Daily Archives: January 18, 2011

The Columbus Dispatch: “Student-government leaders want Ohio State University to stop allowing campus religious groups to ban gay people, non-Christians or others who don’t share their values. This week, an advisory council that includes representatives of the undergraduate, professional and graduate student governments will ask Javaune Adams-Gaston, vice president for Student Life, to drop an exemption that allows certain groups to deny membership to those who don’t share their ‘sincerely held religious beliefs.’”

“A British judge has fined a Christian couple for refusing to allow a gay couple the use of a double room at their hotel in southern England.”

Adnkronos News: “Pakistan’s prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday reiterated that the government does not intend to amend the country’s controversial blasphemy law, under which a Christian woman has been sentenced to death.”

Life to Death: Our Constitution and How It Grow
44 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 391 (2010)

“[T]he Constitution is a ‘living’ document that primarily guarantees rights and privileges to the inhabitants of contemporary America, rights and privileges that may expand as our nation continues to develop. For those of us who believe in a ‘living’ Constitution, the Constitution itself is much more than a mere historical text to be parsed for its literal, original meaning . . .”

“The right to hold religious beliefs, and to act in keeping with one’s faith, is being set against the right not to be offended – and is losing.”

Radio Netherlands Worldwide: “Raul Mateus, Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Cameroon, was convened on January 13 by the Minister of External Relations, Henri Eyebe Ayissi. The diplomat was asked to explain the funding behind the Projet d’assistance et d’encadrement des minorités sexuelles (Paemh) (Project for assistance and guidance to sexual minorities), amounting to 300,000 euros. One of the project goals is to provide legal and material assistance to people detained for being homosexual.”

BBC: “Roger Helmer used his Twitter page to compare people who undergo sex-change operations with gay people who seek therapy to become heterosexual. The comment has been condemned by gay rights group Stonewall and some users of the social networking site . . . Mr Helmer tweeted: ‘Why is it OK for a surgeon to perform a sex-change operation, but not OK for a psychiatrist to try to ‘turn’ a consenting homosexual?’”

Gulf News: “The UAE urged member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to take action to stop the spread of Islamophobia in the West, a parliamentary leader said yesterday.”

“But the real difficulty for evangelicals and Christian conservatives does not come in the actual terms of the judgment, but in the background from which it is drawn. In particular, it is the preliminary remarks of the judge that will cause them pain: ‘Whatever may have been the position in past centuries it is no longer the case that our laws must, or should automatically reflect the Judaeo-Christian position.’”

KVIA: “El Paso City Council voted Tuesday morning not to bring forward non-discrimination clause that would void a voter-approved ordinance to take away the health insurance of gay and unwed partners of city employees to the voters in May.”

All Headline News: “Without comment, the court refused to hear the petition from conservatives led by Bishops Harry Jackson and the Alliance Defense Fund seeking a referendum on the District of Columbia’s gay marriage law.”

SDLGN: “‘For almost two years, the National Organization for Marriage and the Alliance Defense Fund, along with Bishop Harry Jackson, have fought a losing battle to shamelessly harm gay and lesbian couples in D.C. who seek nothing more than to share in the rights and responsibilities of marriage. The D.C. Council and mayor courageously made marriage equality a reality last year, and the courts have since upheld the rights of D.C. residents to govern ourselves and take the necessary steps to eliminate discrimination in our community.’”

LifeSiteNews: “Abortion has led to 300,000 additional breast cancer deaths in the United States since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized the act, says an expert on the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link. Dr. Joel Brind, professor of endocrinology at Baruch College, City University of New York and a director at the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, made this assertion this week in a press release by the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.”

Sify: “A residential complex cannot be used as a religious building, the Gujarat High Court has ruled and stated that doing so would amount to a breach of the Bombay Provincial Municipalities Act.”

Argus Leader: “South Dakota lawmakers will consider a proposal that would strip the tax-exempt status of charitable organizations that do not have a presence in the state.”

CTV: “Several Sikhs were denied entry into the Quebec legislature today. Security officials at Quebec’s assemblee nationale refused to let them in because they were wearing kirpans. The ceremonial dagger, worn by some religious Sikhs, has been the subject of much debate in Quebec.”

UN News Centre: “The United Nations refugee agency today voiced concern over reports that Sweden planned to send about 25 Iraqis back to Baghdad tomorrow, saying that a number of those scheduled to be deported belong to religious and ethnic groups that have been targeted in recent attacks.”

“With the 7-2 approval of House Bill 74 by the Education Committee — which in the past hasn’t been assigned gay-marriage bills — the legislation now must pass three votes by the full House before it would head to the Senate.”

New Jersey News Room: “Noteworthy is the nomination of Sohail Mohammed of Clifton to a Superior Court judgeship in Passaic County. Mohammed was counsel to many detainees picked up by federal authorities in the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks. Mohammed gained the respect of authorities for trying to improve communications between them and the Muslim community after Sept. 11, 2001.”

MyCentralJersey.com: “A bill that would create the state’s first school voucher program and offer scholarships to students in low-performing school districts is scheduled to be considered Thursday in a key Senate committee.”

Kyiv Post: “MPs of two opposition factions, Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense and BYT-Batkivschyna, as well as 50 independent MPs, have called on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to stop the government discriminating against Ukrainian churches, in particular, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.”

NECN: “A former Tennessee firefighter faces a rare charge of illegal assisted suicide, as well as first-degree murder, in the August 2009 death of his wife.”

Daily Iowan: “University of Iowa third-year law student Elizabeth Ryan is trying to prevent the life-altering destruction sexting can have on the lives of teens and young adults. Ryan hopes her article . . . will bring attention to an issue she said has become more prevalent as technology continues to develop. Her article suggests that states may benefit from creating new laws against sexting instead of relying on old laws regarding obscenity or pornography, which often come with harsh punishments.”

LifeNews: “Lincoln Sen. Tony Fulton has introduced his bill to ensure the controversial practice of telemed abortions don’t cross state lines from Iowa to Nebraska.”

LB 521 | Introduced Copy

BBC: “A bill has been put forward in the Philippine Congress aimed at making it easier for poor people to get their marriages annulled.”

ABC: “The Ohio Supreme Court on January 11 said Griffin lacked a ‘feasible plan to satisfy his financial obligations.’ Griffin’s debts include $150,000 from law school, $20,000 from his undergraduate studies and $16,500 in credit card debt.”

University of Gothenburg: “A national Swedish evaluation study has highlighted the need for a chain of interventions to offer children who have experienced violence against their mother the right level of support to work through their experiences. There is also frequently a lack of structured risk assessments for identifying children who are at continued risk of exposure to violence, reveal researchers from the universities of Gothenburg, Karlstad, Uppsala and Örebro.”

Orange County Register: “Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph on Tuesday night will ask her colleagues to consider displaying ‘In God We Trust’ in the City Council chambers.”

CNN / politicalticker: “Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, is drafting a bill that would change how – and possibly if – the repeal is implemented. The repeal law passed in December requires the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to certify that the military is ready for the change. Hunter’s bill would require the four service chiefs to also sign off on the policy change.”

Grier Weeks writing at The Daily Caller: “A 2006 law that requires the U.S. Justice Department to deploy a high-tech system for catching child pornographers has identified hundreds of thousands of criminal suspects — and collected extensive evidence pointing to the locations of their child victims. Yet, despite knowledge of this evidence, Attorney General Eric Holder has refused calls to take serious action. Now, a Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee, and a government oversight panel on the warpath, could finally force Holder to explain two years of inaction that left thousands of children in danger.”

The Standard: “Professional counselors are calling for immediate action to tackle increasing cases of addiction to internet pornography among Kenyan youth.”

Congratulations to allied attorneys Cara Putman, Dan Dalton, Deborah Dewart, Tami Fitzgerald, Julee Flood, Keith Williams, Jim Henderson, Trent Garmon, Jamie Anderson, James Rouse, Rick Nelson, Thomas Brandon, and The Christian Institute for their recent accomplishments and successes listed below. Please take time to congratulate them!

San Francisco Chronicle: “While other cities are slashing employee benefits, Berkeley is slated to add one more: paying for sex-change operations. The City Council is poised to vote tonight to set aside $20,000 annually for city workers’ gender-reassignment surgery. The procedure is not covered by the city’s two health insurance providers, Kaiser and Health Net.”

Chicago Sun-Times: “[A]bout 30 gay and lesbian university leaders . . . have formed the group LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education to advocate for the advancement of gays to leadership positions.”

NY Daily News: “Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan), the Senate’s biggest booster of gay marriage, said he’ll introduce legislation ‘within weeks’ to legalize same-sex marriage – and will push for a vote before the end of June.”

ABC: “Some new rules on hospital visitation go into effect Tuesday. The new regulations were ordered by the Obama administration and deal with visitation issues affecting the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.”

On Top Magazine (homosexual advocacy site): “A gay marriage bill will be introduced in the Maryland Senate this week, Senator Rich Madaleno told On Top Magazine during a brief telephone interview on Monday.”

Caffeinated Thoughts: “There are many pro-life bills that will be introduced this year and, although we don’t have the resources to work on them all . . . They range from overarching bans to specific responses to unique and immediate crises that are impacting Iowa.”

Montana Standard: “More than 200 people gathered for an anti-abortion rally at the Capitol Monday, including two dozen legislators, as abortion opponents predicted the 2011 Legislature will approve bills to restrict abortion in Montana.”

ChristianNewsWire: “In the January issue of its newsletter, World Congress of Families News, the international family-values group published its list of ‘The 10 Best and Worst Developments for The Family in 2010.’ Click here for the list and news from the January issue.”

AllGov: “A survey of those serving in the U.S. House and Senate reveals only one member considers himself an atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular’: Pete Stark (D-California) This is in contrast to the general population of the country, of which 16% falls into the non-religious category.”

Keen News Service: “The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday refused to hear the appeal of a group of clergy in Washington, D.C., who want to put the city’s new marriage equality law on the ballot . . . The clergy group took Justice Roberts’ note to heart and, with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund, a right-wing legal group, filed this new challenge. The new challenge argued that the decisions by the D.C. Courts ‘approved a Council-imposed limitation on the people’s Charter-based initiative power.’”

ChristianNewswire: “Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula, interim president of Human Life International (HLI), today blasted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for what he called their ‘flagrant disregard for women’s health, and for the constitution.’ He was referring to aJanuary 12 statement wherein the ACLU defended the inclusion of contraception in federally-mandated health coverage, and the ACLU criticized the US Catholic bishops for asking for contraception to be precluded from coverage.”

Fox News: “Starting today, House Republicans will begin work on new language that would go beyond simply closing the loophole in Obama’s law and actually create new restrictions, including allowing medical professionals who express objections of conscience to refuse to provide abortion services.”

Associated Press: “The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a man who was convicted of child pornography charges based on the nude pictures he kept from his mid-1970s affair with his teenage sister-in-law.”

LifeSiteNews: “A Montreal man has been ordered to pay $12,000 to his homosexual neighbors for allegedly directing ‘homophobic’ remarks at them, by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal. The homosexual couple has a history of pursuing lawsuits and complaints against neighbors.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Catholic Bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, has condemned a group that the Canadian bishops’ Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P) currently lists as its featured Mexican ‘partner’ on its website, LifeSiteNews has learned.”

“The Saskatchewan government says it will require marriage commissioners to perform civil marriages for all couples, including same-sex partners.”

LifeSiteNews: “A pro-life organization called ‘People Concerned for the Unborn Child’ (PCUC) based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania organizes the largest coordinated contingent to the March for Life in Washington, D.C., sending 120-130 buses yearly.”

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this: Vanderbilt University abandons illegal policy that forced nursing residents to sign abortion pledge. | MP3 audio 17:12 mins

LifeNews: “Because the Obamacare legislation contained insufficient limits on taxpayer funding of abortions, pro-life organizations are strongly supporting the repeal effort and groups like the Susan B. Anthony List say they will inform their members about the votes.”

SCOTUSblog: “This morning, the Court released its order list. The Court granted certiorari in three cases, appearing below, limited to the first question presented by the petitions.  The Court consolidated the cases and allotted one hour for oral argument.”

LifeNews: “The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows 55 percent of likely voters favor repeal of the health care law, while 40% oppose repeal. Some 40 percent of likely voters strongly favor repeal while 30 percent are strongly opposed — showing passion remains on the pro-repeal side.”

Msgr. Charles Pope writing at the Archdiocese of Washington blog: “To be clear, there are very serious threats today looming over religious liberty. An increasingly intrusive government and menacing new laws are seeking to unreasonably restrict the Church, and her work of evangelizing the culture. We ought to resist any such attempts to limit religious liberty in this age of highly selective ‘tolerance’ . . . But the moral lesson in these cases seems to be that we had better get our own house in order. Certain ‘Catholic’ Colleges may go on for a while gleefully dissenting and ignoring Church mandates, but in the end they are going to be called to account by Caesar . . .”

Asia News: “Another targeted attack against Christians in Iraq. On the afternoon of 15 January a group of unidentified criminals entered the Rabi’a hospital, a private clinic in the Sukar district in Mosul and shot a Christian doctor who worked there at point blank rabge. The gun had a silencer, and the doctor was fortunately only seriously wounded.”

USA Today: “Nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates show almost no gains in learning in their first two years of college, in large part because colleges don’t make academics a priority, a new report shows.”

Associated Press: “North Dakota U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad said Tuesday he will not run for re-election in 2012, saying he will concentrate instead on reducing the national debt and dependence on foreign oil.”

Cal Thomas writing at Townhall: “In Illinois, Democratic legislators and a Democratic governor pushed through a massive 67 percent personal income tax hike . . . In his State of the State address last week, Indiana Republican Mitch Daniels, properly took credit for policies that have placed his state among the financially strongest in the nation: lowest property taxes in the country and matching spending to income by eliminating ‘nice to do’ programs, focusing instead on ‘must do’ ones.”

Chuck Norris writing at Townhall: “Given that the 112th Congress is the most pro-life Congress in recent history, now is the time to act and stop government subsidies killing innocent unborn life. I’d even challenge tea parties across our country to fight for the unborn as hard as we do for fiscal frugalness and the Constitution.”

John C. Goodman, president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, writing at USA Today: “Most people intuitively know that the worst thing government can do in the middle of the deepest recession in 70 years is enact policies that increase the expected cost of labor. Yet that is exactly what happened last spring, with the passage of the health care reform bill.”

Ilya Somin writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Although federal spending was a major political issue in the 2010 campaign and for many months before it, this recently released CBS poll [HT: Dan Mitchell] reveals widespread public ignorance about the distribution of spending between various programs.”

The Columbus Dispatch: “A doctor says the Ohio Supreme Court caved to political considerations when it refused to hear an appeal of a malpractice case against him, noting that the lawyer on the other side had supported the campaign of then-Chief Justice Eric Brown.”

President Barack Obama has this article at the Wall Street Journal.

Associated Press: “A federal lawsuit filed Monday in Texas accuses the U.S. Border Patrol of wrongful death and civil rights violations in an agent’s fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Mexican boy in June.”

Associated Press: “A court in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia has suspended a ban by the city of Lleida on face-covering Islamic veils in municipal buildings.”

The Hill: “With a federal district judge in Florida expected to rule this month on a challenge to a key provision in the healthcare reform law, more than 100 legal scholars are defending its constitutionality. The legal scholars are joining with the left-leaning Center for American Progress and American Constitution Society on Tuesday to voice their belief that the reform law’s requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance is constitutional.”

The Hill: “House Republican freshmen lawmakers, elected on platforms to reduce spending and the deficit, are saying they’re prepared to play hardball and vote against raising the debt ceiling in order to extract an agreement on possible budget cuts.”

Washington Post: “With doctors preparing Giffords for the rehabilitation stage of her recovery, the discovery Monday of a little-known statutory provision in Arizona law raised the prospect of a legal complication that, if left unamended, would endanger her hold on her seat . . . But in Washington, lawyers quickly concluded that the statute does not apply to members of Congress. The U.S. Constitution provides the qualifications for service in Congress and makes the House the sole judge of those qualifications.”

Student Free Press Association: “The Anti-Defamation League has received reports of at least 260 anti-Semitic incidents on campuses over the past three years . . . Marcus attributes the increase in anti-Semitic incidents like these to a number of factors, including the state’s left-leaning tendencies, larger Arab and Muslim population and campuses more tolerant of extremist ideologies.”

ABC News: “The British leader, whose Conservative Party heads the country’s coalition government, said he would save money and cut red tape by giving control over management to family practitioners rather than bureaucrats, and allow private companies, charities and social enterprises to bid for contracts within the public health service.”

ADF attorney Heather Gebelin Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “At the beginning of a new year, there is a valuable opportunity for reflection on the past year and what it means for the future. While 2010 was certainly not without its major victories for free speech, it also suffered some challenges. Here’s a quick look back at developments in ADF’s academic freedom cases in 2010 and what they mean for 2011.”

Wyoming Tribune Eagle: “Legislation to clarify Wyoming’s definition of marriage split along party lines to pass out of a House committee 7-2 on Monday . . . [Austin Nimocks], senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, testified that marriage is often viewed as a contract with the state and two consenting adults. And while Wyoming must recognize marriages from other states, it must also provide divorces when legally-recognized couples decide to split, he added.”

OneNewsNow: “Two Christian organizations are teaming up to help provide information regarding religious freedom in schools for parents and students. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has joined with Gateways to Better Education (GTBE) ) in the ‘National Free to Speak Campaign’ to encourage students about their rights to express their religion. ‘Religious freedom is absolutely our first liberty,’ notes [David Cortman], senior legal counsel for ADF. ‘And if we lose our religious freedom, then all our other freedoms are in jeopardy as well.’”

LifeSiteNews: “Maryland police and state troopers have lost their appeal to get immunity from a lawsuit filed against them by pro-life protesters they arrested and strip-searched in Bel Air, Maryland, according to a federal appeals court . . . Other attorneys involved with the case include the Alliance Defense Fund, Chris Ferrara of American Catholic Lawyers Association, and Matt Paavola, of Baltimore, former president of Maryland’s Christian Legal Society.”

ChristianNewsWire: “This week, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals roundly rejected an appeal taken by defendant police officers in a suit brought by Defend Life, a Maryland pro-life activist group, its leader, Jack Ames, and many participants in a “truth tour” sponsored by the group in August, 2009, granting a motion to dismiss the appeal filed by Thomas More Society’s special counsel, Patrick Gillen, who is also an Assistant Professor of Law at Ave Maria Law School in Naples, Florida . . . Thomas More Society is working with other lawyers in the case, including the Alliance Defense Fund, Chris Ferrara of American Catholic Lawyers Association, and Matt Paavola, of Baltimore, former president of Maryland’s Christian Legal Society.”