Daily Archives: October 28, 2010

Baptist Press: “‘The government — and especially those who lead the faith-based initiative — ought to do everything they can to avoid the appearance and reality of politicizing the initiative,’ said Stanley Carlson-Thies, a former staff member with President Bush’s faith-based office.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: “In a complaint filed with the IRS today, Americans United noted that Pastor Arlen Beck of Sun City Christian Center told congregants on Oct. 24 that he had prepared a list of candidates that he intends to vote for and placed copies of the list in the back of the church for their use.”

Daily Times: “Israel has maintained a shaky alliance with its ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority that allowed most religious men to avoid military service, attend separate schools and get paid by the state to study the Bible instead of entering the work force . . . The vitriolic debate has created the first serious threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition. His ultra-Orthodox partners are threatening to topple the government if subsidies to their constituents are cut. The dispute goes far beyond money, touching on the character of the Jewish state in a modern world and the ultra-Orthodox community’s place in it.”

ACLU Press Release: “A coalition of public interest advocates led by the American Civil Liberties Union, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Alliance for Justice sent a letter to the Senate today urging action on a bill that would allow television coverage of open Supreme Court proceedings. In the letter, the groups argue that broadcasting Supreme Court arguments would lead Americans to have a greater understanding of the justice system and the government overall. The bill, S. 446, was introduced by Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) early last year and was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in June on a bipartisan vote of approval.”

“The director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network in San Francisco, Lahl has become a lone voice for a message that many of her fellow evangelicals are uncomfortable hearing: If embryos are human lives, she argues, then it is time for Christians to be consistent about their moral objections and unite against IVF . . . Whatever their leaders think, evangelicals themselves have been using IVF widely, the numbers suggest . . . ”

FRC Action: “[W]hen the President sat in the White House yesterday with liberal bloggers, he seemed perfectly comfortable ceding more ground on marriage. To soothe some hurt feelings that he hasn’t done enough for homosexuals, the President tried to please his base. Asked about his position on same-sex ‘marriage,’ the President Obama responded, ‘…[A]ttitudes evolve,’ he insisted, ‘including mine.’ He stopped short of supporting gay “marriage” but hinted that a public endorsement might not be far off. ‘The one thing I will say today,” the President said, “is I think it’s pretty clear where the [trends] are going.’”

“Canadians have been forced to consider, and reconsider, the ethics and the cultural attitudes at the heart of this eugenics contract: a contract undertaken between a woman, an anonymous donor and a doctor agreeing to create a human being who was not party to the contract and did not give assent to it.”

Catholic News Service: “Bishops must guide their faithful to use their vote to oppose efforts to legalize abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict XVI told bishops from Brazil.”

Servicemembers United on YouTube: “Servicemembers United’s Executive Director, Alex Nicholson, explains how to get DADT repeal done during the lame duck session of Congress in November and December of 2010.”

Christian Post: “Tennessee athletes, students and community members have been rallying together in prayer despite the efforts of Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Hamilton County superintendent to shut down prayer before football games and during graduation . . . The [FFRF] letter stated, “The Supreme Court has struck down pre-game invocations even when they are student initiated.’ However, Bryan Beauman, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney, disagrees. ‘You can’t eliminate any and all reference to a student’s faith,’ he said.”

David Lapp writing at First Things / On the Square: “Should the decline of marriage among the less-educated concern us? . . . While economic explanations abound, less appreciated is how now-demolished traditional norms helped to maintain marriage as a broadly democratic institution. Traditionally, marriage was governed by norms that aimed to help all people, regardless of class, to attain a thriving family life—which resulted in a more equitable society.”

Ed Whelan writes at National Review Online / Bench Memos: “I’ve obtained a copy of an interesting letter that Harvard law professor Larry Tribe wrote to his protégé, President Barack Obama, in the immediate aftermath of Justice Souter’s announcement of his decision to retire from the Court. [Here’s the letter.] The express purpose of Tribe’s letter is to urge that Obama nominate Elena Kagan to the Souter vacancy. But before making his affirmative case for Kagan, Tribe argues strongly against the alternative of nominating Sonia Sotomayor.”

ADF Attorney David Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “The U.S. Department of Education issued a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter Tuesday which reportedly reinforces the Department’s commitment to curb bullying through federal harassment laws. However, the letter confuses earlier Department policy, provides harassment examples that run into protected speech, and fails to adequately remind administrators of their First Amendment obligations.”

American Society for Reproductive Medicine: “Researchers from Shady Grove Fertility Center in Maryland set out to quantify the fate of the eggs retrieved in the IVF process . . . only 7.5% of all the fertilized eggs will go on to become live-born children.”

Salt Lake Tribune: “The City Council here failed to pass a pair of ordinances that would have made it illegal to discriminate in housing and employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Instead, the council wants to return to the issues and possibly pass the intent of the ordinances but in the form of resolutions, possibly as early as next week.”

Catholic.net (zenit.org): “The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will send a delegation of its Church of Latin America Subcommittee to Cuba in recognition of the new seminary to be opened in early November.”

Daniel Henninger writing at The Wall Street Journal: “Presidencies and parties decline for lots of reasons, but looking back, one of the pivotal events in writing the history of the first Obama term is likely to be the tongue-lashing he gave several Supreme Court justices seated before him at his 2010 State of the Union message . . . Insofar as we now see in the current election that the biggest spenders roaring through the Citizens United floodgates are the public unions, the Obama-Pelosi tantrums seem overwrought, even phony. Freed to spend their own funds, AFSCME, the SEIU, and the National Education Association have spent $171.5 million, compared to political outlays of $140 million by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Crossroads and Crossroads GOP.”

Associated Press: “The Republican candidate for Wisconsin lieutenant governor is apologizing for suggesting that extending domestic partner benefits to gay state employees could lead to approving marriage to dogs or furniture.”

The Sun News (AP): “The ethics committee of the North Carolina State Bar voted Thursday in favor of changing . . . their rules of professional conduct to add language stating lawyers shouldn’t discriminate while working. The provision contains a list of characteristics that shouldn’t lead to bias. A person’s ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ are included.” | NC State Bar Synopsis of Council Action July 23, 2010, see page 6.

Yale Herald: “In an email to the entire Yale student body, Dean of Student Marichal Gentry reminded students that ‘consensual sex can be glorious’.”

Pacific Justice Institute: “Teachers, African-Americans and others who voted for Prop. 8 might be surprised to learn that groups claiming to represent them filed legal briefs this week urging that Prop. 8 be struck down. Amicus or friend-of-the-court briefs were filed over the last two days by a number of groups supporting court-mandated gay marriage. Those groups include the California Teachers Association and the NAACP. ” | Perry Filings Here

Verde Independent: “Where should county officials draw the zoning line for tax-exempt religious retreats and mega-churches? Members of the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors and the Planning and Zoning Commission tried to confront that thorny issue without infringing on First Amendment rights at their joint study session Wednesday.”

Washington Blade: “D.C.’s two gay Council members — David Catania (I-At-Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) — are considered strong favorites to win re-election, and the number of out gay or lesbian members of the Maryland Legislature is expected to increase from four to seven in Tuesday’s election.”

Contra Costa Times: “Across the nation, embryonic stem cells live in legal limbo, their fate uncertain with a lawsuit challenging public funding for research. But they are cherished celebrities at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, which on Wednesday inaugurated a new home for them at the Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building, now the largest stem cell facility in the nation.”

Student Free Press Association: “‘[Gender-neutral housing] is just part of the next logical step in a university project that is designed to cause students to rethink essentially everything they knew about sex and gender,’ said [David French], the director of the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian organization . . . In just five years, the rest of the Ivy League and another 40 other schools have followed suit, thanks in large part to the National Student Genderblind Campaign. The group has campaigned for gender-neutral housing and more relaxed policies because, according to their website, ‘traditional policies are premised upon outdated beliefs and stereotypes about gender and sexuality.’”

Big Government: “Over 35 counties in Illinois missed the deadline to mail military ballots to our soldiers defending America. But in Chicago, county election officials have taken special steps to ensure that no inmates at the Cook County Jail are unable to cast a ballot.”

LifeNews: “House Republican leader John Boehner, the pro-lifer who could replace pro-abortion Speaker Nancy Pelosi if Tuesday’s elections produce the landslide most predict, says Republicans won’t compromise. When it comes to the abortion-funding health care ‘reform’ measure Pelosi passed and President Barack Obama signed, Boehner said yesterday that the GOP won’t back down on doing everything possible to combat it.”

Middle East Forum: “The persecution of Egypt’s Coptic minority is taking an ironic, and dangerous, turn: Islamist leaders are now projecting the worst traits of radical Islam onto Egypt’s Christians . . . Needless to say, such charges are preposterous: in a nation and society where Islam is supreme; where sharia . . . is part of the Constitution; where Copts have been conditioned over centuries to be happy just being left alone — is it reasonable to believe that these selfsame, down-trodden Christians, who make up 12-15% of the population, are planning a violent takeover of Egypt?”

Chicago Tribune: “More than half of Illinois public schools — including, for the first time, many of the state’s academic powerhouses — failed to meet test targets this year, raising questions not only about the schools, but also the standard by which they are judged.”

Telegraph: “A group of 11 independent schools, which charge parents up to £29,000 a year, accounted for 278 of the 3,034 undergraduate places at Oxford last year, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.”

Politico: “O’Connor did not indicate what she did to authorize the group to do with her recording. The group did not identify who gave it permission to use O’Connor’s voice or what convinced them that it was OK to do so in automated phone calls. The group, which is backing a ballot measure to do away with judicial elections in Arizona, has blamed a programming glitch for the late-night calls and said no more robocalls are planned . . . Whelan, a longtime critic of O’Connor, has not been dissuaded [from his opinion that O'Connor's involvement runs afoul of ethics rules].”

At The American Spectator, Matthew Kenefick reviews The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis by Robert R. Reilly: “Reilly argues that ‘the denigration of reason and the primacy of force that developed within Islamic thinking after the suppression of the Mu’tazilites are what have produced the dismissal of dialogue.’ Bin Laden quoted his spiritual godfather Abdullah Azzam in a November 2001 video released after 9/11: ‘Terrorism is an obligation in Allah’s religion.’ Reilly’s analysis is that ‘the restoration of the status of reason is the only antidote to the spiritual pathology behind this remark; it is also the only foundation in which real dialogue can begin — dialogue within Islam among its contending factions, and between Islam and the West.’”

R.R. Reno writing at First Things / On The Square: “Today as we shift toward a seemingly ever-increasing interest in the machinery of partisan politics, we’re becoming Marxists by default. Marx held that economic realities are fundamental, and questions of culture are epiphenomenal . . . Not every controversial political issue boils down to economics (though it’s amazing how much passion gets invested in whether the top marginal rate is 35% or 39%). The question of who controls the Supreme Courts also looms large. Yet across the board we assume that politics is about power—getting it and wielding it. The question, asked by Plato and Aristotle, as well as Augustine and Aquinas, ‘What is politics for?’ is irrelevant, and indeed uninteresting.”

OneNewsNow: “In an effort to raise awareness about the 24/7 operation to seek out, tend to, and spotlight Christians who are being intimidated, raped, killed and driven from their homes, CFI recently sponsored a trip for members of a popular Irish Christian band called Bluetree. The journey was caught on video to produce the DVD, Banned in Burma, which is available on the CFI’s website.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Prof. Doug Laycock — one of the leading Religion Clauses scholars in the nation — and the Becket Fund have just filed an excellent petition for certiorari asking the Court to review EEOC v. Hosanna-Tabor (6th Cir. 2010) . . . ‘Federal circuits are in sharp and acknowledged conflict over what legal standard controls the boundaries of the ministerial exception . . . ‘”

Eric Sinrod writing at FindLaw: “Sex sells, right? And that is true when it comes to domain names, and in particular the domain name sex.com, which reportedly just sold for $13 million.”

OneNewsNow: “A coalition of pro-life groups has launched EllaCausesAbortions.com to emphasize the dangers of the new “morning-after” pill, ellaOne.”

Andy McCarthy writing at National Review Online: “The decision in the case, Gonzalez v. Arizona, was not actually rendered by Ninth Circuit judges, only one of whom agreed with it . . . the deciding vote was cast by the supposedly retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Justice O’Connor claims the power to sit by designation on cases in the federal appellate and district courts, despite the fact that she is now an overt political activist . . . The 62-page majority opinion is about as willful as it gets.”

Damian Thompson writes at the Telegraph: “These religious young Muslims are more likely than their parents to name their boys after the man they (and the ever-respectful BBC) refer to simply as ‘the Prophet’. This is a function of the Islamification of Britain’s Pakistani community, which was encouraged by the last government to identify itself by faith rather than national background.”

Kevin DeYoung writing at The Gospel Coalition: “The only problem with this revelation is that it’s false . . . AOL speaks of 1 in 10 teens; the original article concludes 9.3% of sexually active adolescents reported a same-sex partner. There’s a big difference . . . What’s true is that around 4% of teens in New York who filled out a public health survey reported a same-sex experience, and that a not insignificant number of those experiences were forced in some way.”

Ann Althouse links to the transcript and comments at her blog: “He wonders why the Log Cabin Republican are pursuing their court case, when they could instead try to get a few Republican Senators to vote for repeal. He says he doesn’t ‘understand the logic of’ using the courts when you could go to Congress, but of course he does. People conceive of their equality in terms of their individual rights — which don’t depend on the support of political majorities and supermajorities. As a Harvard-trained lawyer and sometime law professor, he knows that. He knows why people go to courts. I don’t buy his understanding of the logic. Or should I say his understandings of the logics?”

Associated Press: “Indiana’s budget crunch has become so severe that some state workers have suggested leaving severely disabled people at homeless shelters if they can’t be cared for at home, parents and advocates said.”

Rowlett Lakeshore Times: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter to Rowlett Mayor John Harper on Aug. 27 requesting that that the council disallow invocations during city council meetings.”

Rasmussen Reports: “Americans work. They value work. They respect it . . . An Italian friend (a leftist, actually) once asked me, ‘Why do the Rockefellers work?’ Because they want to make their mark in society, I responded, to which he shook his head. The idea of working if one doesn’t need the money amazed him. But it’s impossible, I think, to support the dignity of the worker and not the dignity of work.”

Liberty Counsel: “Today Liberty Counsel will present oral arguments at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting that a trial court’s summary judgment be reversed in an employment and housing discrimination case. Daniel and Sharon Dixon were fired by The Hallmark Companies from managing an apartment complex and evicted from their apartment for being ‘too religious,’ because they displayed, in the rental office, stained glass artwork with flowers and the phrase ‘Consider the lilies… Matthew 6:28.’”

Rasmussen Reports: “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters say if they had the option next week, they would vote to get rid of the entire Congress and start all over again. Only 20% would opt to keep the entire Congress instead. Fifteen percent (15%) aren’t sure.”

CNBC (NYT): “A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower.”

“An estimated 30,000-60,000 children are born each year through sperm donation—the product of a $3.3 billion fertility industry that does not have to keep strict records of births, reveal donor names, or regulate the number of children one sperm donor creates. For Stewart and other donor­conceived children, never knowing their fathers has created a crisis of identity.”

“But there is also a deeper disjunction. There is an ‘otherness’ about Mr. Obama, the sense that he is somehow not truly American.”

“Thin slivers of ovaries containing tens of thousands of eggs can now be surgically removed and frozen indefinitely, a procedure costing about £4,000, Dr Silber said. Removing a one millimetre-thin graft had no effect on a woman’s chance of conceiving naturally in the meantime if she so chose, he added.”

Washington Post: “Federal law enforcement authorities arrested a Northern Virginia man Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to carry out terrorist bombings at stations in the Washington Metro system. Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn conspired with people he thought to be al-Qaeda operatives to bomb the Arlington Cemetery, Pentagon City, Crystal City and Court House stations, according to a federal indictment.” (includes video)

Michael Barone writing at Townhall: “Who is the largest single political contributor in the 2010 campaign cycle? . . . The real answer is AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union’s president, Gerald McEntee, reports proudly that AFSCME will be contributing $87,500,000 in this cycle, entirely or almost entirely to Democrats. ‘We’re spending big,’ he told The Wall Street Journal. ‘And we’re damn happy it’s big.’”

Jim Hoft writing at Big Government: “Yesterday, the Yuma Sun reported that two organizations Mi Familia Vota and One Vote Arizona submitted more than 3,000 voter registrations in Yuma County right before the deadline for registering voters. The groups submitted over 20,000 registrations statewide . . . What the Yuma Sun did not tell you is that over 65% of these last minute registrations were invalid due to the registrant not being a citizen, a wrong/invalid address, or a false signature.”

Associated Press: “A Saudi prince who has aided the imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near New York’s ground zero is appealing for another site not associated with the ‘wound’ of the Sept. 11 attacks, a report said Thursday.”

Thomas Sowell writing at National Review Online: “One of the brassiest of the brass oldies is the notion that the Constitution creates a ‘wall of separation’ between church and state. This false notion has been so widely accepted that people who tell the truth get laughed at and mocked . . . According to the New York Times, ‘[O'Donnell's question] drew gasps and laughter’ from this audience of professors and law students who are elites-in-waiting . . . There was no mystery about what ‘an establishment of religion’ meant when that phrase was put into the Constitution. It was not an open-ended invitation to judges to decide what role religion should play in American society or in American government.”

The Hill: “California GOP Senate nominee Carly Fiorina was released from the hospital Wednesday after a one-night stay related to her battle with cancer. Fiorina was admitted to the hospital Tuesday after she developed an infection resulting from the reconstructive surgery from breast cancer. The former HP CEO was previously treated for the cancer and remains free of the disease.”

Christian Post: “Pornography is still ‘a very serious moral problem’ that is being ignored during by the U. S. Justice Department and the presidential administration, says the head of a conservative media watchdog. As the start of this year’s White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week nears, Robert Peters, president of Morality in the Media, is hoping to draw attention to a looming American problem – pornography – and wants more action taken.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “On issue after issue, this administration has dressed up their political proposals behind the mantle of ‘science,’ and on every issue there simply is no scientific consensus to support their political positions.”

Washington Post: “Now, the Obama administration has entered the politically sensitive debate, promising to put scientific evidence before political ideology. A $110 million campaign will support a range of programs, including those that teach about the risks of specific sexual activities and the benefits of contraception and others that focus primarily on encouraging teens to delay sex.” | See comments from Conn Carroll at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry.

Associated Press: “The two accused spies died amid a fusillade of bullets from a firing squad organized by a hardline Islamist militia. The condemned pair were only girls, aged 15 and 18, and their grieving relatives say they were uneducated, usually stayed at home and could not have spied for anyone.”

Wall Street Journal: “A majority of likely voters in the most competitive House districts support repealing the Democrats’ health overhaul, according to recent polling data. The figures are one of the sharpest signals yet that Democrats are unlikely to translate their signature legislative achievement into success inside the voting booth. The health bill passed in March is particularly unpopular in the districts that matter most in the Republicans’ effort to retake the House.”

Jenna Ashley Robinson writing at the Pope Center: “[A] quick review of the facts reveals that American universities often deliver easy, biased, or useless content—at great expense to students, parents and taxpayers. While college still helps many individual students achieve their financial and academic goals, looking at the ‘big picture’ shows that college isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.”

The Guardian: “The Middlesbrough defendants (as the court called them) and the claimants appealed against this decision, arguing that the De La Salle Institute, a Catholic order of lay brothers, should also be vicariously liable because it was involved in running the school and provided teaching staff. The court of appeal disagreed, holding that the religious order was not vicariously liable for any acts of abuse carried out by the De La Salle brothers and others.” For more information, see Religion Clause.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “Concerns about being sued over church-state separation issues has prompted St. Paul officials to hold off approval of a draft development agreement for a $36 million community center project that involves a church . . . The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has requested project documents and is watching closely how the city works with Arlington Hills Lutheran Church.”

ChristianNewsWire: “This year’s White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week will run Sunday, October 31, through Sunday, November 7. The primary goal of the annual WRAP Week is to heighten public awareness of the harms associated with pornography and the need to enforce obscenity laws to curb the proliferation of hardcore adult pornography online and elsewhere.”

ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on radio to discuss this: Mich. woman accused of civil rights violation for seeking Christian roommate at church. | The Hugh Hewitt Show the MP3 audio runs 7:41 mins | The Janet Mefferd Show the MP3 audio runs 18:50 mins

South County Mail: “Four area Amish elders had their day in court last week, entering guilty pleas for failing to act as mandated reporters in telling law enforcement about allegations of child abuse within their southern Webster County community. Each was ordered to pay a $300 fine plus court costs.” Via Religion Clause.

Renew America: “Democrats in Nevada have been accused of using strong-arm tactics best symbolized in recent years by the likes of ACORN and SEIU, so as to steal the election for Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid. The ‘funny business’ started when voters in Boulder City (near Las Vegas) showed up to cast their (early voting) ballot for Reid’s Republican opponent, Sharron Angle. Within five minutes, they reported that Senator Reid’s name had already been checked.”

Michael Stokes Paulsen writing at Public Discourse: “The correct understanding of the First Amendment is not that it forbids contact—and even voluntary cooperation—between church and state. Rather, it protects private religious liberty, but does so in two complementary ways. In a nutshell, government may neither compel nor prohibit religious exercise. The Establishment Clause side of the coin says that government may not prescribe religious exercise; the Free Exercise side says that government may not proscribe, disfavor or otherwise punish or prevent religious exercise voluntarily chosen by the people. But the two phrases are two sides of the same coin.”

Washington Times: “Within weeks, the federal government, through the Department of Education, will have the regulations in place to control potentially what’s taught in our nation’s private colleges and universities . . . The new regulations, to be finalized Nov. 1, will mandate that America’s private higher-education institutions must follow new federal guidelines in order to be accredited. Also at stake is whether those private institutions could accept students with government loans or grants.”

ABC News: “European air officials accused the United States of imposing useless and overly intrusive travel security measures, calling Wednesday for the Obama administration to reexamine policies ranging from online security checks to X-raying shoes.”

Steve Benen writing at The Washington Monthly: “We learned this week that President Obama, after less than two years in office, has already ‘appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history’ . . . The far-right Alliance Defense Fund isn’t happy . . . To the far-right opponents of gay rights, President Obama is a disaster, advancing LGBT equality in ways conservatives have feared for years. At the exact same time, progressive supporters of gay rights are also convinced that President Obama is a disaster, failing to advance LGBT equality in ways they’d expected.”

Troy Newman and Cheryl Sullenger writing at LifeNews: “Last week the Kansas Supreme Court issued a ruling remanding a 107-charge criminal case against Planned Parenthood to the District Court for prosecution . . . a closer look at the ruling, written by noted abortion supporter Justice Carol Beier, reveals a troubling timeline that is disturbing on at least four points.”

The Heidelblog: “A woman posted a note on her church bulletin board and now she’s facing charges from the Fair Housing center of West Michigan . . . The person representing the Fair Housing Center says that she was offended by the Christian seeking a roommate and by her Alliance Defense Fund attorney. Perhaps but I say ‘God bless the Alliance Defense Fund!’”

WorldNetDaily: “Officials in Sweden have announced a $3,000 fine for parents who have been homeschooling their son, and then told them that they don’t even get a court hearing on the dispute . . . Judge Peter Freudenthal [who ruled that 'social workers will continue to have custody of Dominic Johansson'] was reported by the Home School Legal Defense Association, which with the help of international attorneys working with the Alliance Defense Fund already has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for help reuniting the family.”