Daily Archives: February 1, 2011

WXVT.com: “The Louisiana Supreme Court has assigned a retired judge to temporarily fill a state appeals court vacancy.”

Christian Science Monitor: “China has limited coverage of the Egypt protest to its Xinhua news service and warned last week that websites that did not censor comments about Egypt would be ‘shut down by force.”

Religion Clause Blog (links to the complaint): “The Military Religious Freedom Foundation and five US Air Force Academy faculty members yesterday filed suit in federal district court in Colorado seeking to enjoin a National Prayer Luncheon at the Academy scheduled for Feb. 10.  The luncheon is being financed by the Chapel Tithes and Offerings Fund, not taxpayer money, but plaintiffs object to its promotion by the command structure. Attendance is not mandatory.”

CNSNews: “Jordan’s King Abdullah II fired his government Tuesday in the wake of street protests and asked an ex-prime minister to form a new Cabinet, ordering him to launch immediate political reforms.”

Julie Duin writes at the Washington Post: “Can you maintain a traditional Judeo-Christian view of how the Earth was created and still remain a science teacher in public schools? About one in eight high school biology teachers do, according to a new article in the magazine Science.”

Lambda Legal: “Late yesterday, Lambda Legal filed papers in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit defending a lower court ruling that the Georgia General Assembly discriminated against Lambda Legal client Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman …

KDLT.com: “The Legislature will take up a bill that defines juvenile “sexting” and lists possible punishment for violators who electronically transmit sexually explicit or nude photos of themselves or others.”

Christian Post: “David E. Smith, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute said recognizing civil unions is merely a stepping stone to legalizing same-sex marriage.”

“Iowans’ deep and divided emotions over marriage rights spilled out onto the House floor Monday night, the eve of a House vote on a resolution to begin the process to amend the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage.”

National Marriage Week on EarnedMedia.org: As part of an international marriage week movement in 12 countries during the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, National Marriage Week USA (www.nationalmarriageweekUSA.org) — February 7 to 14 — announces new national initiatives to show marriage benefits personal and national economic stability and for raising more well adjusted children. National Marriage Week USA provides a new clearinghouse of marriage classes and conferences all around the country to help couples strengthen their own marriage, or to reach out and help others.

David Waters writes at the Washington Post: “Christians shouldn’t be discriminated against and excluded from expressing their faith on public high school campuses when that door of communication is open to virtually everyone else,” David Cortman, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is taking the case to court, said in a statement. Objection, Mr. Cortman. There’s no evidence that the Desert Sands Unified School District is discriminating against Christians.

CNSNews: “A Gulf Coast-area teenager is in jail accused of hiring someone to beat up his pregnant girlfriend in order to make her miscarry.”

AFP: “Iran said on Tuesday the uprising in Egypt will help create an Islamic Middle East but accused US officials of interfering in the “freedom seeking” movement which has rocked the Arab nation.”

LifeSiteNews: “The parents of one-year-old Joseph Maraachli are taking their case to the Ontario Superior Court in the hopes of bringing their dying son home for his last days, reports the Windsor Star.”

LifeNews: “A new undercover video shows Planned Parenthood officials, in New Jersey, telling a pimp and his prostitute assistant how they can get abortions for young teenage girls who Planned Parenthood officials are informed are Asians in the country illegally and forced into the sex trade.”

AP: “A federal appeals court has ruled that two underage girls can keep their names under wraps in their lawsuit against “Girls Gone Wild” producer Joe Francis.” | Plaintiff B v. Francis, No. 10-10664 (11th Cir. Feb. 1, 2011)

Chicago Sun-Times: The USNA alumni association sent Ketterson a letter expressing condolence for the loss of his husband. The USNA says Fliszar’s interment followed standard operating procedure. “His next of kin was treated with the same dignity and respect afforded to the next of kin of all USNA grads who desire interment at the Columbarium,” said Jennifer Erickson, a spokesperson for the academy. “We didn’t do anything differently.”

The Independent: A recent one by Canal Plus TV found 58 per cent of respondents believed gays should be able to marry – a double-digit percentage point increase from a poll five years ago – while 35 per cent believe they should not. The Communist Party criticised the ruling, saying: “France has retained its dunce’s cap over the right for people of the same sex to marry, when many other European countries remedied this inequality a long time ago.”

Fox News: “Republicans are acting quickly to capitalize on a federal judge’s sweeping ruling against the new health care law, renewing a push for a repeal vote in the Senate while clamoring for the Supreme Court to weigh in.”

Peek-a-Boo Lounge of Bradenton v. Manatee County, Fla, No. 09-16438., 2011 WL 182819 (11th Cir. Jan. 21, 2011)

CNA News (Spanish edition – translation by Google): Attorney Joseph Infranco of the Alliance Defense Fund, in charge of the defense of the firefighters, expressed hope that “this decision terminates the city’s efforts to defend his conduct to compel people to participate in events of a sexual nature that are against their personal and moral convictions. ”

“Senior Obama administration officials told reporters late Monday afternoon that a federal judge’s ruling deeming the sweeping health care reform law unconstitutional is “well out of the mainstream of judicial opinion” and predicted it would be overturned on appeal.”

L.A.-area elementary school blocks religious content, tells student to pick song that ‘does not say Jesus so many times’

LifeNews: Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund says Judge Garbis’ ruling was a correct one. “The judge ruled that the law’s attempt to burden speech unconstitutionally discriminated against noncommercial, unlicensed speech on the explicit basis that it came from a perspective disfavoring abortion,” he said, calling it a “monumental decision protecting free speech and women’s health.” Bowman added [in a post at Catholic Vote] . . .

One News Now: The Ninth Circuit asked the high court this month whether California law allows Proposition 8 proponents the right to defend the measure when state officials refuse to . . . “Politicians should not be able to nullify a democratic act of the people by refusing their duty to defend it,” contends Jim Campbell, litigation staff council for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). “The people of California have a right to be defended.”

AP: “Police have arrested a 17-year old Pakistani boy for writing an allegedly blasphemous remark in an examination paper, an officer said Tuesday.”

AP: “As thousands of football fans descend on Texas for Sunday’s Super Bowl, law enforcement agencies are keeping watch for a different kind of out-of-town visitor: pimps selling children for sex.”

AP: “Six Senate Democrats are rejecting a deficit-driven proposal by freshman Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky to cut U.S. aid to Israel.”

“A federal judge has struck down a Baltimore ordinance that requires pregnancy counseling centers to post a disclaimer if they don’t provide abortions or birth control.”

Detroit Free Press: “The Plymouth-Canton school district has opted to allow Sikh students to wear a small, religious dagger to school.”

LifeNews: “The nation’s largest abortion business has been caught in video in an undercover investigation covering up for and coaching a man and a woman posing as sex traffickers and inquiring about how to obtain abortions for the women they victimized.”

Blog of the Legal Times: “Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is recommending a Day Pitney partner and a former Cravath, Swaine & Moore partner for vacancies on the busy federal bench in Manhattan.”

“Federal Judge Roger Vinson opens his decision declaring ObamaCare unconstitutional with that citation from Federalist No. 51, written by James Madison in 1788. His exhaustive and erudite opinion is an important moment for American liberty, and yesterday may well stand as the moment the political branches were obliged to return to the government of limited and enumerated powers that the framers envisioned.”

Reuters (includes video): “Political commentators expressed shock at how the United States as well as its major European allies appeared to be ready to dump a staunch strategic ally of three decades, simply to conform to the current ideology of political correctness.”

Jerusalem Post: “A leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told the Arabic-language Iranian news network Al-Alam on Monday that he would like to see the Egyptian people prepare for war against Israel, according to the Hebrew-language business newspaper Calcali.”

The Hill: “Not long after a federal judge struck down Democrats’ healthcare reform law Monday for exceeding congressional power, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he would chair a hearing this week about the law’s constitutionality.”