Daily Archives: August 13, 2010

LoHud.com: “Yesterday’s court decision, which could cost Greenburgh $4 million, said the town violated the church’s rights under the First Amendment’s ‘free exercise’ of religion clause and the Fourth Amendment’s ‘equal protection’ clause . . . The judge wrote that town Supervisor Paul Feiner directed town staff, including town attorneys and consultants, to perform research and provide ideas for ways to support the denial of the church’s application. Town Board members instructed employees to ‘kill the project’ and prepare an environmental study to achieve a negative outcome, he wrote.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “A federal judge has ordered Avondale Estates to let a church resume its activities as it pursues a discrimination case against the small DeKalb County city.”

The Atlantic Wire: “On Monday, German police raided the Taiba mosque in Hamburg and announced it closed. The Taiba mosque was previously known as al-Quds, and was frequented by four of the 9/11 hijackers. Apparently, the name change did not involve a concomitant shift in tone; Hamburg’s Interior Minister, according to Time’s Tristana Moore, says the mosque was continuing to ‘[convert] young men … into religious fanatics.’”

Family Security Matters: “There is a glimmer of hope that the American people are finally waking up to the deceit and the menace of the creed called Islam. Their opposition to the building of the mosque shows that the creeping Islamization of America is indeed something to stand against and prevent before it is too late.”

Pamela Gellar writing at Human Events: “It seems that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not a big fan of freedom of speech. He says that opponents of the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque that is set to be built at Ground Zero should be ashamed of themselves and should just shut up.”

“A motions panel of the Ninth Circuit Court on Friday set a fast schedule for reviewing a plea to put on hold, for several months, a federal judge’s ruling striking down California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage.”

Baptist Press: “The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold an Arizona program that allows tax credits for scholarship donations contributed to religious organizations . . . The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) appealed the Ninth Circuit opinion to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization. The high court not only granted the request for review from ADF but one from the state of Arizona as well. The cases — Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn and Garriott v. Winn — have been consolidated for the justices’ review.”

ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “A principal purpose of ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom is change the academic culture by confronting the sort of anti-Christian animus Professor Larsen describes in his essay. Such hostility is always wrong, and frequently illegal. We share Larsen’s pessimism that the academy will eradicate the problem on its own. If you experience such animus, let us know. We stand ready to help protect academic freedom and restore the civility and respect that is all too often missing from the academic environment.”

Family Research Council: “Now that he’s overturned Proposition 8, Walker says our side has suddenly lost their standing to appeal. To people familiar with the courts and the appellate process, that statement is totally absurd . . . The bottom line: Walker needed someone to challenge this amendment so that he could overturn it. Now that he’s imposed his beliefs, he’s trying to make defenders of marriage powerless to fight them.”

“The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a controversial new form of emergency contraception that can prevent a pregnancy for as many as five days after sex.”

Tulsa World: “Oklahoma mothers have a right to breastfeed their babies in any public place, but many people – including nursing mothers – are unaware the law exists, a state official said.”

Associated Press: “Three states – Washington, New Mexico and Utah – allow illegal immigrants to get licenses because their laws do not require proof of citizenship or legal residency. An Associated Press analysis found that those states have seen a surge in immigrants seeking IDs in recent months, a trend experts attribute to crackdowns on illegal immigration in Arizona and elsewhere.”

ChristianNewsWire: “This afternoon, the City of Chicago dismissed its case against the second arrestee charged with disorderly conduct under Chicago’s controversial ‘Bubble Zone’ ordinance. Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society represented David Avignone, an MBA student at Loyola University Chicago, who was arrested on July 8 while standing outside Planned Parenthood’s Near North Side clinic.”

The Christian Post: “‘Christians shouldn’t be excluded from reserving and using public meeting facilities because of their beliefs,’ said [Nate Kellum], senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. ‘It’s incredibly ironic that discussing a book would be prohibited in a library. The government cannot discriminate against Christians just because of their religious viewpoint.’”

San Francisco Chronicle: “Santa Clara County is preparing for a mass wedding and San Francisco City Hall will extend its hours to perform same-sex weddings if a ruling handed down Thursday by a U.S. District Court judge stands.”

Law.com: “Ave Maria School of Law isn’t making the grade when it comes to financial responsibility, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Ave Maria — a Roman Catholic school in Naples, Fla. — was the only law school to receive failing marks on the department’s latest assessment of financial responsibility for nonprofit and for-profit colleges and universities.”

“Former gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats (R) . . . is organizing an effort to defeat the three state supreme court justices [who were part of last year's ruling that threw out a ban on same-sex marriage]. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) have both expressed a level of support for the campaign led by Vander Plaats.”

Blog of LegalTimes: “[T]he possibility is real that the case might never make it on appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. That’s because the advocates of Prop 8, who are launching the appeal, may not have the necessary ‘standing’ to carry it forward. The case is titled Perry v. Schwarzenegger, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other officials in the position of defending the ballot initiative. But those officials, who are sympathetic toward gay marriage to varying degrees, are not inclined to appeal Walker’s ruling . . . Cornell Law School professor Michael Dorf, while sympathizing with Walker’s decision, wrote recently on his blog that a good argument can be made for standing when state officials are reluctant to defend a successful ballot initiative.”

The Christian Post: “According to the new survey, which came out Wednesday, nearly 70 percent of all Americans oppose the controversial plan to build the 15-story Cordoba House just two blocks from the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Just 29 percent, meanwhile, favor construction of the Muslim facility.”

LifeSiteNews: “Retail giant Sears, which was exposed last week for marketing pornographic posters through their website, could be facing a boycott if they continue their refusal to remove the products.”

Mark M. Trapp writing in The American Spectator: “I hereby propose the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States: Section 1 Marriage in each of the individual states shall be defined by the elected legislature of that state, or by the people thereof, except that marriage shall not be defined to include more or less than two persons. A union between one man and one woman, otherwise valid under state law, shall be recognized as a marriage by all states, territories and possessions of the United States. Section 2 Neither the Full Faith and Credit Clause nor any other provision of this Constitution, or any state constitution, or federal or state law, shall be construed to compel any state, territory or possession of the United States to recognize any marriage, or to confer any benefits, rights, privileges or immunities on any persons married in any other state, territory, possession or foreign country, except a union between one man and one woman.”

The Raw Story: “‘We are confident we do have standing to seek the appellate review here, and we realize this case has just begun and we will get the decision overturned on appeal,’ said [Jim Campbell], an Alliance Defense Fund lawyer who is part of the legal team defending Proposition 8 . . . ‘What Judge Walker’s ruling means is you can sponsor a proposition, direct it, research it, work for it, raise $40 million for it, get it on a ballot, successfully campaign for it and then have no ability to defend it independently in court,’ said Dale Carpenter, a University of Minnesota constitutional law professor who supports same-sex marriage. ‘And then a judge maybe let you be the sole defender in a full-blown trial and then says, “by the way, you never can defend this.” It just seems very unlikely to me the higher courts will buy that.’”

LifeNews: “The Obama administration has cleared itself of illegally lobbying for abortion in Kenya when it spent $23 million financing groups participating in the Yes campaign supporting the draft constitution Kenyans approved earlier this month that would essentially allow unlimited abortions.”

Dr. Jim Garlow writing at Renewing American Leadership: “Once the government has a vested interested in affirming and protecting so-called gay ‘marriage,’ three losses become apparent. First, there is a loss of personal freedoms; secondly, there is a loss of parental rights; and thirdly, there is a loss of religious liberties.”

ChristianNewsWire: “Following two years of repeated evictions and harassment, Liangren House Church faced more uncertainty this week, when the church was evicted from the Zhuying Hotel on August 11th, and head Pastor Wang Dao was harassed, detained, and interrogated.”

Christian Web News: “ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco said, ‘Groups such as the Boy Scouts shouldn’t be punished because of their beliefs. The First Amendment simply does not allow it. The ACLU’s disinformation letter badly distorts the recent decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, saying that it supports exclusion of the Scouts from the school district’s campuses. But the decision says no such thing, and the school district would be acting contrary to well-settled First Amendment law if it excluded the Scouts. The ACLU certainly has an agenda, but the school district’s best interests do not appear to be part of it.’”

ADF News Center: “You may have just heard [Alan Sears] on the Focus on the Family radio broadcast. As he explained on the program, religious freedom in America is under attack by advocates of the homosexual agenda. The goal of these radical activists is to silence and punish Christians so that they can force their agenda on our families, schools, churches, and even our military.”

The Huffington Post: “Philanthropy is vital to fill the gaps in a fraying safety net and keep arts organizations afloat, especially in hard times. But this giving can also bankroll sharply ideological groups or fund large-scale efforts to revamp public policy – allowing the rich to exert influence on top of the vast sums they already spend to sway elections . . . a handful of wealthy gay funders, most notably the software entrepreneur Tim Gill, have helped to legitimize same-sex marriage through tens of millions dollars in targeted philanthropy and political giving.”

Fox News: “Despite a majority opposing gay marriage specifically, most believe there should be some form of legal recognition for same-sex marriages (66 percent). Thirty-seven percent of voters think gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry legally, up from 33 percent in 2009 and 20 percent in 2004. Another 29 percent support allowing a legal partnership’ similar to but not called marriage. About one in four think there should be no legal recognition given to gay and lesbian relationships (28 percent).”

Tim Wildmon, president of American Family Association, writing in the Los Angeles Times: “The Constitution envisioned a system in which the judiciary would serve to check the excesses of the legislative or executive branches. But today, federal judges have far exceeded their intended role, becoming little gods in our republic. They have lifetime appointments, and their only accountability is the potential for impeachment. But in the history of our country, only 15 judges have been impeached by the House of Representatives.”

LifeSiteNews: “The government of Singapore announced that it has asked for tenders from communications agencies to produce a television commercial to “promote dating and come up with a ‘unique dating concept’ to get singles to interact” in a bid to deal with the city-state’s low birth and marriage rates.”

Associated Press: “A Malaysian state’s attempt to revive use of gold and silver coins common in early Islamic societies has run afoul of the country’s central bank, which said Friday that local governments have no authority to issue their own currency.”

Wall Street Journal: “Recent statistics have shown an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly. Statistics like these have created something of a mania in recent years . . . Increasingly, the ‘plan’ has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant . . . But are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? Maybe sex sermons and indie- rock worship music do help in getting people in the door, and maybe even in winning new converts. But what sort of Christianity are they being converted to?”

Associated Press: “Breaking with Republican leaders in the Senate, U.S. Sen. John McCain says he is not requesting hearings into the constitutional amendment that grants automatic citizenship to babies born in the United States, and doesn’t support changing the Constitution.”

Associated Press: “Some questions and answers about foreign countries planning to ban the use of BlackBerry’s messaging and Web services: Q: Which countries are involved? A: India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have threatened to shut down some BlackBerry services in their respective countries. Lebanon and Indonesia have said they’re considering similar moves, but have no firm plans.”

Associated Press: “A federal appeals court on Friday threw out a decision that had barred Congress from withholding funds from ACORN, the activist group driven to ruin by scandal and financial woes.” | ACORN v. United States, Nos. 09-5172-cv (L); 10-0992-cv (CON) (2nd Cir. Aug. 13, 2010)

San Angelo Standard-Times: “A gay and lesbian group’s fall fundraising events will have a Texas flair, thanks to scheduled appearances by Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Sessions, who is in charge of House GOP fundraising, has agreed to speak at the Log Cabin Republicans 2010 National Dinner on Sept. 22 in Washington.”

Chicago Tribune: “The public demonstrations have died down, but the company is locked in closed-door negotiations with largest gay activist organization in the country, the Human Rights Campaign, which is demanding that the giant retailer make an equivalent or greater donation to groups supporting equal rights candidates.”

R.R. Reno writing at First Things / First Thoughts: “As many have pointed out, over the last fifty years, the procreative dimension of human sexuality has dropped out of the popular view of the meaning and purpose of sex. In more subtle but equally important ways, decades of ideological assault on gender roles has hidden and diminished the differences between make and female. It’s not surprising, therefore, that with the push for same-sex marriage the male/female difference—so crucial to the way in which the Song of Songs points toward God’s love for us and our yearning love for God—is also dropping out. As the natural signs are obscured, the logic of Judeo-Christian marriage seems more and more not a logic at all, but only an arbitrary dictat of tradition.”

Matthew Lee Anderson writing at First Things / First Thoughts: “[T]he complex relationship of procreation, gender differences, and reproductive impulses that is heterosexual marriage exists ‘pre-politically.’ It is a relationship that only needs a man and a woman to exist, without any need for the surrounding society or its institutions, even while they might be interested in it. The same, I suggest, cannot be said for gay marriage. It’s tempting to respond to Douthat by suggesting that the possibility of gay adoption resolves the ‘thickness’ objection by introducing children into the equation. But that ignores the structural difference between gay unions and heterosexual unions. The former necessarily depend upon some third party for the introduction of children, either through adoption, artificial insemination, or some other method.”

Daniel Blomberg on KTXL Fox 40 (Video) – MP4 4:37 mins | Sara Tappen on the Georgene Rice Show – MP3 10:02 mins | Jim Campbell with David Lazarus on 89.3 KPCC, S. Cal. Public Radio – MP3 4:19 mins | Jim Campbell on KMJ with Chris Daniel – MP3 8 mins | Jim Campbell on KGO –  MP3 4:59 mins.

Personhood Mississippi: “Liberty Counsel will file a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Hinds County, Mississippi Circuit Court today on behalf of Les Riley and Personhood Mississippi to prevent the voices of over 130,000 Mississippi voters from being silenced.” | Ballotpedia: Mississippi Life Begins at the Moment of Fertilization Initiative (2011)

The News-Sentinel: “Although both sides are claiming victory, supporters of a law regulating an abortion provider and other out-of-town doctors practicing in Allen County say a judge’s ruling upholds the bill’s main purpose: to protect patient safety.”

Stephen J. Heaney writing at Public Discourse: “If we accept the misdefinition of marriage using non-essential characteristics as the complete story, it would be impossible to reject same-sex marriage. Given the whole truth, however, it is impossible to accept it. No matter how superficially similar they are to real marriages, same-sex relationships cannot function as marriages.”

Associated Press: “A lesbian cadet asked to resign from the U.S. Military Academy because she said she can no longer lie about her sexuality and was troubled by the anti-gay attitudes of some around her.”

Associated Press: “Eid al-Fitr, a joyous holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, this year falls around Sept. 11. Muslim leaders fear that their gatherings for prayer and festivities could be misinterpreted by those unfamiliar with Islam as a celebration of the 2001 terrorist strikes.”

Associated Press: “A Brussels appeals court ruled Friday to allow an investigating magistrate to continue looking into alleged sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, in cases that came to light after police seized documents, computers and data discs from the Belgian archbishop’s residence in June.”

Associated Press: “‘We are confident we do have standing to seek the appellate review here, and we realize this case has just begun and we will get the decision overturned on appeal,’ said [Jim Campbell], an Alliance Defense Fund lawyer who is part of the legal team defending Proposition 8.” | Marriage advocates file Emergency Motion for Stay with the 9th Circuit

Edge Boston: “‘The fact that ADF and other lawyers disagree with ABA on a number of controversial issues demonstrates the gross inaccuracy of ABA’s claim that it speaks for the U.S. legal profession,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Doug Napier], who has resigned from the ABA . . . It’s doubtful if many ADF supporters would have ventured to the ABA’s convention, being held as it was in the belly of the beast, San Francisco.”

LifeNews: “Alliance Defense Fund attorneys representing Allen County say the court order the judge issued denies most of abortion practitioner George Klopfer’s motion to stop critical aspects of the new Patient Safety Ordinance. ADF tells LifeNews.com that means those provisions can go into effect and that the door is open for other Indiana counties to enact similar legislation. ‘A patient’s health is more important than an abortionist’s bottom line,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Steven H. Aden].” | ADF News Release

The Desert Sun: “David B. Cruz, a constitutional law expert and professor in the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law, said the panel would have to consider if those pushing for Proposition 8 to remain in effect have the right to appeal the case in the first place . . . ‘We are confident we do have standing to seek the appellate review here, and we realize this case has just begun and we will get the decision overturned on appeal,’ said [Jim Campbell], an Alliance Defense Fund lawyer who is part of the legal team defending Proposition 8.”

The Herald: “Professor Roger Scruton has been named quarter-time professorial fellow in moral philosophy and is due to take up his new role at St Andrews in the spring. But the decision has been criticised by the students’ association who claim his views on homosexuality could create an ‘uncomfortable’ atmosphere for gay students.”

Stateline.org: “The decision by the elected officials is significant, because they are the two named defendants in the underlying case. That means that if they don’t decide to appeal, there may be nothing that supporters of Proposition 8 can do to stop the weddings from taking place . . . The Sacramento Bee quoted attorney Sara Tappen, of the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a supporter of Proposition 8. Tappen told the paper the proposition’s backers should have their appeal heard and ‘have a right to be defended,’ despite state officials who she said ‘refused to defend the laws of the people they represent.’”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund has already launched the process to send the appeal to the Ninth Circuit. ADF attorney Sara Tappen tells OneNewsNow that Walker’s ruling is remarkable in light of the magnitude of the issue. ‘It certainly does seem [that way],’ she replies. ‘We had a very strong case for that and we’re confident that at the Ninth Circuit they will be able to review that and see how strong our case for the stay was.’”

Christian Science Monitor: “‘This case has just begun,’ said [Jim Campbell], a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund. He said the legal team was ‘confident that the right of Americans to protect marriage in their state constitutions will ultimately be upheld.’ . . . [Walker] went on in his 11-page order to question whether Proposition 8 proponents still have legal standing to pursue the case. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown have both announced that they will not seek an appeal in the case. They also declined to seek a stay of Walker’s ruling.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker invalidated Proposition 8 last week, saying the ban was discriminatory and unconstitutional. At the time, he put a temporary stay on his ruling, meaning it could not be enforced . . . [Douglas Napier], an attorney who defended Prop. 8, said . . . he is confident his side will win on appeal. After Walker’s ruling, which was the result of a nonjury trial in January, he called the setback a legal ‘bump in the road.’”

Above the Law: “Not surprisingly, the former dean of Harvard Law School bleeds Crimson. At least two of Justice Kagan’s four clerks are HLS graduates. One is a graduate of Yale Law School (the alma mater of Justice Kagan’s late father). (We’re still waiting for the name and law school of the fourth clerk.) . . . We’ve learned the name of the fourth Kagan clerk. She’s also a Harvard Law grad, leaving Justice Kagan with three out of four clerks from HLS.”

ChristianNewsWire: “In an unprecedented move, Muslim leaders in Connecticut are staging a press conference in Hartford this afternoon, to plead with legislators to censor the Gospel of Christ from the public forum around mosques.”

Christian Today: “Mother of three Rubina Bibi, 25, was accused of defaming the Prophet Muhammad by a Muslim shopkeeper in Alipur Chattah, Gujranwala district, in March. She was arrested days later and imprisoned along with her youngest son. She faced the death penalty if found guilty but session judge Mohammad Asghar Khan cleared her of wrongdoing during a lengthy hearing on Wednesday, where she was represented by Christian lawyers Joseph Francis and Tahir Bashir Gull.”

Chicago Breaking News: “The governing body of the Chicago Teachers Union has rejected having teachers give up four percent raises to avoid layoffs, continuing the stand-off between school and union officials over Chicago’s school funding crisis.”

The Black Hills Pioneer: “[Nate Kellum] of the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing Boardley, said: ‘The First Amendment is the only permit a Christian or any American needs to engage in free speech on public property . . . Certainly, it made no sense to enforce unconstitutional regulations that deny free speech at the foot of Mount Rushmore a place where four men who championed America’s freedoms are immortalized in stone.’”

Mercury News: “Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine law school, agreed with Walker’s conclusion that without the state defending the law, gay marriage foes may not have the right to appeal on their own . . . ikram Amar, a UC Davis law professor, disagreed, and said Walker may have botched the trial by allowing the Proposition 8 campaign to defend the state law if they didn’t have the legal right to do so. He said that could allow the 9th Circuit to duck the main issue altogether and ship the case back to Walker to start over . . . Proposition 8 lawyers say they have the right to defend the ban. Imperial County, where voters overwhelmingly backed the gay marriage ban, also is asking the 9th Circuit to allow it to appeal the ruling. ‘Just because state officials have refused to defend the law of the people they represent doesn’t mean that the people must be governed by the radical ideas of one judge in San Francisco,’ said [Jim Campbell], a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund.”

The Christian Post: “The Alliance Defense Fund, which has been defending California’s Prop. 8, announced immediately after Walker’s ruling that it would appeal to the 9th Circuit to stay the trial court’s decision until the case is concluded. ‘This case has just begun, and ADF and the rest of the legal team are confident that the right of Americans to protect marriage in their state constitutions will ultimately be upheld,’ remarked ADF Litigation Staff Counsel [Jim Campbell].”

BeliefNet (RNS): “‘This case has just begun, and ADF and the rest of the legal team are confident that the right of Americans to protect marriage in their state constitutions will ultimately be upheld,’ said [Jim Campbell], an ADF lawyer.”

Rush Limbaugh transcript of August 12th: “RUSH: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, zoning laws. I’m sure have encountered them. Zoning laws tell churches where they can and can’t go all the time. There’s a group out there called the Alliance Defense Fund. The last few years they’ve been running all over the country suing cities and counties and states over churches being turned down by zoning boards, and they have not yet won a case, I don’t think. So zoning laws already dictate where you — the First Amendment’s got nothing whatsoever to do with building a church wherever you want to put one.’” | Contrast ADF press release, June 25, 2010: NH church receives more than $1.1 million over unconstitutional zoning restrictions | more RLUIPA related ADF press releases

Worthy News: “‘It makes no sense to impose a radical change in marriage on the people of California before all appeals on their behalf are heard,’ according to a statement released by the Alliance Defense Fund. ‘If the trial’s court’s decision is eventually reversed, refusing to the stay the decision will senselessly create legal uncertainty surrounding any same-sex unions entered while the appeal is pending.’”

OC Weekly: “Whatever strategy it uses, the opposition is without doubt preparing for war. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which is funding and litigating the defense of Prop. 8, is already using the energy of loss to fuel its defense of the proposition. ‘We will certainly appeal this disappointing decision,’ said ADF senior counsel [Brian Raum] in a statement released after the ruling.”

ADF Attorney David Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “[A] Lopez ruling may give us some insight into the Ninth Circuit’s view of the Prop 8 decision, which has been appealed to that court. After all, the cases bear several similarities . . . In defending the professor’s actions, the College argued that some speech and beliefs do not merit constitutional protection. Similarly, in Perry, the plaintiffs argued that the votes or speech of 7 million Californians should not count because their beliefs are rooted in prejudice . . . Second, in Lopez, the professor silenced the student’s ability to speak. In Perry, the plaintiffs argued and the court ruled that the People of California cannot exercise their rights to speak and vote by supporting a definition of marriage that is millennia old . . . If the Ninth Circuit properly rejects the College’s argument and holds that Lopez has the right to speak freely on campus about his religious beliefs, no matter how much some may disagree with them, then the court might – and should – extend that logic to Perry and hold that citizens of a state have a right to define marriage as they wish, no matter who disagrees with it.”

CNSNews: “[Douglas Napier], senior legal counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, told CNSNews.com that Jacobs’ caution was well founded, adding that the ABA had gone “far afield” of its founding mission to address issues affecting the legal community. ‘They [the ABA] aren’t speaking for the majority of attorneys,’ Napier said. ‘They don’t represent the majority of attorneys in the United States, yet they put themselves out as the voice of the American legal profession.’”

OneNewsNow: “‘This case has just begun,’ states ADF litigation staff counsel [Jim Campbell], ‘and ADF and the rest of the legal team are confident that the right of Americans to protect marriage in their state constitutions will ultimately be upheld.’”

Fresno Bee: “Attorney Sara Tappen, of the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a supporter of Proposition 8, said the proposition’s backers are entitled to have their appeal heard. She said California voters ‘have a right to be defended,’ despite state officials who she said ‘refused to defend the laws of the people they represent.’”

Washington Post: ‘I’m happy that the judge issued a temporary stay until next week,’ said [Brian Raum], senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group that participated in the case. ‘That gives us the window we need to seek a more permanent stay as it goes before the 9th Circuit.’”

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “A federal judge granted an abortion provider’s request for a temporary injunction prohibiting parts of a new Allen County ordinance from taking effect and denying the county’s request to dismiss a lawsuit challenging it . . . [Steven Aden] of the Alliance Defense Fund said the county prevailed on most of the issues raised in the temporary injunction request . . . Miller denied the county’s motion to dismiss, saying Klopfer’s claim that the ordinance is irrational in how it seeks to protect patients should be decided through further review. That decision does not worry the county, according to Aden. ‘The commissioners are confident that the court will see that there is no merit in those claims also,’ he said.”

Recordnet.com: “‘It makes no sense to impose a radical change in marriage on the people of California before all appeals on their behalf are heard,’ says a statement from the Alliance Defense Fund.”

“Sadly, radical partisans of the homosexual legal agenda — an agenda that ultimately supports not the redefinition of marriage, but the abolition of it — have become more and more willing to sacrifice all other freedoms for the sake of embracing sexual anarchy . . .”