Daily Archives: March 15, 2011

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have secured a favorable partial settlement on behalf of pro-life advocates who were arrested, strip-searched, shackled, and jailed in Harford County in 2008. The county defendants agreed to a policy change to ensure that peaceful protesters will be protected from undergoing strip searches at the county detention center.

CNSNews: “A federal appeals court unanimously reinstated a lawsuit Tuesday filed by a Muslim woman who accused Southern California jailers of violating her religious freedom when they ordered her to take off her head scarf in a courthouse holding cell.”

The Judicial Conference: “The Judicial Conference of the United States today received a report on the potentially dire consequences the federal Judiciary may face if a Fiscal Year 2011 funding measure is not soon adopted.”

Congratulations to allied attorneys Geoffrey Westmoreland, Kevin Snider, Mike Tierney, Rick Macias, Steve Sanders, Stephen Casey, Greg Terra, Steve Whiting, Steve Amjad, Steve Fitschen, Tim Swickard, as well as new Honor Corps members, Albertos Polizogopoulos and Lisa Biron, for their recent accomplishments and successes listed below. Please take time to congratulate them!

Christian Today: “A Christian man serving a life sentence for blasphemy has been found dead in his prison cell.”

Reuters: “Growth of the U.S. Hispanic population is so fast and dynamic that it has outstripped estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, according to a study released on Tuesday.”

KLFY.com: “The Rapides Parish Police Jury has enacted a stricter definition of what constitutes a sexually oriented business.”

PolitickerNJ.com: “The “Repealing Ineffective and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act” would strike Title V, Section 510 from the Social Security Act. That provision has been the funding mechanism for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for nearly 15 years. The bill would reprogram $50 million annually to evidence-based, comprehensive sex education programs funded through the Personal Responsibility Education (PREP) program. ”

The Hill: “Does Planned Parenthood’s so-called family planning really save taxpayers money or does the nation’s largest abortion provider actually drive up the cost to taxpayers? Consider the connection between contraception and abortion.”

Houston Chronicle (AP): The Texas Senate has given initial approval for a “Choose Life” license plate as a measure to discourage abortion and raise money to promote adoption.

The Republic: Under a bill passed on a 64-33 vote Tuesday, a judge considering whether to let a girl bypass the parental consent requirement would have to collect evidence that she understands the impacts of having an abortion.

The Washington Post credited the “last-minute push” from black clergy in Prince George’s County, with personal lobbying visits to delegates’ offices and calls from the pulpit for parishioners to “Fight for the Family,” generating hundreds of visits and thousands of emails, phone calls, and faxes. The Post reported that phone calls ran as high as 25 to 1 against the bill in some delegates’ offices.

The New American: “An attack by militant Muslims which has thus far destroyed at least a dozen churches may signal an expansion in anti-Christian violence in Ethiopia as the next front in the recent escalation of the Jihad’s war against Christianity.”

BBC: “Cardinal Keith O’Brien has attacked plans to increase aid to Pakistan to more than £445m, without any commitment to religious freedom for Christians.”

Christian Post: “According to sources, the military-funded project will restore the St. Mina and St. George church in Soul, 18 miles south of Cairo.”

The Hill: “The frustration with the three-week spending bill was apparent on two fronts: 54 Republicans defected on the measure, far more than the six who voted against the last stopgap.”

Rocky Mount Telegram: “A Virginia group announced that it plans to stage a rally later this week during a visit to North Carolina by the leader of an effort to build an Islamic cultural center near the site of the 9/11 terror attacks . . . ”

AFP: Two US Senators urged the White House to block Chinese mining projects in the United States and elsewhere until Beijing loosens its grip on the trade in so-called rare earths minerals.

STLToday: . . . the House offered first-round approval today to a bill that would effectively ban all elective late-term abortions in the state.”

NBCMontana: “Close to 100 people lined up to testify at a Senate committee hearing to weigh in on a proposal to overturn a Missoula ordinance protecting gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender people from discrimination. House bill 516 would prohibit municipalities from making laws protecting groups not already protected by the state’s antidiscrimination laws.”

Politico: “For my Dad, America was the land of opportunity, where the circumstances of birth are no barrier to achieving one’s dreams,” Romney said in a high-profile New Hampshire speech earlier this month.

“Legislators in the House of Representatives voted 63-7 Monday to ban porn on library computers across the state.”

One News Now: “The American Center for Law & Justice argued before the New York Supreme Court today that a historic building near the 9/11 site shouldn’t be replaced by an Islamic mosque.”

CNSNews: Malaysia’s government has agreed to release some 35,000 imported Bibles seized by customs officials amid a dispute over the use of the word “Allah” as a translation for God.

Charisma: The two situations cited in the letter involve clients represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). “Medical professionals should not be punished for holding to their beliefs, and they should not be forced to perform abortions against their conscience,” says ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Members of the House are justified in asking why the Obama administration would be seeking to repeal such protections, especially in light of the recent examples of abuse involving ADF clients.”

Christian Today: “Release International has launched a new campaign calling upon North Korea to protect the human rights of Christians.”

Christian Today: The Rev Ian Galloway, the Convenor of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council, said it was “repugnant” that children were being used as sex slaves in Scotland.

MSNBC: “Pew study find Americans are split evenly overall on accepting ‘non-traditional families’ but disparage single moms.”

Forbes: “The House voted 259-107 Tuesday to force Delaney to join 28 other states in suing to block the Affordable Health Care Act.”

WECT.com: “North Carolina lawmakers have taken another step toward ending the current limit of 100 charter schools.”

KCCI.com: “A conservative group fighting to bring a constitutional amendment vote before voters plans a rally Tuesday in Des Moines.”

GayPolitics.com: “Irish Sen. David Norris, an Independent, has launched his campaign for the presidency of Ireland, according to the Irish Times . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: Canada’s new immigrant study guide released Monday now includes references to homosexual “marriage” after considerable pressure from gay rights activists, including Egale Canada.

LifeSiteNews: “Catholic priest and pro-life activist Luiz Carlos Lodi da Cruz is warning that Brazilians who object to homosexual behavior and reject the homosexualist political agenda in Brazil could soon be targeted by a new whistleblower system installed by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.”

LifeNews: But Marie Tasy, the director of New Jersey Right to Life, told LifeNews.com the Rutgers Eagleton Poll “does not tell the whole story.”

LifeNews: “A Florida committee passed two pieces of legislation that would allow the state to opt out of the abortion funding allowed under the Obamacare health care reform law.”

LifeNews: “Doctors at the Catholic hospital in Missouri that agreed to take Baby Joseph Maraachli, the 14-month-old Canadian infant who was denied the medical procedure in his country, say they will do a tracheotomy by the end of the week.”

Orin Kerr writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “This fascinating comment thread at Prawfs on the experience of submitting law review articles suggests it would be helpful to have a thread on the latest practices in law review offer windows. When journals make an offer, how long do they give authors to decide whether to accept?”

Religion Clause Blog: Last June, in United States v. Marcavage, the 3rd Circuit vacated Marcavage’s conviction for interfering with an agency function, finding that the sidewalk on which he was demonstrating was a traditional public forum.  Now, however, in Marcavage v. National Park Service, (ED PA, March 9, 2011), a Pennsylvania federal district court held that while a damage action under Bivens action may be brought against federal officials for 1st Amendment violations, the Park Service officers involved have qualified immunity.

Phyllis Schlafly writes at Townhall: “Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has again demonstrated her extraordinary leadership in the U.S. House. She discovered $105 billion of taxpayers’ money that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi had hidden in ObamaCare.”

David French’s Patheos article has been reprinted at Virtue Online and partially reprinted on the National Review Phi Beta Cons Blog.

ABA Journal: “The religious freedoms enshrined in our Constitution do not evaporate when you step on campus,” said Schuette in an online statement announcing the filing of the brief (PDF posted by the Chronicle of Higher Education). Ward and her lawyers at the Alliance Defense Fund contend the school violated her right to the free exercise of religion when it ousted her in 2009. The school, on the other hand, says it dismissed Ward because she didn’t follow an ethics code that requires counselors to set aside their personal beliefs when counseling clients.

Rasmussen: “Still, 11% of Likely U.S. Voters think communism is morally superior to the U.S. system of politics and economics, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. But 77% disagree and say the U.S. system is morally superior. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure. ”

Rasmussen: “Members of public employee unions prefer Democrats over Republicans on the Generic Congressional Ballot by a 28-percentage-point margin. Among private sector union members, the gap is half that size.”

Detroit Free Press: “Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has waded into a closely watched federal appeals case, siding with an Eastern Michigan University student who claims her dismissal from the university for refusing to counsel gay and lesbian patients violated her religious belief against homosexuality . . . But that’s not how Ward sees it. She and her attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund say the case is about religious discrimination.”

AP: “Brownback has called for giving new residents to any county that lost more than 10 percent of its population a five-year exemption from state income taxes. The state would also help newcomers repay student loans they might owe.”

SCOTUS Blog: “The Obama Administration urges the Court to turn down Virginia’s request to take up swiftly, before an appeals court rules on it, the constitutionality of the new health care law.”

FRC is sponsoring this event at 2 pm today.

CBS: “The bill’s first stop is Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services. A similar measure awaits a House hearing.”

Richard C. Schragger, The Relative Irrelevance of the Establishment Clause, 89 Tex. L. Rev. 583 (2011)

Dan J. Bulfer, How California Got It Right: Mining in Re Marriage Cases for the Seeds of a Viable Federal Challenge to Same-Sex Marriage Bans, 41 Cal. W. Int’l L.J. 49 (2010)

L. Lynn Hogue, The Constitutional Obligation to Adjudicate Petitions for Same-Sex Divorce and the Dissolution of Civil Unions and Analogous Same-Sex Reliationships: Prolegomenon to a Brief, 41 Cal. W. Int’l L.J. 229 (2010)