Daily Archives: August 5, 2010

BC Local News: “A newly-released Angus Reid public opinion poll reveals some startling findings on abortion that blow apart the myth that the abortion debate is settled in Canada. In its 10-page news release, Angus Reid highlighted that only 21 per cent of Canadians know that there are no legal restrictions on abortion in Canada.”

Phoenix Business Journal: “‘We will certainly appeal this disappointing decision. Its impact could be devastating to marriage and the democratic process,’ said ADF senior counsel [Brian Raum]. ‘It’s not radical for more than 7 million Californians to protect marriage as they’ve always known it. What would be radical would be to allow a handful of activists to gut the core of the American democratic system and, in addition, force the entire country to accept a system that intentionally denies children the mom and the dad they deserve.’”

LifeNews: “The ‘Excluding Abortion Coverage from Health Reform Act of 2010′ guarantees that no federal taxpayer dollars can be used to pay for elective abortions. Their bill is a companion measure to the House bill sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts, known as the ‘Protect Life Act,’ H.R. 5111.”

WorldNetDaily: “Kenya today gave President Obama a much-wanted birthday present, voting overwhelmingly to pass a constitutional referendum that would legitimize for the first time abortions and Islamic courts in the nation . . . In response to inquiries from Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J.; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida; and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the U.S. Agency for International Development admitted to spending more than $23 million of U.S. taxpayer money to influence voters in Kenya to pass the highly controversial constitution.”

The Hill: “Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) scolded Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on the Senate floor Thursday for allegedly mocking him while he delivered a solemn speech on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.”

Leonard Link: “A five-member panel of the New York Appellate Division, 2nd Department, unanimously ruled on August 3 that a woman is obligated to make child support payments to her former same-sex partner. Reconsidering the case after the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, had reversed the appellate division’s previous ruling that the Family Court did not have jurisdiction over the child support claim because New York State did not recognize the non-biological mother as a parent of the child, the Appellate Division panel now endorsed the use of the doctrine of equitable estoppel to resolve the case. In the Matter of H.M. v. E.T., 2007-09323 (Aug. 3, 2010).”

“Judge Walker’s view is truly a radical rejection of Americans’ rights, our history and our institutions that will only fuel a popular rebellion now taking place against elites who are more interested in remaking American institutions than respecting them.”

“The Mexican Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a fledgling law allowing same-sex marriages in Mexico City is constitutional, rejecting an appeal by federal prosecutors who argued that it violated the charter’s guarantees to protect the family.”

KXnet.com (AP): “Supporters of several measures that didn’t make the cut say they’ll keep working to get the signatures they need. They include proposals to abolish property taxes and strengthen protection of religious freedom. [Secretary of State] Jaeger says those proposals could still appear on the June 2012 primary ballot if supporters get enough petition signatures.” | North Dakota Religious Freedom Amendment (2010) at Ballotpedia

Phil Lawler writing at Catholic Culture: “‘Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage,’ Judge Walker asserts, and by his decision he seeks to make it so. But he offers no logical support for that bald assertion. The words ‘no longer’ in the judge’s sentence are suggestive. Was there a time when gender was an essential part of marriage, but now that time has passed? If so, what has changed? Has there been some fundamental change in human nature? Or some fundamental change in our understanding of marriage? There is, unfortunately, a gaping hole in the arguments that have been advanced by many supporters of traditional marriage. There has been a fundamental change in the popular understanding of marriage: the widespread acceptance of contraception.”

Daily Nation: “‘We will continue to press for reforms on Kadhi’s courts and abortion clause until they are out of the main body of the constitution. We don’t mind them being in an Act of Parliament,’ said Bishop Joshua Koyo, the National Council of Churches of Kenya regional chairman.”

ABC / Campus Chatter: “The University of Florida is constructing three statues to honor each of its Heisman Trophy winners–Tebow, Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996). The question on people’s minds is: Will the statue stay true to life and include Tebow’s famous Bible-versed eye black? Response from Florida students, both current and alumni, is mixed.”

Indian Express: “According to Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tiwari, Ludhiana has nearly 397 religious encroachments and the Administration is all set to deal with the menace.”

Fox News: “A New Jersey family court judge’s decision not to grant a restraining order to a woman who was sexually abused by her Moroccan husband and forced repeatedly to have sex with him is sounding the alarm for advocates of laws designed to ban Shariah in America.” | The Volokh Conspiracy: “Cultural defense accepted as to nonconsensual sex in New Jersey trial court, rejected on appeal”

Ynetnews: “Israeli men have stopped donating sperm, and women in need of donations are forced to wait in line for increasingly long periods. The crisis has led to the growth of a new field of import – sperm donation.”

Christian Science Monitor: “It might have been bad news for Democrats that hot-button social issues have burst forth in the run-up to the midterm elections . . . The longer term is a different matter. Gay marriage is growing in acceptance among the American public, and efforts to crack down on immigrants and remove birthright citizenship alienate Hispanic voters, who are a growing force in American politics. So Democrats could win in the long run. But for now, the issues work against them.”

The Blog of LegalTimes: “Elena Kagan,just confirmed by the U.S. Senate, will be sworn in at the Supreme Court on Saturday, the Court has just announced. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. will do the honors. The plan mirrors last year’s Saturday oath-taking for Sonia Sotomayor on Aug. 7, and also reflects the views of retired Justice John Paul Stevens, Kagan’s predecessor.”

Gerard V. Bradley writing at Fox News: “ I wrote in this space yesterday that if Judge Vaughan Walker is in a committed same-sex relationship – and there is credible evidence that he is – then a question about his impartiality in the Proposition 8 trial arises. I explained that Judge Walker could potentially benefit from his own ruling, at least if he and his partner harbor an interest in marrying. I concluded by saying, not that Judge Walker was guilty of bias, but by lamenting that the question had not been frankly explored in a timely way.”

James Taranto writing at The Wall Street Journal / Best of the Web: “[W]hile Kennedy cannot be pigeonholed in terms of ‘ideology,’ on this specific topic, he has been consistent in taking a very broad view of the rights of homosexuals. He not only voted with the majority but wrote the majority opinions in two crucial cases: Romer v. Evans (1996) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003) . . . In Perry . . . the defendants are unlikely to be able to counter the plaintiffs’ claims by arguing that forcing states to recognize same-sex marriage violates anyone’s individual rights. Their appeals are to tradition, morality and the collective right of the people to self-government–worthy arguments, we would say, but ones Justice Kennedy has already rejected in Romer and Lawrence.”

Richard A. Epstein writing at Forbes: “The key element of the DOMA decision was its categorical conclusion that there was no conceivable rational basis to stop same-sex couples from marrying. Given the speed with which electrons travel cross-country, that Massachusetts decision gave Judge Walker a powerful signal that there was no obvious doctrinal obstacle in taking the same path. His action was emboldened by the responses of elected officials charged with upholding the federal law. None of them want to take on this battle.”

Washington Examiner: “The Justice Department has found a new way to pursue civil rights lawsuits, using the powers of the Civil Rights Division not just to win compensation for victims of alleged discrimination but also to direct large sums of money to activist groups that are not discrimination victims and not connected to a particular suit.”

Austin Bramwell writing at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen: “It strikes me that Perry is a revolutionary decision, and not just because it breaks new ground on the right to marry and equal protection. As far as I know (and I am furthest thing from a constitutional law scholar), heretofore the only limit on government expression was that the government may not convey a message that a particular religious belief is endorsed or preferred (the so-called ‘endorsement test’). This limit is derived from the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. If Perry is upheld, we will have a new limit on government expression derived from the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Call it the ‘non-disparagement test.” Unlike the endorsement test, which officially is designed to keep government neutral between competing viewpoints (religion and non-religion), the non-disparagement test will actually require the government to favor a particular viewpoint (egalitarianism). This seems like an ominous development for the future of liberty. That, at least is one reason to care about dispute in Perry.”

Edward Feser writing at What’s Wrong With the World: What we’re seeing here is just one more application of the fraudulent principle of ‘liberal neutrality,’ by which the conceit that liberal policy is neutral between the moral and metaphysical views competing within a pluralistic society provides a smokescreen for the imposition of a substantive liberal moral worldview, on all citizens, by force. (Of course, liberals typically qualify their position by saying that their conception of justice only claims to be neutral between ‘reasonable’ competing moral and metaphysical views, but ‘reasonable’ always ends up meaning something like ‘willing to submit to a liberal conception of justice.’) . . . Pope Benedict XVI has famously spoken of a ‘dictatorship of relativism.’ But I think that that is not quite right. Most liberals are not the least bit relativistic about their own convictions. A more accurate epithet would have been ‘dictatorship of liberalism,’ and in Judge Walker that dictatorship has taken on concrete form.”

Jakarta Globe: “As Muslims nationwide count down the days until the start of the holy month of Ramadan, so are followers of Ahmadiyah, but for a very different reason. Members of the controversial sect are currently living in fear of a repeat attack by hard-liners in the lead-up to Ramadan, one member told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.”

The Desert Dispatch: “The City Council has decided to obtain legal advice before deciding whether or not a Samoan pastor has to pave about 400 feet of road in order to build his church.”

Salon: “The head of Target Corp. apologized Thursday over a political donation to a business group backing a conservative Republican for Minnesota governor, which angered some employees and sparked talk of a customer boycott.”

Pakistan Christian Post: “Speaking at the PPC conference on August 2, 2010, Shaheryar Gill, attorney with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), shared about the work ACLJ’s affiliate, European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) is doing in Pakistan. Gill said that the ECLJ is providing legal assistance to persecuted Christians in Pakistan.”

The Australian: “School dinners for thousands of pupils in Britain will contain only halal meat from next month. The move comes despite anger from parents who are opposed to the religious slaughter of animals. Meat from animals killed in accordance …

JTA: “The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon stated that ‘Traditional Jewish values recognize marriage as being only between a man and woman’ . . . Meanwhile, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism offered a statement the same afternoon welcoming the judge’s ruling as a decision that ‘reaffirms the strong commitment to equality upon which our nation is built.’”

Telegraph: “The woman, who is a witness for the prosecution, has asked a judge at Perth District Court for permission to appear in the full burka, which covers the whole body except the eyes and hands.”

BBC News: “Plans to combine two Catholic schools on a joint campus with a non-religious primary have been approved. The move involving Lochyside and Fort William RC schools and Caol Primary were opposed by Catholic parents and the bishop of Argyll and the Isles.”

Balkan Insight: “NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, has announced it is to start transferring protection of sacred Serbian sites to Kosovo Police. The Gracanica monastery, located in a Serb enclave on the outskirts of Pristina, will be the first shrine to come under the control of the mostly ethnic-Albanian police.”

USA Today: “This case is a perfect example of the delicate nature of religious freedom. Religious freedom is most tenuous when the religious act in question is unpopular, and the building of this mosque is unpopular, to put it mildly. The proposed Islamic center shows an incredible lack of sensitivity on the part of the Cordoba Initiative, the group backing the mosque.”

‘Hogamus higamus, men are polygamous; higamus hogamus, women monogamous’ . . . . Rebarbarization is just around the corner. Courtship, anyone?”

The Boston Globe: “Governor Deval Patrick, who this spring became the state’s first sitting governor to visit a mosque, lent his support yesterday to an Islamic Center proposed near ground zero, stepping into the middle of a growing national furor over locating a Muslim house of worship so near the site of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”

KHON 2: “Currently state legislators [in Hawaii] have the authority to determine whether same sex couples can tie the knot. ‘I would think now that provision is in jeopardy,’ said [Jon Van Dyke, U.H. Manoa Law Professor].”

American Principles Project: “‘The claim that this case is about equal protection or discrimination is simply false,’ George said. ‘It is about the nature of marriage as an institution that serves the interests of children–and society as a whole–by uniting men and women in a relationship whose meaning is shaped by its wonderful, and indeed, unique aptness for the begetting and rearing of children.’”

The Economist: “Officials are now keen to improve what they call the distorted image of Malaysian justice. Witness, they say, the arrival of two female sharia judges, a first for Malaysia, and a rarity in the Islamic world, who started work on August 2nd, the same day as Mr Anwar’s hearing. Liberals have long complained that such religious courts are biased, with women finding it hard to win a divorce from an absent or abusive husband. Another concern is that courts order insufficient alimony payments and too often favour men in custody cases.”

The Economist: “Among Europe’s historically Catholic lands, France is an outlier. Its leap into modernity took the form of a secular revolution; that differs from places like Ireland or Poland, where church and modern nationhood go together. Things are different again in Bavaria or the southern Netherlands, where the church inspires local pride; or in Spain, where Catholicism is at issue in an ideological war. But in many European places where Catholicism remained all-powerful until say, 1960, the church is losing whatever remains of its grip on society at an accelerating pace. The drop in active adherence to, and knowledge of, Christianity is a long-running and gentle trend; but the hollowing out of church structures—parishes, monasteries, schools, universities, charities—is more dramatic.”

JTA: “The religious books, manuscripts and other documents fell into Russian hands when the previous Lubavitcher rebbe, Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, fled Poland during World War II . . . The Russian government said last year that they do not particularly care about the documents, but that a lawsuit is not the right way to determine ownership and a U.S. court should not have jurisdiction over the case.”

Ed Whelan writing at National Review Online / Bench Memos: “Walker obscures as much as possible the central purpose of marriage as a vehicle for helping to ensure that children are raised by their father and mother. That purpose is advanced even when a husband and wife can’t procreate together (because one of them is infertile), as the marital obligation of fidelity helps ensure that the fertile spouse doesn’t have children outside the marriage. That purpose is also advanced when a husband and wife don’t intend to procreate, for the obvious reason that they may nonetheless end up having children together (and also may change their intent). And, of course, there are plenty of countervailing privacy reasons why the state wouldn’t be exploring ‘procreative capacity.’”

“Democrats voting for Kagan along with the chamber’s two independents and just five Republicans: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Judd Gregg (N.H.), Richard Lugar (Ind.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine).”

Hindustan Times: “An Italian atheist group campaigning for a quiet life called for tighter restrictions on church bells ringing in the Tuscan town of Pisa, after complaints about the noise from locals.”

LifeSiteNews: “‘You’ll never solve the child pornography crisis in America without also prosecuting adult pornography,’ said Pat Trueman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund and founder of PornHarms.com . . . He explained why those who view adult pornography naturally begin to watch child pornography as well.”

AFP: “It’s not just any kind of prayer, but ‘proximal intercessory prayer’, or PIP — when one or more people pray for someone in that person’s presence and often with physical contact — that was found by a team of doctors, scientists and religious experts to have remarkable results in healing some patients.”

The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “This Tuesday voters in Missouri, by a 40-point margin, approved a ballot measure rejecting the individual mandate at the core of President Barack Obama’s health care law. Asked what the vote meant to the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs said: ‘Nothing.’ Yesterday in San Francisco, federal judge Vaughn Walker gave the exact same weight to a California ballot measure that affirmed marriage as an institution between one man and one woman.”

Rasmussen Reports: “The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Boxer picking up 45% support, while Fiorina earns 40% of the vote. Five percent (5%) prefer a different candidate, and 10% are undecided.”

The Durango Herald: “An Arizona couple followed through with a decades-long plan to end their lives before the ravages of old age took their toll. Lansing C. Holden, 83, and his wife, Carol, 78, were found shot to death July 26 in a remote cabin south of Pagosa Springs in Archuleta County . . . The Holdens were members of the Final Exit Network, a nonprofit that promotes ‘the right of every adult to a peaceful, dignified death,’ according to its website. Members receive consultations and advice about suicide methods.” | Via Wesley J. Smith at First Things / Secondhand Smoke

Round-up of The Volokh Conspiracy commentary on Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Newt Gingrigh writing at National Review Online: “As the confirmation process for Solicitor General Elena Kagan draws to a close, the question of whether Ms. Kagan is capable of conforming herself to the appropriate role of judge in the American system should be at the heart of the Senate’s decision . . . Dean Kagan’s judicial philosophy, as far as we can discern it, falls far outside of these constitutional limits.”

Interfax: “St. Petersburg’s human rights commissioner Alexey Kozyrev promised to address the issue of opening the sharia court in the city. ‘I believe the court is a government structure above all. In this case, it is either some kind of a reckless scheme or fraud or challenge. I have instructed my reports to address this situation and I shall act on the basis of their information.’”

Interfax: “Police in the Penza Region near the Volga river have detained two local residents suspected of setting fire to the wooden St. Michael Archangel Church in the village of Yevlashevo.”

The Christian Institute: “Britain’s first televised advert for abortion services has been cleared by the advertising watchdog despite the ad generating over a thousand complaints . . . the ASA has now released their ruling on the ad. It claims that the ad didn’t promote abortion and that MSI was justified in offering advice to pregnant women.”

The Christian Institute: “Kerry Pink was left suffering from a condition known as ‘locked-in syndrome’ by an undiagnosed neurological illness when she was just 35 . . . Mrs Pink, writing in the Daily Mail, said: ‘My memories are blurred. But some things remain absolutely certain. I know that however dark the twilight world I inhabited, I never lost my will to live.’”

Honolulu Star Advertiser: “Gov. Linda Lingle plans a ‘full-court press’ for appeals Judge Katherine Leonard as Hawaii’s next chief justice after hearing yesterday that the state Senate has serious concerns about her leadership and administrative abilities.”

New York Daily News: “‘To me, it’s one of the most exhilarating developments,’ Ginsburg told The Associated Press about the prospect of Kagan making it three women on the court for the first time, along with herself and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.”

Miami Herald: “Florida will not appeal a court ruling that struck a key provision of the state’s campaign finance law. The decision Wednesday gave Republican candidate Rick Scott the ability to exceed the state’s $24.9 million spending cap in his bid for governor without worries that his leading GOP rival Bill McCollum would benefit.”

LifeNews: “With more than 70 percent of the vote counted, residents of Kenya appear to have approved a new constitution that would essentially allow unlimited abortions. Kenya has long protected women and unborn children but the zeal for a new constitution overtook concerns about preventing abortions.”

New York Times: “Kenya’s new constitution, written to alleviate longstanding problems that have undermined good governance here for decades, received overwhelming approval from voters in a referendum on Wednesday, according to provisional results released by election officials on Thursday morning.” | More information from Religion Clause

USA Today / Faith and Reason gathers statements from various religious leaders and organizations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the California Catholic Conference, the “gay Episcopal group Integrity,” Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Rev. Albert Mohler, Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy (president of Interfaith Alliance), and Rev. Barry Lynn of American United for Separation of Church and State.

CBS News: “Chuck Donovan of the Heritage Foundation called the ruling ‘an example of extreme judicial activism’ and ‘an affront to the millions of California voters who approved Proposition 8 in 2008 after months of vigorous public debate.’ . . . ‘The “trial” . . . is a unique, and disturbing, episode in American jurisprudence,’ Maggie Gallagher, Chairman of the Board of NOM, said in a statement. ‘Here we have an openly gay (according to the San Francisco Chronicle) federal judge substituting his views for those of the American people and of our Founding Fathers who I promise you would be shocked by courts that imagine they have the right to put gay marriage in our Constitution. We call on the Supreme Court and Congress to protect the people’s right to vote for marriage.’”

Chris Good writing at The Atlantic: “Now that federal district Judge Vaughn Walker has ruled dramatically against California’s gay-marriage ban, it’s worth remembering that President Obama, officially, is personally opposed to gay marriage. That was his stance throughout the presidential campaign, and it remains his stance today, as David Axelrod confirmed in an interview with MSNBC.” | Post includes video of Obama explaining his view of marriage.

John Eastman writing at The FlashReport: “For those who attended the trial or watched its proceedings from afar, it seemed all but certain that this 66-year-old single man, living in San Francisco and reported by the San Francisco Chronicle to himself be homosexual, would find a way to rule Proposition 8 unconstitutional . . . Truth be told, this should have been a relatively short and easy opinion to write, under existing precedent. As the Supreme Court has frequently recognized, ‘The Equal Protection Clause directs that “all persons similarly circumstanced shall be treated alike,”‘ but it ‘does not require things which are different in fact or opinion to be treated in law as though they were the same.’ I have chosen this particular formulation of that oft-repeated principle, from the Court’s decision in Plyler v. Doe, because it was penned by Justice William Brennan, widely recognized as the most liberal (or, to use the left’s preferred term these days, ‘progressive’) Justice ever to sit on the high Court. The relevant question is whether heterosexual and homosexual couples are similarly situated with respect to marriage.”

Matt C. Abbott writing at Renew America: “Evangelical Christian, Bryan C. Hodge, has given the issue serious treatment in his book The Christian Case against Contraception: Making the Case from Historical, Biblical, Systematic, and Practical Theology & Ethics. Below is the full Introduction (minus footnotes) to Hodge’s book . . . ‘Any ethic that has its foundation in temporal concerns of mankind rather than eternal concerns of God must be seen as human-made, and produced for the sake of convenience rather than conviction and devotion. Ethics based on a human-centered conception of the world can have nothing in common with genuine Christianity, which by its very nature is God-centered from start to finish.’”

The Hill’s Twitter Room: “Officials used Twitter Wednesday afternoon to mark the ruling of U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker striking down California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state . . . House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said: ‘Very joyful court ruled against #prop8, it is a stain upon the CA Constitution. All families must be treated equally!’” (Click link for additional Tweets from various officials)

The Hill / Ballot Box: “If the party’s gubernatorial candidates were to emerge with wins in Texas, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan — all states where Republicans either lead or are tied in recent polls — and the GOP holds or wins control of legislative chambers in those same states, Republicans could monopolize the post-2010 redraw.”

Wall Street Journal Editorial, “Morally Inexcusable” (full text via Google News): “In a speech to the Urban League’s annual convention Thursday, President Obama was blunt: ‘This status quo is morally inexcusable.’ So is the fact that the nation’s leading civil rights organizations are now siding with teachers unions and others working to preserve a public education system that is failing the millions of black families who can’t afford an alternative.”

Washington Post: “When General Motors went through bankruptcy last year, it suspended its political donations. Now that it’s owned by the U.S. government, it’s donating to lawmakers’ pet projects again.”

Karl Rove writing in the Wall Street Journal: “A quick survey of the political landscape shows six of the seven Democratic governors running for re-election are polling under 50% and in danger of losing, while all six GOP incumbents seeking re-election are expected to win. In the 24 open gubernatorial contests, Republicans lead in 15 and are tied in three others.”

‘Judge Walker makes little or no reference to the fact that nearly all of plaintiffs’ “experts” are political activists for gay causes and that many or most are in same-sex relationships. They’re just neutral experts.’”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “It would be up to the Washington Legislature to reconsider gay marriage, said Dave Ammons, a spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed. ‘Whether a victory in California would prompt the issue to resurface in the Legislature is the next question,’ he said. ‘It could also be the subject of an initiative, of course.’”

On Top Mag (“gay advocacy website”): “‘Only a trial court [like Walker's] can make factual findings,’ lawyer Brian Devine said in his analysis, adding that Walker devotes 109 pages of his 138-page ruling to factual findings. ‘A Court of Appeal must give great deference to the factual findings of the trial court, especially when those findings are based on the credibility of witness testimony.’ . . . ‘We will certainly appeal this disappointing decision,’ [Brian Raum], senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), whose attorneys defended Proposition 8, said. ‘Its impact could be devastating to marriage and the democratic process.’

Douglas Napier on the Mike Gallagher Show to discuss the the case involving Dr. Kenneth Howell.  | MP3 7:21 mins | ADF resource page: Fired U of I professor vindicated, will again be allowed to teach Catholicism class

Jim Campbell on AFR Focal Point just before the ruling was handed down.  MP3  9:21 mins |  Jordan Lorence on the Janet Mefferd Show just before the ruling was handed down. Jordan indicated he was not on pins and needles before yesterday’s ruling, because the Judge had tipped his hand well in advance of yesterday’s ruling.  MP3 18:39 mins | Daniel Blomberg on KQED Northern California Public Radio after the ruling was handed down.  Daniel responds to several of the judge’s contentions in his ruling. MP3 6:27 mins |  Doug Napier with Tim Conway, Jr. on KFI 640 am. Its of the judge by the judge and for the judge. The ruling has no basis in law or history. MP3 6:18 mins | Austin R. Nimocks with Bret Burkhart & Chris Brecher-KGO 810AM SF.  Why is the ruling dangerous? According to the judge, we are all irrational bigots now.  MP3 3:47 min

“One San Francisco judge ordering it so was an arbitrary, heavy-handed act with no other basis than a demand from a powerful activist group. Unless this is overturned, the same playbook will be used to try to institutionalize group marriages, polygamy, and every other iteration of human relationships until marriage is utterly obliterated.”