Daily Archives: June 1, 2010

On Top Mag (“gay advocacy website”): “Portugal’s gay marriage law takes effect next week, Portugal Diario reported. Beginning June 7, marriage in Portugal will be defined as a ‘contract between two people wishing to form families through the full communion of life.’”

Palm Beach Post: “At a recent meeting, [Commissioner Suzanne Boisvenue] instructed city staffers to change the legal definition of family in the zoning law. She said she wants the three-person restriction removed, and language added to ensure that ‘family’ includes domestic partners, regardless of gender, as well as foster children and all legal guardians.”

AFP: “UN chief Ban Ki-moon persuaded Malawi’s president to pardon a gay couple jailed for holding a wedding, but his call to reform anti-gay laws poses a challenge to most of Africa.”

Buenos Aires Herald: “The Senate has begun debating a bill for a law that would legalize gay marriage. The bill is looking to modify the National Civil Code and change the definition of marriage from being between a man and a woman to being between two ‘contractors.’”

SF Public Press: “Two nonprofit groups — Restore Equality 2010 and Love Honor Cherish — attempted to get the matter back on the ballot this November. But for a number of reasons, they failed to get enough valid signatures by the April deadline . . . ‘It’s not surprising, given that the people of California, just a little more than a year and a half ago, enacted a constitutional amendment defending marriage as a union of one man and one woman,’ [ADF Attorney Jim Campbell] said. But Campbell also said it did not mean there was any lack of political influence by same-sex marriage supporters: ‘It merely shows that those organizations that are advocating to change marriage were not all committed to this signature-gathering effort.’”

AP: “Following is a list of abortion-related measures passed by the Legislature during the 2010 session and their current status . . . ”

Metro News: “The main group representing Albania’s Muslim majority population says it is suing a journalist who suggesting the government should ban their faith.”

The Christian Institute: “Councils should continue to have the freedom to hold prayers at meetings, the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has said. His comments come as a secular group attempts to use the courts to block a council from continuing its centuries-old tradition of praying before meetings.” | For more information on the National Secular Society’s challenges, see: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/group-national-secular-society/

The Sun: “Councilman Alan Wapner wants to bring God back into city government. Inspired by the e-mailed words of a Bakersfield-based nonprofit, he is asking City Council members to consider adding the words ‘In God We Trust’ to the bottom of the city seal . . . ”

Gaylord Herald Times: “A Mitchell County magistrate has upheld the constitutionality of an ordinance that bans vehicles with steel wheels from the county’s hard-surfaced roads . . . The county says the wheels damage the roads, but Old Order Mennonite farmers say the use of conventional wheels would violate church rules.”

Times Online: “In a policy welcomed by anti-abortion campaigners but dismissed by critics as propaganda, women in northern Italy who cannot afford to have their babies are to be offered €4,500 (£3,700) not to have an abortion. Roberto Formigoni, the centre-right governor of the Lombardy region, said that the offer was to fulfil his pledge in regional elections in March that no woman should have to have an abortion because of economic difficulties . . . ”

Today: “Two years ago, some churches raised a debate on whether religious charities should be regulated separately from other charities. While their wishes were denied then – and churches and temples continue to be regulated under the Commissioner of Charities office today – the latest investigations into alleged misuse of funds at City Harvest Church has put the spotlight back on how the religious charities sector should be regulated.”

Liberty Counsel: “Liberty Counsel filed a Complaint against the District last month on behalf of 22 individuals representing students, faculty and staff, and members of the community, whose constitutional rights to free speech are being violated by a Consent Decree drafted by the ACLU, agreed to by the District, and entered by a federal court . . . ”

Wesley W.J. Richards writes at Christian Post: “It has been estimated that between 40,000 to 100,000 people may be trafficked during the World Cup. In January, Time magazine reported on a three-week investigation into human trafficking. Finding a lucrative trade in child sex near two stadiums, one trafficker said, ‘I’m really looking forward to doing more business during the World Cup.’ Children can earn $45 to $600 a night for their captors . . . ”

New York Daily News: “The fast-food giant McDonald’s wants to be seen as a company that welcomes everyone. Judging by a new advertisement running on French television, that includes gays.”

Catholic News Agency: “Mexican journalist Enrique Sanchez published an article in the magazine, Impacto, this week pointing out that a recent forum in Baja California demonstrates that the pro-life movement in Mexico is growing.”

Christian Today: “Afghanistan suspended two church-based aid groups on Monday over allegations that the organizations are proselytising in the Islamic country. Church World Service and Norwegian Church Aid cannot operate while authorities investigate the claim.”

Christian Today: “Protestant churches in Hong Kong are blooming with an annual growth rate 6.2% over the last five years and the number of Protestants in the former British colony drawing close to 300,000.”

International Christian Concern: “International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court approved the results of the March 7th election, including five Christian seats in the Iraqi parliament.”

HRC Back Story Blog: “The past two weeks in Nebraska have been nothing short of amazing. Dozens of dedicated Nebraskan volunteers stepped up their energy to mobilize our supporters and supplement our veterans’ lobbying to repeal DADT. After nearly three months of intense efforts on the ground in Nebraska, we succeeded in earning Senator Ben Nelson’s decisive vote on the Senate Armed Services Committee to clear the way to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” this year! . . . ”

Ross Douthat writing in the New York Times: “About a million American adults, if not more, are the biological children of sperm donors. Not surprisingly, these Americans have a complicated relationship to the reproductive marketplace that made their existence possible. Their inner lives are the subject of a fascinating study from the Institute for American Values, based on a survey of younger adults, ages 18 to 45, who were conceived through sperm donation. The authors — Elizabeth Marquardt, Norval Glenn and Karen Clark — depict a population that’s at once grateful to the fertility industry and uneasy about the way they were conceived, supportive of assisted fertility but haunted by the feeling of being a bought-and-paid-for child.”

LifeNews: “Supporters of a personhood amendment are trying a second time to get a measure to define unborn children as people starting at conception on the ballot in Montana. Should they obtain a November vote and Montana residents support it, the measure would challenge legal abortions and head for an immediate court battle.”

WSJ: “Watching China’s instant condemnation of the Israeli assault on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, South Koreans must be wondering more than ever when China will muster a clear response to their own nautical tragedy.”

LA Times Editorial: “The United States has a long tradition of allowing tax breaks for charitable contributions, including donations to churches and other religious organizations. But the San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that a program that offers tax credits for contributions to provide scholarships for private schools breaches the wall separating church and state. It’s a tortured decision that the Supreme Court rightly has agreed to review . . . ”

Voice of America News: “White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Tuesday referred repeatedly to the language in a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the acts which resulted in the loss of life . . . ”

Tony Perkins of FRC writes at CNN: Some people think allowing open homosexuality in the military means nothing more than opening a door that was previously closed. It means much more than that. It would mean simultaneously ushering out the back door anyone who disapproves of homosexual conduct, whether because of legitimate privacy and health concerns or because of moral or religious convictions.

ACLJ: “‘In this case, the court simply got it wrong,’ said Vincent McCarthy, ACLJ Senior Counsel. ‘There need not be a constitutional crisis simply because a religious facility is used for a clearly secular purpose.’”

Reuters: “The Russian Orthodox Church on Tuesday called for tougher rules to reduce the number of abortions carried out in a country struggling to combat its fast-dwindling population, media reported . . . ”

LifeNews: “Another pro-life group has climbed on board with the other pro-life organizations supporting Sue Lowden, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge pro-abortion Senate Leader Harry Reid in Nevada . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “In the wake of a unanimous motion in the Quebec National Assembly emphasizing ‘the right … to free and accessible abortion services,’ a key leader in the province’s pro-life movement is calling on the bishops of Quebec to join Cardinal Marc Ouellet in taking a stand for the unborn . . . ”

“The National Association of Evangelicals has issued a new resolution on abortion advocacy that calls for pursuing ‘common ground’ towards reducing the abortion rate in America, and included contraception as among possible means of achieving that goal.”

LifeNews: “An opposition political party has filed a lawsuit to prevent a new pro-abortion law from taking effect later this week. The Spain Parliament this year approved the final version of a new law that expands abortions and provides no parental consent for teenagers wanting abortions . . . ”

Sioux City Journal: “Iowa groups opposed to gay marriage released a letter and petition with the signatures of more than 800 Iowa pastors they plan on sending to candidates for statewide office and the Legislature.”

Edmonton Journal: “A year after the Stelmach government passed controversial changes to Alberta’s human-rights laws, the province’s teachers are still waiting to find out what Bill 44 will actually mean in their classrooms . . . The key criticism of ‘parental rights’ was that it could force teachers to defend themselves before the quasi-judicial human rights commission for discussing sexual orientation, sexuality or religion.”

Irish Times: “The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and Children at Risk in Ireland (Cari) were responding to RTÉ’s Primetime Investigates programme about the issue last night. The investigation found more than 1,000 individual computers in Ireland had, in one month alone, accessed images of children being abused.”

UPI: “Three Namibian women are suing their country’s health ministry for sterilizing them without their informed consent, their lawyers say.”

Stewart Baker reports on the law in question and the filing at the Volokh Conspiracy.

Euguene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “From the amicus brief for 48 states plus D.C. supporting Snyder in Snyder v. Phelps: ‘No decision of [the Supreme] Court has ever exempted a non-media defendant from generally applicable state tort law on First Amendment grounds.’”

Bay Windows: “The full Senate on Friday, May 28 unanimously confirmed Laura Duffy as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, making her the second openly lesbian or gay U.S. attorney. Jenny Durkan, the first, was confirmed in September as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington . . . ”

Politico: “Aubrey Sarvis’s Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is ‘the American Legion of the LGBT community,’ says one activist . . . ”

Standard Newswire: “Today, Americans United for Life filed testimony with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs, urging the FDA not to approve the abortion drug Ulipristal or make it available over-the-counter.”

World Net Daily: “The policy director at a George Soros-funded, Marxist-founded organization calling itself Free Press has just taken a key State Department position, WND has learned. Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott has been named a policy adviser for innovation at the State Department . . . ”

New York Times: “According to the College Board’s Trends in Student Aid study, 10 percent of people who graduated in 2007-8 with student loans had borrowed $40,000 or more. The median debt for bachelor’s degree recipients who borrowed while attending private, nonprofit colleges was $22,380. The Project on Student Debt, a research and advocacy organization in Oakland, Calif., used federal data to estimate that 206,000 people graduated from college (including many from for-profit universities) with more than $40,000 in student loan debt in that same period. That’s a ninefold increase over the number of people in 1996, using 2008 dollars.”

Dr. S. Magnet and Heather Ann Hillsburg, Protecting Children’s ‘Best Interests’: Mature Minors, Faith and Canadian Jurisprudence (April 13, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1589208

“Jehovah’s Witnesses are consistently marginalized within the Canadian legal system. This discrimination is particularly noticeable in cases involving children such as child custody battles, as well as in the language used at law to describe the Witness religion. Children are characterized at law as ‘choosing’ mainstream religion, whereas Witness elders “coerce”, “force” or “inculcate” children into a religion that will ultimately harm them. The biases within this language played a key role in the 2009 A.C. v. Manitoba decision. In this case, the court rules that a 15 year-old girl suffering from Crohn’s disease was ordered to undergo a blood transfusion against her will. The court grounded its decision in sections 25(8) and 25(9) of the Canadian child and family services act, stipulating that a child could be subjected to medial treatment that doctors deemed to be in their ‘best interests’, and that a child under the age of 16, unless deemed to be a mature minor by psychiatrists, could not make their own medical decisions. While psychiatrists decided that A.C. was a mature minor, the court overruled these findings. A.C. challenged the decision on the grounds that sections 25(8) and 25(9) of the Child and Family Services were arbitrary and discriminatory, but was ultimately forced to undergo a blood transfusion.”

Zenit: “As Christians flee in great numbers from Iran, for both political and religious reasons, the country’s Christian community is at real risk of extinction, says journalist and observer of Middle Eastern Churches, Camille Eid . . . ‘Let me say that the political pressure is upon both Non-Muslims and Muslims, but Christians are twice under pressure because you have the political facet of the regime that is questioned by the majority of the Iranian people and on top of that you have the religious pressure for the Non-Muslims, because they feel that their freedom is curtailed. That is why there is this massive flight and in fact there is a real risk of the disappearance, of an extinction of Christianity in Iran.’”

Interfax: “The Russian Orthodox Church welcomes solidarity between the government and society in rejecting sex minorities’ attempts to hold a gay pride parade in Moscow.”

Interfax: “Boroda highlighted that the Jewish community ‘is in no case willing to oppose any democratic rights, including the right to hold demonstrations,’ but organizers and participants of gay parades ‘insist on public demonstration of their life style’ – however, “normal people prefer to conceal their private and family lives from others.”

Seth Lipsky writes at the Wall Street Journal full access via Google:  ”Vieira believes the Federal Reserve is unconstitutional on, among other points, the same grounds that FDR’s National Recovery Administration was found unconstitutional—namely that Congress had delegated too much of its own law-making responsibilities. He is less harsh toward Fed officials. ‘I don’t basically attribute either greed, stupidity or evil to these people,’ who are ‘caught up in this extraordinarily difficult position,’ he says. But Mr. Vieira believes the federal government has gone way past what would have been red lines for the Founders—and that we are now in a ‘race against time’ over ‘which happens first, the crisis or the reform.’ He finds himself in an isolated spot. Those who want to secede from the Union don’t call him, he says, because “I’m against secession.’ Nor do the paper money people, because ‘I point out that paper money is absolutely unconstitutional.” The gold standard people don’t call, “because I point out that the constitutional standard is silver.’”

Telegraph: “Since 1978, China’s government has limited each couple to one child in a bid to stem the growth of the world’s largest population. To police the law, neighbourhood committees keep a close eye out for any pregnancies, and Family Planning officials have the power to force women to have abortions and sterilisations, as well as to monitor their contraception . . . Examining China’s census figures, Mr Liang came across discrepancies that proved the subterfuge. ‘In 1990, the national census recorded 23 million births. But by the 2000 census, there were 26 million ten-year-old children, an increase of three million,’ he said. ‘Normally, you would expect there to be fewer ten-year-olds than newborns, because of infant mortality,’ he added.”

Diogenes writes at Catholic Culture: “The challenge for American seminary rectors, the New York Times tells us, is ‘deciding whether gay applicants should be denied admission under complex recent guidelines from the Vatican that do not explicitly bar all gay candidates but would exclude most of them, even some who are celibate.’ . . . The New York Times says that the confusion can be traced to the complexity of the Vatican’s instructions. Yet ordinary readers, skimming those same instructions, get a clear picture. So why the confusion? Mark Jordan, a frequent critic of Church teaching on homosexuality, gives away the game: ‘And not the least irony here,” he added, “is that these new regulations are being enforced in many cases by seminary directors who are themselves gay.’”

Education News: “The National Center for Education Statistics has released The Condition of Education 2010, a Congressionally mandated report to the nation on education in America. It covers all aspects of education, with 49 indicators that include findings on enrollment trends, demographics, and outcomes . . . ”

Dennis Prager writes at Townhall: “So, then, why the ‘T’ in GLBT? Because the Left seeks to obliterate the distinction between men and women. This distinction is considered to be a social construct. That is why, to this day, despite all the scientific evidence (as if that were needed) proving how different male and female brains are . . . ”

NCPA Policy Digest: “Casey is gathering support for his ‘Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act,’ a bailout for union run retirement plans. Similar to House legislation from North Dakota Democrat Earl Pomeroy and Ohio Republican Patrick Tiberi, the bill would transfer tens of billions of dollars worth of retiree liabilities to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, i.e., to taxpayers . . . ”

Washington Post: “Snyder and his late son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, killed in Iraq, have become the public faces of more than 200 families that have seen funerals of loved ones picketed by members of a tiny church who say the deaths of U.S. soldiers are God’s retribution for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality. The collision of privacy rights and the Constitution’s protection of free speech will be heard by the Supreme Court in the fall . . . ” | SCOTUS Wiki: Snyder v. Phelps

AP: “Researchers at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library are working overtime to produce more than 160,000 pages of documents – some of them possibly holding clues to the record of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.”

One News Now: “The author adds that the proposed center will be called ‘Cordoba House.’
‘Cordoba was the Islamic caliphate who conquered Spain and governed what the Muslims called ‘Andalusia,’ occasionally brutally for over half a millennium,’ he explains.”

Joseph E. David, Legal Comparability and Cultural Identity: The Case of Legal Reasoning in Jewish and Islamic Traditions (May 23, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1613943

“Comparativism is not only a means for political change, but also a heuristic tool for the legal historian within explanatory contexts. The comparability of the Islamic and Jewish legal systems in the medieval period is a typical case for comparative legal history repeatedly mentioned both by legal historiographers and by scholars of religious studies. Our aim is to examine the comparability of these legal systems in the light of modern comparative theories and methodologies: What makes these legal traditions comparable? Is it the theological proximity, the factual transplantations or perhaps the jurists’ jurisprudential self-understandings? Our test case will be one of the debated topics in legal philosophy at that time – the legitimacy of legal reasoning in interpreting legal sources and analogizing novel cases to known rulings. Our analysis of the attitudes towards this problem and in relation to theological principles and legal theories in the Islamic and Jewish legal context will revalue the applicability of current comparative theories in a pre-modern and non-western scene.”

Bloomberg: “Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Richard Lugar of Indiana are among the Republicans praising her.”

LifeNews: “The city of Pittsburgh may have to pay attorneys fees after it lost a case regarding the buffer zone law that has been the subject of lawsuits by pro-life advocates . . . Alliance Defense Fund attorneys challenged the local law as unconstitutional for prohibiting speech and helped represent a pro-life nurse who took on the ordinance, which prohibited her from counseling and speaking with women.”

Rees Lloyd: “[Joseph Infranco, Sr.] Attorney of the Alliance Defense Fund which is representing The American Legion Department of California as friend of the court, said: ‘The Supreme Court gave clear guidance in the Mojave memorial case that honoring veterans and acknowledging our nation’s religious heritage is not an establishment of religion. We are encouraged that the appellate court wants to consider this decision’s impact on Mount Soledad. One person’s agenda should not diminish the heroic sacrifice of millions of veterans.’”

OneNewsNow: “The Supreme Court will consider ending a lawsuit backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that challenges Arizona’s tuition tax program . . . ‘Their entire argument is just because religious schools are included among the schools that receive this private money . . . somehow it violates the so-called “separation of church and state,” and that’s simply not the case,’ [ADF Attorney David Cortman] contends. ‘Religious schools under the law should be treated the same as other schools, which is exactly what this law does.’”

AP: “Bio looks like this: raised in a middle-class Jewish family in Manhattan. Two brothers. Mother taught school. Dad was a lawyer. Look closer, and you’ll find a family tree richly populated with individuals of great determination, intelligence and activism. There’s even a bona fide tree-hugger and a leftist dissident in the lot.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Redwing v. Catholic Bishop for Diocese of Memphis, (TN App., May 27, 2010), the Tennessee Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, dismissed a damage action against the Catholic Diocese of Memphis alleging that it was liable in damages for negligent hiring, retention and supervision of a priest who allegedly sexually abused plaintiff as a child over 30 years ago. The majority held that the negligent hiring and retention claims must be dismissed under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine

Religion Clause Blog:  ”The Maldives Constitution, Sec. 9, limits citizenship to Muslims. Minivan News reported yesterday that 37-year old Mohamed Nazim shocked an audience during a question and answer period at a lecture Friday on “Misconceptions About Islam” delivered by a visiting Indian scholar . . . ”

Albany Times Union: “The Christian legal group Alliance Defense Fund will defend Arizona’s tax-tuition program. ADF attorneys said the program ‘is constitutional because it involves individual, private choices and funding, not government action or money.’”

Religion Clause Blog: “In an appeal by Coptic leader Pope Shenouda from a lower court decision, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered the Coptic Church to permit men in two separate cases to remarry after their divorces even though the remarriage was not permitted under Coptic Christian religious law.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-proclamation-memorial-day The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release May 28, 2010 Presidential Proclamation–Memorial Day Since our Nation’s founding, America’s sons and daughters have given their lives in service to our country. From Concord and Gettysburg to …

KOLD.com: “The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block the distribution of so-called “matching funds” to candidates running for office under Arizona’s Clean Elections law.”

Boston Globe: “Nine cities and towns have forced the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to pay property taxes on closed churches, schools, convents, and parish halls, contending that the buildings no longer qualify as tax-exempt because the archdiocese is not using them.”

Excellent Education for Everyone: “There are a few third rails in education reform. School choice and merit pay are among them. And just as discussion about them has increased in both frequency and seriousness recently, so has the focus on what is arguably the holy grail of teacher collective bargaining: tenure . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Does 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 v. Enfield Public Schools, (D CT, May 31, 2010), a Connecticut federal district court issued a preliminary injunction barring Enfield Public Schools from holding 2010 graduation ceremonies for two high schools at First Cathedral, a Christian church in Bloomfield, CT. The court concluded that holding the ceremonies there would likely violate the Establishment Clause . . . ”

AP: “Philippine elementary and high schools will start teaching basic sex education as a pilot program in the conservative Roman Catholic nation, officials said Tuesday, brushing aside concerns by church leaders that it may encourage promiscuity among the youth.”

AP: “Turkey is demanding that the United States condemn the botched Israeli raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists . . . ”

NY Family Research Foundation: “In the early 1970’s, abortion-rights advocates urged passage of an amendment to the US Constitution known as the Equal Right Amendment (ERA). The amendment would have guaranteed equal rights under any federal, state, or local laws regardless of a person’s sex. In 1972, the ERA passed both houses of Congress, yet the ERA ultimately failed to obtain the ratification (approval) of 37 states that is necessary to amend the US Constitution before the June 30, 1982 deadline. Since the measure failed, most people thought this was the end of it, but it isn’t. On July 21, 2009, Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced the ERA in the House of Representatives. Additionally, some states continue to try to pass state-level equal rights amendments. New York is one of those states . . . ”

NY Family Research Foundation: Both houses of the New York State Legislature have introduced a bill known as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). GENDA is often referred to as the “Bathroom Bill” because it would allow any man who says he feels like a woman trapped in a man’s body access to women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities. That name has gotten some traction, causing many advocates in the lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community much consternation.