Daily Archives: September 30, 2010

“The district court . . . simply ignored the controlling legal precedent and the pile of evidence that dominates the trial record.”

The Courier-Journal: “The Mayfield Board of Zoning Adjustments will meet Oct. 12 to discuss a request from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky to reconsider its denial of a permit for a mosque.” For more information, see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/state-kentucky+topic-islam/

Business Day: “Up to 40,000 Nigerian girls are being forced to work as prostitutes in Mali ‘slave camps’, Nigerian officials have said. The girls have often been promised jobs in Europe but ended up in brothels in the capital or mining towns, said the government’s anti-trafficking agency. The brothels are run by older Nigerian women who prevent them from leaving and take all their earnings.”

Chicago Tribune (AP): “Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones says he would vote to legalize same-sex marriage if he’s elected to the U.S. Senate.”

Lynn Journal: “After weeks of discussion and study the Lynn City Council is set to discuss an ordinance intended to severely restrict adult entertainment in the city. A public hearing will be held Tuesday evening in city hall.”

Baptist Press: “The president-elect of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee [Frank Page] is applauding a new Republican document that opposes taxpayer funding of abortion and stands up for ‘traditional marriage,’ and he says he longs for the day when both major parties take such stances.”

ADF Attorney David French writing at Phi Beta Cons: “Professor Pannapacker is correct that professors ‘have become increasingly condescending, sanctimonious, and shrill’ because they shut down the marketplace of ideas on campus. Large segments of the population are hungry for knowledge, but less hungry for the postmodern, race/gender deconstruction that dominates much of academic thought. What’s more anti-intellectual? Reading (or writing) one more screed against the patriarchy or reading seminal economic texts? The much-maligned Glenn Beck and his much-maligned audience have demonstrated more hunger for knowledge than many academics. He asks his audience to read serious works, and he recently blasted The Road to Serfdom back to No. 1 on the Amazon charts.”

ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at Speak Up Movement / University: Today I participated in a panel discussion at Duke Law School regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. The event was sponsored by the Federalist Society. Other participants included Professors John Inazu and Guy-Uriel Charles. About 100 students attended.

Scientific American: “[T]here are millions of cases of steroid use that occur daily with barely a second thought: Millions of women take birth control pills, blithely unaware that their effects may be subtly seeping into and modulating brain structure and activity. It is a huge experiment whose resolution will not be known for a while, but a new study in the journal Brain Research demonstrates that the effects are likely to be dramatic. It found that birth control pills have structural effects on regions of the brain that govern higher-order cognitive activities, suggesting that a woman on birth control pills may literally not be herself — or is herself, on steroids.”

Washington Times: “Rep. Michael N. Castle, Delaware Republican, said he will not pursue the state’s U.S. Senate seat as a write-in candidate . . . ‘While I would have been honored to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate, I do not believe that seeking office in this manner is in the best interest of all Delawareans.’”

USA Today: “A crackdown on child sex trafficking is being pushed by a growing movement of women’s groups, celebrities, human rights activists and state officials . . . In New York City last week, actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher announced their ‘Real Men Don’t Buy Girls’ campaign against child sex trafficking at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting.”

Christian Post: “Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill seeking to ensure that recent changes to Texas’ social studies curriculum in no way affect California’s. In his veto message Tuesday, the governor said he was returning [Senate Bill 1451] without his signature because it ‘is duplicative and unnecessary.’”

National Catholic Register: “Christian physicians in the U.S. military are concerned that Congress may soon vote to require them and their colleagues to participate in elective abortions at U.S. military bases domestically and overseas . . . The bill, which was rejected by all 41 Republican senators in September due to concerns over the military abortion provision and other controversial items it included, will be brought up for another vote after the midterm elections.”

Marci A. Hamilton writing at FindLaw: “[I]n this column I will reference RLUIPA for a different reason: to reflect on the disappointments of the Obama Administration . . . when it came to choosing between fidelity to the Constitution’s church/state line and catering to religious interests, Obama has chosen religious interests over constitutional principles.”

Washington Post: “The Manassas City Council gave city staff members the go-ahead Monday to draft regulations for adult businesses in Manassas and hire legal experts, one of whom will help determine what, if anything, city officials can do about an adult store set to open next month in Old Town. ”

Talking Points Memo: “Opponents of a proposed mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn., spent the last two days arguing in court that Islam is not a religion and that the leaders of the mosque — which has been in the town, in a different location, for decades — preach jihad and a Sharia law takeover.”

AFP: “The Netherlands will ban the burqa and halve immigration under measures agreed in a pact to form a minority coalition government, anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders announced Thursday.”

WWLTV (AP): “In the race for a U.S. Senate seat once viewed as a possible Republican pickup, incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand pressed the issue Wednesday against Republican Joe DioGuardi. DioGuardi, a former congressman, is a longtime abortion foe, though his campaign says he recognizes exceptions in the case of rape or incest or if a mother’s life is in danger.”

The Mercury: “A West Pottsgrove man was arrested following a domestic incident early this morning and charged with that incident, as well as an incident in July where he allegedly punched his then-girlfriend in the stomach when she was five months pregnant with their child, according to court papers.”

Boston.com (AP): “Roman Catholic activists accused Hong Kong’s government on Thursday of trying to block an upcoming prayer meeting aimed at showing solidarity with underground believers on the Chinese mainland.”

“Christians ‘do not and cannot recognize, with regard to the definition of marriage, the imaginary authority of the Iowa Supreme Court. . . .”

Fox 41: “After years of legal battles, big changes are coming to Louisville strip clubs. The adult entertainment ordinance will soon be enforced . . . The ordinance requires dancers to stay at least six feet away from customers and they must be on at least an 18-inch platform. Lilly says they can no longer offer lap dances. Clubs must also be closed from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. And they can no longer serve alcohol once their license is up for renewal.”

Haveeru: “An Indian female teacher suspected of spreading Christianity among Shaviyani atoll Foakaidhoo students was moved to safety after parents tried to cast her out of the island.”

The Christian Institute: “Police officers in Scotland should treat crimes against homosexuals and minority groups more seriously than general crimes against the public, according to controversial new ‘hate crime’ guidance.”

MP Stephen Timms writing in The Guardian: “The number of people in Britain who identify with religious faith – who see faith as the starting point for thinking about the world and their judgments about right and wrong, indeed as the key to their whole identity – remains very large. In London, in areas like the one I represent in East Ham, the number seems to me to be rising not falling . . . Some worry that bringing religion into the public square may cause division, and fragmentation of communities.”

Des Moines Register: “Americans United for Separation of Church and State alleges that Cornerstone World Outreach, a Sioux City congregation, is sponsoring a church-based campaign to unseat the justices. The campaign violates a federal ban on political activity by tax-exempt groups, the group said in a statement.”

Iowa City Press-Citizen: “Linda Neuman, an Iowa Supreme Court Justice from 1986-2003, and law professor John Whiston spoke for an hour on the subject Thursday at League of Women Voters forum that was organized with help from Iowans for Fair and Impartial Courts. At issue is a political movement to unseat Iowa Supreme Court justices by way of the retention election in November.”

Republican National Lawyers Association: “The Republican Lawyer of the Year recognizes lawyers for outstanding professional accomplishments and years of dedicated service to the Republican Party and its ideals. Charles J. Cooper’s impressive legal career includes clerking to Justice William H. Rehnquist, serving as an attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, serving as a leading lawyer in several Republican Presidential campaigns, and his work as founding member and chairman of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC.” Via Ed Whelan at Bench Memos.

Immigration Equality Action Fund: “The Immigration Equality Action Fund today hailed the introduction of a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate, by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), which includes the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a measure to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender immigrant families.”

The Blog of LegalTimes: “The U.S. Senate late Wednesday confirmed Maria Elizabeth ‘Maribeth’ Raffinan to be a judge on the District of Columbia Superior Court, two months after she was nominated.”

ACLJ / Jay Sekulow’s Trial Notebook: “A federal district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation challenging the engravings of the national motto and Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. . . . In an opinion issued yesterday by the U.S. District Court in Madison, Wisconsin, the court dismissed the suit and concluded that the plaintiffs failed to establish standing in the case. Here’s a summary of the decision posted here.”

News Observer: “Five charter schools are suing Durham Public Schools for more than $1.2 million they say the district owes them from the past five years . . . The charters claim DPS is using different formulas to determine how much money they receive and how much the district spends, per student. DPS bases its per student funding on enrollment at the beginning of the year but is paying charter schools based on their monthly numbers, the suit alleges.”

Michigan Radio: “A proposed state law would require doctors to use the most advanced ultrasound equipment available at their office to a woman considering an abortion with images of her fetus . . . Supporters of a bill passed in the Senate Wednesday say women should get the most distinct fetal image possible.”

Armenia News: “‘September 26-28, I accompanied a small group of Diaspora Armenians to Ani, Bayazet, Van, Bitlis, Mush and Kars. On September 26, Sunday, just a week after the September 19 Mass, Armenians were not allowed to say the “Lords Prayer” inside the Akhtamar Church of the Holy Cross.’”

The Moscow News: “Following Yury Luzhkov’s dismissal, gay activists have been allowed to stage a demonstration. On Oct. 1 they will picket Swissair, the airline that removed Gay Pride organiser activist Nikolai Alexeyev from their flight as he tried to go to Geneva before he was reportedly abducted and harassed by police.”

Indianapolis Business Journal: “A local ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation may give the city the right to take action against a cookie shop operating within Indianapolis City Market that declined to fill an order from a gay-rights group.”

NBC 24: “Although support for the ordinances was strong, a group of anti-gay activists petitioned enough signatures to have it challenged. The ordinances will be up for renewal or refusal on the November 2 ballot.”

Agri News: “[Magistrate DeDra Schroeder] told John Ray Nolt he could not talk about how the ordinance was unconstitutional or against his religion in front of the jury. The ordinance bars steel wheels from hard surface roads in Mitchell County. John Ray Nolt was cited for driving his Massey Ferguson tractor, which has steel wheels, on hard surfaced Addison Avenue on July 16.”

Rabah Ghezali writing at The Huffington Post: “Whether we like the burqa or not, we should recognize that French Parliament violated freedoms of expression, thought, conscience and religion — a string of fundamental human rights that can no longer be taken for granted in France since the ban . . . ”

Stuart Whatley writing at the Huffington Post: “[T]he ADF is determined to provoke a lawsuit from the IRS so as to challenge the 1954 provision that prohibits political endorsements from tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, which includes most religious institutions. According to the ADF’s [Erik Stanley], ‘We believe if a federal judge looked at the constitutionality of what the IRS has done, it wouldn’t take long for the judge to strike it down as unconstitutional.’”

CBS 4: “Wyoming joined in a legal brief opposing gay marriage in California because it has an interest in defending its own state law defining marriage as existing only between a man and a woman, Wyoming’s attorney general said Wednesday.”

allAfrica.com: “Archbishop elect, Onesphore Rwaje, who is set to succeed Anglican Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini in January, 2011, has vowed to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps by taking a firm stand against homosexuality.”

Iona Institute: “Guidelines to Catholic schools on how best to integrate students of other faiths have been issued by the Joint Managerial Body/Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools (JMB/AMCSS). Among the recommendations is that, depending on the number of students of other faiths in the school, a decision should be made as to whether a prayer room is specifically a Catholic place of worship or welcome to those of all faiths.”

KSDK: “A Satanist group based out of New York, outraged after seeing NewsChannel 5′s report on vandalism of an Islamic prayer center in St. Louis, has condemned the crime.”

ChristianNewsWire: “Today Judge Hyatt decided to dismiss the lawsuit filed against the Colorado Blue Book by the sponsors of Amendment 62, claiming that the court has no jurisdiction over the Colorado Legislative Council.” Related: Personhood Amendment 62 files suit to stop distribution of biased “Colorado Blue Book”

AOL Travel: “Tourists from as far away as Europe and Scandinavia and from throughout the U.S., are paying $70 for a look at isolated life in the polygamist community at the Utah-Arizona border, the wire service reports.”

FOX Business: “Unless regulators waive a requirement of the health-care overhaul, McDonald’s has warned federal regulators it could drop its health insurance plan for almost 30,000 hourly workers.”

Scotsman.com: ” . . . [Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon] said: ‘This legislation is not striking at arranged marriages which are an established part of Muslim culture where there’s consent on both sides.’”

ADF Attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “It’s ironic that a group that has ‘separation of church and state’ in its name would argue and agitate for government-controlled churches. AU wants pervasive and ongoing monitoring and surveillance of churches by the IRS. That’s not separation of church and state no matter how you look at it.”

Ed Whelan writing at National Review Online / Bench Memos: “Walker’s decision to retire is no surprise. Indeed, the buzz from local courtwatchers is that Walker was going to retire last year . . . but changed his mind when the anti-Prop 8 case, through the wonders of supposedly random assignment, fell into his lap . . .  Applying Ockham’s razor, I will readily presume that Walker’s wild course of misconduct in the anti-Prop 8 case was driven entirely by his ideological fervor for same-sex marriage and that Walker wasn’t also trying to feather his own post-judicial nest . . . ”

CNN: “A disputed holy site in India will be divided in an attempt to satisfy competing religious claims to the site, the Allahabad High Court ruled Thursday. Muslims, Hindus and a local sect will all get part of the land at Ayodhya, the three-judge panel said.”

Associated Press: “Eight Germans and two British brothers are at the heart of an al-Qaida-linked terror plot against European cities . . . ”

Rasmussen Reports: “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 35% of Adults still believe the United States has the best economy in the world despite the country’s current economic difficulties. (To see survey question wording, click here).”

Associated Press: “It is ‘undisputed’ that Luqman Ameen Abdullah fired at agents, resisted arrest and rejected demands to surrender, Attorney General Mike Cox said.”

Associated Press: “The advance in cell reprogramming by researchers in Boston was praised as a more efficient way of turning skin cells into stem cells, a step toward developing new medical treatments.”

LifeSiteNews: “On Sept. 25, 1980, the Communist Party Central Committee issued a statement saying that ‘in 30 years, when our current extreme population growth eases, we can then adopt a different population policy.’ But while the 30th anniversary of China’s coercive one-child policy came and went this past week . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “The Attorney General of Texas released an opinion tightening the licensing requirements for clinics that dispense abortion drugs, as well as the state’s informed consent laws for women seeking an abortion.”

Opinion No. GA-0803 Re: Whether a facility must have a license to perform medical abortions, and whether drugs to induce an abortion must be ingested in the presence of the prescribing physician

Opinion No. GA-0802 Re: Whether an abortion facility may use either a prerecorded telephone message or a one-way conference call to furnish the information required to be provided by section 171.012 of the Health and Safety Code

LifeSiteNews: “The Senate committee markup of a $1 billion bill pro-life leaders say they fear could become an engine for more abortion funding overseas has been postponed.”

White House: “Today, President Obama nominated Caitlin Halligan for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Jimmie V. Reyna to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit . . . ”

The Hoya: “As Catholics across the United States continue to debate the legality of gay marriage, Fr. Joseph Palacios, S.J., adjunct professor of sociology, has taken the lead on helping to found Catholics for Equality, a new organization devoted to rallying Catholics in support of gay rights.”

Craig Barrett and James P. Moore, Jr. in The Wall Street Journal, “Outsourcing and the 21st-Century Economy” [full text available via Google News]: “Companies outsource for two reasons . . . . The second reason U.S. companies outsource is that our own government pursues policies that drive investment and job creation offshore: excessive taxes, needless regulations, lengthy permit processes, a decreasing supply of U.S. citizens with technical and engineering degrees, and a general governmental misunderstanding of how to support private-sector jobs.”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn which is pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. | MP3 audio 7:42 mins | ADF Media Information Page | Great Hearts Academies | SCOTUS Wiki information page, decisions, and court filings | DONATE: www.adfonhugh.org

Chicago Tribune: “Alito will give the Dwight D. Opperman Lecture in Constitutional Law. The lecture series is named after Opperman, a 1951 Drake Law School graduate. He endowed the lecture series in 1988 to recognize the importance of constitutional law to the U.S. and enhance it’s emphasis at Drake Law School.”

Courthouse News Service: “A state law caused Arizona to toss more than 13,000 provisional ballots cast in the November 2008 presidential election because they were filed in the wrong precinct on Election Day, the ACLU says. The state invalidated the provisional ballots of one in every 10 Arizona voters who cast one, the ACLU says in a new report, ‘Uncounted Voices.’” ACLU of Arizona press release

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “Speaker Pelosi, who rarely votes on day-to-day legislation, was forced to cast the tie breaking vote (210-209) on the adjournment resolution. To the members of the majority who broke ranks with Speaker Pelosi, the meaning of the vote was clear: a vote to adjourn was a vote to raise taxes. They voiced their displeasure after the vote.”

The Hill’s Congress Blog: “If Americans needed any further proof that Democrats haven’t been listening to them, this past week has provided all the evidence they need. Americans want us to focus on jobs, and our friends on the other side focused on preserving their own jobs and spending more taxpayer dollars.”

Associated Press: “The court is set to decide whether members of a fundamentalist church in Kansas who picketed Matthew’s funeral with signs bearing anti-gay and anti-Catholic invective have a constitutional right to say what they want.”

Associated Press: “Rubio, a tea party favorite, was favored in the three-way contest by 46 percent of 1,151 voters surveyed by Quinnipiac University between Sept. 23 and 28. The poll was Quinnipiac’s first limited to the likely voters for the Nov. 2 general election and claimed a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.”

Wisconsin Family Action: “This state-level targeting is a relatively new political strategy employed by liberal activists–called the Colorado Model–and outlined in detail in the book The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (And Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care) . . . We know that the outcome of this election determines the policy agenda of the state of Wisconsin for the next two years. Planned Parenthood and Fair Wisconsin are worried they may lose pro-abortion, pro-same-sex marriage votes this November so they’re doing everything they can to ensure that things stay the way they were this last session, when they passed just about every item on their respective legislative agendas.”

ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “As readers of this blog know, one of the primary threats to religious freedom in the U.S. right now is the application of religion and sexual orientation ‘non-discrimination’ rules to religious organizations . . . At first glance, the claims made in the Winn case seem to have little in common with these distressingly common assaults on associational freedom. However, upon closer inspection, the similarities emerge. In essence, the ACLU and its clients in the Winn case object to the exercise of religious associational freedom.”

ADF Attorney David Cortman writing at Inside the Issues: “It has been ADF’s position throughout this case that the plaintiffs, whose sole basis for standing is that they are taxpayers, ‘suffer’ no personal injury. Plaintiffs only claim of injury is that the amount in the public treasury is lessened by the state allowing taxpayers to take tax credits for donations to private 501(c)(3) organization called STOs . . . Second, the ‘injury’ is hypothetical and speculative. It is just as likely, as the Supreme Court, has so held, that the purpose of tax breaks, such as tax credits and deductions, is to spur economic activity. Although less tax may be collected, it is often more than offset by other revenue creation.”

LifeNews: “Documents LifeNews.com obtained today reveal the Obama administration partnered with leading pro-abortion organizations to host an FBI training seminar in August with the sole focus of declaring as ‘violent’ the free speech activities of pro-life Americans . . . ‘The information presented in the seminar raises serious concerns over the United States government’s treatment of nonviolent free speech activities as “violence” subject to investigation and prosecution,’ [ADF Attorney Matt Bowman] said.”

OneNewsNow: “‘The American taxpayers said 15 years ago that public funding cannot be provided for embryonic stem-cell research, and this is a test in the courts [on] whether the rule of law will be upheld or whether taxpayer dollars will continue to be used for research that has proven to be unproductive, unlawful, and unethical,’ ADF attorney [Steve Aden] comments about the latest decision.”

OneNewsNow: “Attorney [Erik Stanley] reports that about 100 pastors from 30 states participated in the firm’s third annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday . . . ‘All of this with the goal of protecting a pastor’s right to speak freely from the pulpit without fearing any government censorship or control,’ Stanley explains. ‘So it was a great success, and we’re looking forward to what may come after this.’”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund’s [Roger Kiska] reports that the new socialist-dominated government passed a law six years ago that stripped [a] dissenting synod of its access to the legal system. ‘The government decided that they didn’t believe in church autonomy, and they interfered in a big way. They stripped the synod of its legal personality and then overnight issued a warrant that couldn’t be appealed in court and took over 100 church properties,’ Kiska explains.”