Daily Archives: September 13, 2010

AFP: “The diplomat, which NBC identified as Ali Ahmad Asseri, the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, reportedly told US federal officials that Saudi officials refused to renew his diplomatic passport and terminated his job after they discovered that he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish woman.”

Forbes: “Peggy Mashke tends up to 12 children for 12 hours a day at her home, so she was surprised to get a letter welcoming her to the United Auto Workers union . . . Mashke has given up about $100 this year, and while she says it’s not a huge amount of money, she’s among a small group of home-based providers suing in federal court to break free from organized labor . . . The lawsuit, filed by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, claims that Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, and her administration cleared the way for the union in exchange for valuable political support from the UAW and AFSCME.”

Zenit: “[T]he Church sees with concern the growing attempt to eliminate the Christian concept of marriage and the family from the conscience of society. Marriage is manifested as a lasting union of love between a man and a woman, which is also directed to the transmission of human life. One of its conditions is the willingness of the spouses to relate one to the other forever. Necessary, because of this, is a certain maturity of the person and a fundamental existential and social attitude: a ‘culture of the person’ as my predecessor John Paul II once said. The existence of this culture of the person depends also on social developments.”

Interfax: “Representatives of parent organizations ask authorities to ban gay pride parade planned by sex minorities for September 16-25 in Petersburg.”

Winston-Salem Journal: “An infant girl found dead outside Planned Parenthood Saturday was alive when she was born and did not have any bruising on her body, a Forsyth County medical examiner said yesterday. But it will take at least three weeks before a cause of death is determined, said Dr. Donald Jason, who performed an autopsy at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.”

Christian Science Monitor: “The contest in Delaware has become a battle pitting O’Donnell’s fervent grassroots supporters against Republican heavyweights. The race is shaping up to be a measure of the anti-establishment sentiment that views incumbency as a handicap and political inexperience as a valued quality.”

LifeSiteNews: “In a speech last Thursday at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas Santorum contemplated the consequences of Kennedy’s famous words, just before the fiftieth anniversary of the late president’s address. His remarks were published in full by Catholic Online Monday . . . The notion that religion should not influence government was introduced relatively late in American political history; the original intention behind the so-called ‘separation of church and state,’ he explained, was to protect religion from the government, not the other way around. ‘Kennedy’s misuse of the phrase constructed a high barrier that ultimately would keep religious convictions out of politics in a place where our founders had intended just the opposite,’ he said.”

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring to the Senate floor next week the 2011 defense authorization bill that includes a repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, aides said today.”

Boston.com (AP): “The U.S. Justice Department has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Southern California city of Walnut, claiming it unfairly denied a permit to a group seeking to build and run a Buddhist center.”

Christian Science Monitor: “Mike Castle might lose the Delaware Republican Senate primary Tuesday night. That’s what a new poll suggests, anyway. The Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey shows ‘tea party’ choice Christine O’Donnell holding a three-point lead over Castle, 47 to 44 percent . . . One possibility is that Castle’s possible fall, and Ms. O’Donnell’s possible rise, reflects the depth of voter anger against incumbents and the power of the tea party brand.”

How Senate Confirmation Hearings Should Better Educate Senators and the American Public: The Instructional Necessity of Case-Specific Questioning
Vikram David Amar, 61 Hastings L.J. 1407 (2010)

“This Article undertakes a systematic rebuttal to the arguments made by Supreme Court nominees and others that Court nominees are constrained, in their Senate hearings on possible confirmation, from expressing their specific views on legal issues and cases of the day. It argues that nominee articulation of such case-specific views is not only permissible, it is necessary for the Senate, and for the country, to learn anything meaningful about the Court, the nominees, the Constitution, and the relationship between them.”

Fox News: “A New York couple is suing a Catholic high school for refusing to grant a religious exemption that would allow their 14-year-old son to enroll in ninth grade without state-required vaccinations, claiming immunizations are a ‘violation of God’s supreme authority.’”

Boston.com (AP): “Sen. Arlen Specter on Monday initiated a drive to legalize federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, superseding conflicting court decisions that he said are slowing critical work to find cures for crippling diseases.”

Christian Post: “Hundreds of Muslims in the divided region of Kashmir took to the streets Monday night in violent protest over the reported desecration of Qurans in the United States. Over a dozen people have reportedly died in the clash that ensued between police and protesters, and a Christian private school was set ablaze in the volatile Himalayan region.”

LifeSiteNews: “In the lead-up to the pope’s visit, the Catholic bishops have striven to create a positive spin on the situation of the Catholic Church in Britain, but statistics have shown dramatic drops in most indicators of Catholic life since the 1982 visit of Pope John Paul II. Most significant, particularly in the light of Pope Benedict’s emphasis on the value of marriage, has been the precipitous drop in Catholic weddings in all dioceses in the country.”

ChristianNewsWire: “Colorado Statesman reporters brought a recent meeting of the Secretary of State’s ‘Best Practices & Vision Commission’ to the attention of Amendment 62 sponsors today. According to The Statesman, commission members discussed an unnamed recent initiative and the ‘possibility’ that signatures may have been illegally duplicated to qualify for the ballot during the 15 day curing period. It was decided that a bill will be introduced to eliminate the curing period altogether.”

ChristianNewsWire: “Pro-life advocates from ten states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin gathered in Wichita, Kansas last Saturday, September 11th for the Midwest Personhood Pro-life Conference.”

Malta Independent: “As Members of the European Parliament called for more rights for same-sex couples in Europe, gay rights activist Patrick Attard is uncertain about the proposed cohabitation law, which Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said will be enacted by the end of the year. On Tuesday night, MEPs discussed discrimination against same-sex married couples or those in civil partnerships, mutual recognition of marriages and civil partnerships by same-sex couples, as well as discrimination against same-sex couples and freedom of movement.”

The Montana Supreme Court Legalizes Assisted Suicide
August 31, 2010
William L. Saunders

A dozen years after the United States Supreme Court penned [its decision] Washington v. Glucksberg, Montana became the third state where physician assisted suicide is ‘legal.’ However, it is the first state where this change occurred as a result of a court decision, as opposed to legislative action . . .”

Pajamas Media: “I have written extensively in many outlets including Pajamas Media about the outright lawlessness emanating from the Civil Rights Division under Eric Holder’s leadership at the Justice Department. Whether it involves rewriting military voter protections, refusing to sue defendants because of their race, or ignoring the Motor Voter requirements, the rule of law is endangered by this DOJ. The latest example may be the Division’s defense of a lawsuit filed by Shelby County, Alabama, challenging the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).”

Blog of LegalTimes: “The Legal Services Corp.’s search for a new president is drawing to a close. Those interested in the position have until Oct. 15 to submit their applications. LSC is a nonprofit organization set up by Congress that distributes grants to legal service providers who represent low-income clients across the country.”

Catch or Release? The Employment Non-Discrimination Act’s Exemption for Religious Organizations
August 31, 2010
Steven H. Aden, Stanley Carlson-Thies, 11 Engage 4 (Sept. 2010)

The “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” (“ENDA”) currently under consideration in Congress would in effect expand Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”(transgender status) to the list of statuses protected under federal law from employment discrimination. ENDA has been introduced in various forms since the 1970s. With the increased strength of Democrats in Congress and the backing of President Barack Obama, ENDA’s prospects for enactment have improved…

Federalist Society Blog: “The American Justice Partnership (AJP), a small conservative organization, has issued a report claiming that George Soros’s Open Society Institute has been backing “a highly coordinated, well-funded campaign” to alter state judicial elections in order to have more liberals placed on the bench, according to The Washington Post . . . The AJP’s full report is here.”

Courier Mail: “A gay couple in Cairns are so desperate to have children they are paying two women in India $300 for every day of pregnancy to give birth to the couple’s surrogate babies. They are believed to be the first gay dads in Queensland to pay Indian women to carry their children, with the total bill costing up to $80,000.”

“After the birth, Daniel insisted Karen get a passport for the boy, so he could visit his native Brazil. When she refused, Daniel sued her for joint legal and physical custody.”

The Globe and Mail: “My two-year-old daughter’s biological father died recently in an accident. The feeling of loss I have experienced in the days since has been unsettling to me, her biological mother. How can you mourn someone you’ve never even met? I am a 36-year-old lesbian. My partner of 12 years and I tried for five years before being blessed with a daughter . . . Yet we have no recourse to grieve.’”

Guardian: “One of Britain’s most senior Catholics has ruled out ordaining women as priests or giving women an increased role in the church, as preparations were finalised for this week’s state visit by the pope. Cardinal Keith O’Brien said liberalising Roman Catholic teachings on allowing women to join the priesthood ‘isn’t even considered by us’ as it directly contradicted the church’s long held traditions that only men could be ordained.”

ABC: “Armed with signs and rosaries, around 100 protestors lined up outside the Collier County Planned Parenthood office Monday.”

Reuters: “The proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque near the site of the September 11 attacks in New York was worth the controversy because it aired difficulties faced by Muslims in the United States, the center’s imam said on Monday.”

Des Moines Register: “Former Republican candidate for governor Bob Vander Plaats said Friday he does not dispute the Iowa Supreme Court’s authority to declare the state’s one-man, one-woman marriage law unconstitutional. But Vander Plaats said the court overstepped its power because it failed to return the issue to the Legislature with an order to act: Either pass a law expressly allowing same-sex marriage, or submit it to voters as a constitutional amendment.”

Associated Press: “In an opening statement Monday, American Civil Liberties Union of Washington lawyer Sarah Dunne said former Maj. Margaret Witt was highly respected, and her dismissal — not her orientation — caused morale problems in her unit.”

Voice of America: “Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered police to hunt down and arrest assailants who attacked Christians heading to a religious service. Some advocates for pluralism here say the president has until now done little to prevent religious intolerance at home, although he urged President Obama to prevent a Christian group from burning Qurans in America.”

Patrick Goodenough writing at CNSNews: “At a time when religious tolerance is in the spotlight globally, President Obama should challenge Islamic governments to lift restrictions on religious freedom that target non-Muslim minorities, some activists say. Some of the countries that have been the most vocal about the threatened Quran-burning also are among those where intolerance of religious minorities is widespread and often state-sanctioned, according to advocacy groups.”

The Hill: “The Castle campaign is hoping for solid turnout Tuesday in and around Wilmington to help the centrist congressman offset more conservative primary-goers in the southern part of the state who may be backing Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell. O’Donnell is banking on support from an energized conservative base to help her to an upset Tuesday.”

Monsters and Critics: “Iranian students and police clashed on Monday during protests in northern Tehran against Koran burning in the United States. Hundreds of students from several Tehran universities, most of them holding a copy of the Islamic holy book, clashed with anti-riot police deployed in front of the US interest section of the Swiss embassy after the students tried to attack it.”

David S. Broder writing in The Washington Post: “Fifty years ago today, John Kennedy gave one of the best political speeches I ever heard, a plea for religious tolerance that has strange pertinence now when a little-known minister had been threatening to burn copies of the Koran to strike a blow against Muslims.”

Hartford Courant / CityLine: “The Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations will hold a prayer vigil Monday on the steps of city hall to protest the city council’s decision to call off its pre-meeting prayer, which was to be an Islamic invocation.”

CBS: “The first court award in a vaccine-autism claim is a big one. CBS News has learned the family of Hannah Poling will receive more than $1.5 million dollars for her life care; lost earnings; and pain and suffering for the first year alone . . . In acknowledging Hannah’s injuries, the government said vaccines aggravated an unknown mitochondrial disorder Hannah had which didn’t ’cause’ her autism, but ‘resulted’ in it. It’s unknown how many other children have similar undiagnosed mitochondrial disorder. All other autism ‘test cases’ have been defeated at trial.”

Dawn.com: “Italy will present a resolution on the protection of religious minorities at the next United Nations’ general assembly, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Monday.”

Texarkana Gazette: “The Searcy City Council, which last month approved an ordinance allowing the national motto, ‘In God We Trust,’ to be displayed on city property, has been urged by a national group to cease holding prayers at its regular meetings. Mayor Belinda LaForce said a group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the city a three-page letter arguing that praying in public at council meetings is unconstitutional, as a violation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion.”

Washington Post: “About 24,000 gay and lesbian couples in the United States include at least one foreign partner, according to an analysis of census data by researcher Gary Gates at UCLA’s Williams Institute. Though five states and D.C. issue marriage licenses to gay couples, a large number of the 24,000 so-called binational couples in long-term relationships live in states that do not allow or recognize gay marriage. The demand by these couples to gain the same immigration rights as heterosexuals is supported by key members of Congress, but is undermining the fractious coalition of groups needed to push through an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws. Including equal treatment for gay partners of U.S. citizens, key advocates say, threatens to doom the already fragile hopes for change.”

Bloomberg: “Benedict, speaking before paying a historic visit to the U.K. later this week, said the Roman Catholic Church ‘cannot approve of legal initiatives that imply a re-evaluation of the life of the couple and the family.’ The pope, in a reference to legalized marriage among homosexuals, said such laws ‘contribute to the weakening of the principles of natural law” and to “confusion about society’s values.’”

Associated Press: “The Falklands war was in full swing and John Paul II was in London as the first pope ever to set foot on English soil. Even as he snubbed Margaret Thatcher and prayed for peace in implicit criticism of Britain — whose troops were battling Catholic Argentines — the pontiff received a rapturous welcome and was described in glowing terms by the Archbishop of Canterbury. His successor, Benedict XVI, can expect a far cooler — if not at times downright hostile — reception in his upcoming state visit.”

MinnPost: “‘When voters were asked which gubernatorial candidate they supported without knowing the candidates position on marriage, Dayton received 42% of the vote, Tom Emmer 33% and Tom Horner 12%. When people were then told that Dayton and Horner supported redefining marriage to include homosexual couples and refused to support allowing the people to vote on the issue, Emmer’s vote total rose 9 percentage points to 42%, Dayton’s dropped 6 percentage points to 36% of the vote, and Horner dropped 3 points to 9%.’”

Crowley Political Report: “Crist has a new nine-point position paper on gay rights that advocates giving same-sex couples the same legal rights as hetrosexual couples. Crist stops short of endorsing gay-marriage. ‘I believe civil unions that provide the full range of legal protections should be available to gay couples. That includes access to a loved one in the hospital, inheritance rights, the fundamental things people need to take care of their families.’”

LifeNews: “A new poll from Delaware shows pro-life Republican Senate primary candidate Christine O’Donnell has pulled into a virtual tie with pro-abortion GOP candidate Mike Castle. However, pro-life advocates continue to be concerned about strategy in the race because O’ Donnell appeals unlikely to win in November.”

LifeNews: “Chen Guangcheng, the blind attorney who stood up for thousands of men and women subjected to forced abortions and sterilizations in his city, may have been released from prison but now he and his family face persecution. They have been subjected to house arrest and there are concerns about his health.”

Richard Brookhiser writing in the Wall Street Journal, “The Father of American Politics” [full text via Google News]: “He is the father of American politics as we know it. Madison helped establish America’s first political party, the Republicans . . . Madison helped found the first party newspaper, the National Gazette . . . Madison succeeded as a political innovator because he was good at politics. He did what came naturally to him: agenda-setting, committee work, parliamentary maneuvering. He grew up in a family as large as an oyster bed—six siblings who survived childhood, numerous nieces, nephews and cousins—good training for a future legislator.”

Associated Press: “Indonesia’s president ordered police to arrest the assailants who stabbed a Christian worshipper in the stomach and beat a minister in the head with a wooden plank as they headed to prayers.”

Joanna L. Grossman writing at FindLaw: “This column will discuss a recent appellate court decision from Texas, In the Matter of the Marriage of J.B. and H.B., which illustrates the problem and its harsh consequences for many affected couples . . . The appellate court held that the statutory law did not give Texas courts the jurisdiction to give effect to same-sex marriages from other states, even if the recognition was fleeting—in that the recognition of the marriage was only extended by the court on the way to the court’s granting a divorce and thus dissolving the marriage. The Texas appellate court ruled, moreover, that the laws precluding such an exercise of jurisdiction were constitutionally valid — contrary to the trial court’s view.”

Associated Press: “Officials in Connecticut’s capital city say they won’t include Muslim prayers before council meetings after getting mostly negative feedback from the public.”

Associated Press: “It may be two blocks from ground zero, but the site of a proposed mosque and Islamic center shouldn’t be seen as sacrosanct in a neighborhood that also harbors a strip club and a betting parlor, the cleric leading the effort said Monday.”

Associated Press: “Chile’s former president Michelle Bachelet is the front-runner to head the new U.N. agency to promote women’s equality, several U.N. officials said.”

Religion Clause: “The U.S. today marked the ninth anniversary of 9-11, following what the New York Times described as an ‘impassioned call’ by President Obama for better relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. At his news conference on Friday (full text), the President gave lengthy answers to three separate questions on attitudes toward Muslims in the U.S.”

Associated Press: “A federal judge from Louisiana is corrupt and unfit to serve on the bench, House members said Monday as they began a rare congressional impeachment trial by laying out their case against the jurist . . . Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., used their opening statements to a Senate impeachment panel to outline what they called a decades-long pattern of unethical behavior by New Orleans-area U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous. They said that included taking cash, expensive meals and gifts from lawyers and a bail bondsman, lying to Congress and filing for bankruptcy under a false name.”

Associated Press: “Two British men charged with making a profit by illegally making sperm available on the Internet have appeared in court . . . Prosecutors said Monday that Woodforth, 43, ran the company from the basement of his home, and the two men did not have a license to procure or distribute sperm, as required by British law.”

At Public Discourse, “An Executive Summary of the Statement of the First Annual Neuhaus Colloquium”: “In this our first statement we take up the ethical, political, and scientific issues raised by President Obama’s stem-cell policy. This statement, the full version of which appears in First Things, represents the considered judgment of some of the leading scientists and public intellectuals today—a major statement on a pressing and timely topic . . . In the name of the American people and with the funds provided by them, the Obama administration has begun to incentivize the exploitation and destruction of human life for scientific research. It has done so without addressing the profound moral issues at stake, without offering a serious argument in defense of its approach, and in spite of the fact that alternatives to the destruction of embryos are emerging in stem-cell science.”

SperoForum: “On September 10, 2010 a South African high court banned a Muslim activist from organizing a ‘Bible burning day’ at the Library Gardens in Johannesburg on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The event was meant to be a response to the planned Qur’an burning in Florida by Pastor Terry Jones.”

San Angelo (TX) Standard Times: “Rick Perry: ‘I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill.’” Via Religion Clause.

Law.com: “A federal district judge in California declared the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy unconstitutional late Thursday. The lawyer who won the case is a White & Case commercial litigator who had worked on just one prior pro bono matter. That lawyer, Dan Woods, spent some time Friday reflecting on a decision six years in the making.”

ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the problem of government funding of embryonic stem cell research. | MP3 audio 12:46 mins | ADF Media information on the Sherley v. Sebelius ruling.

The Globe and Mail: “With a double victory in Sunday’s constitutional referendum, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is poised to make sweeping changes in his officially secular, but predominantly Muslim country. The package of changes was supported by 58 per cent of the 39 million people who voted, paving the way for the government to appoint a large number of high-court judges more in tune with the government’s Islamic tendencies . . .  the government can, in short order, usher in a panel of judges that are likely to approve legislation extending religious practices and policies in the country.”

” . . . Given that President Obama has sought to repeal the policy through legislation before Congress, it’s possible the government could opt not to appeal, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, a constitutional law expert.”

Wall Street Journal Law Blog: “[Newdow's] pledge battle is continuing in a different forum, this time at the First Circuit in Boston. On Thursday, the court heard arguments over whether a New Hampshire statute that requires school districts to provide time for the pledge violates the Establishment Clause. Click here for Sheri Qualters’s story in the National Law Journal . . . According to Qualters, the hearing focused largely on whether the ‘under God’ phrase is religious or simply refers to the political philosophy holding that Americans have inalienable rights.”

Los Angeles Times / Company Town: “The video game industry on Friday filed its brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, outlining its best arguments against a 2005 California law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors . . . The 78-page document can be boiled down to four main points: 1) Video games should be considered an art form, alongside movies, books and music . . . 2) The law is a solution in search of a problem . . . 3) Violent games are not necessarily harmful . . . 4) The law’s definition of violence is vague.”

Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association at SCOTUSblog

American Constitution Society blog: The decision [in Citizens United v. F.E.C.] not only overturned decades-old Supreme Court precedents, but it also disturbed a 100 year-old tradition of federal legislation placing limits on corporate campaign spending. Some reproductive rights attorneys immediately worried that the Court’s perfunctory/pretextual consideration of stare decisis may be a dangerous foreshadowing for the Court’s eventual next look at the abortion issue. (Interestingly, the lawyer who conceptualized the case for Citizens United is also longtime counsel for the National Right to Life.) A more immediate lesson, however, from Citizens United comes from the discussion of corporate personhood. While the U.S. Supreme Court squarely held that fetuses are not legal persons under the US Constitution in Roe v. Wade, there is an ongoing effort in the several states to redefine ‘person’ to include the ‘unborn.’”

NPR: “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has sparred for years with Justice Antonin Scalia on the printed pages of legal opinions. The two have even debated about constitutional interpretation in public. And now Justice Breyer has taken his argument to the printed pages of a book written for popular consumption . . . Breyer’s book, Making Our Democracy Work, A Judge’s View, is a combination of history and legal philosophy. It argues that there are no easy, color-by-the-numbers answers to many legal questions and that to suggest there are is an illusion . . . Breyer argues that the founders did want a living Constitution; they wrote a Constitution they wanted to last for the ages. The founders knew ‘perfectly well that conditions would change. The values don’t change. The circumstances do.’”

Breitbart: “California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday he hoped China would invest in his state’s future high-speed rail network as he wrapped up a trade mission to the world’s second-largest economy.”

The Town Talk: “Louisiana College’s Division of History and Political Science will hold its Constitution Day Forum on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Granberry Conference Center. This year’s speaker is J. Michael Johnson, founding dean of the Louisiana College Judge Paul Pressler School of Law. Before accepting the position, Johnson served as senior legal counsel and national media spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the nation’s largest legal alliance of more than 1,700 attorneys and 300 organizations defending religious liberty.”

BioNews: “A federal appeals court in the US has ruled that federal funding for embryonic stem (ES) cell research may continue and an injunction placed on the funding by a lower court last month is temporarily suspended . . . Opponents argue that federal funds should not be used in research that involves the destruction of what many consider human life and that the benefits of the research are as yet unproven. ‘We believe it’s a shame that they would rush to push funding of ES cell research, and a waste of taxpayer money,’ said a lawyer instructed by the Alliance Defense Fund which is involved in bring the action against the NIH. Opponents have been asked to file a response to the court by 14 September and the Government must then submit its response six days later.”

WorthyNews: “‘The American people should not be forced to pay for even one more day of experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate an existing federal law,’ said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel [Steven H. Aden]. ‘The district court’s decision simply enforced that law, which prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research. In economic times like we are in now, it doesn’t make sense for the federal government to use precious taxpayer dollars for this illegal and unethical purpose.’”

MercatorNet / Sheila Reports: “The Alliance Defense Fund, co-counsel in this suit, helps us follow the straight line narrative. Starting with the August ruling, revealing what the Obama administration was trying to do in the first place: ‘The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found last month that the policy President Obama attempted to institute through an executive order in March 2009–which rescinded former President George W. Bush’s executive order limiting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research–is likely in violation of the Dickey/Wicker Amendment, a federal law prohibiting the federal funding of research involving the destruction of human embryos. The district court issued a preliminary injunction that immediately halted funding.’”

WorldNetDaily: “The Supreme Court in California, which in 2008 ordered the creation of ‘same-sex marriage’ and was rebuffed within months by voters, now has refused to require that state officials follow the law and defend the constitutional mandate that marriage is only between one man and one woman . . . According to Staff Counsel [Jim Campbell] of the Alliance Defense Fund, one of the organizations arguing on behalf of traditional marriage advocate ProtectMarriage.com, the case really has just begun with Walker’s ruling.”

Christian Post: “Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research is back on following the ruling of a federal appeals court Thursday . . . Still, the decision was criticized by conservative groups including the Alliance Defense Fund, co-counsel in the lawsuit against the federal funding of the research. ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Steven H. Aden] argued that Americans ‘should not be forced to pay for even one more day of experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate an existing federal law.’”

WORLDmag.com: Government officials said Friday they will fund controversial embryonic stem cell research, one day after an appeals court temporarily lifted a judge’s order that funding cease . . . ‘The American people should not be forced to pay for even one more day of experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate an existing federal law,’ said one of their lawyers, [Steven H. Aden], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.”