Daily Archives: April 6, 2011

Baptist Press: “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission unanimously approved sweeping new safety rules, which outlaw drop-side cribs and require stronger hardware and supports. The commission said it is unlikely that existing cribs will meet the new standards.”

Reuters: “A bill that would require doctors to determine the viability of an unborn child if a woman seeks an abortion after 20 weeks passed the Ohio Senate on Wednesday.”

Telegraph: The most seriously ill patients in the NHS have become the victims of “neglect” as surgeons are forced to focus on hitting waiting list targets for pre-planned operations, leading emergency doctors warn.

Decision against UNC-Wilmington sets significant precedent protecting professors who express their views on religious, political topics

Freedom from Religion Foundation: The Freedom From Religion Foundation plans to appeal a district court decision out of South Carolina upholding a school policy that granted credit for religious release time into student grade point averages. The case would go before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Express.co.uk: BUILDING a mosque with 100ft minarets overlooking Sandhurst military college would cause needless and drastic changes to an historic town, it was claimed yesterday.

Washington Post: A team of Israeli and Palestinian pollsters says a third of Palestinians surveyed said they supported an attack last month that saw five members of an Israeli family stabbed to death in their home in a West Bank settlement.

Washington Post: The measure, which passed the House last week, appeared stalled in the Senate. But a group of openly gay members of the House pressed Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) to move the bill out of the Rules Committee to allow for a vote.

Chicago Tribune: “Roman Catholic leaders are pushing a bill saying Illinois women must be offered a chance to view an ultrasound picture of the fetus before undergoing an abortion.”

LifeSiteNews: “The report, released at the end of March, showed that abortions in Kansas fell 12 percent last year from 2009 numbers, and were down 32.4 percent when compared with the 2000 figures . . . ”

ADF attorney Erik Stanley writes at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: My colleague David Cortmanposted a blog about the recent Supreme Court victory in ACSTO v. Winn.  As he points out, there are many great things to celebrate about that case.  I thought I would highlight one other positive development from that case . . .

ADF attorney Casey Mattox at the Speak Up Movement Blog: In a major victory for the rights of conscience of medical professionals (and others), yesterday an Illinois Circuit Court struck down an Illinois regulation requiring pharmacists to sacrifice their sincere religious and moral objections and dispense “emergency contraceptives” like Plan B (“the morning after pill”) – and now Ella (the “week after pill”) if they have them in stock.

Travis Barham at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: A University of North Carolina–Wilmington professor’s speeches and columns are fully protected by the First Amendment, according to a published decision handed down Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys contended that criminology professor Mike Adams was denied a promotion unconstitutionally because university officials were hostile to the religious and political views he espoused in his columns and speeches . . .

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: And the Fourth Circuit held that, when it comes to public university professor employment decisions, Garcetti doesn’t apply, and a professor speaking on matters of public concern can’t be discriminated against based in employment unless the speech is seen as unduly disruptive (under the Pickering test) . . . Now I’m not sure what the right First Amendment answer when it comes to university decisions that are based on evaluations of a candidate’s scholarly work . . .

Eugene Volkh at the Volokh Conspiracy: The opinion, by an Illinois trial court, is at Morr-Fitz, Inc. v. Blagojevich (Apr. 5, 2011). The rule is 68 Ill. Admin. Code § 1330.500(e)-(h); the court concluded that it violated the Illinois Healthcare Right of Conscience Act, the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Free Exercise Clause. I’m inclined to be skeptical of the court’s decision under the Free Exercise Clause . . . But the decision under the Illinois Healthcare Right of Conscience Act seems to me to be quite solid . . . And the decision under the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act also strikes me as correct

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers on Christian Newswire: “On March 21, Family Planning Officials entered the home of Xu Shuaishuai to seize his sister for a forced sterilization. When they could not find her, they beat Xu’s father. When Xu defended his father, one of the Family Planning Officials stabbed him twice in the heart with a long knife. Xu died on the way to the hospital.”

Reuters: “The judge who struck down California’s gay marriage ban never considered his own homosexuality as a reason to recuse himself from the case, he said on Wednesday.”

The Spokesman-Review: Senate Bill 1165 bans abortion after 20 weeks on grounds of fetal pain . . . The bill passed the House on a 54-14 vote and now heads to the governor’s desk. It includes provisions for a legal defense fund that could accept donations , , ,

The LA Examiner reports.

GoLocalProv: As the gay marriage bill remains stalled in the House Judiciary Committee, Statehouse sources tell GoLocalProv that there is widespread talk that House Speaker Gordon Fox might intervene to get the bill out of the committee.

The Republic: A bill offering legal recognition to same-sex couples in Delaware has drawn scores of opponents to Legislative Hall to lobby lawmakers to vote against it.

BBC: The Civil Partnership Bill 2011 comes into force on Wednesday, meaning couples can register for a ceremony to take place as early as next week.

The council voted 21-15 — which was, despite appearances, the narrowest of margins — to require firms doing business with the city to promise not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Wal-Mart was within its rights to fire a Joliet store employee who told a lesbian co-worker that she would go to hell because God does not accept gays, and the dismissal was not religious discrimination, a federal appeals court has ruled.”

One News Now: Texas citizen has won a lawsuit against the Ft. Worth suburb that jailed him for displaying a political sign. Chris Howe was defended by the Liberty Institute as he faced criminal charges in Watauga. Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel and founder of the legal group . . .

LifeNews: “The Oklahoma state Senate joined the state House in passing legislation that would make the state the next to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain. The Senate approved House Bill 1888, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act . . . ”

LifeNews: Representative Tim Freeman (R-Roseburg) held a press conference today announcing the House Judiciary Committee hearing of a bill that would ban abortion in Oregon after the fifth month of pregnancy except to save the life of the mother. HB 3512 . . .

Fox News: “The California Legislature could soon pass a bill that would require school textbooks and teachers to incorporate information on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans into their curriculum.  The Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful Education Act, or SB48 . . . ”

David Klepper at AP on TBO.com: A proposal to extend some of the rights of marriage to same-sex couples and others who can’t legally marry, such as siblings, is winning little support amid Rhode Island’s debate over legalizing gay marriage.

Joan Frawley Desmond writes at the National Catholic Register: Polls: Do the Numbers Lie? Survey claims that more American Catholics are breaking with Rome over same-sex relationships.
“Recent headlines trumpeting Catholic support for “gay rights” suggest that the faithful reject Church teaching. But critics allege that the latest opinion research is part of a political strategy to promote same-sex “marriage” and should not be trusted . . . The centerpiece of Brown’s argument is the discrepancy between polls that signal growing support for “marriage equality” and the repeated rejection of same-sex “marriage” by actual voters. The latest research on Catholic opinion, Brown contends, is based on the same kind of flawed methodology that has misrepresented the actual views of respondents, whatever their religious beliefs.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act breaks new legal ground. It confronts prior US Supreme Court decisions that only at viability can laws be passed to stop abortion, and it also contains no health exception, also a prior SC mandate.

Having spent decades watching ballots be counted in hundreds of elections, and never once have we seen a situation with such outrageous manipulation of the vote.

LifeSiteNews: The number of American teens using oral contraceptives is on a rapid rise according to a new study by Thomson Reuters . . .

Catholic Online: A horrific sex slave operation has spread to at least 25 states within the continental United States. Called “Latino Residential Brothels,” or LRBs for short, these houses of ill repute lure young, uneducated girls and women from Latin America and then force them into prostitution.

“As of 2:15 p.m., The Associated Press had tallied results for all of the state’s 3,630 precincts and Kloppenburg had taken a 204-vote lead after Prosser had been ahead most of the night by less than 1,000 votes.”

ADF attorney Doug Napier on the Janet Mefferd Show. | MP3 audio 18:50 mins

TheLocal.se: A lesbian couple has accused Sweden’s social insurance agency of discrimination after being denied the right to the government’s gender equity bonus for parents who share parental leave equally.

Mercator.net: The high court agreed 5–4 with the arguments of Alliance Defense Fund attorneys and dismissed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against an Arizona program that promotes school choice.

Lawrence Journal World: Speaking at the meeting will be representatives of several groups that opposed the Manhattan ordinance. They include Awaken Manhattan, the Alliance Defense Fund, Concerned Women for America and Kansas Family Policy Council.

One News Now: Walden, and attorney Jim Campbell recently argued on behalf of the former federal government employee. “In this case, Marsha Walden was a counselor working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She referred a client seeking same-sex relationship counseling because she realized that providing that counseling would conflict with her sincerely held religious beliefs,” Campbell explains. “Unfortunately, she was terminated for that decision.”

TheLocal.se: “One of the reasons for the recommendation is because it can cause danger and increase risks if a person who has converted to Christianity is later sent back to their home country.”

St. Petersburg Times: Revamping the Supreme Court is a top priority for House Speaker Dean Cannon.
But the bills he backs to remake the state’s highest tribunal face resistance in the Senate.

Religion Clause Blog: After passage by the state Senate last month, on Monday the Arizona House of Representatives passed and sent to the governor for her signature SB 1288, a broad bill protecting against basing denial of occupational licenses or positions on public bodies based on a person’s exercise of religion.

LifeNews: The American Center for Law and Justice today secured a sweeping victory for pro-life pharmacy owners in Illinois after a legal battle lasting six years. A state court in Illinois issued a decision striking down a state law that compels pharmacy owners to dispense Plan B and other forms of emergency contraception, even if doing so violates their religious or moral beliefs.

Religion Clause Blog: “In Christian Assembly Rios De Agua Viva v. City of Burbank, (IL App., March 31, 2011), an Illinois appellate court refused to grant a congregation a preliminary injunction to permit it to operate a church on property it has contracted to purchase.”

The Hill: “The Senate declined on Tuesday to take up a resolution that would have affirmed a 2007 statement by then-Sen. Barack Obama that a president must gain Congress’s permission before authorizing a military attack.”

The Hill:aking at the National Press Club, John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said his union would consider filing a claim under the Constitution’s 13th Amendment in the event of a shutdown since some workers would have to work without pay to keep vital operations up and running.

Janice Shaw Crouse at Townhall: For those just becoming aware of this emerging crisis, here are what I believe are the three major cultural trends that stunt young men’s maturity . . .

AP: “France’s top court has refused to give French nationality to children born of surrogate mothers abroad.”

CNSNews (includes video): House Budget Chairman Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said President Barack Obama’s budget strategy is to “do nothing, punt, duck, kick the can down the road” while the debt remains on track to eventually hit 800 percent of GDP and the CBO is saying it “can’t conceive of anyway” that the economy can continue past 2037 given its current trajectory.

AP: “Behind some of the anonymous online appeals for pro-democracy protests in China that have roiled the authoritarian government is a group of 20 mostly highly educated, Internet savvy Chinese scattered inside and outside the country, the Associated Press has found.”

Wall Street Journal: Mr. Ryan’s budget rollout is an important political and policy moment because it is the most serious attempt to reform government in at least a generation. The plan offers what voters have been saying they want—a blueprint to address the roots of Washington’s fiscal disorder. It does so not by the usual posturing (“paygo”) and symbolism (balanced budget amendment) but by going to the heart of the spending problem, especially on the vast and rapidly growing health-care entitlements of Medicaid and Medicare. The Wisconsin Republican’s plan is a generational choice, not the usual Beltway echo.

Christian Concern for Our Nation: The Christian couple from Derby at the heart of the controversy over whether couples with mainstream Christian views on marriage and sexuality can become foster parents have re-submitted an application to foster to Derby City Council asking the Council to change its policy on carers.

LifeNews: Abortion activists protested a weekend event honoring pro-life advocate Joe Schiedler of the Pro-Life Action League and the protests involved more than just holding signs or chanting, they included violence.

Islamist Watch: In 2008, the Toronto Sun reported that “hundreds of [Greater Toronto Area] Muslim men in polygamous marriages — some with a harem of wives — are receiving welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses, thanks to the city and province, Muslim leaders say.” . . . Instead, welfare abuse by Muslims appears to have metastasized across the Western world. Almost three years later, news stories about radical Muslims — often immigrants — engaged in social benefits scams emerge regularly from Europe, Canada, and Australia. Even when they are not involved in fraud, Muslims frequently are overrepresented on welfare rolls, compared with other communities. The statistics from around the globe are jaw-dropping, especially in economically uncertain times.

AP: “Syria closed the country’s only casino Wednesday and reversed a decision that bans teachers from wearing the Islamic veil – moves seen an attempt to reach out to conservative Muslims ahead of calls for pro-democracy demonstrations.”

AP: A joint venture between three of the nation’s four largest cell phone carriers will soon offer the United States’ first commercially available mobile fare payment program to a public transportation system.

AP: “George Washington didn’t really have a view about the Internet,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd of about 650 people at the Statehouse Convention Center.

BBC: Surgeons say patients in some parts of England have spent months waiting in pain because of delayed operations or new restrictions on who qualifies for treatment.