Daily Archives: June 14, 2010

Spero Forum (video at the link): “Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Cordoba, Spain, affirmed on June 12 that any ‘joint use’ by Muslims wishing to worship at the Catholic cathedral in that city is but ‘a euphemism that means: Catholics, get out! We will not leave, except if we are kicked out, since for 16 centuries there has been Christian worship here.’ The cathedral, part of which was a mosque for several hundred years until the late 1400s, has been a Catholic place of worship ever since; it is regarded as one of the architectural gems of Europe.”

Tulsa World: “The proposal has been approved by the city’s Civil Service Commission and is expected to come up for initial City Council consideration this week. If approved by the council, the proposal would mean that decisions about hiring, firing, promoting and raising the salaries of a city employee won’t be made on the basis of whether the person is gay, lesbian or straight.”

Salon: “One of the special experiences at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was seeing the premiere of Reed Cowan and Steven Greenstreet’s wrenching documentary ’8: The Mormon Proposition’ in the Utah mountains, less than an hour’s drive from the world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the film is about how the Mormon church both bankrolled and masterminded Proposition 8, the now-notorious California ballot initiative that amended that state’s constitution in order to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry, it’s in many ways a Utah story . . . ”

Lawrence P. Grayson writes at the Washington Times: “. . . the shared civic principles that have held America together are eroding. If this trend is not reversed and a public moral consensus formed once again, there may not be a sufficient foundation to preserve the nation. It is shared tenets based on religious teachings that quell man’s self-interests and give rise to just laws and a civilized community. If faith is lost, a nation can be maintained, and then only temporarily, through coercion and dictatorial power . . . ”

Miami Herald: “The practice of praying to Jesus at the start of Miami City Commission meetings triggered a protest from the American Civil Liberties Union and clergy who consider the postulating a breach in separating church from state — and an immediate change at City Hall.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Italian Department of Equal Opportunities has issued a report calling for ‘maximum efforts of law enforcement’ against ‘homophobic’ violence. The ministry has called for ‘the first corporate campaign to raise awareness against homophobia and gender discrimination’ and is urging Parliament to support a new law on the issue.”

LifeSiteNews: “According to the largest study to date on the subject, children conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART) are almost twice as likely to suffer birth defects compared to children conceived naturally. Dr. Géraldine Viot, a clinical geneticist at the Maternité Port Royal hospital in Paris, France, found that over 4% of children born through ART had some form of congenital deformity, compared to the rate for children conceived naturally of between 2% and 3% . . . ”

CNSNews: “Despite a resolution by Congress authorizing war against those responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Obama’s nominee to be the number two official at the Justice Department, James Cole, wrote an op-ed in 2002 likening the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to the domestic crimes of murder, rape and child abuse, while arguing that the attackers ought to be treated like domestic criminals.”

LifeSiteNews: “The 2010 Women Deliver conference in the U.S. capital this week offered a rare glimpse into the heart of the pro-abortion, pro-contraception, and population-control movement in its many facets. The conference drew international UN and political leaders to a 3-day marathon on several topics tied together by one ambitious theme: using Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the reduction of maternal mortality, to promote contraception and the dismantling of pro-life laws around the world.”

New York Times: “[T]he Singularity — a time, possibly just a couple decades from now, when a superior intelligence will dominate and life will take on an altered form that we can’t predict or comprehend in our current, limited state. At that point, the Singularity holds, human beings and machines will so effortlessly and elegantly merge that poor health, the ravages of old age and even death itself will all be things of the past. . . . Some of Silicon Valley’s smartest and wealthiest people have embraced the Singularity. They believe that technology may be the only way to solve the world’s ills, while also allowing people to seize control of the evolutionary process. . . . ‘We will transcend all of the limitations of our biology,’ says Raymond Kurzweil, the inventor and businessman who is the Singularity’s most ubiquitous spokesman and boasts that he intends to live for hundreds of years and resurrect the dead, including his own father. ‘That is what it means to be human — to extend who we are.’”

Breitbart (AP): “Bowing to pressure from the National Rifle Association, House Democrats agreed Monday to exempt the powerful gun owners’ lobby from key portions of legislation imposing new disclosure requirements on campaign advertising and other political activity. The legislation is designed to roll back a recent Supreme Court ruling and generally requires organizations to disclose their top donors if they sponsor political television commercials or pay for mass mailings in the months leading to an election . . . ”

EU Observer: “Political activists labelled as ‘Extreme right/left, Islamist, nationalist or anti-globalisation’ may in future find themselves under surveillance in line with a new, so-called, EU “data compilation instrument” put at the disposal of police and security forces in member states. The 70-question long ‘instrument,’ covering ideologies, dissemination channels, personal and professional data on ‘agents,’ would help police and security officials gather comparable intelligence across the EU, which could later be pooled together into a single data base.”

KHQ (AP): “The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group of Christian lawyers, filed an appeal Monday on behalf of Nampa Classical Academy in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. . . . An attorney for the academy, [David Cortman], complained that he had never seen such a broad-reaching ban on using the Bible as a resource in public schools.” | ADF News Release

Astrid Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, The Evolution of the Right of Individuals to Seise the European Court of Human Rights (June 1, 2010). Journal of the History of International Law, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1624467

“Paradoxically, the main reason for both the Court’s success and its current crisis is the right of petition of individuals. The present article contains a detailed inquiry into the coming into existence of this central feature of the control machinery of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR, the Convention) that was labeled a breakthrough in the field of human rights as well as in general international law.”

HRC: “The Human Rights Campaign – the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization – today announced the winners of the inaugural Scholarship & Mentorship Program for Religion and Theological Study.  The program, part of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Religion and Faith Program, provides a sustained investment in the next generation of religion scholars working on LGBT issues, and will change the national conversation about LGBT people and religion. The LGBT Dissertation Scholarship provides a stipend of $15,000 for a doctoral student with an expressed interest in furthering LGBT religious and theological study. In addition to financial assistance, the scholarship provides one-on-one mentoring opportunity with a respected scholar . . . ”

Catherine Turner, Human Rights and the Empire of (International) Law (June, 14 2010). Journal of Law and Inequality, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1624847

“This paper will argue that a fundamental conceptual shift occurred in international law during the 1980s. This shift was crucial to the development of human rights law but is largely overlooked in literature that assesses the move from standard setting to enforcement post 1989. Whereas traditionally international law had relied on a rigid ‘Sources’ doctrine rooted in state consent for its normativity, this was increasingly challenged during the 1980s by those who advocated a more abstract justification of the ‘good’ or the ‘just’ as a basis for legal decision making. The increasing purchase of these arguments amongst academics, judges and NGO’s quietly laid the foundations for a much more holistic system of interpretation of international law particularly, but not exclusively, in the field of human rights. This shift was crucial to the success of human rights as it extended the boundaries of legal normativity to encompass the protection of human rights per se as an international objective, and allowed advantage to be taken of the changed political context post 1989.”

IFA Web News: “The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a nonprofit group that focuses on constitutional law, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, alleging that the health reform law passed in March also violates the U.S. Constitution. . . . The suit asks the court to declare the individual mandate provision unconstitutional, rule that the rights of three of the plaintiffs under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act were violated and issue a permanent injunction prohibiting enforcement of the individual mandate provision.”

The Straits Times: “India’s Hindus cremate their loved ones, but the country’s Muslim and Christian minorities usually choose burial – and they fear the practice is under threat.”

AHN: “Employees of the Illinois Treasurer’s Office who are in same-sex domestic partnerships now have the same family leave benefits as heterosexual married couples. State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias signed an executive order Sunday giving gay workers in his agency as much as 12 weeks of unpaid time off to take care of a sick partner or other family member. They can also use the time to adopt a child or to mourn the death of their partner or relative.”

The News-Herald: “The ACLU of Ohio is urging legislators to keep sexting teens out of criminal courts. Ohio House Bill 473 seeks to create a new criminal misdemeanor violation for sexting — when teenagers send or receive nude or partially nude images of other minors electronically . . . ”

“‘Our Founding Fathers regularly opened official public ceremonies with prayer, and federal appellate courts have consistently ruled that universities can do the same at their graduation ceremonies. These prayers have been constitutional for centuries and are still constitutional today,’ said ADF Litigation Counsel Travis Barham.”

“We are looking for candidates who we can support, not for candidates who aren’t quite as bad as their opponent.”

The Advocate: “The House Civil Law Committee embraced changes aimed at protecting the health and safety of children and another stopping punitive or exemplary damages from being claimed in lawsuits. . . . [SB606] states that ‘government may not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a facially neutral rule or a rule of general applicability, unless it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person is — essential to further a compelling governmental interest and the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest.’”

“They told police one of the men grew angry because he thought Daly was winking at him and struck Daly in the back of the head with his fist, knocking him unconscious . . .”

Commission bans use of any texts it deems ‘religious,’ even if used solely for objective literary or historical reference

“One of the more surprising trends in marriage during the past 20 years is the fact that most couples no longer view children as essential to a happy relationship . . . ”

“This morning, the Louisiana Senate passed its opt out bill on a 28-3 margin and pro-life Gov. Bobby Jindal is expected to sign it soon . . .”

Eugene Volokh writing at the Volokh Conspiracy: “So reports the Orange County Register, pointing to this decision letter.”

Christian Science Monitor: “America’s spiral of debt isn’t just hurting our economy, it’s weakening our national security and making the world a more dangerous place. No nation can maintain its power or projection of power if its economy is weak. That holds for Sparta, Rome, and the United States. Although America’s potential is formidable, Washington has so far lacked the courage to make the bold moves we need to restore our strength through vigorous economic growth in the years ahead . . . ”

PR-USA.net: “The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), The American Legion, Military Order of the Purple Heart, and Liberty Institute just sent a letter to President Obama asking him to help put the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial back in its rightful place following its vandalism and theft on May 9. Additionally, Americans nationwide are signing on to the letter in support of the veterans groups at www.PutTheCrossBack.com.”

CBN: “Several members of the Afghan parliament have called for the death penalty for any Afghan who leaves Islam for Christianity . . . Eric Rassbach of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty told CBN News the U.S. sacrifice in Afghanistan isn’t bringing about true democracy . . . ”

Wall Street Journal: “Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, as a White House lawyer in the 1990s, played a role in President Bill Clinton’s efforts to stall a sexual-harassment lawsuit stemming from his time as Arkansas governor. Ms. Kagan’s role in fighting the suit is one of dozens of issues covered in documents released Friday by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library . . . ”

Inquirer.net: “If government is ready to teach children about sex, shouldn’t it be ready also to teach children about homosexuality so the gay community would no longer be a punch line to a joke?”

Christian Today: “London Mayor Boris Johnson extended an invitation to thousands of Christians yesterday to work with him in giving more opportunities to young people in the capital. Speaking at a day of prayer for the nation at West Ham stadium on Sunday, Mr Johnson praised Christians for the work they were doing to help those who ‘don’t get the best start in life’.”

USA Today: “The question facing universities looking to compete in the booming market for online higher education is not so much how to do it, but how to distinguish themselves from the rest. In this, Christian universities appear to have a built-in advantage. And many are seizing the opportunity to expand their footprint.”

Washington Post: “Cocktails had been served on the terrace, the ubiquitous Washington buffet of tenderloin and salmon consumed, and the gay law students settled in to hear from the famed legal mind who is leading the battle to make sure they have the right to marry whomever they want, wherever in the United States of America they live . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: “Last week, Michael Newdow filed a Petition for Panel Rehearing or Rehearing En Banc with the D.C. Circuit in Newdow v. Roberts,an Establishment Clause challenge to prayer and use of “so help me God” in the oath at Presidential inauguration ceremonies . . . “

“Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, who is Jewish and is a Republican, has recently met with two rabbis as she is considering whether to sign or veto HB 444 . . . ”

Religion Clause reports on the problem.

NBC 15: “A University of Wisconsin doctor who was central to plans to provide late-term abortions is leaving for a job at Harvard University . . . Dutton performed abortions at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and was heavily involved in controversial plans to offer second-trimester abortions at the Madison Surgery Center.”

ADF Attorney Travis C. Barham writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “Both Inside Higher Ed and Minding the Campus highlight the latest example of academia serving as a network of leftist think tanks. The ‘Cry Wolf Project’—organized by ‘prominent liberal academics’—is trying to rally faculty and graduate students to do ‘battle with conservative ideas.’ That is, the organizers will pay $1,000 for essays supposedly showing how conservatives ‘cry wolf’ by exaggerating the consequences of leftist public policy proposals. K.C. Johnson at Minding the Campus notes the organizer’s almost comically inflated sense of self importance and skewed definition of ‘scholarship.’ But this project illustrates a more disturbing divide between faculty who can speak freely and those who cannot.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the NASA Intelligent Design Case. | MP3 – 23:10 mins | ADF Media: Specialist for NASA mission demoted, threatened with termination for sharing views on intelligent design

Click here to learn more about tomorrow’s event at the Capitol Visitor’s Center.

ADF attorney Tim Tracey appeared on this NC Family Policy Council Podcast to discuss the D.C. Marriage Battle. | MP3 – 14:16 mins | Related ADF Media Information page

The David Coppedge Intelligent Design Case was a recent topic of discussion on Federal News Radio. | MP3 6:21 mins | ADF Media: Specialist for NASA mission demoted, threatened with termination for sharing views on intelligent design

AP:  ”At issue is whether the local scouting council can stay in its city-owned headquarters essentially rent-free.”

WAVE (AP): “Allen County commissioners unanimously decided Friday to allow Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group of Christian lawyers, to represent the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health.”

ADF Attorney Casey Mattox writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “On December 8, 1981 – 28 years to the day before the Supreme Court granted certiorari in CLS v. Martinez — the Supreme Court issued an 8-1 decision, authored by Justice Powell, affirming the decision of the Eighth Circuit. Writing that ‘our cases leave no doubt that the First Amendment rights of speech and association extend to the campuses of state universities,’ the Court held that ‘UMKC has discriminated against student groups and speakers based on their desire to use a generally open forum to engage in religious worship and discussion. These are forms of speech and association protected by the First Amendment.’ The Court also rejected the argument that an open forum, where student groups could discuss any topic, would have the primary effect of advancing religion in violation of the Establishment Clause.” | Part I | Part II

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: “The Volusia County Council will vote at Thursday’s meeting on [a change spurred on] by a recent federal lawsuit filed by a politically active Christian group that was turned away from holding a seminar at New Smyrna Beach Regional Library. . . . Verdugo sued in February. His lawyers, with the Alliance Defense Fund, called Volusia’s policy unconstitutional and sought $100 in damages and for the county to pay their fees. Alliance filed a nearly identical lawsuit on Verdugo’s behalf against Osceola County in November. That suit was dropped after Osceola changed its policy.” | ADF News Release of February 5, 2010

The Journal-Gazette: “The Christian legal group defending Allen County against a lawsuit challenging its patient-safety ordinance is one of the best-funded and most successful of its type in the country. . . . Katie Blechacz, a spokeswoman for the Alliance Defense Fund, would not say whether the group approached Allen County to offer help or whether the county asked for it. Blechacz said there has not been a case that directly mirrors the one it will take on in Allen County. But some cases have similarities, and there are many cases of the Alliance Defense Fund representing governmental bodies, she said.”

Dakota Voice: “It was recently reported that Pastor H. Wayne Williams of Liberty Baptist Tabernacle in Rapid City endorsed Gordon Howie from the pulpit . . . Barry Lynn’s anti-Christian ‘Americans United for the Separation of Church and State’ organization . . . has filed a complaint with the IRS over Pastor Williams’ endorsement of Howie. . . . Since 2008, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has had a ‘Pulpit Initiative\’ which features pastors across the country openly endorsing or speaking against politicians in an effort to take this issue to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the unconstitutional 1954 tax code provision which currently denies pastors and churches the freedom to address moral issues as they relate to candidates.”

The Desert Sun: “Olson and Boies are the lawyers who once opposed each other in Bush v. Gore following the 2000 election, but now represent two unmarried same-sex couples who want to marry but can’t under the ban . . . [Jim Campbell], an attorney representing the Alliance Defense Fund, which supports the gay marriage ban, said ‘we’ve laid out a strong case for the Constitutionality of Proposition 8. We feel that the 9th Circuit (Court of Appeals) has clearly said that sexual orientation is not a suspect class,’ he said.” | ADFmedia.org Perry v. Schwarzenegger resource page

The Journal Gazette: “The Allen County commissioners Friday unanimously approved a resolution that appoints attorney Steven Aden and the Alliance Defense Fund as the county’s primary legal counsel at no cost to the county. The commissioners also announced that enforcement of the ordinance has been halted temporarily.”

WorldNetDaily: “Military heroes from across the nation sent a letter today to President Obama asking for help to restore a veterans’ memorial cross that stood in the Mojave Desert for generations but was knocked down by vandals after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the symbol . . . According to the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization that has worked on the issue, the focal point of the case was whether someone who has suffered no harm but only claims being ‘offended’ can sue to destroy religious references on public monuments and memorials.

Star Parker writes at Townhall: “[I]f Republicans cannot start pulling in a bigger chunk of this Hispanic vote, it will be tough to be optimistic that we’ll be able to reverse the direction that Democrats have initiated – transformation of our country into a European style social welfare state. Can Republicans reverse this political trend?”

News-Sentinel: “The Allen County Commissioners on Friday agreed to allow a pro-life legal group to help defend the county against a lawsuit challenging a new ordinance designed to protect the safety of patients receiving treatment from out-of-town doctors. The Washington, D.C.-based Alliance Defense Fund offered two years ago to defend the county – at no charge – if it was sued for passing an ordinance that sought to provide post-operative safeguards to patients receiving care from doctors without admitting privileges to local hospitals.”

AP: “Barcelona is to become the first major Spanish city to bar the use of face-covering Islamic veils in municipal buildings.”

Washington Times: “A former U.S. Army chaplain who now recruits and endorses chaplains says repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would redefine what the military considers immoral . . . ”

Washington Times: “The dispute erupted Thursday when prominent social conservative Tony Perkins challenged Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to retreat from his stance that abortion should be put on the political back burner until the nation overcomes its fiscal woes . . . Regardless of what the establishment believes, fiscal and social conservatism have never been mutually exclusive,” Mr. Perkins said. “Without life, there is no pursuit of happiness. Thank goodness the Founding Fathers were not timid in their leadership; they understood that ‘truce’ was nothing more than surrender.”

MSNBC: “The couple’s sin, according to her former employer, SouthlandChristian School in St. Cloud, Fla., is fornication — having sex before they got married . . . ”

AP: “The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from the city of New Albany, Ind. City officials have been trying to shut down New Albany DVD since 2004.”

City of New Albany, Ind. v. New Albany DVD, 09-1027

AP: “A group of anti-abortion Kenyan churches and Christian groups on Monday blamed Kenya’s government for involvement in two explosions that ripped through a packed rally protesting the country’s proposed constitution.”

AP: “The Supreme Court has ruled that an immigrant’s second minor drug offense – possession of a single tablet of an anti-anxiety drug without a prescription – should not lead automatically to deportation . . . ”

Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder, No. 09-60

AP: “The Obama administration is warning more than a dozen states, including perennial rogues Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Myanmar, of possible sanctions for failing to do enough to fight human trafficking.”

Neil Siegel, Interring the Rhetoric of Judicial Activism (June 1, 2010). DePaul Law Review, Vol. 59, No. 2, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1623834

“In short, I argue that Republican rhetoric about judges either rests on a defensible definition of judicial activism that is nonetheless contrary to actual Republican practice, or else rests on an indefensible definition of judicial activism because it mischaracterizes the actual practice of constitutional adjudication in the United States. My analysis suggests that the rhetoric of judicial activism is deployed to condemn particular views on particular issues and not to express a genuine commitment to judicial deference or to the ideal of fidelity to law.”