Daily Archives: October 4, 2010

Daily Nation: “More than 74 churches have petitioned President Kibaki to sack Cabinet minister Esther Murugi over her last week remarks on gay rights in the country . . . The minister, while speaking last week in Mombasa, asked Kenyans to learn to co-exist with homosexuals and lesbians saying this is 21st century.”

Deutsche Welle: “As Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of reunification, the former East-West divide in the country’s gay and lesbian rights movement has all but disappeared.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Obama administration has teamed up with leading pro-abortion lobbyist groups to host a training seminar aimed at combating pro-life ‘violence’ against the abortion industry, which is defined to include even free-speech activities such as pro-life picketing, boycotting, and signage . . . Although an Alliance Defense Fund-allied attorney was able to attend the meeting upon request, ADF attorney [Matt Bowman] told LifeSiteNews.com that ‘the troubling thing is that they didn’t invite him in the first place.’”

Interfax: “Representatives of the Russian gay community intend to continue demanding that the Moscow administration allow their rallies, Moscow gay pride parade organizer Nikolay Alexeyev told Interfax.”

FRC: “This morning, Indiana University released the findings of a ‘National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior’ by its Center for Sexual Health Promotion. The fact that there’s considerable overlap between this group and the Kinsey Institute (also at Indiana U.), which was founded by the notorious sex researcher and degenerate Alfred Kinsey, suggests that the data should be taken with a grain of salt.” National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior

NYT: Condom Use Is Highest for Young, Study Finds
Washington Post: Dirty talk? New sex survey’s surprising stats

“Statewide races in at least five states — Minnesota, Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland and New York — could decide whether marriage is redefined nationally to include homosexual couples.”

Big Journalism: “Now, we have actual proof of the Communist/Democrat/Socialist Party holding a rally on the steps of the Washington Monument. Complete with signs equating Green Jobs with socialism, Obama supporters promoting socialism, anti-Israel signs, and on and on. The photos tell the story that the media refuse to report . . . After every Tea Party rally the media asked the question, ‘What is the Tea Party all about?’ . . . The activist old media must now put Democrat candidates on the spot.”

TIME News Feed: “Druidry, an ancient Celtic belief that worships deities who take their forms in nature, has been given the official status of a ‘religion’ in Britain. It is a form of neo-paganism, along with Wicca, Voodoo and Shamanism. Surprisingly enough the belief system is already provided with tax-exempt religious group status in the US.”

Peoria Journal Star: “Illinois’ next governor could very well be called on to act on legislation dealing with two of the more controversial non-budget issues that have divided lawmakers in recent years — concealed carry and same-sex unions.”

Interlochen Public Radio: “Traverse City officials will vote tonight on a controversial change to the city’s non-discrimination policy. It would protect gays, lesbians and trans-gendered people from discrimination in housing and employment city-wide.”

KKTV (AP): “On Monday a group of faith leaders is meeting with reporters to show that not all faith leaders support the so-called ‘personhood’ amendment, which is on Colorado ballots next month.”

First Amendment Center (AP): “The Bible, banned for religious use in the classroom by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963, is being taught this semester at J.Z. George High School as an English elective. The course emphasizes the literary value of Scripture. Teacher Connie Bunch says it helps students with reading comprehension and understanding allusions and symbolism.”

Courthouse News Service: “The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the 9th Circuit to dismiss as moot a dispute over the release of videotape from the trial overturning Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage . . . The Alliance Defense Fund has appealed Walker’s ruling [in Perry] to the 9th Circuit.”

David Gibson writing at Politics Daily: “[T]he reality of divorce within conservative Christian communities is the elephant in the room that can no longer be ignored . . . Indeed, the problem of Christian divorce is growing larger as the evangelical profile against gay marriage gets higher . . . [T]he new focus on getting Christians to practice what they preach marks an important shift in the culture war front, and, if successful, could prove to be the most potent cultural argument evangelicals have ever deployed.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “A federal judge was granted a $50,000 bond Monday on charges that he purchased drugs on several occasions from an Atlanta club stripper with whom he was having a sexual relationship.”

Daily Herald: “The two candidates for state representative in Illinois’ 46th House District attend the same Elmhurst parish, but hold different views on the legalization of civil unions and gay marriages.”

“For the first time there are more single Canadian adults than married Canadians, a new report says. Canadians are also working longer hours, and spending less time with their families — and the families they have are less likely to be the traditional nuclear family.”

Family Research Council: “On Tuesday, October 5, Christians here in D.C. and across the country will be focusing on the issue of helping support pregnant women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of a disability.”

Times of India: “The tribunal concluded: ‘We find that the respondent treated the claimant less favourably by dismissing her and not his white women employees because she would not cover her hair.’ Ghazala Khan, 30, was fired less than two weeks ago from her job at a company run by Muslim businessman Masood Ghafoor because she refused to wear a burqa. Khan was later awarded £13,566 for injury to feelings and loss of earnings.”

“DeMint said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn’t be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who’s sleeping with her boyfriend — she shouldn’t be in the classroom.”

Fox 13: “Elder Boyd K. Packer of the church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles said the church will not change its stance that marriage is to be shared solely between a man and a woman. He said if the LDS faithful don’t defend the family, liberties and civilization would perish.”

GLTNN: “Governor Schwarzenegger has signed the Unemployment Benefits Act (AB 2055), which ensures that same-sex couples in California have access to unemployment benefits. The bill was introduced by Assemblymember Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) and sponsored by Equality California.”

Pink Paper: “The unicameral Chamber of Deputies of the Mexican state of Baja California, voted 18-1 to amend the state constitution to prohibit recognition of same-sex marriages.”

New York Times editorial: “The kinds of petitioners favored say a lot about the court’s interests and biases . . . The Roberts court has championed corporations. The cases it has chosen for review this term suggest it will continue that trend. Of the 51 it has so far decided to hear, over 40 percent have a corporation on one side. The most far-reaching example of the Roberts court’s pro-business bias was Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. By a 5-to-4 vote, the conservative justices overturned a century of precedent to give corporations, along with labor unions, an unlimited right to spend money in politics.”

Orin Kerr responds at The Volokh Conspiracy.

New York Times: “In 1986, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal made an unprecedented secret deal with Justice William J. Brennan Jr., who had by then served on the Supreme Court for 30 years and was its leading liberal voice . . . The idea behind their arrangement had been that Mr. Wermiel would produce a biography of Justice Brennan after he retired. That happened in 1990. But the years passed and no book appeared. Justice Brennan died in 1997.”

Associated Press: “The Vatican’s top bioethics official says Robert Edwards, who received the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for developing in vitro fertilization, opened ‘a new and important chapter in the field of human reproduction’ but is also responsible for the destruction of embryos and the creation of a ‘market’ in donor eggs.”

Boston.com (AP): “New Hampshire’s Cornerstone Action and the New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage are spending $450,000 on the ads that started Monday and run through Oct. 13. Lynch faces conservative Republican John Stephen on Nov. 2. Stephen opposes gay marriage.”

ADF Attorney writing at Erik Stanley The Tennessean: “The ques­tion of whether tax-exempt churches should be able to espouse polit­i­cal views from the pul­pit is, in real­ity, the wrong ques­tion. The bet­ter ques­tion is whether the gov­ern­ment has the right to force churches not to espouse polit­i­cal views from the pul­pit in order to be rec­og­nized as tax-exempt. And the answer to that is sim­ple: Gov­ern­ment has no busi­ness being in the pul­pits of Amer­ica at all.”

Zenit: “Benedict XVI is urging the bishops of Europe to work for the defense of the family and human life, and to fight against intolerance and discrimination of Christians.”

“Mr Wilders is being prosecuted for describing the Koran as ‘fascist’ and for comparing it to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, a text that is banned in the Netherlands.”

Kenneth Anderson writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Congratulations to Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the 9th Circuit, who has been named chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on International Judicial Relations by Chief Justice Roberts.”

Wall Street Journal: “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should be given better access to criminal databases and foreign-travel histories to try to keep terrorists from getting jobs inside U.S. nuclear-power plants, federal auditors said in a report Monday.”

Christopher O. Tollefsen writing at Public Discourse: “Some liberals define the term as meaning the period from implantation of an embryo in a mother’s womb forward . . . [A] better strategy might be to accept the liberal definition of pregnancy, but reject the conclusions that purportedly follow from it. On three issues—contraception, abortion, and embryo-adoption—I’ll argue that the liberal definition of pregnancy can actually help clarify what sound morality demands.”

Mark Tooley writing at The American Spectator: “Traditional Anabaptists, such as the Mennonites, foreswore military service and public office while not contesting the civil state’s responsibilities, including armed force. But the new neo-Anabaptist movement is more aggressive, demanding that all Christians, and society, including the state, bend to pacifism. Traditional separatism has also compromised, with today’s many outspoken neo-Anabaptist voices pushing many insistent political demands that invariably align with the secular left and religious left . . . All these neo-Anabaptists denounce traditional American Christianity for its supposed seduction by American civil religion and ostensible support for the ‘empire.’”

“[O]n Sept. 30 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 906, the Civil Marriage Religious Freedom Act. The bill was designed to protect clergy who refuse to solemnize a marriage that is contrary to their faith.”

Caffeinated Thoughts: “‘Rev.’ Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, isn’t happy that the church encouraging its members to oust three of the Iowa Supreme Court justices up for retention because of their decision to overturn Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act . . . Some will say that the tax-exempt status of a church is a federal subsidy, but Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel [Erik Stanley] in a press release encouraging churches to speak out last Sunday on ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’ says that isn’t the case.”

Yahoo (AFP): “A Pakistani woman has died in Italy after her husband beat her with a brick for opposing the arranged marriage of her daughter, triggering a wave of outrage among Italian politicians on Monday.”

OneNewsNow: “The Maine Human Rights Commission recently ruled that Orono Middle School erred by assigning a separate bathroom to the boy, who wants to live as a girl. The decision comes after the child’s parents filed a complaint with the Commission, claiming their son — who no longer attends school in the district — experienced anxiety and depression during the 2008-2009 school year. The panel also made a similar ruling against the elementary school that the child had attended.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In his opening statement, Smyrna (TN) attorney Joe Brandon, Jr. argued: ‘Shariah law is pure sedition.’ Local officials disagree and say the mosque should be treated like any other house of worship.”

Washington Post: “Kagan, 50, has recused herself from 25 of the 51 cases the court has accepted so far this term, all as a result of her 14-month tenure as solicitor general, the government’s chief legal representative in the Supreme Court and the nation’s lower appellate courts.”

ACLU: “Poor defendants are being jailed at increasingly alarming rates for failing to pay legal debts they can never hope to afford, according to two new reports released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Brennan Center for Justice.”

LifeSiteNews: “A Tennessee abortionist was arrested, but released on $25,000 bail Saturday after brandishing a gun at pro-lifers peacefully witnessing outside a Charleston clinic.”

LifeNews: “Two pro-abortion senators introduced a bill on Wednesday that would permanently cut federal abstinence education funding. Despite the evidence showing abstinence programs reduce sexual activity and help teens make positive decisions, Senator Frank Lautenberg and Representative Barbara Lee introduced the bill.”

S.3878 – A bill to amend title V of the Social Security Act to eliminate the abstinence-only education program [Open Congress]

H.R.6283 – To amend title V of the Social Security Act to eliminate the abstinence-only education program [Open Congress]

WorldNetDaily: “President Obama’s Department of Education . . . now is proposing to force colleges and universities to submit to a political agenda, according to critics . . . Under the proposed federal rule change, institutions of higher education ‘would be required to have a document of state approval … to operate an educational program, including programs leading to a degree or certificate,’ explained an analysis by Shapri D. LoMaglio for the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.”

Associated Press: “A worldwide survey shows that lawyers in many countries think corruption has tainted their profession, with more than one in five saying they have been asked to take part in possibly shady transactions, according to results released Monday.”

Los Angeles Times: “Shirley Phelps-Roper and her two daughters are determined to go where they are not wanted and to spread their message that U.S. soldiers are fighting to promote tolerance of homosexuality. Their funeral pickets have prompted new laws across the nation to keep them away from grieving families. When the Supreme Court opens its new term this week, the justices will be confronted with a potentially momentous question. Are vile and hurtful words always protected as free speech, even when the target is a private person, not a public figure?”

Newsmax (AP): “The court will look at provocative anti-gay protests at military funerals and a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children. These cases worry free speech advocates, who fear the court could limit First Amendment freedoms.”

Associated Press: “The Supreme Court opened its new term with Justice Elena Kagan on the bench.”

LifeNews: “A new report issued by the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) claims the Obama administration did not improperly use taxpayer funds to promote the new constitution in Kenya, which contains provisions essentially legalizing virtually all abortions.”

Telegraph: “The legal dispute has been prompted by a controversial resolution passed at the Methodist Conference which called for a boycott of some Israeli goods. If the legal action is successful, it would likely bring to an end all similar campaigns that boycott Israeli goods and services . . . Mr Hallam has recruited Paul Diamond, a barrister with expertise in human rights law and religious law, to bring the case.”

Associated Press: “Arsonists torched a mosque in a West Bank village Monday, scrawling ‘revenge’ on a wall in Hebrew and charring copies of the Muslim holy book in an attack that threatened to stoke new tensions over deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.”

Daily Mail: “At least three Muslim faith schools are forcing girls as young as 11 to wear face-covering veils with the blessing of Ofsted inspectors, it emerged yesterday . . . The schools’ dress codes yesterday provoked anger among mainsteam Muslims, who warned that pupils were in danger of being ‘brainwashed’.”

Associated Press: “Federal officials have indicted the owner of Alabama’s largest casino, four state senators and several top lobbyists in a scheme to buy and sell votes to get electronic bingo legalized.”

Associated Press: “The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Michael Stratechuk. He sued in 2004, saying the South Orange-Maplewood school district’s ban violated the First Amendment’s freedom of worship provision.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “Last week President Barack Obama’s most recently minted czar, Special Advisor to the President for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Elizabeth Warren, spoke to 400 bankers at the swanky Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, DC. Her message, according to The Washington Post: ‘Behave, play nice, and we’ll get along just fine.’ Specifically, Warren promised to take a more ‘principles-based approach’ to regulation, rather than clearly articulating ‘thou shalt not’ rules that banks could rely on. For this Progressive White House, an enlightened expert, like Warren, given broad new powers by an unaccountably vague statute is exactly what the federal government needs to enforce order on our complex modern world.”

ADF Attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “During election season churches frequently desire to educate their members on the positions of the candidates running for office. It is permissible under the Internal Revenue Code for churches to distribute non-partisan voter guides. Distribution of such non-partisan voter guides will not endanger a church’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. The following are guidelines that will help you determine whether a particular voter guide may be distributed by a church or other 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.”

October 2010: Log Cabin Republicans Win Constitutional Ruling Against Military Ban
Lesbian/Gay Law Notes, Lesbian and Gay Law Association of Greater New York

“Based on the evidence submitted, the court concluded that LCR proved the Act does not further military readiness, but also that the Act: contributes to recruiting shortages; causes discharge of otherwise qualified servicemembers with critical skills; contributes to lower admission standards; that the delays in investigations until servicemembers return from combat deployment show that the Policy is not necessary to further military readiness or unit cohesion; that it harms rather than furthers unit cohesion and morale; and that military housing already provides sufficient protection of privacy of servicemembers. Therefore, the court held that the Defendants failed to show the Act was necessary to significantly further the Government’s important interests in military readiness and unit cohesion, and found the Act violated substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Ted Rayburn, for the Editorial Board of The Tennessean: “Attempts by some church leaders to use the pulpit to change the outcome of elections this fall not only flout restrictions in the federal tax code; they are an abuse of power . . . ADF is trying to defeat candidates for public office who they believe are pro-choice and who support rights for gays and lesbians. They also consider church-state separation a ‘myth,’ even though it is a foundational principle in American society and has been upheld in numerous court rulings nationwide.”

New York Times: “A lawyer for Mr. Marcavage and Mr. Lefemine, [Brian W. Raum], senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, in Scottsdale, Ariz., said his clients were considering their options. ‘Charging Christians with a crime simply because they choose to share their faith in public is unconstitutional,’ he said. ‘These men did nothing other than exercise their constitutional right to free speech.’” Marcavage and Lefemine v. City of New York, No 05 Civ. 4949 (RJS) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2010)

New York Post: “A judge has upheld the arrests of two anti-abortion activists for protesting near Madison Square Garden during the 2004 Republican National Convention . . . ‘Charging Christians with a crime simply because they choose to share their faith in public is unconstitutional,’ said [Brian Raum] of the conservative Alliance Defense Fund. ‘These men did nothing other than exercise their constitutional right to free speech.’” Marcavage and Lefemine v. City of New York, No 05 Civ. 4949 (RJS) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2010)

Virtue Online: “Interfaith Alliance President Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy criticized the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) for once again asking members of the clergy to violate the Constitution and IRS regulations by endorsing political candidates from the pulpit. In response, Interfaith Alliance is asking clergy to pledge not to make such endorsements from the pulpit or on behalf of their house of worship and to join the more than 200 faith leaders who made that same commitment during the 2008 election cycle . . . A copy of the pledge along with a selection of signers can be found at http://www.interfaithalliance.org/clergypledge.”

“Prosecutors say Wilders incited hatred against Muslims with remarks comparing Islam to Naziism and by calling for a ban on the Quran.”

Flora Goudappel, The Effects of EU Citizenship (October 1, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1685851

“The notion of citizenship has undergone significant changes over the last few years because of European Union developments. Citizens have obtained additional economic, social and political rights but have also seen privacy and other rights limited because of the European fight against terrorism. Recent developments, such as the European Constitution and the Treaty of Lisbon, have aimed to change citizenship rights for European citizens and third-country nationals in the European Union. This book explores the influence of the EU on citizenship rights, especially in view of the fight against terrorism and the constitutional changes negotiated in the last decade. It is highly recommended to academics, policy makers, civil servants and those interested in EU Citizenship.”

John Witte and Joel A. Nichols, Preface: Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment (2010). RELIGION AND THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERIMENT, Westview Press, 2010; U of St. Thomas Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-22. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1685645

“This new book provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary overview of the history, theory, law, and comparative analysis of American religious liberty from the earliest colonial period through the most recent Supreme Court cases. It also highlights the shifting jurisprudence and weakening of First Amendment religion clauses that is leading to new federal and state legislation and eroding protection of religious liberty in the United States. ‘We are troubled by this emerging shift from the judiciary to the legislature, and from the federal to the state governments in the protection of religious liberty in America. Such a shift leaves what should be common national rights of religious liberty vulnerable to fleeting political fashions and contingent on a claimant’s geographical location,’ the authors write in the new introduction.”

Patrick McKinley Brennan, Human Law and Natural Law in the Catholic Tradition: Authoritative Guides to the Good Life (October 1, 2010). TEACHING THE TRADITION: A DISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE CATHOLIC INTELLECTUAL TRADITION, J. Piderit, M. Morey, eds., Oxford University Press, 2011; Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2010-18. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1686059

“The Catholic tradition offers a distinctive account of the nature of human law and political authority. This chapter – written for a volume (to be published by Oxford University Press in 2011) that is intended to state the Catholic position(s) on a range of disciplines, from physics and astronomy to medicine and law – both develops the Catholic account of law and demonstrates its “pay off” at the level of contemporary U.S. constitutional law. The core of the argument is that the definition of human law is not a matter of custom or invention: the very definition of law is provided by what is first in the order of being, viz., the eternal law, in which humans in turn participate through the natural law. The natural law is a real law, not just metaphorically law, and it sets binding terms and conditions of human lawmaking. These include that (1) law is always what the lawgiver intended and promulgated and (2) true laws are always just and thus conducive to the good life human beings. The chapter develops these and other claims through an examination of how Buck v. Bell would be decided if Catholic principles of law were to guide the Court. The chapter shows that the Catholic position entails neither judicial ‘activism’ nor passivism, but a much more nuanced role that is a function of the people’s and their rulers’ indefeasible obligation to make the natural law effective in their living.”

O. Carter Snead, Response to Nicholas Boyle’s ‘God, Sex, and America: From Decline of the common Morality to the Emergence of A Global Ethical Life’ (2009). Journal of Law, Philosophy, and Culture, Vol. 3, pp. 273-276, 2009 ; Notre Dame Legal Studies Paper No. 10-25. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1682104

“Response to Nicholas Boyle’s talk ‘God, Sex, and America: From Decline of the Common Morality to the Emergence of a Global Ethical Life’ at The Catholic University of America Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture’s Symposium ‘A Common Morality for the Global Age: In Gratitude for What We Are Given.’”