Daily Archives: March 17, 2011

Blog of the Legal Times: “Republican U.S. senators stiffened their opposition today to confirming James Cole as deputy attorney general, adding to a list of reasons they cited last year in blocking a Senate vote on his nomination.”

Blog of the Legal Times: The Senate voted unanimously today to confirm Washington litigator Amy Berman Jackson to a judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

ABC: “The bill passed by a 228-192 vote. No Democrats voted for it, and only 7 Republicans voted against the measure.”

AP on Google News: “Germany’s parliament has adopted legislation making it illegal to force someone into marriage, with a possible punishment of five years in prison.”

Yahoo News: “Montana House Republican lawmakers heartily endorsed a plan Tuesday that would force the state’s attorney general to join a lawsuit challenging the federal health care law, a move that sets up a possible showdown with an executive branch controlled by Democrats.”

Missoulian: “The Montana House voted 53-47 last Friday to remove $4.7 million in federal family-planning funds from the state budget for the next two years – money that’s been in Montana’s budget for decades.”

Americans United for Life: “Dr. Charmaine Yoest, President and CEO of Americans United for Life commended the New Hampshire House of Representatives for passing HB 329-FN, an AUL-drafted measure that requires parental notification before abortions may be performed on unemancipated minors, and called on the New Hampshire Senate to do the same.”

Delaware Online: “Legislation to subject abortion clinics and other facilities that conduct invasive medical procedures to safety and sanitation inspections cleared a House committee Wednesday despite concerns that the bill doesn’t go far enough. House Bill 47 . . . ”

CNSNews: “If Congress were to cut $6 billion every three weeks for the next 36 weeks, it would manage to save between now and late November as much money as the Treasury added to the nation’s net debt during just the business hours of Tuesday, March 15.”

LifeSiteNews: “Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children,” responded Simmons. “Courts can settle disputes, but they cannot legitimately order a child into a government-run school on the basis that her religious views need to be mixed with other views. That’s precisely what the lower court admitted it was doing.”
“The lower court held the Christian faith of this mother and daughter against them,” Simmons said. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court bypassed this issue and wrote this off as a ‘parent versus parent’ issue without recognizing the very real underlying threat to religious liberty.” Nevertheless, ADF Senior Counsel Joseph Infranco said that the law firm appreciates the Supreme Court’s choice to limit “its decision to the facts of this case,” which should ensure that the decision “cannot be used as a battering-ram against religious liberty or homeschooling.” The “ADF will be vigilant to make sure that it’s not,” he concluded.

Christian Post: John Anthony Simmons, the Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney in the case, expressed appreciation that the Supreme Court “limited its decision to the facts of this case.” . . . “Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children. Courts can settle disputes, but they cannot legitimately order a child into a government-run school on the basis that her religious views need to be mixed with other views. That’s precisely what the lower court admitted it was doing,” he said. “The lower court held the Christian faith of this mother and daughter against them. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court bypassed this issue and wrote this off as a ‘parent versus parent’ issue without recognizing the very real underlying threat to religious liberty.”

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declared Thursday that a Republican proposal to defund Planned Parenthood will not be part of any agreement to fund the government for the rest of this year.”

TIME: Worrying is good for your health. Optimism is overrated. Women thrive post-divorce (men don’t). These are just a few of the unexpected findings that psychologist Howard Friedman explores in The Longevity Project, a new book based on a groundbreaking eight-decade study on the secrets to long life.

Christian Newswire: “Georgia Right to Life celebrates the passage of SB 210 Wednesday from the Senate to the House for further consideration. Entitled The Women’s Private Right of Action Bill, it provides a woman access to financial recovery for illegal abortions and improves compliance with existing abortion laws, among other things.”

CNN: “Let me tell you, I’m a really smart guy. I was a really good student at the best school in the country. The reason I have a little doubt, just a little, is because he grew up and nobody knew him,” Trump said in the interview that aired Thursday. “If I got the nomination, if I decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten. They’ll remember me. Nobody comes forward. Nobody knows who he is until later in his life. It’s very strange,” the Celebrity Apprentice host added. “The whole thing is very strange.”

“The interim between sessions will give advocates a chance to win over the last one or two votes needed to gain the 71-member majority in the House.”

Ark. Times: Leslie Peacock is on hand for the Arkansas Supreme Court arguments in the case challenging the initiated act that prohibits adoptions and foster parenting by cohabiting couples. It was passed to keep children out of the homes of same-sex partners, who are prohibited from marriage in Arkansas, but also applies to heterosexual couples who are unmarried.

Religion Clause Blog: “Alliance Defense Fund issued a press release on the decision.”

Topeka Capitol Journal: “The Senate Republican leadership won’t invite a vote on a bill dramatically escalating state regulation of adult entertainment businesses in Kansas, the chamber’s president said Thursday. Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said the House-passed bill had not been warmly received because it would likely force closure of many of the targeted businesses.”

SunHerald.com: Are we happier because we are married? Is there an association between marital status, satisfaction and happiness? The 15-year study of over 24,000 people from Germany from 1984 through 1995 showed that after the initial positive reaction to marriage, people go back to their prior normal levels of satisfaction and happiness. According to this study, the results of which were published in the “Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,” marriage and divorce do not have the same connotations for all people

TIME: “Today, the road to adulthood is much longer and more arduous than it was thirty years ago,” said study author Teresa Swartz in a statement describing the study, which appeared in the Journal of Marriage and Family.”

Christian Newswire: In a new and revised edition of his groundbreaking work, “What We Can’t Not Know”, Professor J. Budziszewski challenges the modern assumption that moral truth is obscure or even unattainable. With clear, logical arguments he rehabilitates the natural law tradition, restoring confidence in a moral code based upon human nature.

CorrectionsOne.com: Sukhjinder Basra has said that officers told him he violated a rule prohibiting inmates from growing facial hair longer than a half inch

MSNBC: “The Missouri House has passed legislation imposing restrictions on late-term abortions and criminal penalties for doctors who do not abide by new standards.”

KSPR.com: “The bill by Rep. Andy Mayberry of Hensley received nine favorable votes Wednesday in the Public Health Committee, not enough to advance from the 20-member panel.”

Digital Trends: “ICANN may decide Friday whether it will grant the porn industry its own section of the Internet in the form of a unique domain suffix.”

LifeSiteNews: “The mayor of New York City has signed a controversial gag rule against pro-life pregnancy resource centers that local advocates have vowed to challenge in court.”

KCCI.com: “An Iowa House subcommittee has approved a bill that would ban virtually all abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.”

Wall Street Journal: “Student applications to law schools are down sharply this year, as college seniors grow leery of a degree that promises certain debt and uncertain job prospects.”

LifeNews: “Rutgers’ obvious purpose forthis poll was politically motivated and designed to conclude that the Governor’s speech at our Rally hurt the Governor, but their own results show that 68% of those polled said that it either made them feel better about the Governor or had no effect.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit against La Paz County Wednesday for hitting a rural Arizona church with a $50,000 tax bill that the state agrees the church does not owe. The bill has resulted in a tax lien on the church’s property which could result in foreclosure and an end to the church’s ministry, including its outreach to the needy–a program praised by the Quartzsite mayor, town manager, and police chief.

ADF attorney David French writes at the National Review Phi Beta Cons Blog: “This afternoon, my colleagues and I at the Alliance Defense Fund filed two simultaneous cert petitions to the Supreme Court. The issue: Can students challenge university speech codes in court when those codes chill their free-speech rights, or must they wait until the university formally and officially punishes their speech? Until two recent decisions by the Ninth and Fourth Circuits, the answer to this question had been clear.”

Berkleyside: A former Jewish student at UC Berkeley has filed a lawsuit against the university contending it violated her civil rights when it did not protect her against attacks from a pro-Palestinian student.

“And the decision strikes me as constitutionally troublesome, whether implemented in broken families or in intact families.”

Washington Examiner: “The First Amendment prevents the government from compelling people to speak the government’s message,” said Matt Bowman, a lawyer for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, which filed the lawsuit. “That message was an attempt to force pregnancy centers to tell women to go somewhere else.” Lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund challenged the law on behalf of Centro Tepeyac, a Silver Spring pregnancy clinic, which does not provide birth control or abortions. Bowman says the law targets pro-life organizations and infringes upon their First Amendment rights.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/maryland/2011/03/judge-halts-montgomery-pregnancy-center-law#ixzz1GsLt7YQd

Daily Record: Chasanow barred Montgomery from enforcing that second requirement pending the outcome of the lawsuit brought by Centro Tepeyac, a Limited Service Pregnancy Resource Center in Silver Spring. The Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life litigation group that is representing Centro Tepeyac, said the court “did the right thing.” “The First Amendment does not have an abortion exception to it,” ADF attorney Matt Bowman said. “Cities and counties cannot take over the walls of pro-life pregnancy centers and require them to tell women that they should go elsewhere.”

Lez Get Real: Austin Nimocks, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, talked about the disproven canard that children fare best with a mother and a father saying “Each is necessary — culturally and biologically — for the optimal development of a human being.”

federal judge refused Wednesday to order the government to provide insurance benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee in San Francisco, coverage the Obama administration has denied because of a law the president considers unconstitutional

Kansas City Star Editorial: “Gov. Sam Brownback has thrown his support behind a bill that would jettison a judicial nominating process that has served Kansas well for more than 50 years and replace it with political appointments of judges.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Atheists of Florida, Inc. v. City of Lakeland, Florida, (MD FL, March 15, 2011), a Florida federal district court allowed plaintiffs to proceed with their federal and state Establishment Clause claims challenging the invocation policy of the Lakeland (FL) City Commission

Religion Clause Blog: The Ministry has stamped on each Bible the warning: “The Good News Bible is for the use of Christians only.”

Education News: Western universities are undoubtedly under pressure to find financial support, but this does not mean they should allow abusive and corrupt foreign dictators, officials or their families launder their images in exchange for money.

Washington Post: “In these dire fiscal times, when even the sacred programs are no longer sacred, Republican leaders have still been able to identify a few that they think deserve more money.”

NCPA Policy Digest: The U.S. corporate tax rate will soon become the highest in the industrialized world, and is already in its 20th year of being above the average for similar economies, according to a new analysis by the Tax Foundation. As other nations enact reforms and rate cuts, the U.S. corporate rate will continue to stand out as a hindrance to economic growth and competitiveness unless lawmakers move to lower the tax burden for businesses.

Religion Clause Blog: In Berry v. MeadWestvaco Packaging Systems, LLC, (MD AL, March 14, 2011), an Alabama federal district court dismissed a Title VII religious discrimination claim brought by a Seventh Day Adventist employee who was assigned to work at times that conflicted with his scripturally mandated Tuesday and Wednesday evening religious meetings.

AP: “Have a vasectomy on Thursday or Friday then spend the weekend recovering while watching NCAA tournament basketball.”

East Valley Tribune: “The First Amendment says you can’t prohibit the free exercise of religion,” said Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy. And Herrod, who also is an attorney, called the concept of a separation of church and state “a fallacy.” Brett Harvey, senior legal counsel to the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defense Fund, said what Brewer – and others – have done with these declarations is legal. “It is perfectly acceptable for politicians and for public officials to recognize the religious heritage of this country,” he said. And Harvey said the U.S. Supreme Court has even upheld things like prayers to open meetings and swear in public officials.

World Net Daily: Lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund, who had argued in the case that the clear religious bias against Christianity expressed by a guardian ad litem and adopted by the court was reason to reverse the decision, said the justices ignored the evidence. “Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children,” said allied attorney John Anthony Simmons in a statement released by the organization. “Courts can settle disputes, but they cannot legitimately order a child into a government-run school on the basis that her religious views need to be mixed with other views. “That’s precisely what the lower court admitted it was doing,” Simmons said. “The lower court held the Christian faith of this mother and daughter against them. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court ignored this issue and wrote this off as a ‘parent versus parent’ issue without recognizing the very real underlying threat to religious liberty.”

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Catholic Culture: The Obama administration’s refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court is “an egregious violation of the separation of powers” that “puts the future prospects of our democracy at stake,” according to Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland.

Bluegrass Policy Blog: I have no problem with collective bargaining for workers in general. People have a constitutional right to organize. It’s right there in the First Amendment. My problem with unions is that, at least in the public sector, people who pay for the government services do not have the ability to opt out of both consuming and paying for the unionized workers’ services. The only truly essential check on the power of unions is the ability for customers to look elsewhere for goods and services.

Wall Street Journal: In 1996, top-loaders were pretty much the only type of washer around, and they were uniformly high quality. When Consumer Reports tested 18 models, 13 were “excellent” and five were “very good.” By 2007, though, not one was excellent and seven out of 21 were “fair” or “poor.” This month came the death knell: Consumer Reports simply dismissed all conventional top-loaders as “often mediocre or worse.” How’s that for progress?  The culprit is the federal government’s obsession with energy efficiency.

Greg Scott writes at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: Things that make you go hmmmmmmm…  NWI reports: Marriage amendment debate pits social conservatives against businesses . . . …Jill Cook, vice president of human resources for Cummins Inc., said her company, which employs 5,500 workers at its Columbus, Ind., headquarters, would think twice about expanding if the amendment is approved . . .  So why now would Cummins, which boasts of its “top rating” by the radical Human Rights Campaign, publicly gnash its teeth over a proposed marriage amendment in one state after just months ago heralding their expansion into a state that already had a powerful amendment in place?