Daily Archives: July 26, 2010

LifeSiteNews: “Fernando Ferrín Calamita, a Spanish judge who was fined and removed from the bench for failing to grant an adoption to a homosexual couple, has now been ordered to return almost €100,000 (130,000 USD) in pay that he received while he was suspended from his duties and awaiting the outcome of his trial.”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Idaho State Board of Education will hear Nampa Classical Academy’s charter revocation appeal Aug. 11 in Pocatello. Board of Education members will hear from both sides on the issue at the meeting on the Idaho State University campus. They will then have 60 days to make a decision regarding the appeal. But the Board could call a special meeting before that and announce its decision, State Board chief planning and policy officer Tracie Bent said.”

“The New Jersey Supreme Court issued an order Monday rejecting a recently filed motion in a long-ago-resolved lawsuit that attempted to force New Jersey legislature to redefine marriage.”

Telegraph: “Swedish researchers used records of more than 26,000 children born after IVF treatment and linked them to registers of cancer diagnosis. They found 53 children developed cancer, ranging from a very young age, up to 19-years-old, against an expected number of 38.”

USA Today: “Goldman Sachs sent $4.3 billion in federal tax money to 32 entities, including many overseas banks, hedge funds and pensions, according to information made public Friday night. Goldman Sachs disclosed the list of companies to the Senate Finance Committee after a threat of subpoena from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia.”

Vision Critical: “A comprehensive three-country survey on attitudes towards homosexuality reveals that Canadians and Britons are more inclined to support the legal recognition of same-sex couples than Americans. The online survey of representative national samples of 1,003 Canadian adults, 1,002 American adults, and 1,980 British adults shows that younger generations are clearly more accepting of same-sex relations. However, the poll also confirms that younger Americans—born between 1980 and 1995—are more conservative than their Canadian and British counterparts in all matters related to homosexuality.”

The Christian Post: “The National Organization for Marriage, founded in 2007 amid state battles on the definition of marriage, has so far visited ten cities on its bus tour called the ‘Summer for Marriage Tour 2010: One Man One Woman.’ By the end of this week, NOM will have completed another five cities.”

LifeNews: “Planned Parenthood is bringing in the big bucks in its campaign to persuade Alaska voters that they should not support a ballot measure in August that would allow parents to know when their minor daughters are considering an abortion. Jim Minnery, the chairman of Alaskans for Parental Rights, is battling back.” | Alaska Parental Notification Initiative, Ballot Measure 2 (2010) on Ballotpedia

The Christian Post: “Things aren’t as bad in American Christianity as many say it is, according to one sociologist. Christianity isn’t on the brink of extinction, divorce rates of Christians aren’t equal to that of non-Christians and churches are not losing young people – at least not to the extent that some fear. … In his newly released book Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites … and Other Lies You’ve Been Told, Wright reveals that many of the commonly cited statistics regarding the state of U.S. Christianity or the behaviors of Christians are incomplete and inaccurate.”

CNSNews: “Jordan Sekulow, attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice, said the group has filed written testimony with the New York Landmark Preservation Commission to try to halt the joint plan of the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement to build a mosque to replace a building just two blocks from Ground Zero. The landing gear of one of the planes commandeered by Muslim terrorists on Sept. 11 crashed through the roof of the building that the ACLJ wants to preserve.”

Christian Science Monitor: “Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have signed on to the so-called Common Core standards, which were released in the spring. Several more were poised to do so by early August. Some 40 states are likely to have signed on by next spring. The rush to acceptance has surpassed the wildest hopes of many education reformers, even as it alarms those who see common standards as usurping local control and a bad idea.”

Thomas B. Fordham Institute Study: The State of State Standards–and the Common Core–in 2010

The Common Core Curriculum
Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli, National Review Online

Catholic News Agency: “The vice president of Paraguay, Federico Franco, said this week that if he were president, he would veto any law allowing same-sex ‘marriage,’ because of the harm it would bring children raised in such an environment.”

KansasCity.com (AP): “Under the order — which applies to the executive branch of state government — people cannot be treated differently based on sexual orientation or veteran status for jobs and various state services such as licensing, job training and financial assistance.” | Executive Order 10-24

The Australian: “Openly lesbian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is under fire from the gay community after declaring her opposition to gay marriage. … ‘On the issue of marriage, I think the reality is there is a cultural, religious and historical view around that which we have to respect,’ she said.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “The country had been in the midst of highly publicized anti-pornography sweeps, and there had been no announcement of any change in government policy. Yet eight weeks later, the porn sites are still accessible. Still unanswered are questions about whether it’s an official change in policy, a technical glitch or some sort of test by the usually disapproving Chinese Internet police.”

Christian Today: “Allama Ahmed Mian Hammadi, a Pakistani Muslim cleric, has claimed that Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Minorities has himself committed blasphemy by branding the recently murdered Christian brothers as victims of Pakistan blasphemy laws.”

Brown v. Colegio, No. 08-2432 (1st Cir. July 23, 2010)

“This court held that the First Amendment allowed Colegio to compel its members to purchase life insurance only if this was germane to the purposes that justify compelling membership in an integrated bar association … the district court then held that the life insurance program was not germane and was therefore unconstitutional, awarded Romero damages–the amount of his dues attributable to the life insurance program since he had initially objected–and entered an injunction “prohibit[ing] [Colegio] from collecting . . . that portion of his future annual dues attributable to the Colegio’s mandatory group life insurance program. … After Romero, Colegio did not fully advise its members that they no longer had to buy insurance, threw obstacles in front of those trying to opt out, and delayed refunds. In fact it moved to disbar one member who refused to pay the portion of his dues attributable to the program. … We affirm the district court’s declaration of liability and its grant of injunctive relief but vacate its judgment insofar as it determines the amount of damages, and remand to allow notice to be given to class members including their right to opt out of the class.”

Kristin Davis writing at The Daily Caller: “The leaders of this mosque have ties to radical Islam. They have lied about the sources of their funding. They have gone on the record blaming American ideology for the events of 9/11. They perpetuate a radical ideology – an ideology that goes against everything Americans (Muslim Americans included) stand for.”

LifeSiteNews: “A prominent euthanasia opponent is warning that the lobbying group ‘Compassion and Choices’ (CC), formerly known as the Hemlock Society, has begun an effort to promote assisted suicide in Idaho.”

LifeSiteNews: “One day after Irish President Mary McAleese signed a civil partnerships bill into law, the government announced a full-scale campaign to promote homosexuality and the homosexualist ideology, particularly in rural areas where Catholicism remains a strong guiding force.”

Law.com: “The city’s legal services sector, largely comprised by law firms, added 1,600 jobs in June, up 2.1 percent from May. But the numbers are below the 2,600 jobs added in June 2009 and below the decade average of 2,800 during the period when many law firms are adding summer associates. There were 79,800 total jobs in the legal section.”

Argentina Becomes First Latin-American Nation to Legislate in Favor of Marriage for Same-Sex Partners after Iceland Takes the Plunge (Google Viewer)
New York Law School’s Lesbian/Gay Law Notes

“In the early morning hours of July 15, Argentina’s Senate concluded a 16 hour debate by voting 33-27 (with 3 abstentions) in favor of legislation that will provide full access to marriage for same-sex couples in that country. The Senate vote endorsed a bill that was approved by the lower house of the legislature on May 5, 2010, by a vote of 125-109, with 6 abstentions. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is a strong supporter of the legislation, so final enactment is assured. The legislation will substitute the term ‘the marrying parties’ for ‘husband and wife’ in the existing laws governing marriage. It becomes effective upon publication in the official bulletin, which was expected to take place within a few days of the vote. Further legislation will be needed to make necessary adjustments in other statutes. The Argentinian action came just a month after Iceland’s Parliament had voted unanimously, 49-0, on June 12 to approve legislation allowing same-sex marriages, with the law coming into force on June 27.”

LifeNews: “Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is the chairman of the Senate GOP conference, announced his opposition today to the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor general Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. His announcement makes it so every top Republican lawmaker now opposes Kagan.”

Beverly K. Eakman writing at The New American: “After some 40 years of psychiatry-based ‘parenting,’ free societies are experiencing behaviors by out-of-control children virtually unknown in the 1950s … Advocates for a Nanny State see all this as a wedge to further their controlling agenda. Anyone curious as to where we’re headed need look no further than the United Kingdom’s now-institutionalized ASBO legislation. … Eight years into the legislation, some 12,675 ASBOs had been issued. Nearly 2,000 youngsters, aged 10 to 17, were jailed by 2007 for an average of six months each for breaching ASBOs. … How did it come to this?”

The American Spectator: “No matter what happens [in the Illinois gubernatorial election] in November, the winner will be presiding over a state government that now makes notoriously dysfunctional statehouses in California and New York look exemplary by comparison.”

LifeNews: “The U.K. is ramping up healthcare rationing under its National Health Service (NHS). According to The Sunday Telegraph, the NHS has drawn up plans for restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and injured. Operations including hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery will be rationed in a new attempt to save money. … ”

Christian Legal Society: “The conference planning team has lifted the bar significantly this year, giving special attention to both spiritual formation and professional development. With extraordinary support from Campus Crusade for Christ’s (CCC) legal ministries group, CLS has held down costs for attendees despite enhanced programming. Of particular note: carefully planned children’s activities led by experienced CCC staff will make this a great time for the entire family.”

October 21-24, 2010
Rosen Plaza Hotel
Orlando, Florida

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “That’s the issue in In re Adoption of A.M., decided yesterday by the Indiana Court of Appeals. The biological father was fine with the adoption, which terminated father’s parental rights — the plan was basically for the grandfather (on the mother’s side) to take on the father role, with the mother retaining her role as mother. Indiana law appears not to allow this; the relevant statutes provide that an adoption severs both biological parents’ parental rights, unless ‘the adoptive parent of a child is married to a biological parent [or previous adoptive parent] of the child.’ There is no provision for a child’s parents to switch from biomom+biodad to biomom+someone who isn’t married to biomom.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “From today’s opinion in S.D. v. M.J.R. (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div.), a domestic restraining order case   . . . ‘The record reflects that plaintiff, S.D., and defendant, M.J.R., are citizens of Morocco and adherents to the Muslim faith. They were wed in Morocco in an arranged marriage on July 31, 2008, when plaintiff was seventeen years old. The parties did not know each other prior to the marriage . . . Upon their return to the apartment, defendant forced plaintiff to have sex with him while she cried . . . Defendant’s conduct in engaging in nonconsensual sexual intercourse was unquestionably knowing, regardless of his view that his religion permitted him to act as he did. As the judge recognized, the case thus presents a conflict between the criminal law and religious precepts. In resolving this conflict, the judge determined to except defendant from the operation of the State’s statutes as the result of his religious beliefs. In doing so, the judge was mistaken.’ . . . ”

LifeNews: “A coalition of 30 pro-life organizations sent a letter to members of the Senate today asking for a thorough investigation of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. They are calling for a probe into her comments about partial-birth abortion and say she may have misled lawmakers.”

Law.com: “Heather Kendall-Miller, a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, is in the running to succeed Judge Andrew Kleinfeld for an Alaska-based seat. But Kendall-Miller has some competition from Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen, part of a complicated 9th Circuit puzzle the White House is trying to assemble. Christopher Cameron, a professor at Southwestern Law School, is the leading California contender for a separate seat that has long been in dispute between California and Idaho, multiple sources said. But the administration is also apparently looking for an Idaho nominee, these sources said, because the turf war is still going strong.”

Washington Post: “Two of the court’s leading intellectuals, Scalia and Stevens disagreed with each other about as often as any other pair on the court. Their conflicts involved the court’s most enduring controversies — abortion, gay rights, the death penalty, political speech — and, just as importantly, diametrically opposed views on how to interpret the Constitution. The two men served together nearly 24 years, longer than any of the others on the current court, and the McDonald decision gave them one last chance to debate how the court should decide which fundamental rights the Constitution protects.”

NPR: “Duvall pioneered this more understated approach to faith in his 1983 film Tender Mercies. His performance earned him an Oscar and the enthusiasm of Christian moviegoers. … That realistic — and complex — approach to faith appears most vividly in a character of Duvall’s creation — a Pentecostal preacher named Sonny Dewey in The Apostle. Duvall wrote the script, directed the film and starred in it. In scene after scene, Duvall captured Sonny’s passion and intimacy with God — not mocking it, but letting it tremble or explode, as when Sonny confronts God after he learns his wife is having an affair. … Duvall tried to sell the script to Hollywood for 13 years, but found no takers. So he put up $5 million of his own money and made the movie he wanted. Duvall says the big studios would have insisted on their stereotype of a Christian white male: a judgmental hypocrite.”

Associated Press: “The 44-cent stamp will be released at ceremonies at the National Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Va., and will also go on sale nationwide.”

New York Times: “If the Roberts court continues on the course suggested by its first five years, it is likely to allow a greater role for religion in public life, to permit more participation by unions and corporations in elections and to elaborate further on the scope of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. Abortion rights are likely to be curtailed, as are affirmative action and protections for people accused of crimes.” | At NRO Bench Memos, Ed Whelan responds.

OneNewsNow: “A Christian school in New Zealand has been ordered to pay compensation and apologize to a sports coach it fired because he was a homosexual.”

ChristianNewsWire: “I wouldn’t dispute Mr. Sullum’s observation that the FCC’s current guidelines for enforcing the broadcast indecency law are ‘muddled.’ He might have added that the guidelines have become muddled in good part because of court decisions. But do broadcasters really need additional guidance to determine which indecent words they can air in the presence of children and how often?”

Associated Press: “Tax revenue figures for the 2009 fiscal year collected by The Morning Call of Allentown show Pennsylvania took in nearly $1.1 billion from its nine casinos. That outpaces the $878 million collected by Indiana and the $831 million by Nevada.”

Michael C. Dorf writing at FindLaw: “Senator Graham’s view can be summarized as follows: The role of the Senate is to examine a nominee’s professional qualifications, character, and whether her substantive views fall within the broad mainstream of legal thought. And indeed, many Senators have, over the years, taken exactly that position. But Graham went further, suggesting that Senators are constitutionally-forbidden from voting against a nominee based on ideological disagreement with the nominee. As I shall explain in this column, however, this suggestion is false: The Constitution does not clearly circumscribe the Senate’s role. Moreover, even if all of the Senators had accepted Graham’s views about their proper role, increased party polarization would have made the ‘mainstream’ requirement difficult to satisfy in practice.”

Religion Clause: “In a brief opinion last week, the D.C. Circuit in Kidd v. Obama, (DC Cir., July 21, 2010), affirming the district court (see prior posting), held that appellants had not demonstrated that printing the national motto In God We Trust” on U.S. currency is a violation of the Establishment Clause.”

“In a split decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to hear a case from six same-sex couples seeking the right to marry, saying the case needs to wind its way through the lower courts first.”

Haaretz: “Two Saudi clerics have declared Muslim women are exempt from wearing full veils in France, which is planning to ban them, but added they should avoid visiting it as tourists.” | Via Religion Clause

The Moscow Times: “Prosecutors have opened a criminal case against a Scientology center in the town of Shchyolkovo, 13 kilometers northeast of Moscow, on charges of inciting hatred, punishable with up to five years in prison. Investigators have decided that documents and literature confiscated at the center promoted extremism, a law enforcement official told Interfax, without elaborating.”

Brad A. Greenberg writing at GetReligion.org: “It’s difficult to understand why only FOX News Radio and World Net Daily thought this was news. … ‘According to [Nate Kellum], senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a police officer “abruptly” interrupted the prayer and ordered the group to cease and desist.’”

The Dallas Morning News: “In recent years, Liberty has moved to extend its reach and has tapped into the growing field of Christian legal advocacy. It has become involved in national conservative causes from a Mojave Desert cross to the National Day of Prayer. Along the way, the nonprofit’s annual budget has quadrupled to more $2 million. It has merged with its parent policy organization endorsed by evangelist James Dobson, opened an Austin office and relocated its headquarters to a building for Christian ministries.”

Evangelical Examiner: “‘Professors shouldn’t be fired simply for doing their jobs as educators. Professionally addressing both sides of an academic issue according to the class curriculum is not grounds for dismissal; it’s what a professor is supposed to do,’ said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel [David J. Hacker].”

The Philadelphia Bulletin: “‘Christians shouldn’t be silenced for exercising their beliefs through quiet prayer on public property,’ said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel [Nate Kellum]. ‘The last place you’d expect this kind of obvious disregard for the First Amendment would be on the grounds of the U.S. Supreme Court itself, but that’s what happened.’”

Huffington Post: “The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian coalition, represents Ms. Keeton and has taken up a series of similar cases. The group’s website reports that it recently won a settlement for a biology professor at the San Jose City College who was terminated for allegedly offensive comments on homosexuality.”

ADF Attorney Steven H. Aden writing at Allowed in Washington State: Your Friendly Neighborhood PharmacyThe Christian Post / Advancing Religious Liberty: “After more than three years of bouncing around in federal trial and appeals courts, Washington State pharmacists and patients both came out winners. The loser? The Washington State Department of Health. … Seeking legal protection for their right of conscience, the pharmacy contacted a Seattle law firm that includes several of the nearly 1,800 allied attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund … Now that patients’ concerns have been taken care of with the new order, pro-abortion organizations, like Planned Parenthood and its allies, are asking Washingtonians to contact Governor Gregoire to express their disappointment over the state’s about-face in abandoning the forced-dispensing policy for life-destroying drugs.” | ADF News Release

Keen News Service: “But the ruling may not be the end of the battle for Washington, D.C. The U.S. Supreme Court and Congress may have the final word. … The [Alliance Defense Fund] issued a statement after the ruling, indicating it is considering whether to petition the Court of Appeals decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. ‘The decision from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals means that those living in our nation’s capitol are being denied their most fundamental freedom –the right to vote,’ said Alliance Senior Legal Counsel [Austin Nimocks]. ‘We are considering our options to right this wrong, which include asking the Supreme Court of the United States to consider this case.’”

OneNewsNow: “Students and faculty have rallied behind the professor, and at last count, nearly 6,000 people have joined the ‘Save Dr. Ken’ Facebook group. Members are planning a prayer vigil on the university’s quad, and students are also organizing a mass boycott of all university religion courses unless Howell is reinstated by the fall. ‘It’s highly unusual in an academic freedom case to have so many students engaged in the struggle,’ notes [David French], legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).”

MercatorNet / Sheila Reports: “When the press release went out last week that the U of I had called a meeting with Prof. Kenneth Howell and his Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, supporters were hopeful that they would reconsider their irrational and knee-jerk action against a popular professor who taught Catholic studies and the rare academic discipline of critical thinking skills. … But it turns out they chose to contrive a more ridiculous defense of their actions.”

The Daily Caller: “‘They made a cascading series of presumptions about the kind of a counselor she would be and have consequently … tried to force her to change her beliefs,’ [David French], the ADF attorney representing Keeton in the case, told The Daily Caller. ‘It’s symbolic of an educational system that has lost its way.’”

LezGetReal (“a gay girl’s view on the world): “According to the Alliance Defense Fund’s David French ‘A public university student shouldn’t be threatened with expulsion for being a Christian and refusing to publicly renounce her faith, but that’s exactly what’s happening here. Abandoning one’s own religious beliefs should not be a precondition at a public university for obtaining a degree.’”

Queerty: “The school thought not, and told Keeton to enroll in a remediation program (and go to gay pride!) designed to foster … let’s say … more reasonable and open-minded beliefs about LGBTs. Keeton doesn’t think she needs to change what the Bible tells her, and has filed suit against the university. Naturally, the Alliance Defense Fund is involved; it calls the university’s actions forced ‘thought reform.’”

IndyPosted: “The ADF has filed both a complaint and a motion for a preliminary injunction in the case with the U.S. District Court for the District of Georgia. Additionally, the ADF is defending a counselor at the Center For Disease Control as well as cases of similar religious discrimination at Eastern Michigan University. It has also successfully resolved a case at Missouri State University.” | ADF News Release

The Augusta Chronicle: “A student who is suing Augusta State University says she considers gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lifestyles as ‘identity confusion,’ and shared those views in class discussions and written assignments. … [Keeton] claims Mary Jane Anderson-Wiley, an ASU associate professor, requested that Keeton take part in a remediation plan because of her beliefs about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. … The Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance that supports religious freedom, filed the suit for Keeton in U.S. District Court in Augusta on Wednesday. The agency has declined to allow Keeton to be interviewed, but she has responded to submitted e-mail questions.” | ADF News Release

The Augusta Chronicle: “The [remediation] plan — according to her attorney, [David French] of the Alliance Defense Fund Center — included ‘diversity sensitivity training’ and a requirement ‘that she “increase exposure and interaction with gay populations,” including a suggestion that she attend the “Gay Pride Parade in Augusta.”‘” | ADF News Release

WRDW: “‘The school counseling faculty has decided that my views are not acceptable for me or to share with other students,’ [Keeton] says in a video statement produced by the Alliance Defense Fund. ‘They have required a remediation plan in which the end result would be me altering my beliefs or being dismissed from the program.’” | ADF News Release

NBC Augusta: “Attorney [David French] with the Alliance Defense Fund is representing grad student Jennifer Keeton. He says the class curriculum is unconstitutional. ‘Any guidelines imposed by a public university must comply with the constitution and the guidelines they’re imposing on her do not comply with the constitution,’ French said.” | ADF News Release

ADF attorney Nate Kellum appeared on In the Market with Janet Parshall to discuss this: Police say prayer illegal on U.S. Supreme Court grounds. | MP3 20:04 mins

ADF attorney David French appeared in several media outlets to discuss this: Augusta State Univ. to counseling student: change your beliefs or get out. | Frank Pastore Show - MP3 26:04 mins | AFR Focal Point with Bryan Fischer – MP3 24:02 mins | Video NBC 26 – MP4 2:36 mins

New York Times: “When the Swedish journalist Peter Letmark tried to track down a housewife for a series on 21st-century parents in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter recently, he failed. ‘Housewives,’ he explained, ‘are a near-extinct species in Sweden. And the few who still do exist don’t really dare to go public with it.’ … In Sweden the demise of the housewife is striking. Fathers share parental leave, kindergartens are heavily subsidized, and the universal breadwinner model is quite deeply entrenched — from the workplace to popular culture.”

“There are just a few voices warning of the coming challenges and opportunities of the developing crisis over human dignity as the diesel engine of human genetic technology gains momentum and steam. Some fear it may already be beyond the point of no return . . . ”

Farrah Ahmed, The Value of Faith (July 24, 2010). Religion, State & Society, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1648149

“Commentators on religious freedom disagree on the rationale for its protection. This question of why we protect religious freedom is important because it influences the manner and scope of the protection of religious freedom by the state. The legal philosopher Timothy Macklem argues, in line with some fideistic approaches to the study of religion, that the value of ‘faith’ – of belief without reason to believe – justifies the protection of religious freedom. This paper offers a critique of Macklem’s account. It argues that this account is inconsistent with a correct view of the nature of reasons, that it over-estimates the circumstances in which faith is valuable, that it fails to adequately consider the connections between faith and false beliefs and that its conclusions imply a much weaker protection of religious freedom than is common in liberal states. This paper also indicates aspects of faith that are valuable, beyond those discussed by Macklem. It is hoped that it will contribute to the debate on the value of faith as well as the broader debate on the justification of religious freedom.”

One News Now: “Seven pastors who work in the San Francisco Bay area and were barred from serving in the nation’s largest Lutheran group because of a policy that required gay clergy to be celibate are being welcomed into the denomination.”

Ronald R. Garet, To Secure the Blessings (July 19, 2010). USC Law Legal Studies Paper No. 10-11. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1645526

“The Constitution’s Preamble states, in part: ‘We the people of the United States, in order to… secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.’ While the word ‘blessings’ in this context might mean simply benefits, it might have a more specifically ethical and dispositional meaning, such as benefits for which we should be grateful. Those who favor an evangelical reading of the Constitution might further specify the ethical and dispositional meaning, so that ‘blessings’ recalls God’s promise to Abraham and Israel and the relationship that this promise initiates. On this evangelical reading, the Preamble’s aspiration to blessings fits within a familiar Biblical warrant for American exceptionalism.”

Asim Jusic, Legal Regulation of Non-Mainstream Religious Groups: Perspectives from Economics and Social Psychology (July 19, 2010). IWM Junior Visiting Fellows’ Conferences, Vol. XXVIII, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1645306

“The major claim of this work is that the contemporary systems for regulating religious groups judge all ‘non-mainstream’ religious groups by assessing them according to their relative status in the social strata of a given society. The judgment on the status of a given religious group is based on its potential for ‘disloyalty’ to the state and the perceived social distance of a given group from what is legally constructed as the ‘mainstream’. The ‘status judgment’ is based of the three major functions of religious groups posited in the theory of religious groups I construct. It is assumed, hence, that the legal evaluation of ‘disloyalty’ potential and social distance is constructed and structured around the decision-makers perception of group cooperation, credibility-enhancing and boundary sustaining mechanisms of a given religious group under scrutiny. These asssesment serves as proxies for assessing the (un)acceptability of emotions, beliefs and identities that precede them, leading to positive or (more frequently) negative legal decision.”

Alexander Tsesis, Preserving Tolerance While Remaining True to the First Amendment (July 6, 2010). Loyola University Chicago School of Law Research Paper No. 2010-008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1647283

“In the face of mounting campus anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., college and university administrators are left with the quandary of how to prevent anti-social behavior without running afoul of the First Amendment protections of free speech. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Virginia v. Black, opens a door to resolving that dilemma. Free speech has never been considered an absolute right, with multiple laws from copyright, to defamation, and trademark laws providing examples of permissible limitations on expression. Likewise fighting words can be prohibited both at universities and other public places.”

The Hill carries this discussion by B. Daniel Blatt and Pam Spaulding introduced as follows: “The Hill invites two established bloggers from either side of the political spectrum to sound off on a designated topic in original commentary each Saturday. This week, prominent gay bloggers on the left and the right were asked if gay-rights issues are being adequately addressed by the Obama administration and this Congress . . . ”

“A federal judge is blocking Arizona from implementing a state law that eliminates domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian state employees.”

NBC 26 carried this report on the situation. | Related ADF media: Augusta State Univ. to counseling student: change your beliefs or get out