafted and researched by the Alliance Defense Fund. Just look for the ‘new bullying resources’ section at the top of the page.”

LifeSiteNews: “Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit this Wednesday against Maryland’s Montgomery County on behalf of the Centro Tepeyac Women’s Center . . . ADF Legal Counsel [Casey Mattox] said that Montgomery Council’s practices were unconstitutional. ‘The government’s enforcement of policies against pro-life pregnancy centers and its refusal to apply the same rules to abortion facilities is an unconstitutionally discriminatory practice,’ he said.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Now the state is in the midst of developing a sophisticated data system that will track students from preschool to elementary and secondary education to postsecondary education to the work force . . . ”

AP: “Britain’s top medical group ruled Monday that a doctor who claimed autism was linked to a childhood vaccine can no longer practice in the U.K . . . In a statement then, Wakefield said the medical council’s investigation was an effort to ‘discredit and silence” him to “shield the government from exposure on the (measles) vaccine scandal.’”

Daily Mail: “An alarming number of young people do not know the difference between Oliver Cromwell from Horatio Nelson, a survey shows. The poll of 18- to 24-year-olds found that 45 per cent of young Britons did not know Nelson led the British to victory at the Battle Of Trafalgar, and 28 per cent thought that Trafalgar was part of the English Civil War . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “According to a release from the Texas Education Agency, the following will be added to the Government curriculum standards: ‘Examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America and guaranteed its free exercise by saying that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and compare and contrast this to the phrase ‘separation of church and state.’”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Geithner, (ED CA, May 21, 2010), plaintiffs are challenging two provisions of the Internal Revenue Code on Establishment Clause grounds. Section 107 exempts from income the rental value of a parsonage, or the amount of a parsonage allowance, furnished to a member of the clergy as compensation for service performed in the exercise of a religious ministry . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “. . . The bill is designed to prevent California from adopting textbooks that contain the controversial changes approved last week by the Texas State Board of Education . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “They wrote to Emanuel: ‘We promise to accompany your son’s bar mitzvah events in Israel, we will make sure to receive you as you deserve to be received … with catcalls and disgust.’”

AP: “Republicans cited Rep.-elect Charles Djou’s victory for a seat long out of their reach as evidence of steadily increasing election-year strength, but Democrats said Sunday the winner’s 40-percent vote share portends a short stay in Congress for him and predicts nothing about the fall.”

AP: “It didn’t take much for Iranian courts to sentence 10 people to death over the country’s post-election turmoil. For one prisoner, the main evidence was that he allegedly sent videos of protests abroad.”

AP: “The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a Texas death row inmate should have access to evidence for DNA testing that he says could clear him of three murders . . . ”

The Court decided today that it would hear an appeal to a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that declared an Arizona school choice program unconstitutional.

Mohamad Mova Al ‘Afghani, Religious Freedom in Indonesia Before and after Constitutional Amendments (April 10, 2010). CRITICAL THINKERS FOR ISLAMIC REFORM, Brainbow Press, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1587256

“The Indonesian Constitution is very unique in terms of its relation between religion and the state. It is stated there that that the state is based ‘…on the belief in the One and Supreme God’ but at the same time, it never explicitly mentioned the name of any established religion in the world. Historical interpretation into the constitutional drafting process and revelation from the founding fathers on their understanding of ‘God’ and religion reveals that the Constitution is neutral with respect to religions. However, the Constitution does prefer a theistic worldview over the non theist. The consequences for this is that the state may provide financial and other supports to the followers of religions (provide for positive discrimination) but must not interfere with the freedom of followers of any other worldviews in professing their beliefs. Recent amendment to the Constitution reinforces this neutral stance. This would have a significant impact on the constitutionality of blasphemy laws.”

Jeff Redding, Dignity, Legal Pluralism, and Same-Sex Marriage (May 22, 2010). Brooklyn Law Review, Vol. 75, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1613370

“This Article aims to contribute to the radical re-thinking of family law that is on-going in the contemporary United States by analyzing recent U.S. developments with respect to same-sex marriage from a transnational perspective. In doing so, this Article argues against the odd and overstated quality of recent American state court discussions concerning the necessary relationship between dignity and family law pluralism. These discussions, and the conclusions that they have given rise to, have resulted not only in the erasure of profound and enviable gay and lesbian legal achievements – ‘domestic partnerships,’ ‘civil unions,’ and the like – but also to a severe backlash in the form of Proposition 8 and similar state ballot initiatives.”

Kristen Stilt, How is Islam the Solution?: Constitutional Visions of Contemporary Islamists (May 20, 2010). Texas International Law Journal, Forthcoming; Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 10-22. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1612482

“This Article uses documents issued by the Muslim Brotherhood, in particular the lengthy 2007 ‘Political Party’ Platform, and personal interviews with Brotherhood leadership to examine the group’s specific goals and beliefs for the place of religion within the structure of the Egyptian legal system. While many important angles need to be explored, I focus on one topic that has drawn the most attention to the Brotherhood, the place of religion in the state, or religion defined and enforced by state institutions. I show that the Brotherhood carefully acknowledges the existing constitutional structure and jurisprudence on the position of Islam in the state, it also significantly expresses a desire to expand the place of Islam, constructed around and built upon the existing system.”