Daily Archives: June 4, 2010

Wall Street Journal: “The Internal Revenue Service is drafting guidance that could require employers with religious affiliations to warn workers when their pensions have lost their federal safety net . . . Church plans are exempt from federal pension rules, including those that require employers to fund the plans and insure them with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., or PBGC, a federal agency that pays the benefits if a pension plan runs out of money.”

ADF Attorney Daniel Blomberg writing at Speak Up University / Church: Already, veteran chaplains from numerous denominations–including Lutherans, Southern Baptists, and Presbyterians–have spoken out to express their concern that repealing the current law that protects the military from open homosexual behavior will, among other things, harm religious liberty. Just yesterday, another major voice in the chaplaincy community, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Catholic Church’s Military Diocese, added his voice in defense of the military’s current law.”

Daily Journal of California: “The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, often categorized as too liberal and out of sync with the more conservative U.S. Supreme Court, faces some unusual competition this term for its crown as the most reversed circuit. Earlier this week, the justices reversed the Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th Circuit for the seventh time in seven cases (including one summary reversal), meaning a 100 percent reversal rate for the term.” | Via How Appealing.

Associated Press: “A Brazilian man was reunited with his Massachusetts husband this week after U.S. Sen. John Kerry pressed federal officials to temporarily allow the 31-year-old gay man back into the country on humanitarian grounds.”

AFP: “Couples of different European nationalities will be able to choose which divorce laws will apply under a new deal struck between 14 countries on Friday. The breakaway pact marks a significant extension of the process that allowed an inner core of European Union countries to set up the euro currency, or others to remain outside the continental border-free Schengen area.”

Stokholm News: “The new proposal gives spouses of different nationalities living in different countries or who live together in another EU-country the possibility to choose which counry’s divorce laws they intend to abide to . . . The Swedish resistance is about the issue that Swedish courts could be forced to base their judging on other countries’ laws.”

John Allen writing at the National Catholic Reporter: “Today, however, Catholicism in Ukraine may once again be at risk, as a new government has come to power which seems bent on reviving Soviet-style authoritarianism. On May 18, an official of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the successor to the KGB, visited the rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv — the only Catholic university in the former Soviet Union, which means it’s the only Catholic university in twelve time zones. The police official warned the rector, Fr. Borys Gudziak, against students participating in illegal anti-government protests. (Gudziak, by the way, is a 50-year-old Ukrainian-American born in Syracuse, New York, who holds a Harvard doctorate in Slavic and Byzantine Cultural History.)”

KCCI: “The survey found that 53 percent of those polled said they favor marriage rights for same-sex couples and that 41 percent are opposed.”

Reuters: “Major League Baseball has asked a judge for a subpoena to help it identify people using Internet services provided by Charter Communications Inc to post pornography and other indecent material on the MLB.com website.”

The Advocate: “A Louisiana House committee Thursday approved Senate-passed legislation that would require physicians to perform ultrasounds prior to an abortion . . . [SB528] amends the state law that generally forbids abortions 24 weeks after conception. The ultrasound, to be performed two hours before an abortion procedure, would determine the age of the fetus.” | Related: Louisiana Senate advances ultrasound mandate for abortion

WFMZ: “A birth certificate is a precious document for a parent. But it’s a document that parents of stillborns in Pennsylvania don’t have.”

CNSNews: “As a domestic policy adviser in the Clinton White House, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan wrote that encouraging a new federal law banning assisted suicide would be ‘a fairly terrible idea.’”

Telegraph: “High Wycombe Cemetery in Buckinghamshire currently has a separate Muslim burial section but this is due to run out of space in 2012 . . . The council have now settled on extending High Wycombe cemetery terracing to form new burial areas, walls, paths and steps for access at a cost of £150,000.”

The Minnesota Independent: “Bachmann and Associates, Inc., a counseling center that receives state funds and is owned by Rep. Michele Bachmann and her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, uses counseling methods steeped in fundamentalist Christianity, raising questions about its use of taxpayer money.”

The Setonian: “At the Mission and Identity Committee meeting Thursday, no decision was reached regarding the gay marriage course, as reported by the Star Ledger. A campus spokesman told the Star Ledger that the course was discussed, but a ‘final recommendation’ was not made.” | Related: Catholic Seton Hall University considers same-sex “marriage” course

The Gainesville Sun: “Faced with opposition from religious leaders, the Gainesville City Commission voted Thursday night to levy a fee for fire service on property owners — including churches and nonprofit groups — to help close its $7.4 million budget shortfall and avoid some of the ‘dire cuts’ ahead.”

Detroit Free Press: “People arrested by Canton police while wearing head coverings will no longer be forced to remove them while being booked, as long as the coverings are worn for religious reasons.”

Wall Street Journal (AP): “The William J. Clinton Presidential Library on Friday released the first batch of 160,000 pages of records from Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s service in the former president’s White House.”

The Minnesota Daily: “A lawsuit seeking to end Minnesota’s ban on same-sex marriage faces tough odds in court and lacks the broad support that propelled successful efforts in five other states . . . ‘There are both legal and political reasons to believe that this lawsuit is a very risky roll of the dice,’ said Dale Carpenter, a University of Minnesota law professor who supports same-sex marriage.”

Associated Press: “Attorney General Eric Holder promised the Arab-American community on Friday that the Justice Department will vigorously prosecute hate crimes and he said an ongoing dialogue between law enforcement agencies and Arab-Americans is one of the Obama administration’s top priorities.”

Hartford Courant: “Enfield school officials voted 5-4 Thursday night against appealing a federal judge’s temporary injunction . . . Vincent McCarthy, a lawyer representing the school district, says he’s going to seek a jury trial and plans to fight to allow graduations at the church in the future.”

Christian Newswire: “Several weeks ago Planned Parenthood put up a fence around that public property and police are now threatening to arrest anyone who stands inside that fence. The Christian Defense Coalition is challenging this unconstitutional crushing of prayer and free speech and has applied for a permit to hold a prayer vigil on the public sidewalk leading up to Planned Parenthood.”

The Hill: “Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Wisconsin Public Service Commissioner Lauren Azar are ending their 15-year domestic partnership, according to a statement from Baldwin’s office.”

Visalia Times-Delta: “Rajan Zed, an internationally renowned Hindu scholar who now claims part-time residency in Visalia, will offer a Sanskrit invocation at the Aug. 2 Visalia City Council meeting.” | Related: CA: Hindu prayer to open Lincoln City Council meet

Christian Today: “The Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has expressed serious concern over the recent developments in Uzbekistan where a church was raided by police without a warrant.”

“There are huge realities that frame the momentous nature of this policy change. The first is the centrality of sexual identity or orientation to human life. The second is the massive institutional and symbolic influence of the military in American life. The third is the threat to religious liberty posed by the normalization of homosexuality in the armed forces.”

Vancouver Sun: “The Anglican Church of Canada has agreed to disagree when it comes to the fractious debate over gay marriage. When priests, bishops and laypersons gather Friday for nine days of debate and discussion as part of the church’s tri-annual General Synod in Halifax, the approach will be much different than three years ago, Archdeacon Paul Feheley said.”

National Review Online: “Through its ‘Race to the Top’ program, the administration is using federal grant money to coax states into adopting the ‘common core’ standards developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. In addition, while President Obama probably won’t be able to push a reauthorization of No Child Left Behind through Congress before this session ends, the administration’s ‘blueprint’ for the law would cut off access to $14.5 billion in federal funding for states that fail to adopt these ‘common standards.’”

Spero News: “Members of the Indonesian Christian Church (aka Yasmin Church, Gereja Kristen Indonesia in Indonesian) are preparing to appeal to the United Nations against a decision by the authorities in the West Java City of Bogor to close down their church. Municipal authorities have been trying to prevent Christians from expressing their faith publicly in response to Muslim extremists. Christians have argued instead that they have a right to profess their faith wherever they live, even if it means praying in the streets.”

New York Post: “Only one couple showed up at the City Clerk’s Office on Worth Street downtown to take advantage of the new service, and they did it in private.”

The Christian Institute: “Abortion provider Marie Stopes International (MSI) is facing criticism for using UK taxpayers’ money to fund the opening of abortion clinics in China . . . The organisation carries out 65,000 abortions a year in Britain, most of them through NHS contracts for which it receives £30m a year, according to media reports.”

The Christian Institute: “Baroness Campbell of Surbiton, who was born with the wasting disease spinal muscular atrophy, is calling on politicians to sign a charter declaring that disabled and terminally ill people should receive the same legal protection and support as everyone else.”

Associated Press: “As an aide to former President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan took a pragmatic approach to negotiating tobacco regulations with Republicans and worried that tough marketing restrictions might be unconstitutional, according to files handed over to Congress Friday.”

The Blog of LegalTimes: “The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary is well into its in-depth investigation into the record of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, which will be presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee for its hearing later this month.”

Gallup: “A USA Today/Gallup poll finds just under half of Americans, 46%, in favor of the Senate’s confirming Elena Kagan’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. That level of support is generally lower than what Gallup has found when it first polled about other recent court nominations, trailing all others except Harriet Miers and Robert Bork.”

CNN Money: “Employers added 431,000 jobs in the month, up from 290,000 jobs added in April. It was the biggest gain in jobs since March 2000. But Census hiring was responsible for 411,000 of May’s increase in employment. Private sector employers also added 41,000 jobs in the period, well below the 218,000 private sector job gains in April. Government payrolls other than Census declined by 21,000 jobs in May, due largely to job cuts by state and local governments.”

SCOTUSblog Friday round-up: “Following a flurry of articles on this week’s opinions, Court commentators have turned their attention back to Elena Kagan’s upcoming confirmation hearings, parsing her records for clues to her judicial philosophy.”

Courthouse News Service: “The 9th Circuit has once again asked the California Supreme Court to decide if San Diego’s practice of leasing public park land to the Boy Scouts of America interferes with religious and civil rights, given the Scouts’ policy barring atheists, agnostics and homosexuals from joining or volunteering.” | Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America, (9th Cir., June 3, 2010) | Via Religion Clause. | Related: 9th Circuit stays Boy Scouts Case versus San Diego

WisPolitics: “The DOJ also is urging the Legislative Audit Bureau to look into whether state dollars are being used to fund abortion training for medical students. In April the conservative law firm Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter on behalf of Pro-Life Wisconsin to Van Hollen asking for an opinion on whether the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Authority has violated state law by funding medical residents’ abortion training at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.”

Associated Press of Pakistan: “President Asif Ali Zardari has signed the Instrument of Ratification for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture (CAT).This has made Pakistan join the countries that have signed and ratified all the international conventions relating to good governance, sustainable development and human rights . . . Article-2 Respect for individuals without distinction of any kind e.g. race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” | Via Religion Clause.

Courthouse News Service: “A father who quit his job as a corrections officer and joined a religious commune cannot escape child-support payments, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled.” | Via Religion Clause. | Shippen v. Shippen, (NC App., May 18, 2010)

Metropolitan News-Enterprise: “A juvenile court judge cannot order medical treatment for a minor when no dependency proceeding is pending, the Third District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. The court reversed an order requiring a teenager—one of Jehovah’s Witnesses—with sickle cell anemia to undergo periodic blood transfusions, over religious objections.” | Via Religion Clause | San Joaquin County Human Services Agency v. Marcus W., (CA App., June 2, 2010)

Pro-Life Wisconsin: “In a May 25 letter to State Auditor Janice Mueller, Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Kevin Potter wrote that the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Authority [UWHCA] may be violating state law by paying resident physicians while they are being trained to do abortions at Planned Parenthood in Madison. On April 16, the Alliance Defense Fund, on behalf of Pro-Life Wisconsin, filed a request with the Attorney General’s office for an opinion on the matter.”

Minnesota Family Council: “Tom Prichard, President of the Minnesota Family Council today announced the filing of a notice of intervention in a lawsuit seeking to overturn Minnesota’s marriage law. ‘We’re filing this notice to intervene to ensure Minnesota’s marriage law is vigorously defended in the courts. We are being assisted in this effort by the Alliance Defense Fund, the national expert in defending marriage laws across the country.’”

The News-Sentinel: “The commissioners had been scheduled to consider whether to accept the Alliance Defense Fund’s 2-year-old offer to represent the county should it be sued over its effort to regulate out-of-town doctors. That happened earlier this week when Illinois-based Dr. George Klopfer, who performs abortions in a clinic on Inwood Drive, filed suit. The goals of the fund, founded in 1994 by more than 35 ministries, including Focus on the Family, include religious liberty and defense of the unborn. But that issue was withdrawn from the agenda late Thursday. ‘We just need to discuss it more,’ Peters said.” | Related: [10.24.2008] “Legal realities snag surgical care proposal”

INFORUM (AP): “The [Minnesota Family Council] is represented by Alliance Defense Fund attorney [Jordan Lorence], who frequently represents conservative Christian groups around the country in gay rights cases. He’s filing the request Thursday.”

CNN: “Both the upper and lower houses of Japan’s parliament elected Finance Minister Naoto Kan to be the nation’s new prime minister Friday, following the resignation of Yukio Hatoyama from the post earlier this week.”

This Day: “In a dramatic twist, the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria yesterday dragged the Federal Government and National Assembly before a Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja, over Senator Ahmed Yarima’s controversial marriage to a 13-year old Egyptian girl. The council, in the suit, is also seeking the abolition of some aspects of the Child Rights Act which it said was not consistent with Islam and the practice of Sharia.”

Associated Baptist Press: “A progressive Baptist group that endorses military chaplains is supporting repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military . . . In May, 41 retired military chaplains signed a letter from the conservative Alliance Defense Fund to President Obama and Secretary of Defense William Gates warning that repeal would discourage military chaplains from preaching and teaching Bible passages about homosexuality.”

LifeSiteNews: “An attorney commentating for the Fox News show ‘Kelly’s Court’ not only dismissed as irrelevant a lawsuit against an Indiana bus driver caught berating a middle-school girl for her pro-family views, but said that the girl’s family should instead be sued for instilling belief in traditional marriage.” | Related: Father: Girl Berated By Bus Driver

Associated Press: “An 8-year-old girl at the heart of a long-running child custody fight between former lesbian partners may have fled to Central America with her birth mother, a lawyer for one of the women said.”

Corey Rayburn Yung, Judged by the Company You Keep: An Empirical Study of the Ideologies of Judges on the United States Courts of Appeals (June 1, 2010). Boston College Law Review, Vol. 51, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1618665

“While there has been an explosion of empirical legal scholarship about the federal judiciary, with a particular focus on judicial ideology, the question remains: how do we know what the ideology of a judge actually is? For federal courts below the United States Supreme Court, legal academics and political scientists have offered only very crude proxies to identify the ideologies of judges. This article attempts to cure this deficiency in empirical research about the federal courts by introducing a new technique for measuring the ideology of judges based upon judicial behavior in the United States Courts of Appeals.”

Associated Press: “Enfield school officials have narrowly voted not to appeal a federal judge’s ruling against plans to hold high school graduations in a megachurch.”

The Star-Ledger: “The month-long controversy over Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to replace Supreme Court Justice John Wallace took a new turn today. Christie, who has faced a series of rebukes from critics who say the move jeopardizes the independence of the Judiciary, lost the services of a state advisory panel today after its members resigned in protest.”