Daily Archives: August 2, 2010

Lodi News-Sentinel: “So far, religious leaders have greeted the Lodi City Council with Christian blessings, a Muslim prayer and even a call to civic responsibility from an atheist. But about 10 months after the council enacted a new prayer policy, the organization that originally complained about the council’s policy still has its eye on Lodi for a lawsuit.”

Associated Press: “The blame game swung into full fervor Monday as Massachusetts politicians tried to position themselves amid a stalemate over legislation proposing to bring casino gambling to the state.”

Associated Press: “The spread of child pornography, fueled by technology and the Internet, is outpacing efforts to combat it, the Justice Department said Monday in a report to Congress that promises more arrests, prosecutions and better coordination among federal, state and local authorities.” | DOJ Press Release

The Ledger: “In an attempt to strengthen its defense against the Atheists of Florida, the city plans to remove the word ‘invocation’ from its twice-monthly agenda and will add two sentences explaining that it is barred from endorsing religious beliefs.”

Eurasia Review: “A 9 July raid on a Jehovah’s Witness service in Kirovo-Chepetsk (Kirov Region) is the latest in a series of raids on worship services, many involving the FSB security service, Forum 18 News Service notes. ‘The unexpected arrival during a peaceful religious service of such a number of people in uniform disturbed the believers and obstructed its usual course,’ the Jehovah’s Witnesses complained.”

FRC Washington Update: “In May, when U.S. authorities arrested Army Private Bradley Manning for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.org, there were whispers that he was politically motivated. It turns out that Manning is an extreme homosexual activist, whose fury over the services’ homosexual policy may have led him to publicize highly classified documents about the wars. According to the U.K.’s Telegraph, Manning has an extensive history of campaigning for gay, lesbian, and transgendered causes and sources say he may have even been considering a sex change when he leaked military secrets on the Internet.”

The Daily News Journal: “The Rutherford County Commission’s Steering Committee will review land uses by right such as for religious institutions under the zoning resolution tonight.”

Visalia Times Delta: “Noted self-described ‘Indo-American and Hindu statesman’ Rajan Zed is scheduled to recite a Hindu prayer in Sanskrit, followed by an English translation, tonight before the start of the Visalia City Council meeting, Zed announced by e-mail Sunday.”

Wausau Daily Herald: “Ten months after Dale and Leilani Neumann were sentenced to six months in jail each for the death of their daughter, the couple has not served a single day and their appeal process is bogged down by a series of delays.”

The Denver Channel: “A letter from the Boulder County ACLU was sent to the Boulder Valley School District Monday, claiming that Boy Scouts of America are a discriminatory group because it wants to exclude homosexuals from its membership.”

Fox News: “A Mexican drug cartel has reportedly put a hefty price tag on the head of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.”

Blog of LegalTimes: “Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the Chamber’s National Chamber Litigation Center, said in an e-mailed statement that ‘our internal endorsement process did not generate a clear consensus that would support either a positive or negative view on her nomination.’”

“Prison officials can ban employees from wearing religious headscarves out of concerns they pose a safety risk, a U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia ruled Monday in a split 2-1 decision.”

CNSNews: “A Lutheran pastor in Minneapolis who opposes homosexuals being allowed to lead congregations says he is attracted to men but says he’s not a hypocrite because he never acted on his urges.”

LifeSiteNews: “The British government has pledged to place an ‘unprecedented focus’ on ‘family planning,’ including abortion, in its efforts to forward the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). The government particularly focused on abortion in a July 27 press release, saying that ‘safe’ abortion is the solution to the estimated 70,000 deaths a year ‘from an estimated 20 million unsafe abortions.’”

ADF’s Weekly Update is on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqx4oW9nYo0

Jim Manzi writing at City Journal: “Over many decades, social science has groped toward the goal of applying the experimental method to evaluate its theories for social improvement. Recent developments have made this much more practical, and the experimental revolution is finally reaching social science. The most fundamental lesson that emerges from such experimentation to date is that our scientific ignorance of the human condition remains profound. Despite confidently asserted empirical analysis, persuasive rhetoric, and claims to expertise, very few social-program interventions can be shown in controlled experiments to create real improvement in outcomes of interest.”

“Speaking on his radio show yesterday[July 28th], famed conservative talk show personality Rush Limbaugh said that he supports same-sex civil unions . . . ”

HRC Back Story: “Late last Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released two funding announcements on sexuality education that included language focused on LGBT and questioning youth. For the first time, language in the funding announcements for federal sexuality education dollars encouraged states to consider ‘the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth’ and asked states to ensure that programs funded with these dollars are ‘inclusive of and nonstigmatizing toward’ LGBT and questioning participants. HHS also required that funding must be medically-accurate in both programs and that any statements that reflect values-based opinions must be labeled as such.”

The Christian Institute: “Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband has said he wants ‘to change the definition of marriage’. Mr Miliband, MP for South Shields, said he was in favour of same-sex marriage, commenting it was the ‘next step in our mission for equality’.”

Washington Examiner: “The House ethics committee on Monday announced it has found Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., in violation of the rules of the House. The panel did not release the details of the violations, but most believe the charges relate to the 71-year-old lawmaker’s efforts to secure federal bailout funds for a bank tied to her husband.”

Wall Street Journal: “Hoping to reform Islam by making it more women-friendly, Ms. Thompson—an American convert to Islam—has organized several ‘pray-ins’ at mosques in the D.C. area. These include the Islamic Center of Washington and the Dar Al-Hijra Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., a mosque attended by several of the 9/11 hijackers and the Fort Hood mass killer Maj. Nidal Hasan. Ms. Thompson’s next pray-in target is a mosque in Washington.”

UK Prime Minister David Cameron writing in The Independent: “There’s no single lever we can pull or even collection of measures that we can take to make that happen. The wall of prejudice is also chipped away by high-profile role models, by public celebrations, by a positive approach to diversity. That’s why I am proud that there are now more openly gay MPs in the Conservative Party than any other party. It’s why I wish the upcoming Pride events – today in Leeds, all week in Brighton and on Saturday in Liverpool – every success. And it’s why I congratulate everyone on this list for doing their bit to inspire and change attitudes. This is a country where people can be proud of who they are – and quite right too.”

Reuters: “The head of Chile’s Socialist party, Fulvio Rossi, told reporters on Sunday that he planned to sponsor a bill to legalize gay marriage in the country, as occurred last month in neighboring Argentina.”

LifeNews: “The Associated Press surprised readers with a new story on the contrasts between adult and embryonic stem cell research and a headline indicating what pro-life advocates have long known: the use of adult stem cell research is helping patients now and far outpacing embryonic studies.”

OneNewsNow: “For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it’s adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments.”

OneNewsNow: “A Christian law firm is disappointed but not surprised that a federal judge last week threw out most of the Arizona immigration law that was designed to make it easier for state and local law enforcement to apprehend suspected illegal aliens. Prior to last week’s decision, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) had filed an amicus brief supporting the Arizona law. Consequently, the law firm shared the disappointment with other border-enforcement activists once the final decision was reached.”

SWRNN: “The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR-LA, today denounced a planned anti-mosque protest scheduled during a Friday congregational prayer, or ‘Jummah.’ The council called on local officials and interfaith leaders to show support for the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley, the target of the July 30 protest that is believed to be organized by the Southwest Riverside County, SWRC, Tea Party group. The protest is in opposition to a proposal for a new mosque in the area.”

New York Times: “The new rite, which will take years to complete, will most likely consist of a series of original prayers, Bible readings and two essays: one on the theological meaning of same-sex blessings, and one advising priests who administer the new rite. If approved, the new blessing would be just the third addition to Episcopal liturgy since 1979.”

Aiken Standard: “A local church is reacting to the recent questioning of Aiken City Council’s usage of prayer during public meetings by holding a rally. The Aiken Prayer Rally, sponsored by members of the Lakeside Baptist Church in Clearwater, will be held on the same day and in the same building as the next City Council meeting on Aug. 9.”

Catholic News Agency: “The new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, announced that his dicastery is preparing a document on the effects of abortion on women, often called post-abortion syndrome. The document will focus on the study of the ‘habit of abortion’ and is expected to be published next year.”

Blake Hounshell writes at Foreign Policy / Passport: “That’s right, I’m talking about George W. Bush. Much as Muslims around the world may have despised his foreign policy and his interrogation and detention policies, the former president spoke out repeatedly and eloquently against attacks on Muslims, and visited an Islamic center several days after 9/11 to send the message that Muslims were not the enemy. He may not have much standing in the Islamic community today, but he still retains a broad following on the right.”

Telegraph: “More than 1,000 girls in the first year of secondary school have been given prescriptions for the pill, according to figures from GPs, while a further 200 have long-term injectable or implanted contraceptive devices.” Unfortunately, this article does not analyze relevant financial motivations.

Ilya Somin writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Federal District Judge Henry Hudson’s opinion refusing to dismiss Virginia’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Obama health care plan has several interesting aspects. The suit focuses primarily on a challenge to the ‘individual mandate’ element of the plan, which requires most American citizens and legal residents to purchase a government-approved health insurance plan by 2014 or pay a fine for nocompliance. Here are a few of the most important points covered in the opinion.”

Southern District of Florida Blog: “The 11th Circuit issued United States v. Irey today, with 255 pages of opinions, which are a must read for any criminal practitioner in this Circuit. The question presented is whether a lengthy variance (from 30 years to 17) was reasonable in a horrific case involving multiple acts of child rape. The majority, written by Carnes and joined by Dubina, Black, Hull, Marcus, Wilson and Pryor, found the variance substantively unreasonable.”

Los Angeles Times: “The Senate’s dispute over judicial nominees resembles a family feud that stretches over several generations. Judges are being opposed not because of their records, but because of what happened several years earlier to other nominees. Use of the filibuster rule, which the GOP had insisted was unconstitutional several years ago, has become a routine stalling tactic.”

“[A] cursory review of this study (funded by the Gill Foundation and the Lesbian Health Fund of the Gay, Lesbian Medical Association) demonstrates significant flaws that most first-year graduate students would quickly recognize.”

Family Research Council: “Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), a big proponent of the State Department’s team of family planning” globe trotters, slipped an amendment into the foreign appropriations bill that would make overseas abortion funding a steady fixture of U.S. spending. Under his language, the Mexico City Policy — which blocks our government from giving financial aid to any overseas group that promotes abortion — would be completely abolished. (Back in January, President Obama signed an executive order allowing this funding to flow temporarily.)”

Arizona Daily Star: “The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a request by Gov. Jan Brewer for an expedited review of a judge’s decision to enjoin the state from enforcing five sections of the law that were supposed to have taken effect Thursday. The judges gave no reason for their refusal.”

Bloomberg: “President Barack Obama, on the verge of winning confirmation of his second U.S. Supreme Court appointment in two years, is having limited success shaping the lower federal courts that handle thousands more cases.”

Center for Arizona Policy: “This report provides a summary of Center for Arizona Policy’s (CAP) work during the 2010 legislative session.”

OneNewsNow: “It took the help of the United States, but the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has gained official status at the U.N., which is an ‘important step forward for human rights,’ according to President Obama.”

The Hill: “[F]ive Republican senators have pledged to vote for Kagan, making her a shoo-in for confirmation. This puts the NRA in the tricky position of having to decide how much political capital to spend against Kagan.”

Christian Science Monitor: “If, as expected, the Senate votes to confirm Elena Kagan to a seat on the US Supreme Court, she will become only the sixth former Supreme Court law clerk to rise to become a justice. Kagan worked as a clerk for Thurgood Marshall in the 1987-88 term.”

Law.com: “Also at the ABA conference this week, delegates will consider a same-sex marriage proposal that would urge state-level governments to eliminate all legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex and oppose a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.”

Mercury News: “The epic legal struggle over Arizona’s immigration crackdown has landed in a San Francisco-based federal appeals court that is all too familiar with being the center of the nation’s attention — and its inevitable label as the nation’s most liberal court.”

National Catholic Register: “Welcome to Cuba and the careful existence of the Roman Catholic Church. It’s a healthy Church — functioning in a terribly unhealthy country . . . ‘The Catholic Church in Cuba is absolutely the only national institution functioning independently from the regime. No other organization survived the revolution,’ observed a 30-year-old seminarian in Havana.”

Bloomberg: “Geert Wilders, whose anti-immigrant party more than doubled its vote in June’s elections, forced his way to the center of Dutch politics by agreeing to back a minority government of Liberals and Christian Democrats.” | Via Religion Clause

Associated Press: “‘But we have a considerable way to go to achieve a full recovery in our economy, and many Americans are still grappling with unemployment, foreclosure and lost savings,’ the Fed chief said in a speech to an annual meeting of Southern lawmakers in Charleston, S.C.”

Tampa Humanism & Freethought Examiner: “City Commisioners in Lakeland, in their meeting last Thursday, asked the Mayor to schedule a ‘shade’ meeting to discuss whether or not to fight the lawsuit filed by the Atheists of Florida . . . Mayor Gow appears ready to fight and recently received a letter from the Alliance Defense Fund urging him to fight the lawsuit.”

Dahlia Lithwick writing at Slate: “Kagan already has some history at the court. And it didn’t go unremarked by court watchers last term that Kagan’s six outings before the Roberts Court as President Obama’s solicitor general were sometimes uneasy. Some of us suggested that Kagan—who’d never argued a case until she argued the blockbuster Citizens United campaign finance case last September—was still just finding her footing at the court. Others observed that many of the justices, most notably Chief Justice John Roberts, appeared perpetually exasperated by her.”

Associated Press: “Virginia’s lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s health care reform law cleared its first legal hurdle Monday as a federal judge ruled the law raises a host of complex constitutional issues.”

WSJ Law Blog: “‘Any doubt about the tradition of judicial reference to foreign and international law was (or should have been) laid to rest’ by a study co-written by Steven Calabresi, a Northwestern University law professor who co-founded and now is chairman of the conservative lawyers network, Ginsburg said in remarks to the International Congress of Comparative Law, at American University’s Washington College of Law.”

Joanna L. Grossman writing at FindLaw: “Contracts between husband and wife have always had a tenuous position in American law. Once forbidden, postnuptial agreements now seem to have crept into the realm of enforceable contracts in most states, though they may not always be enforced on the same terms as other types of contracts are. In a recent case, Ansin v. Craven-Ansin, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) of Massachusetts ruled that an agreement that a husband and wife made after they married, seeking to predetermine the financial consequences of any future divorce, was not against public policy and satisfied the necessary criteria for enforcement.”

Christian Web News: “ADF Senior Counsel [Kevin Theriot] said, ‘Churches should not be singled out for discrimination by a city’s zoning restrictions. Federal law and the Constitution prohibit city officials from targeting Christ Liberty. It is irresponsible for the government to create and enforce ordinances that can have the effect of shutting down religious ministries that serve the community.’”

FIRE: “The case of June Sheldon at San José City College also came to a victorious end this week . . . You can read our coverage here; David French of the Alliance Defense Fund and the blog of the National Association of Scholars also notes FIRE’s success in the case.”

Kathryn Lopez writing at the Laurel Leader-Call: “[David French], a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing Howell, underscores an important point. ‘Dr. Howell’s case illustrates the absolute intolerance that’s long been emerging on campus towards any kind of dissent or disagreement against the prevailing sexual orthodoxy. It’s as if the university community views traditional Christian ethics as the moral equivalent of racism and treats Christians in the same way they would treat a white-sheeted bigot,’ he says.”

The Catholic Review (CNS): “The reinstatement came days after a deadline for suing the university set by the Alliance Defense Fund, which had taken on Howell’s case.”

Catholic News Agency: “[Chancellor Patricia Gibson] explained that the university has also asked to pay Dr. Howell’s salary for university courses, a decision that ‘was met with no objection from the Diocese, the Newman Center, or the Alliance Defense Fund, which has been actively involved in assisting Dr. Kenneth Howell in this matter.’”

The American Culture: “The Good Guys won this round. Prof. Kenneth Howell, who was fired from the University of Illinois for teaching Catholic dogma in an “Introduction to Catholicism” course, has been reinstated … for now . . . according to David French, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defense Fund . . .”

WorldNetDaily: “‘A university cannot censor professors’ speech – including classroom speech related to the topic of the class – merely because certain ideas ‘offend’ an anonymous student. We greatly appreciate the university’s move to put Professor Howell back in the classroom, but we will be watching carefully to make sure that his academic freedom is protected throughout the university’s ongoing process,’ said ADF Senior Counsel [David French].”

Bloomberg: “For RIM, the pioneer in handheld e-mail devices, security is one of the main advantages it touts over competitors. E-mails its customers send are encrypted and sent through RIM’s own servers and network operation centers, with much of the equipment located in Canada. That security has made BlackBerrys popular with companies and government officials including Barack Obama, who kept his BlackBerry after becoming U.S. president. However, the system also makes it harder for governments to monitor BlackBerry communications than messages from other smartphones, which typically travel across the Internet.”

Chris Rideout, Penumbral Thinking Revisited: Metaphor in Legal Argumentation (Fall 2010). Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors, Vol. 7, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1649879

“The conceptual soundness of Douglas’s use of the penumbra metaphor in Griswold has been called into question by several earlier authors. It may be that metaphors have some unspoken “rules” for usage and that Douglas violated some of them. This article takes a step in that direction, by revisiting and further exploring some of the ways in which metaphors work. Starting with classical rhetoric, metaphors have traditionally been regarded as a matter of style, but recent research indicates that their role in our understanding of the world lies much deeper. Metaphors work through complex systems of correspondences, involving the mapping of conceptual domains onto each other and relying on the entailments that arise from that mapping. The “rules” for metaphorical usage, then, no doubt run deep as well – into this mapping and its coherence. If such unspoken “rules” for metaphorical usage exist, then Douglas may have violated some of them with his penumbra metaphor – sound as his conceptual use of the metaphor may have been in other respects. Understanding the strengths, and perhaps the shortcomings, of the penumbra metaphor, then, can be a way of learning how to use metaphoric reasoning effectively in legal argument.”

Chicago Daily Observer: “U of I-Champaign adjunct professor Kenneth Howell will return to the university classroom to teach ‘Catholicism’ in next Fall’s semester. Attorneys representing the university contacted the Alliance Defense Fund that he can teach once more in the Fall semester after having been fired for explaining the Church’s position on homosexuality which prompted one anonymous letter-writer (who didn’t take the class) to object on behalf of an anonymous class-member that Howell was homophobic.”