Daily Archives: February 3, 2011

CNA: “The U.S. Bishops and the Massachusetts Catholic Conference have joined a list of 17 religious groups moving to appeal the state’s rejection of the Defense of Marriage Act last year.”

Fox News: “The recent release of an undercover video exposing duplicity and potential criminality by an employee of Planned Parenthood is an outrage,” Pence said. “The time to deny any and all funding to Planned Parenthood is now.”

ADF attorneys file suit against city of Medina for targeting church, preventing it from expanding on its own property

KC Star: “A lawsuit challenging new restrictions on adult businesses in Missouri was thrown out last week, but club and bookstore owners will appeal, their attorney said Thursday.”

Businesswire.com: “Planned Parenthood’s Guttmacher Institute has disclosed that a Delaware abortion provider has admitted to greatly underreporting the number of abortions it performs each year—including in statistics that it provided to Delaware’s Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS).”

ABP: The amendment, adopted 61-33 in the Republican-dominated House, says that “the people’s right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage and traditions on public property, including public schools, shall not be infringed; however, the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions, including public school divisions, shall not compose school prayers, nor require any person to join in prayer or other religious activity.”

Julia Duin writes at the Washington Post: “For decades now they’ve had plans to evangelize the Muslim world that lies along the old Silk Road route. This could be one of the most ambitious missionary enterprises in 2,000 years of Christianity. No national church has amazed the world as much as that of the Chinese. From 1 million at the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, it’s grown to 100 million followers, a breathtaking growth in 60 years.”

LifeNews: “But the House Public Health Welfare and Labor Committee tabled the bill after Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, a Democrat, attached an amendment to the bill on an 11-8 vote that would allow abortion funding in cases of rape and incest.”

LA Times: “Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said Wednesday that the California Supreme Court may decide ‘as soon as next week’ whether to weigh in on the federal Proposition 8 appeal and expressed hope that a Southern California Latino would be chosen to succeed departing Justice Carlos R. Moreno.”

LifeNews: “The New Jersey state health department will investigate a shady abortion business a Planned Parenthood official mentioned in an investigative video showing staff at Perth Amboy Planned Parenthood aiding sex traffickers.”

AFP: “A Ugandan gay rights activist was killed after reneging on an agreement to pay for sex, the country’s police chief told journalists Thursday.”

CBS: “House Republicans have opted to drop the word “forcible” from a section of House bill about abortion that addresses rape, Politico reports, following widespread condemnation from Democrats and abortion rights activists.”

AP: The Obama Administration acted in contempt by continuing its deepwater drilling moratorium after the policy was struck down, a New Orleans judge ruled.

AP: “An official says that there is evidence that the parents of 25 children found abandoned in a northern Mexican border city were kidnapped.”

AP: “Republicans controlling the House promised Thursday to slash domestic agencies’ spending by almost 20 percent in their drive to bring it back to levels in place before President Barack Obama took office.”

LifeSiteNews: “A major Christian television station in Canada has permanently canceled the show Word TV, hosted by prominent evangelical minister Charles McVety, after an industry watchdog announced in December their judgment that the show discriminated against homosexuals.”

San Diego Union Tribune: “Six parents and their children are suing the Compton Unified School District, claiming district officials are violating their right to a quality education by allegedly trying to obstruct an effort to convert a failing elementary school to a charter school.”

LifeSiteNews: “Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, the Catholic politician who approved a law that led to the liberalization of abortion and another that instituted gay ‘marriage’ in Portugal, has been reelected as the country’s president in general elections on Sunday, January 23.”

LifeNews: “A landlord has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a new abortion practitioner from setting up shop in Wichita, Kansas to replace late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller.”

The Witherspoon Institute has launched this new resource website.

Dahlia Lithwick writes at Slate: “Articles of faith, as a rule, don’t change every few months. And yet, just nine months ago, it was an article of faith among court watchers that President Obama’s health care reform plan would be upheld at the Supreme Court by a margin of 7-2 or 8-1. Today it is an equally powerful article of faith that everything rests in the hands of Justice Anthony Kennedy in what will surely be a 5-4 decision. What changed between last March and last Monday?”

Blog of the Legal Times: “Caitlin Halligan followed an often-used script today during her confirmation hearing for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, telling a Senate committee that if confirmed, she would defer to Supreme Court precedent and to the Framers’ intent. But her hour-long testimony made clear that Republicans are laying the ground for possible opposition to her nomination.”

Catholic League: “Tomorrow, a fifth-grader in a Los Angeles public school will be allowed to sing a song at a talent show that mentions Jesus, but only because his mother acquired the services of the Alliance Defense Fund threatening a lawsuit: he was initially denied the right to sing the song, “We Shine,” because it mentions Jesus too many times (it was not disclosed how many times it would take to violate the unwritten quota).”

San Diego Union Tribune (AP): “A fifth-grader will be allowed to perform to a Christian-themed song at his school talent show after a lawsuit accused the Los Angeles Unified School District of violating his free-speech rights, it was announced Wednesday . . . The mother was asked, “Can he pick a song that doesn’t say Jesus so many times,’” said David Cortman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian-based legal organization that represents the mother.

Naples News: “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will make a brief appearance at Ave Maria University on Friday.”

How Appealing links to reports on the nomination and opposition to it.

ADF attorney Matt Sharp appeared on The Source with Paul Anderson to discuss this: Not just another brick in the walkway: Calif. high school forbids Christian pavers | MP3 18:47 mins

Aiken Standard: For those that say there is no separation of church and state and that it’s not in the Constitution, then you’re in for a big surprise. The senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, has been quoted as 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.” | See Erik Stanley response

LifeNews: “The popular video sharing web site YouTube is threatening to censor a new video that exposes how a Planned Parenthood center in New jersey aided and assisted actors in an undercover investigation with sexual trafficking of minors.”

World Net Daily: “Social-services workers in Sweden without warning have taken two children from their mother in a move described by an analyst as legal even if there is no evidence of problem . . .The HSLDA is working with the Alliance Defense Fund on a case before the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of the family.”

Rebecca Burgoyne writes for theCalifornia Family Council: “The United States is one of the top three destinations for traffickers who import 15,000-17,000 men, women, and children annually, mostly for forced prostitution and domestic labor.”

Brian Fitzpatrick writes at WorldNetDaily: Though they may be involved in implementing DADT repeal training, and their ministries will be directly affected, the chaplains still have no idea what the training will consist of, said Alliance Defense Fund attorney Daniel Blomberg. ADF, a defender of civil and religious liberties, represents both military chaplains and endorsers. “I have not heard anything regarding specifics,” said Blomberg. “A pastor would be free to preach his beliefs about homosexuality, according to the Pentagon, but you don’t know what a chaplain can do in a counseling situation or an ethical situation. Could a chaplain refuse to allow a married homosexual couple to participate in counseling for married couples, or refuse to hire a homosexual to be a children’s church teacher? None of these issues are being answered, and that’s a real problem.”

LAIST: The National Alliance Defense Fund, who are Christian attorneys who work on cases regarding religious freedom, are on the case, and are speaking on behalf of the boy whose identity is not being released. “The courts have time and time again established that Christian students cannot be discriminated against for wanting to express their religious beliefs at schools,” says attorney Matt Sharp.

California Catholic Daily: Christian students shouldn’t be censored at public elementary schools because district officials think that religious speech may be offensive, which isn’t justified by the Constitution” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “The LAUSD did the right thing by recognizing the student’s constitutional rights and lifting its censorship of religious speech at the talent show.”

One News Now: An Oklahoma court is allowing the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and the Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life project to intervene in an Oklahoma case . . . “The intervention is on behalf of American Victims of Abortion, which includes women who have had abortions and who can testify about the devastating consequences of undergoing the procedure without knowing what it really entails,” explains Steven H. Aden, attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund.

Times Online: “A Christian advocacy organization has contacted Ellwood City officials with the possibility that it might support efforts to fight a possible lawsuit opposing the annual Nativity display in front of the municipal building. Borough Manager Dom Viccari said he had exchanged information with attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund. Officials from the organization, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., did not respond Wednesday to an interview request.”

Lee Habeeb writes at Townhall: “For anyone who doesn’t think that judges don’t matter, I beg you to read Judge Roger Vinson’s remarkable opinion in Florida v. Health and Human Services. His writing was clear, the legal reasoning astounding, and if upheld by the US Supreme Court, could go down in history as one of America’s most important legal decisions. But before we dig into Justice Vinson’s opinion, let’s talk a bit about why judges matter.”

Kyle Olson writes at Townhall: “One of the most disturbing results of an adult-focused public education system is the constant focus on money. There is an insatiable thirst on the part of Big Labor to constantly increase spending on public education, because the teachers’ unions are mostly concerned with their pensions, paychecks and the union coffers.”

Religion Clause Blog: “One India News reports that in Pakistan’s Punjab province yesterday, a court has invoked the country’s controversial blasphemy law to impose a death sentence on Muhammad Rafiq for committing blasphemy against the companions of the Prophet Muhammad.”

AP via KC Star: “The welfare of the child is more important than the religious freedom of the parents,” Temin said.

EurasiaNet.org: “A seemingly innocuous suggestion to allocate time and space for Kyrgyz MPs to observe Islam’s traditional Friday prayers has produced a furor with implications for mosque-state separation. Opponents say the measure threatens to erode the concept of secularism enshrined in Kyrgyzstan’s constitution.”

LifeNews: “A second videotape has been released showing a Planned Parenthood abortion business covering up an alleged sex trafficking ring. The first tape showed staffers in New Jersey engaged in the coverup and this one features a clinic in Virginia.”

Law Professor John Culhane writes at 365Gay.com: “The list of states willing to grant same-sex couples the full benefits of marriage grew by one on Monday, when Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed that state’s civil union law. The law looks quite similar to measures enacted in several other states, except for this one, crucial difference: Opposite-sex couples are also permitted to enter into civil unions . . . ”

AP: “U.S. racial minorities accounted for roughly 85 percent of the nation’s population growth over the last decade – one of the largest shares ever – with Hispanics accounting for much of the gain in many of the states picking up new House seats.”

“After federal Judge Roger Vinson struck down on Monday the entire statute in a suit brought by 26 states, some states are already suspending any efforts to comply with its regulations and mandates.”

AP: “A court on Thursday ordered the detention of an American official suspected in the shooting deaths of two Pakistanis extended by at least eight days, in defiance of U.S. demands the man be released immediately.”

Wall Street Journal: “Nearly a year and a half into the economic recovery, some 43.6 million Americans continued to rely on food stamps in November.”

RIANOVOSTI: “Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood movement has unveiled its plans to scrap a peace treaty with Israel if it comes to power, a deputy leader said in the interview with NHK TV.”

AP on MyWay: “President Barack Obama’s response to the crisis in Egypt is drawing fierce criticism in Israel, where many view the U.S. leader as a political naif whose pressure on a stalwart ally to hand over power is liable to backfire.”

“The Senate on Wednesday voted down a repeal of President Obama’s healthcare law in a 47-51 party-line vote.”