Daily Archives: January 24, 2011

LifeSiteNews: “Saskatchewan’s Premier Brad Wall last week defended his government’s decision not to challenge a non-binding court ruling saying that marriage commissioners must ‘marry’ same-sex couples regardless of their religious views.”

LifeSiteNews: “European abortion activists are annoyed with the tiny Balkan state of Macedonia for telling women that abortion is something that carries risks, and that they can do without.”

Yahoo: “Among Americans who have ever lived with an unmarried partner, nearly two-thirds (64%) say they thought about it as a step toward marriage.”

Boston.com (AP): “Planned Parenthood, a perennial protest target because of its role in providing abortions, has notified the FBI that at least 12 of its health centers were visited recently by a man purporting to be a sex trafficker but who may instead be part of an attempted ruse to entrap clinic employees.”

NorthJersey.com: ”Every human being is one of God’s creatures and deserves the love and respect that God gives to all of us,” he told a crowd that filled the front of the steps to the State House and spilled over into a park across the street. ”What we need to do each and every day is to live our lives in a way that encourages everyone to understand why this cause is so important,” Christie said.

The Christian Science Monitor / Mises Economics Blog: “It is amazing that we live in a world where bureaucrats, whose interests are not aligned with the interests of the consumers, are given the power to make the decisions about our lifestyles and food product choices. They not only purport to protect us from ourselves, but they protect us from advertising they deem to be out of alignment with their interests.”

CNSNews: “A California judge says Octomom Nadya Suleman’s fertility doctor should be allowed to keep practicing medicine and that the state’s move to revoke his license is too severe.”

Radio Iowa: “A three-member panel in the Iowa House has approved a resolution that would let Iowans vote on a constitutional amendment that would make same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships illegal in Iowa.”

ADF attorneys sue school board after women’s paid-for Bible message is prohibited

WSAZ: “U.S. Sen. Rand Paul marked the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on abortion by calling it ‘one of the most horrific judicial travesties in the history of our nation.’”

Associated Press: “The leading medical association and key pharmaceutical companies in Germany, where anti-death penalty sentiment is strong, said Monday they would not support exporting a drug to the U.S. that is needed for lethal injections there.”

Associated Press: “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told reporters Monday that he believes states already have the tools they need to ease crushing budget deficits since they can cut spending, raise taxes and pressure public employee unions to renegotiate pension benefits. As a result, he said, he opposes letting states declare bankruptcy because he said they don’t need that power.”

The Daily Telegraph: “Tunisia’s underground Islamic movement has emerged at the forefront of nationwide protests against its leadership and appears set to emerge as the strongest political force in elections.”

Marian Wang writing at ProPublica: “In the mid-1990s, the administration of Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, a pro-choice Republican, ended regular inspections of abortion clinics—a policy that continued until just last year. According to the grand jury report [PDF] released this week by Philadelphia prosecutors, Pennsylvania health officials deliberately chose not to enforce laws to ensure that abortion clinics provide the same level of care as other medical service providers.”

WorldNetDaily: “If two homosexual men want to use in vitro fertilization to conceive a baby and then use genetics technology to ensure the baby is also ‘gay,’ while disposing of any ‘straight’ embryos, would the law have any ethical problems with that? America’s leading ethicist in the field of human reproduction has written a paper that argues future homosexual couples should have ‘the right’ to do exactly that.”

Associated Press: “A White House official says that a deputy counsel to the president, Donald Verrilli Jr., is to be nominated Monday as the next U.S. solicitor general.”

Reuters: “Egypt’s general prosecutor on Monday banned media reporting of the investigation into a deadly New Year’s Day church bombing, saying any revelations could hinder the work of investigators.”

Boston.com (AP): “The governor on Monday said he wants to instead hire about 1,000 staff attorneys. Patrick said the change could save the state an estimated $45 million a year.”

Kathryn Jean Lopez writing at National Review Online: “Has our financial mess brought us to the brink of getting beyond the culture wars? It’s a question that we might see play out on Capitol Hill in the coming months as the new majority seeks to make the late pro-life congressman Henry Hyde proud, by defunding Planned Parenthood and prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortion.”

Boston.com (AP): “New Jersey teenagers caught texting or posting sexually explicit photos online could avoid prosecution under a measure that would give first-time offenders the chance to complete a diversionary program.”

ABC / The Note: “‘It’s time for us to flex the muscle that we just flexed in this election, and do everything we can in this congress to protect those human lives,’ Dannenfelser says in her first annual ‘State of the Unborn’ address.” | SBA List press release.

CNN Political Ticker: “Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is opting out of an appearance at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), making him the latest Republican to the criticize what some have seen as a pro-gay tilt to the prominent conference.”

Star-Tribune: “Even as the Wyoming Legislature moves toward a stricter ban on gay marriage this year, there’s also a possibility Wyoming could become the third state to recognize civil unions.”

The Daytona Beach News Journal: “The Volusia County Council plans to schedule a discussion, probably for one of its March meetings, of a human-rights ordinance similar to one enacted in Orange County in November. That law bars discrimination — in both the public and private sectors — based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and gives victims of such discrimination a legal method of recourse.”

Politico: “Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, already exercising his expanded authority in the new Congress, says he is helping broker a bipartisan push to confirm a slew of federal judges and has kicked off plans to empower younger senators.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “The 2–1 decision is Maksym v. Board of Election Commissioners, decided today; thanks to How Appealingfor the pointer. Emanuel can of course appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.”

Orin Kerr writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “I don’t know which is more newsworthy: A day that the Supreme Court hands down new opinions that includes a unanimous reversal of a Ninth Circuit decision by Judge Reinhardt, or a day that the Supreme Court hands down new opinions that does not include a unanimous reversal of a Ninth Circuit decision by Judge Reinhardt.”

Star-Tribune: “Legislation to prohibit recognition of same-sex marriages from outside Wyoming advanced further in the state House of Representatives on Friday. A Senate committee also approved a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state, though not before amending it to potentially allow for civil unions.”

LifeSiteNews: “Government officials and citizen organizations in the African nation of Cameroon are denouncing a decision by the European Union to send over 300,000 euros to three local organizations that work against the nation’s anti-sodomy laws.”

CNN Belief Blog: “When the Anti-Defamation League – a leading Jewish group devoted to fighting anti-Semitism and ‘all forms of bigotry’ – came out against the construction of an Islamic center and mosque near New York’s ground zero last year, some critics alleged that the organization had lost its way . . . But several months after the controversy over the New York Islamic center has died down, the Anti-Defamation League has quietly emerged as a leading advocate for mosque construction projects that have run into local opposition across the country.”

Asia News: “While confirming the life sentence for the main culprit of the heinous crime, the court added a few remarks on non-existent forced conversions that seem to justify sectarian and anti-Christian violence. Cardinal Gracias, ‘I’m worried about the interpretations that may be given to this view, and especially for the implications that this ruling could have in the future.’”

Al Masry Al Youm: “‘The use of loudspeakers for Friday sermons, Eid prayers and the call for prayer will continue until judgment day,’ said Secretary of the Ministry of Religious Endowments Sheikh Fouad Abdel Azim during a heated discussion that took place during a meeting of the parliamentary religious committee on Sunday.”

Asia Times: “Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled that Christians have the right to use a site they own for religious functions. Local authorities, who had stopped church construction in 2008, are now criticised for not implementing the court ruling, allowing Islamic extremists to patrol the site.”

Independent: “London’s Beth Din, which is headed by Lord Jonathan Sacks and is one of Britain’s most influential Orthodox Jewish courts, caused consternation among medical professionals earlier this month when it ruled that national organ donor cards were not permissible under halakha (Jewish law).”

RTE News: “RTÉ and the Sisters of Charity religious order have brought separate High Court challenges to Dublin City Council’s decision to impose what they say are restrictive conditions on the potential development of their lands.”

Global Toronto: “A B.C. courtroom will hear testimony this week from women living in the secretive polygamous commune of Bountiful.”

The Des Moines Register carries a lengthy video interview with the governor.

Bluegrass Institute: “Unfortunately, there’s not much to celebrate in Kentucky, one of only a handful of states without public charter schools. So far, the bosses who run the teachers unions have succeeded in strangling efforts by parents and conscientious legislators to secure for Kentucky parents the freedom to send their children to the public school that best fits their individual needs.”

Wall Street Journal: “News of the case spread through this state capital, sparking outrage. Yet one subset of the community sprang to the Kozlovs’ defense, holding demonstrations, filling the gallery at court hearings and flooding state officials with letters. Many of these supporters, Russian-born Christians like the Kozlovs themselves, believed the parents were disciplining their children according to Biblical law. In their view, the government was out to ‘destroy the family because of their faith,’ says Tatyana I. Bondarchuk, a counselor who helped brief authorities about the group.”

Religion Clause: “In McGuire v. Clackamas County Counsel, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5521 (D OR, Jan. 19, 2011), an Oregon federal district court adopted a magistrate’s recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140026, Nov. 10, 2010), and dismissed a free exercise challenge to the zoning laws of Clackamas County, Oregon.”

Religion Clause: “The Episcopal Church (TEC) has successfully asserted a claim to the property of a Texas diocese that broke away to affiliate with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.  In The Episcopal Church v. Salazar, (TX Dist. Ct., Jan. 20, 2011), a Texas state trial court held that property of the Diocese of Fort Worth belongs to the individuals who remain loyal to the hierarchical church body.”

Houston Chronicle: “An Amarillo memorial company has delivered a 4-ton gift from Oldham County residents to the county Courthouse Square: the Ten Commandments etched in granite.”

Kyle Olson writing at Townhall: “The growing school choice movement provides parents a way out of Lewis’ schools and into schools that do whatever it takes to make sure kids are prepared for life beyond graduation. It’s too bad the same can’t be said of Lewis’ Chicago Public Schools. And it’s too bad they fight like mad to block parents from having options.”

Associated Press: “Democracies around the world are ignoring abuses by repressive regimes and opting for improved relations rather than condemning rights violations and curtailing aid, Human Rights Watch said Monday.”

Washington Times: “Count Bill Cosby as a big fan of school choice. With Congress and the White House gearing up for a major battle over the future of education policy, the comedian who famously criticized academic failings in the black community added his voice Wednesday to that of House Speaker John A. Boehner and others who want to give parents a bigger say in their children’s education.”

NewsMax: “Top-rated talk radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday questioned why new Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has not gotten support from the White House in his efforts to resolve the doubts of so-called ‘birthers’ about Barack Obama’s place of birth.”

Huffington Post: “The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh alleged in a speech in Qatar that key branches of the U.S. military are being led by Christian fundamentalist ‘crusaders’ who are determined to ‘turn mosques into cathedrals.’”

Yahoo (AP): “Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein says the choice of Marine 1st Lt. Clebe McClary shows superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould is tilted toward evangelical Christianity and tolerates an environment where proselytizing is accepted.”

Daily Mail: “Young children are to be taught about homosexuality in their maths, geography, science and English lessons, it has emerged. As part of a Government-backed drive to ‘celebrate the gay community,’ maths problems could be introduced that involve gay characters . . . The lesson plans are designed to raise awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues and, in theory, could be used for children as young as four.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The voucher proposal, announced last week by state Sens. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, and Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, would allow low-income students from ‘persistently poorly performing’ public schools to switch to other public or private schools — and receive taxpayer-funded vouchers to pay their tuition. Proposals in the 1990s had broader reach.”

“The body that advises the government on its drugs policy faces fresh controversy after the appointment of an expert with controversial views on homosexuality and the role of religion in combating addiction. Dr Hans-Christian Raabe, a Manchester GP and member of the Maranatha Community, an inter-denominational Christian movement, was appointed to the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) last week.”

Salena Zito writing at Townhall: “‘William Penn is one of America’s great forgotten founders,’ says Catherine Wilson, a Villanova University political scientist. ‘His policies on religious toleration and political freedom were touted as some of the most welcoming throughout all the colonies.’”

The Observer editorial: “The freedom schoolchildren enjoy to study texts that are not scriptures is relatively new and hard won. Secular education is a modern invention and a thoroughly good one. There are still fanatics of all faiths who would prefer to see children drilled in rigid dogmas. They must be resisted.”

Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “The first-ever National School Choice Week is underway! This week, January 23rd – 29th, school choice advocates from across the country will host events and highlight the benefits of educational freedom.”

The Public Discourse: “On the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, our society still struggles to come to terms with what exactly is at stake in the abortion controversy. In its Roe decision, the Supreme Court repeatedly used the phrase ‘potential life’ to refer to the unborn, but that phrase has never really been adequate. The word ‘potential’ suggests something impersonal and inhuman—a mass of tissue, a lump of cells, something that may at some point come alive and become human.”

Yahoo: “General Motors Co. sold more cars and trucks in China last year than it did in the U.S., for the first time in the company’s 102-year history.”

Reuters: “A suicide bomber killed at least 31 people at Russia’s biggest airport, Moscow-Domodedovo, on Monday in an attack that bore the hallmarks of militants fighting for an Islamist state in the north Caucasus region.”

The Hill: “A key House Republican is quickly pressing forward with her goals to scale back U.S. funding for the United Nations.”

ADF attorney Bradley Abramson appeared on the Zeb Bell Show. | MP3 audio 20:26 mins | ADF Media Information page: Truck v. City of San Diego

ADF attorney Matt Sharp appeared on Everything Southeast Texas with Brad Lewis. | MP3 audio 37:36 mins

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show (1.6.2011) to discuss this: NH Supreme Court to hear arguments in case of home-schooled girl Thursday. | MP3 audio 17 mins

ADF attorney David French appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show (1.11.2011) to discuss this: Vanderbilt University abandons illegal policy that forced nursing residents to sign abortion pledge. | MP3 audio 7:44 mins

The Hill: “Republican leaders signaled Sunday that they won’t go for President Obama’s expected call for more federal spending in infrastructure, education and innovation initiatives in his State of the Union address.”

Wall Street Journal: “China’s biggest bank signed an agreement that would make it the first Beijing-controlled financial institution to acquire retail bank branches in the U.S., though regulators could still block the deal.”

USA Today: “President Obama echoed his support for abortion rights today, the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s pro-choice decision in Roe v. Wade. ‘Government should not intrude on private family matters,’ Obama said in a statement, adding that he also supports policies to prevent ‘unintended pregnancies.’”

OneNewsNow: “‘The state said, “No — we don’t allow religion or a deity on our vanity plates” and denied the request,’ recaps Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney [Jeremy Tedesco]. ‘So we litigated the case, and after five years, we won at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. After the district court ruled against us, the Second Circuit said that Mr. Byrne needs to be granted equal access to the vanity plate forum for his religious speech.’”

ADF attorney David French writing at Patheos: “[R]ight now there is a discernible and significant historical trend in the United States, and it’s not the trend the Left seeks. Abortion is on the retreat . . . Within the Christian community, young people who are ambivalent about other hot-button cultural issues (like same-sex marriage) are often proving to be far more actively pro-life than their parents . . . As the public grows more pro-life, it is increasingly intolerant of the abortion lobby . . . Finally—and crucially—the abortion industry simply can’t avoid the reality of its own brutality.”

LGBTQ Nation: “The nation’s largest LGBT legal group –- Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund — took in $17 million in its most recent fiscal year, 2009, compared to $677,360 in 1987 and $26 million in 2008. By comparison, the right-wing’s largest political group -– Focus on the Family — expected $100 million in 2010 and the largest right-wing legal group – the Alliance Defense Fund — has an annual budget of $32.7 million in 2009, according to its website.”

Rationalism Examiner: “These property owners include two local churches, First Baptist Church of Mission and St. Pius X Catholic Church. The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian association of attorneys is now suing on their behalf . . . And yet, [Erik Stanley], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund is quoted by Adelle M. Banks for the Religious News Service saying, ‘It makes no sense to tax churches and to limit their ability to provide their services, and it does damage to the constitutional separation between church and state.’”

Yakima Herald: “Senior Assistant City Attorney Mark Kunkler is drafting the disclaimer statement. Like Cawley, he said he has received assistance on the case from the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian lawyers who defend free faith speech . . . But [FFRF staff attorney] Markert dismissed advice from the Alliance Defense Fund as ‘nonsensical’ and warned that anything short of a generic ‘nonsectarian and nondenominational’ prayer will result in a lawsuit.”

WorldNetDaily: “Students who are trying to build a base of conservative citizens on a Florida college campus have been given some First Amendment rights to hand out information and talk to others . . . ‘What YAF is pushing for is the ability to protect the First Amendment rights of not only the YAF, but for every student group whether they’re on the conservative side or any other side. YAF is trying to protect the First Amendment rights of all students,’ [ADF attorney Casey Mattox] said.”

Bridgette P. LaVictoire writing at LezGetReal (“A Gay Girl’s View on the World”): “‘It makes no sense to tax churches and to limit their ability to provide their services, and it does damage to the constitutional separation between church and state.’ Those words were spoken by [Erik Stanley], a senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.”

PressTV: “‘It makes no sense to tax churches and to limit their ability to provide their services, and it does damage to the constitutional separation between church and state,’ says [Erik Stanley], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents Catholic and Baptist churches in the small city of 10,000.”

WorldNetDaily: “A Swedish father who was jailed by authorities for taking his son, in state custody because social services workers worried he was being homeschooled, home for a visit has been released from his incarceration . . . The case has been the focal point of work both by the internationally known Home School Legal Defense Association as well as the Alliance Defense Fund, which has brought a case before the Europe Court of Human Rights on behalf of the family.”

Herald Citizen: “Five months to the day after a lawsuit was filed against the Putnam County Library, a resolution in the controversy has been settled by both parties . . . ‘Putnam County had no right (as was proven by this legal action) to censor Christians,’ local religious author Ilene Vick said . . . Vick was represented by Nate Kellum of the Alliance Defense Fund, who serves as senior counsel on with the Alliance Defense Fund at its Memphis regional service center. ‘Basically, the new policy eliminates the concerns about the rooms not being used for religious purposes,’ Kellum said.”