Daily Archives: June 25, 2010

Tallahassee Democrat: “Florida State University’s non-discrimination policy was amended this morning without discussion – or even public acknowledgement. But the unanimous decision by FSU’s Board of Trustees to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in the university’s policy – language similar to an ordinance adopted recently by Leon County – was greeted with relief and joy outside the board meeting.”

The Christian Institute: “Millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money will continue to fund abortions in developing countries, after David Cameron ordered that the Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) budget be protected from any cuts.”

Baptist Press: “With Elena Kagan’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing set to begin Monday, conservative groups are pushing back against the media storyline that says President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee is a blank slate on hot-button social issues.”

FlavaWorks, Inc., v. City of Miami, No. 09-11264 (11th Cir. June 25, 2010) | Excerpt: “The activities taking place at the 27th Street residence are part and parcel to Flava Work’s business operations. The fact that certain aspects of the business are performed at other locations does not alter this analysis. Business objectives are the sole reason individuals are paid to live and engage in sexual activities at the 27th Street residence. Flava Works would be unable to deliver content to its subscribers without these endeavors. The activities taking place at the 27th Street residence are a clear violation of the prohibition against operating a business in a residential zone.”

CNN: “Years before the nation’s capital legalized same-sex marriage in March, one church in Washington, D.C., opened its doors to gay couples as part of its mission to establish an ‘inclusive body of Biblical believers.’ … Yvonne Moore not only left Covenant Baptist, where she had worshipped for nearly 40 years: she filed a lawsuit for her weekly tithes because, as she said, ‘They didn’t respect the members enough to listen to us.’”

Minneapolis Star Tribune (AP): “Johnson, who runs a chain saw carving school and other businesses, did not return phone messages seeking comment Friday. But his attorney, [Nathan Kellum] of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal rights group, said Johnson is thankful he’ll be able to walk through the park, hand out Bibles and talk about his faith with people at the festival. ‘We think this is the right outcome, the constitutional outcome, and we’re very pleased that the judge recognized that,’ Kellum said.”

“That means that the only two justices who have not written an opinion from the April sitting are Justice Ginsburg and retiring Justice Stevens . . . ”

The Blog of LegalTimes: “Republican-called witnesses will include several current or retired members of the military, such as U.S. Army retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin, a fundamentalist Christian, and Army National Guard Capt. Pete Hegseth, who is executive director of the conservative Vets for Freedom.”

Associated Press: “The city council is considering a request from Reggie Flimlin, an Asbury Park woman who owns a yoga studio, to allow women to decide for themselves whether they want to wear bikini tops on the beach. She says it’s already happening on less populated beaches in the city’s north end.”

Catholic News Agency: “Despite criticism from the U.S. Catholic bishops, the Catholic Health Association (CHA) has issued a statement saying it continues to support the insurance reform provisions in recent health care legislation and continues to ‘applaud’ President Obama for his ‘strong leadership.’”

Christian Today: “Representing thousands of voters across Scotland who are opposed to the introduction of assisted suicide and euthanasia through the End of Life Assistance Bill, the Catholic Parliamentary Office, led by John Deighan, dispatched the first of many sacks of support for ‘Care Not Killing’.” | For more information see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/country-scotland+topic-euthanasia/

LifeNews: “Steven Mosher, the expert on the China one-child policy credited with exposing and bringing attention to the problem of forced abortions carried out under it, reminded the audience at the National Right to Life convention that the forced abortions on women continue. Moreover, Mosher says they are producing a male-dominated culture that is responsible for an increase in prostitution, sexual trafficking of women, and even the sale of young girls.”

Orange County Register: “Local members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are planning to protest religious activists’ efforts to cure people from homosexuality this weekend. The demonstration will be held at the intersection of Ridgeline and University drives outside of Concordia University’s campus where Exodus International is holding its annual conference.”

Christian Post: “Forty percent of evangelical leaders said they ‘socially drink alcohol,’ according to a new monthly poll. … The poll, released Thursday, was based on responses from the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals, including the CEOs of denominations and representatives of a broad array of evangelical organizations.”

CBC News: “Alberta’s controversial legislation that gives parents the option of pulling their children out of sexual education or religion classes they deem inappropriate or offensive will not affect how Catholic schools are run, board officials say. The specifics of Bill 44, which comes into effect this September, were indexed in the Education Department’s annual Guide to Education on Wednesday. The new legislation, which came about through changes made to the Human Rights Act last year, will give parents the option of excusing a child from class while those subjects are being taught. A school’s failure to comply with the new rules could result in a human rights commission hearing.”

Insurance News: “The study, released today in the online edition of the leading journal Health Affairs, found that partnered lesbians are only 28 percent as likely as married heterosexual couples to receive healthcare coverage for a partner through an employer. Gay men are 42 percent as likely. The study also found that these disparities are not remedied by other insurance options.” | Lambda Legal Press Release | Full Study: The Effects Of Unequal Access to Health Insurance for Same-Sex Couples in California

ABC News: “A Massachusetts school district is going ahead with plans to give condoms to students even without their parents’ consent, but because of an outcry from Gov. Deval Patrick and others the district will consider excluding students in grades one through four”

ACLU: “The ACLU of Virginia today released its annual review of the Virginia legislative session. [Civil Liberties Review: Virginia General Assembly 2010] describes more than 100 bills pertaining to civil liberties and civil rights in Virginia.”

KNDO: “The Yakima County Commissioners have imposed a 6-month moratorium on adult businesses on un-incorporated areas in the county.”

FOX News: “Wikipedia has become home base for a loose worldwide network of pedophiles who are campaigning to spin the popular online encyclopedia in their favor and are trying to lure more people into their world, an investigation by FoxNews.com confirms.” | Related: Shakeup at Wikipedia in wake of porn purge |
Wikipedia Distributing Child Porn, Co-Founder Tells FBI

“. . . more respectable businesses will be forced to purchase the dot-XXX equivalent of their primary domain simply to ensure it isn’t purchase by a purveyor of porn.”

Catholic News Agency: “The executive committee of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain has approved a statement on the public displaying of religious symbols in Europe, saying crucifixes should remain in schools in order to strengthen the identity and values of students. The statement comes as the EU Court in Strasbourg is expected to issue a ruling on June 30 on the displaying of religious symbols in public schools.”

Christian Science Monitor: “When an appeals court issues an opinion, that doesn’t mean the opinion takes immediate effect. The government appealed the Third Circuit’s decision to the US Supreme Court. To facilitate the appeal, the Third Circuit stayed its ruling, and postponed its suggestion than an injunction be issued against enforcement of the Solomon Amendment. Nonetheless, the day after the Third Circuit opinion, Kagan announced that the law school would return to its prior policy sharply limiting the access of military recruiters . . .  In her statement, Kagan said that the Third Circuit ruling had ‘enjoined the enforcement of the Solomon Amendment.’ That statement is true but misleading given that the case would almost certainly be appealed. If appealed, the force of the decision would likely be stayed pending the outcome of the appeal.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune: “A federal judge will allow an evangelical Christian to distribute Bibles in Loring Park during this weekend’s Twin Cities Pride Festival. … Johnson, aided by an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, persuaded the Park Board to grant him permission to distribute his materials. Pride officials urged the Park Board this week to reverse its decision, but it refused. Pride attorneys filed the motion for the restraining order Wednesday.”

InsiderOnline Blog: “[Michael Copps, a Federal Communications Commissioner] cites the ideas of Robert McChesney, a professor at the University of Illinois and founder of the group Free Press. Randolph May writes about McChesney at the Free State Foundation blog, noting some quotes that show McChesney clearly embraces the socialist label for himself. More importantly, the quotes reveal that McChesney sees government funding of news as essential to the socialist project to overthrow capitalism.”

Associated Press: “Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday most illegal immigrants entering Arizona are being used to transport drugs across the border. Brewer said the motivation of ‘a lot’ of the illegal immigrants is to enter the United States to look for work, but that drug rings press them into duty as drug ‘mules.’”

“ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, gave its conditional blessing today at a conference in Brussels. Final approval is expected in October; the new domains will appear early next year.”

Jeremy Rabkin writing at the Heritage Foundation: “What are Elena Kagan’s views on foreign policy? What does she think about America’s role in the world? At one time, such questions would have seemed irrelevant, if not impudent, for a Supreme Court nominee. Not anymore. Recent Supreme Court decisions, and commonly expressed views among commentators, seem to embrace a new role for international institutions, foreign practices, and foreign opinion in shaping American law. Although very little is known about Kagan’s judicial philosophy, or her opinions on great constitutional issues, her record, such as it is, cries out for questioning on these matters. It remains unlikely that Kagan will jeopardize her confirmation by giving forthright answers to such questions. But Senators should not pass up the opportunity to put her on the spot by pressing for clear and direct responses to fundamental questions about her judicial philosophy. Here are particularly compelling reasons to raise these questions with Elena Kagan.”

Insider Online: “Liberals . . . are trying to talk about a ‘conservative court’ as an example of judicial activism. And, of course, we would suggest to you that, by any definition, the court is not necessarily conservative and, certainly in terms of activism, the conservative members of the court are those judges who are faithful to the Constitution–are not engaged in judicial activism.”

NJ.com: “Democrats voted Thursday to restore $7.5 million for health and family planning services for uninsured women — but not before the bill became a referendum on abortion and a senator read aloud from a Planned Parenthood brochure on teen sex. Both the Democrat-controlled Assembly and Senate budget committees also set the stage for a clash with Gov. Chris Christie by passing the bill, which would reverse the governor’s decision to cut the funding.”

LifeNews: “Operation Rescue has filed a formal complaint with the Iowa Attorney General’s office asking for a criminal investigation of a remote-controlled push-button Internet abortion pill scheme.”

Matt Gurney writes at the National Post: “Jeff Dolan spent Father’s Day in jail, locked away for failure to pay child support. Deadbeat dads don’t garner a lot of sympathy. But you don’t need to study Jeff’s case for long before you realize that he’s anything but a deadbeat. Instead, he’s a man hopelessly ensnared in a crushing bureaucratic machine: He’s in jail because he couldn’t pay child support, but he couldn’t pay child support because he was unemployed … and he was unemployed because the court took his driver’s license for failure to pay child support … after he went bankrupt paying his court costs. … Courts, in their earnest efforts to do right by families, are destroying them, instead.” | Via Wintery Knight.

Chuck Norris writing at TownHall: “Over the past few months, a widely circulated e-mail has reported that President Barack Obama is not signing Eagle Scout certificates, which only 4-5 percent of Boy Scouts attain. … the Boy Scouts of America National Council confessed that Scout candidates who’d had board reviews before the spring of 2010 had received unsigned certificates. … Obama became the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America way back on March 3, 2009. … Could the secrecy of that meeting be a result of social pressure from, for example, the January 2009 letter from the American Humanist Association and 18 other nontheistic organizations, which pleaded with Obama to be the first president in 100 years not to serve as the BSA’s honorary president?”

The Washington Post: “The marriage education movement has already spawned a cottage industry of trademarked seminars and self-help manuals. It has popped up, in varying forms, at community centers and churches across the nation. And it has successfully persuaded leaders of the federal government and the U.S. military to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars a year attempting to disseminate its teachings to the masses. At its core, it’s a movement that would ask of every divorcee: What if the truth was that you didn’t marry the wrong person? What if you just didn’t know how to be married?”

Daily Mail: “A mother has told how she suffered such extreme morning sickness that she chose to have an abortion. Cheryl Harrison made the heartbreaking decision after her condition left her unable to walk or care for her young daughter.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit Friday that contends that the Obama administration’s embryonic stem cell research policy is in violation of federal law. The law, known as the “Dickey/Wicker Amendment,” prohibits federal funds from being used to destroy human embryos for research purposes.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city of Stayton on behalf of a man who was approached by police officers and told he could not display his pro-life signs on a street corner.

“Nearly one-in-five American women ends her childbearing years without having borne a child, compared with one-in-ten in the 1970s.”

George F. Will writing in The Washington Post: “Given Elena Kagan’s aversion to ‘vapid and hollow’ confirmation hearings devoid of ‘legal analysis,’ beginning Monday she might relish answering these questions: … In Federalist 45, James Madison said: ‘The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite.’ What did the Father of the Constitution not understand about the Constitution? Are you a Madisonian? Does the doctrine of enumerated powers impose any limits on the federal government? Can you cite some things that, because of that doctrine, the federal government has no constitutional power to do”

Ken Klukowski writing at Townhall: “[The] Supreme Court dealt a setback to supporters of traditional marriage. But it’s not the defeat that gay-rights supporters (and many of their fans on the media) are hailing it as, and leaves open the possibility that traditional-marriage supporters may be the ones celebrating at the end. … The record of atrocious harassment in the wake of California’s Proposition 8 makes perfectly clear that these marriage supporters can make a strong case that they could be harassed. As such, by the standard the Court announced today, the marriage supporters should win.”

Religion Clause: “As hearings on the nomination of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court approach, more focus is now being given to her views on religious liberty and church-state separation.” (click for more analysis and links)

GayPolitics.com: “The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund today announced it has endorsed 123 openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates for public office so far in 2010, already surpassing its 2008 total of 111 candidates, the previous record.”

Washington Times editorial: “Solicitor General Elena Kagan is too political, too leftist, too inexperienced and too disrespectful towards existing law to be confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court. … We know she is remarkably lacking in courtroom experience. … We know she deliberately ignored the law while at Harvard, and unfairly besmirched our military in time of war. … We know she cut corners in order to preserve partial-birth abortions. … We know she is willing to undercut First Amendment free speech for political purposes. … We know Ms. Kagan is hostile to gun rights. … We know she believes foreign law is highly relevant to U.S. law. … We know she believes judges should automatically favor certain classes of people and impose their own values to reach desired outcomes.”

New York Times: “Most Americans have never heard of Aharon Barak. If they tune in to Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, they will. Judge Barak, the retired president of the Supreme Court of Israel, has advocated an expansive role for the judiciary in his home country. But in this country, he has emerged over the past few days as a kind of liberal judicial villain for Republicans and conservatives, who are trying to turn Ms. Kagan’s praise for him against her.”

Central Chronicle: “City Council of Boulder City (Nevada, USA), known as ‘Home of Hoover Dam’, opened with Hindu prayers reportedly for the first time on June 22 evening.”

Hartford Courant: “‘I hope there is a transformation in the way politics are done in this city, so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past,’ said Segarra, who would become the city’s first openly gay mayor.”

“Those who advocate changing it to recognize same-sex unions are not proposing a formal change in the law that will leave the institution unaltered even as it grants more people access to it. Rather, they seek a substantive change to the institution based on a new understanding of human sexuality.”

WBZ: “Provincetown school officials are going to keep working on a new policy allowing local students — even those in elementary school — to receive free condoms without their parents’ knowledge.”

Orange County Register: “A proposed strip club has won in a state appellate court – getting closer to gaining a required city permit to operate here. In a decision issued Wednesday, the Fourth Appellate Division agreed with owner Musa Madain’s claim that the city had not fairly examined his permit application. … Branches Christian Church had planned to locate in a nearby business complex at 8381 Katella Ave. However, said Lead Pastor Jose Torres, the church did not actually file for its permit until sometime in April 2009 – after Madain’s application had been filed.” | Madain v. City of Stanton, G042218 (CA4/3 June 23, 2010)

Minnesota Independent: “This weekend four of the five major party candidates for governor will be at Pride, and while one important Republican — Tom Emmer — will be missing, a fellow GOPer is taking the opportunity to show that not all Republicans share views with the religious right.”

Gallup: “Conservatives have maintained their leading position among U.S. ideological groups in the first half of 2010. Gallup finds 42% of Americans describing themselves as either very conservative or conservative. This is up slightly from the 40% seen for all of 2009 and contrasts with the 20% calling themselves liberal or very liberal.”

ADF-allied attorney secures one of largest zoning settlements in U.S. history

Associated Press: “Several thousand Egyptians, joined by top opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, protested on Friday what they call authorities’ systematic use of torture in the largest demonstration yet sparked by the alleged beating death of a young man by police this month.”

LA Times: “European nations do not have to allow same-sex marriage, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled, though gay rights groups claimed a partial victory Friday because the court acknowledged growing agreement that their relationships should be recognized in law.”

Washinton Examiner: “The [DISCLOSE Act] is full of draconian restrictions on individual political speech expressed via corporations, but gives privileged status to the Democrats’ union masters. A provision pushed by Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Bob Brady, for example, allows unions to transfer unlimited funds among affiliated groups to pay for political ads with no disclosure whatever. That makes campaign funding more transparent?” | More from the Examiner’s Mark Hemingway: “So unions now get nearly unrestricted, undisclosed political spending. … Further, under the DISCLOSE Act if a company has more than $7 million in government contracts, it has no right to political speech. But public sector unions can spend millions of recycled tax dollars campaigning for Democrats, no problem.”

Law.com: “[T]wo separate reports issued Wednesday suggest that Kagan may part company with Stevens in cases involving religious liberty. … In one report, scholar Melissa Rogers suggests Kagan could ‘move the Court closer to reinvigorating the Free Exercise Clause and thus closer to providing additional protection for the peaceful practice of all faiths.’ … The other report issued Wednesday treats Kagan’s views on the issue with alarm. Her memo on the California case ‘raises many questions,’ according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.”

Associated Press: “Pakistan will start monitoring seven major websites, including Google, Yahoo and Amazon, for sacrilegious content, while blocking 17 other, lesser-known sites it deems offensive to Muslims, an official said Friday.”

Associated Press: “ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, agreed in a Friday meeting to start using Chinese characters for suffixes handed out by Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan-based Internet registries. It started allowing Arabic earlier this year.”

Associated Press: “British health experts say the human fetus cannot feel pain before the age of 24 weeks, so there is no reason to change the country’s abortion laws.” | Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Press Release | Summary and full report: “Fetal Awareness”

Associated Press: “Hong Kong’s legislature on Friday agreed to add 10 elected seats, completing a set of Beijing-backed electoral changes that critics say reinforce the territory’s undemocratic political system.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution: “When Georgia Tech students Ruth Malhotra and Orit Sklar sued the school in 2006 for unconstitutional speech policies, both intended on pursuing careers in their majors: international affairs and civil engineering. … [Their] federal civil rights lawsuit, supported by the Christian-based Alliance Defense Fund, challenged Georgia Tech’s speech code, the use of a ‘free speech zone’ and portions of the university’s ‘Safe Space’ training manual that were considered unconstitutional.”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “Sept. 1, 2009 — … Attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit, conservative Christian advocacy group, file a lawsuit on behalf of NCA asking a judge to block enforcement of the Charter Commission’s decision that Nampa Classical Academy cannot use the Bible and other religious texts in classrooms. … June 14, 2010 — NCA appeals ruling on Bible: Nampa Classical Academy challenges the dismissal of a federal lawsuit against Idaho officials who barred the use of the Bible and other religious texts as classroom teaching tools. … ‘A wholesale ban on books with religious content conflicts with established U.S. Supreme Court precedent,’ said [David Cortman], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Commission voted 5-0 to revoke the charter for failure to demonstrate fiscal soundness. The revocation is effective Wednesday, at which time NCA could cease to receive public funding. … NCA ran into trouble with the Charter Commission last summer when the commission said the school could not use the Bible and other religious texts in the classroom. That led to a lawsuit against the state for NCA’s right to use religious texts. The lawsuit has since been dismissed and appealed. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is donating its resources in the litigation, said they will continue with the lawsuit whether or not the school stays open.”

OneNewsNow: “A college student in New York is once again getting the run-around from school officials for trying to express his religious views on campus. … Hayon, president of the student Republican Club, wanted to hold an on-campus forum entitled ‘The Economic, Political, Social, and Legal Outcome on Same-Gender Marriage’ to defend the definition of marriage as one man and one woman. … [ADF Attorney Travis Barham said] ‘[t]here’s a rule at Kingsborough that says the student group has to have a faculty advisor present at every event. The faculty advisor took advantage of that rule to insist that students give him a speaking role and give him the authority to shut down the event at anytime.’”

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund and the Home School Legal Defense Association filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights Friday asking it to hear the case of a seven-year-old boy seized by Swedish authorities because his parents home-school.

Pioneer Press: “U.S. District Judge John Tunheim heard arguments from attorneys for the festival, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and from Brian Johnson, the man whose desire to hand out Bibles and tell festival-goers homosexuality is a sin started the imbroglio. … Johnson was not at the hearing, but was represented via telephone by [Nathan Kellum], a Memphis attorney for Alliance Defense Fund. … ‘They want to control the message,’ he said of Twin Cities Pride. ‘All he intends to do is walk through the park, talk to people and, if the situation arises, hand out Bibles. There’s no basis to control the conduct.’” | The Complaint

LezGetReal: “Last year, he was barred by the The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, and was arrested when he tried to do so. This year, he obtained a lawyer from the Alliance Defense Fund and they argued to the Park Board that it would be a violation of his First Amendment rights to restrict him from distributing literature. So, Twin City Pride has sued to stop him from distributing literature.”

BBC: “US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the BBC that the world ‘cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past’. He said that other major economies would have to grow more for the global economy to prosper. He also played down any differences in policy between the US and Europe regarding deficit reduction.”

“Germany’s top criminal court issued a landmark ruling Friday legalizing assisted suicide in cases where it is carried out based on a patient’s prior request.”

AP: “The chairman of a Cape Cod school committee says members will ‘revisit’ a new policy allowing even elementary school students to receive free condoms without the knowledge of their parents.”

CNSNews: “Levin said most people are happy when “one of their own” is nominated to such a high position. But, he added, ‘We feel that Elena Kagan turns traditional Judaism on its head – from a concept of a nation of priests and holy people, she is turning it into, Let’s homosexualize every segment of society. And by the way, partial-birth babies have no right to be delivered.’”

AP: “The Oregon Medical Board has suspended the license of the Portland psychiatrist who plans a ‘death with dignity house’ for assisted suicides.”

AP: “The agency that controls Internet addresses said Friday it will consider adding the .xxx suffix for pornography to the list that people and companies can pick for their online identities.”

Wall Street Journal: “After more than 20 hours of continuous wrangling, congressional Democrats and White House officials reached agreement on the final shape of legislation that would transform financial regulation, avoiding last-minute defections among New York lawmakers that had threatened to upend the bill . . . ”