Daily Archives: August 19, 2010

HRC: Today President Obama appointed Richard Sorian as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services. | White House press release

“Yesterday, a Temporary Restraining Order entered against the Louisiana “Ultrasound Before Abortion Act” at the request of New York abortion lawyers was dissolved by order of a federal court judge. Bioethics Defense Fund, a public-interest legal organization that drafted the legislation and provided legal consultation in the court proceedings, applauded the court’s ruling allowing the ultrasound law to into effect immediately.”

Morris News Service: “The State Board of Education upheld the denial of two online schools Tuesday, frustrating parents seeking options for their children. The board met to allow members to consider granting charters for Georgia Virtual Academy and Mercury Online Academy, which the Georgia Charter Schools Commission denied in June. The commission rejected the two applications largely because neither had a governing board that could act independently of the national companies contracted to operate the schools.”

GGG.at [Google translation]: “The government proposal for a new marriage law in Luxembourg provides an opening of marriage for lesbians and gay men in the Grand Duchy. In the presentation, the Minister of Justice François Biltgen on 10 August has brought into Parliament, it says in the article of the Civil Code: ‘Two persons of opposite or same sex may enter into a marriage.’”

St. Louis Globe and Democrat: “One very recent example is the ruling by a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that memorial crosses erected and displayed along Utah public roads to honor fallen state highway troopers must be removed as unconstitutional . . . Our politically correct-intoxicated culture is so allergic to expressions and symbols of Christianity that our courts leap to absurd conclusions to cordon off the chief allergen: Christianity.”

Watertown Daily Times: “The Justice Department has filed motion in U.S. District Court to participate in the case as an ‘amicus curiae,’ or friend of the court, essentially volunteering to help the court decide whether federal discrimination claims by former student Charles P. Pratt should be upheld. Mr. Pratt, who filed suit in April 2009, alleged he was harassed, called names, physically assaulted and threatened . . . Mr. Pratt claims that district officials were aware of the problems but deliberately refused to help him. He also said any attempts by him to form a Gay-Straight Alliance at the high school were shot down by administrators.”

CNN: “The trend is similar abroad, especially among younger people, said Suzanne Goldberg, a Columbia University law professor who heads the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. The center has handled asylum cases for gay people fleeing persecution in countries including Jamaica, Brazil, Uzbekistan and Ivory Coast. Research indicates younger people are beginning to see sexual orientation as ‘benign variation, so that the differences between gay and nongay couples are simply not so interesting,’ Goldberg said in an e-mail.”

San Diego Gay and Lesbian News: “An amended judgment was entered on Aug. 18 in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, the challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). Simultaneously, a stay was issued pending any appeal by the government to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. It supersedes a judgment entered by the federal district court on Aug. 12, 2010.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer: “Doylestown Borough has become the 17th government in Pennsylvania to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. By a unanimous, 9-0 vote, the Borough Council passed a law Monday night protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.”

Juneau County Star Times: “The controversial bill, signed into law by Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle in February, requires schools that choose to teach human growth and development education provide students with a comprehensive curriculum – one that includes contraceptive devices and sexually transmitted diseases.”

Associated Press: “The White House says President Barack Obama is a Christian who prays daily.”

Catholic News Agency: “’The law poses new challenges to the Church: how to confront this new reality in education, particularly in Catholic schools, with teachers and with students.  And also how to address the issue in families,’ the priest said.”

Associated Press: “MSNBC rejected a TV ad calling for a boycott of Target Corp. after the retail giant made a political donation in Minnesota, continuing the controversy over corporate involvement in elections.”

“San Diego sheriff’s deputies cuffed and removed several protesters at the County Clerk’s Office on the day that same-sex marriages were supposed to resume . . . Three people sat in front of one door and blocked several heterosexual couples from entering.”

UKPA: “Pupils collecting their A-level results were given goodie bags containing condoms and chlamydia tests at schools. The ‘summer savvy’ bag put together by NHS Northamptonshire was aimed at reducing the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).”

UKPA: “A council’s plan to force contraception upon a woman with a low IQ was ‘essentially a horrendous prospect’ that has ‘shades of social engineering’, a judge has said . . . The judge’s decision was published by the Court of Protection . . . The council, which also cannot be named, originally wanted to force contraception on a married woman who has an IQ of 53.”

El Dorado News-Times: “The El Dorado registered nurse who has been charged with performing an unlawful abortion on a 20-year-old El Dorado resident waived her first appearance Wednesday in Union County District Court.”

C-FAM: “A report released last week by the human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch promotes abortion in Argentina and criticizes Argentina for not complying with international law . . . The report erroneously cites several international human rights treaties and committees . . . for its claim that international law requires Argentina to provide abortion-on-demand. In fact, no international human rights treaty contains a right to abortion. When CEDAW and ICCPR were negotiated, many of the negotiating countries had pro-life laws on the books that still remain in place today.”

The Christian Institute: “[T]he Charity Commission has rejected Catholic Care’s case and told it to either close down its adoption service or alter its stance on same-sex adoption . . . The decision is the latest development in a long running legal battle to protect the agency’s religious liberty . . . A spokesman for the adoption agency, which has been praised for its success in finding homes for vulnerable children, said: ‘The charity is very disappointed with the outcome. Catholic Care will now consider whether there is any other way in which the charity can continue to support families seeking to adopt children in need.’”

Christian Today: “North Korea has executed three leaders of the underground church and jailed 20 other Christians, reports a news agency focused on Asia.”

Catholic News Agency: “Archbishop Timothy Dolan urged the different factions to carry on a ‘respectful discussion’ and offered to mediate between those who support the plans and those who oppose them.”

ChristianNewsWire: “This morning, Thomas More Society attorneys delivered the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court a motion to immediately transfer the legal case pending against the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 from the Appellate Court to the Supreme Court. Arguing that pregnant minors at risk for abortion suffer harm every day that the Act is not enforced, the Society invoked the Supreme Court rule allowing transfer of an appeal when the ‘public interest requires prompt adjudication.’

Fierce Healthcare: “City commissioners in Tarpon Springs, Fla., voted earlier this week to allow hiring to be based on religion at Helen Ellis Hospital, according to the St. Petersburg Times. The vote, which was 5-0, brings the hospital one step closer to finalizing its merger with Adventist Health System, which is associated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”

Ross Douthat writing at his New York Times blog: “Basically, [conservatives] should have pushed (in, let’s say, the early 1980s) for what Ryan Anderson and Sherif Girgis have urged as a contemporary compromise: A domestic partnership law designed to accommodate gay couples without being sexuality-specific. (In other words, it would be available to any couple who couldn’t legally marry each other: A pair of cohabitating siblings or cousins could enter into it as well, for instance.) . . . ”

DavidsonNews.net: “Davidson College said Thursday it will ask the N.C. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a state Appeals Court decision earlier this week that said the campus police department cannot enforce state laws because Davidson is a religious institution. College officials also plan to ask the Supreme Court for an order delaying enforcement of the ruling pending an appeal.”

FedBizOpps.gov: “The Federal Bureau of Prisons, FPC Duluth, Duluth, MN, intends to make a single award to a responsible entity for providing the services of Native American Medicine man to the inmate population as outlined in the statement of work . . . The contractor will conduct Native American ceremonies and provide instruction to inmates in the Native American Faith.” (read the job description at the link)

“Walker simply rules out the notion that there may have been reasons for turning away from the homosexual life. Homosexuals were simply ‘disliked,’ an aversion without reason. ‘Moral judgments’ come down in the end to irrational beliefs; and they could supply then no justification for the law. In this way, the wave of relativism inverts language and dissolves any moral ground for the law.”

Wall Street Journal: “Wisconsin is pushing to expand a controversial program that uses federal Medicaid funds to provide free birth-control pills, vasectomies and other forms of contraception to low-income people, an effort made possible by the federal health-care overhaul . . . Where funding previously was conditional and states had to reapply regularly, a provision in the health-care law allows states to make their plans permanent and get federal funding faster. Wisconsin applied in June to raise the qualifying limit to $32,490—a move that would expand the program’s reach.”

Victoria Advocate: “A rural Alaska couple accused of domestic terrorism had 20 names on a hit list and had moved to the operational phase . . . Authorities say Paul Rockwood became a strict adherent to a violent Jihad-promoting ideology after converting to Islam.”

“[T]he goal seems to be to shame and stigmatize one’s opponents as part of a “war of position” over which message will dominate mass media, the schools, and other institutions that govern cultural reproduction. Those who embrace this strategy, implicitly or explicitly, can justify it to themselves pretty easily by defining their opponents as irrational or subrational Nazi-like hate-mongers. This might be the most effective strategy for people who want to change the culture.”

Maggie Gallagher writing at Real Clear Politics: “[T]he devastating brief that attorney Charles Cooper filed asking the 9th Circuit to overrule Walker . . . is a total smack-down of Walker’s decision to ignore the immense amount of evidence brought to him — not to dispute it, but to simply ignore it. Walker tried to pretend, in essence, that the only form of evidence a trial judge may consider is expert witness testimony in court. He even ignored expert witness testimony when it clashed with his own views. Harvard professor Nancy Cott, a historian of marriage, favors gay marriage, but even she freely admitted in trial that gay marriage represented a momentous change in the public meaning of marriage, and that the effects of this change would be impossible to determine in advance.”

Mike Adams writing at Townhall: “In the last few months, I have been in no less than one dozen arguments with ‘Christian men’ who have attempted to persuade me to stop my advocacy of, and direct involvement in, litigation against public universities. This is despite the fact that the universities are seeking to curtail the rights of Christian students and professors.”

OneNewsNow: “A teachers union in Milwaukee is suing over health insurance coverage of Viagra and other sexual performance-enhancing drugs, claiming that excluding the medication from insurance benefits discriminates against male employees.”

“The taxpayer-supported survey from 2008 found that around 70 percent of parents and their teenagers believed that teens should wait until marriage to have sex.”

Associated Press: “Pastor Bill Dunfee of New Beginnings Ministries says he and Fox Hole club owner Tommy George found no common ground during their roughly two-hour sit-down at a diner Wednesday night.”

PR Newswire: “Responding to a series of incidents in which individuals in four counties in Illinois have been charged with violating Illinois’ eavesdropping law for making audio recordings of public conversations with police, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today asked a federal court to rule that the First Amendment bans such prosecutions.”

Associated Press: “Contributors to the website say that doesn’t go far enough – calling for Queen Elizabeth II either to step down, or drastically reduce the number of her family members who receive public money. ‘The French have not had a monarchy for more than 200 years and tourists still flock to Versailles,’ one of the ideas posted on the Treasury site reads.”

Associated Press: “The California Supreme Court says furloughs of state workers can resume while it reviews whether governors have the authority to mandate unpaid days off.”

Yahoo (AP): “A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, local newspapers reported on Thursday.”

Ilya Somin writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Traditionally, conservative scholars and judges have advocated narrow views of constitutional ‘standing’: the level of ‘interest’ litigants must have at stake in the outcome of a case in order to give them a legal right to sue. For their part, liberals have usually promoted the opposite view: constitutional rights should not be denied based on these sorts of technicalities . . . [I]t is more likely that views on standing will no longer closely track ideological divisions. Nothing about conservative ideology as such necessarily requires narrow standing rules, and nothing about liberal ideology necessarily requires broad ones.”

The Drudge Report has posted this NY Times article by Edward N. Luttwak dated May 12, 2008: “As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.”

Ilya Somin writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “I briefly explain my view that ‘constitutional’ standing requirements are both a bad idea and not required by the Constitution. Right from the start, I should emphasize that my argument only applies against claims that the Constitution imposes strict standing requirements on litigants who want to file a lawsuit arguing that some government action is unconstitutional. I don’t deny that Congress has the power to impose standing requirements for litigants who want to file suits under a federal statute; Congress can even enact statutes under which no private individuals have any right to sue at all.”

Law.com: “The appeal of Chief Judge Vaughn Walker’s Aug. 4 ruling hasn’t yet been assigned to a merits panel, said Circuit Executive Cathy Catterson. The court typically assigns cases about three months before argument, Catterson said. It won’t be publicly revealed which 9th Circuit judges will hear the case until a week before oral argument, set for the week of Dec. 6 . . .”

New York Times: “Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska signed a law on Tuesday banning most abortions 20 weeks after conception or later on the theory that a fetus, by that stage in pregnancy, has the capacity to feel pain. The law, which appears nearly certain to set off legal and scientific debates, is the first in the nation to restrict abortions on the basis of fetal pain.”

First One @ One First: “[T]here remains separate bill, LB 1103, which provided for the headline-grabbing ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy–without regard to the woman’s health–on the theory that fetuses can feel pain at that gestational point. The provision, says the AP, ‘is scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 15, but a legal challenge is possible from Bellevue abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart’ . . . If Carhart does bring suit, then the hot-button phalanx lives.”

York Daily Record: “Summers has represented Snyder pro-bono since 2006, when the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his Westboro Baptist Church protested the military funeral of Snyder’s son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder . . . ‘The reality is, anyone that tells you they know what the ruling is going to be doesn’t know what they’re talking about,’ Summers said. ‘The Supreme Court took this case to make a statement. We just don’t know what that statement is, but it’s going to be very powerful.’”

ADF attorney Austin R. Nimocks appeared on Point of View Radio to answer the question. | MP3 18:34 mins| Austin R. Nimocks’ article at Human Events: Federal Court Declares Most Americans A Bunch of Bigots.

ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show to discuss the status of the Cal. marriage litigation. | MP3 17:42 mins

Law.com: “‘ . . . ‘I think there are two explanations, and one is dominant,’ Bolick suggested for the influx of Arizona cases. ‘Arizona is taking the concept of states being the laboratories of democracy very seriously on multiple fronts . . . We have a legislature that is risk-taking and innovative . . . The second “less significant reason, but nonetheless still very significant reason” is that Arizona resides in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, said Bolick.’ . . . The Institute, which has an Arizona affiliate, is representing not only the Arizona Freedom Club PAC in the campaign finance case, but also is involved in the school choice tax credit case — Arizona Christian Tuition Organization v. Winn (combined with Garriott v. Winn).”

Religion Clause: “A release from the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) published yesterday in BikyaMasr reports that the Central Parliament in Bosnia is about to consider a bill to ban Muslim women from wearing the full face veil in public. The proposed law, which would fine women 50 Euros for violations, bans clothing that prevents identification.”

Washington Post / On Faith: “This budding sub-sector of the meat industry caters to Muslims who want to follow their faith’s rules — to be certain that the animal has been slaughtered humanely with a knife to the throat, that the animal is pointed toward Mecca and that it dies as the slaughterer recites a prayer . . . After several cases involving mislabeled halal goods, Virginia is considering legislation that would make selling halal knockoffs a misdemeanor punishable by fines.”

Associated Press: “Officials in a Florida city have denied a burn permit for a church that is seeking to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11.”

Associated Press: “A Baltimore man who helped run an online message board where members shared millions of child pornography images insisted Wednesday that he only took part so he could bust the ring . . . He was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday along with another ring member. Loughry received a 30-year sentence for his role.”

Religion Clause: “New York’s General Business Law, Sec. 11, prohibits service of process in civil cases on Sundays. However in Carbon Capital Management, LLC v American Express Co., (Sup. Ct. NY Nassau, July 29, 2010), a New York trial court upheld the validity of service on Sunday on the concierge in defendant’s apartment builiding.”

Associated Press: “Germany’s justice minister says she is considering changes to income tax laws to iron out disadvantages for gay couples.”

Associated Press: “New members, especially those from the majority party eager to fulfill their election promises, typically complain about the slow pace of the Senate. But with partisanship pushing the Senate toward petrification, some newcomers are seeking fundamental changes in the way the Senate operates. Getting their more senior colleagues to go along will not be easy.”

Associated Press: “A Muslim woman who works as a hostess at a Disneyland restaurant alleged Wednesday the theme park would not allow her to appear in front of customers while wearing her head scarf.”

Associated Press: “Democrats control both Senate seats and 27 of the state’s 29 Congressional districts, but analysts believe as many as eight House Democrats in the state may be headed to defeat this year. Republicans, hoping to ease Democrats’ grip on the state, insist the economy remains the major campaign issue but say the mosque flap could also help move voters their way.”

Associated Press: “An Australian Muslim woman who sought permission to keep her face and head covered while she gives evidence at an upcoming trial was told by a judge Thursday she would have to remove her veil.”

The Salt Lake Tribune: “[Byron Babione], the attorney representing the UHPA, said the individualized memorials ‘simply do not amount to a government establishment of religion’ . . . ‘We don’t intend to leave this disappointing ruling standing,’ said Babione, senior legal counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund in Arizona. “One atheist group’s agenda shouldn’t diminish the sacrifice made by Utah Highway Patrol officers and their families. The families of the fallen should be allowed to honor their loved ones as they wish.’” | ADF News Release

Philadelphia Gay News: “The suit was filed against the state of California, but the governor and attorney general refused to defend Prop. 8 in court. A coalition of religious groups, led by Christian legal agency Alliance Defense Fund, took over the case and must now prove to the appeals court that they would be directly harmed if marriage equality was legal in California.”

San Francisco Bay Times: ‘It made no sense to impose a radical change in marriage on the people of California before all appeals on their behalf are heard, so the 9th Circuit’s decision is clearly the right call,’ stated pro-Prop 8 conservative Alliance Defense Fund Litigation Staff Counsel [Jim Campbell]. ‘Refusing to stay the decision would only have created more legal confusion surrounding any same-sex unions entered while the appeal is pending. This case has just begun.’”

SonoranNews.com: “Representing the proponents of Prop. 8, Attorney [Brian Raum] of the Alliance Defense Fund issued a statement afterward calling the court’s ruling ‘disappointing’ and said, ‘Its impact could be devastating to marriage and the democratic process.’ He said the majority of voters ‘simply wished to preserve the historic definition of marriage . . . imagine what would happen if every state constitutional amendment could be eliminated by small groups of wealthy activists who malign the intent of the people. It would no longer be America, but a tyranny of elitists.’”

“U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby said the request by the state Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices that the National Organization for Marriage disclose names of donors who gave money to defeat a gay marriage law in Maine is not a burden on NOM’s freedom of speech.”

At the Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh shares an interesting tidbit from Prof. Michael McConnell who represented CLS in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. | ADF press release on CLS v. Martinez

“The bottom line: If judges want to make law, they must “pay to play.” They should not be given the most elite and powerful position in the country without first facing their own judges – we the people.”

Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy:  ”The circuit has 7 Republican appointees and 3 Democratic appointees among its active judges, but the panel consisted of three Republican appointees, including two in active service. It thus seems quite unlikely that the case will be reheard en banc. But five of the U.S. Supreme Court’s nine members seem likely to disapprove of the endorsement test — Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas are on the record as opposing the test, and Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito seem likely to take the same view. So that might be a reason for the Justices to take the case . . . ” | ADF press release: ADF will appeal decision to strike down roadside memorials to fallen Utah troopers

“Since the Equality Act Sexual Orientation Regulations came into effect (see prior posting), eleven Catholic adoption agencies have either closed down or severed their ties with the church . . .”

The Hill: “Almost 20 percent of the public thinks President Obama is a Mulism, up 7 percentage points, in a poll released Monday.”

Heritage Foundation Foundry Blog: “Responding to a question about Social Security, the President insisted: ‘So here’s the thing. Social Security is not in crisis.’ Oh yes it is. The debate about whether Social Security needs to be fixed is over . . . And Social Security is just one of the Big Three entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) that is set to bankrupt our country. Unless major reforms are made . . . ”

Maggie Gallagher writes at Townhall: “When you read the devastating brief that attorney Charles Cooper filed asking the 9th Circuit to overrule Walker, it’s not hard to see why. It is a total smack-down of Walker’s decision to ignore the immense amount of evidence brought to him — not to dispute it, but to simply ignore it . . . To give you an example of how extreme Walker is, he ruled that orientation is a protected class subject to strict scrutiny — ignoring no less than 10 higher-court decisions to the contrary.”

“. . . No government has the right to use the law to impose falsehoods on its citizens. Our most liberty-loving Founders would instantly recognize that as – tyranny.”

Thomas Sowell writes at Townhall: “How much does our own administration in Washington care about the American people and their national security? This is not a question you would usually have to ask about any administration of either party. But this is not like any other administration, and Barack Obama is unlike any other President of the United States in having come from a background of decades of associations and alliances with people who resent this country and its people.”

AP: “New York Gov. David Paterson says he believes support is growing for a possible land swap to provide an alternate site for a mosque and Islamic center planned for near ground zero.”

Click the link for video.