Daily Archives: April 19, 2011

LifeNews: Thus, whatever else may be said about abortion proponents’ claim that treaties create a right to abortion, the basic human rights documents are, if anything, against abortion; they certainly do not create a right for abortion.

EU Observer: – The European Commission has decided against introducing legislation to protect net neutrality on the continent, preferring to leave it to the market to resolve any concerns about the blockage or throttling of services or content.

Ed Whelan at National Review: Two weeks ago, former federal district judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled last summer in Perry v. Schwarzenegger that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, publicly disclosed for the first time that he has been in a same-sex relationship for the past ten years. A straightforward application of the judicial ethics rules compels the conclusion that Walker should have recused himself from taking part in the Perry case.

Catholic Culture: Muslim militants attacked a Christian village of Khokarki in the northeastern Pakistani province of Punjab on April 16, causing dozens of families to flee. The attack followed an accusation of blasphemy against Mushtaq Gill and his son, Farrukh Mushtaq Gill, who had been quarreling with local Muslims.

Volokh Conspiracy: A group of law reviews — including the main law reviews at Harvard, Yale, Chicago, and Stanford — have announced that they are opposed to exploding offers of publication. The journals “commit, effective immediately, to give every author at least seven days to decide whether to accept any offer of publication.” In the letter to explaining the decision, they write . . .

Cunningham, Clark D., Should American Law Schools Continue to Graduate Lawyers Whom Clients Consider Worthless? (2011). Maryland Law Review, Vol. 70, p. 101, 2011; Georgia State University College of Law, Legal Studies Research Paper . Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1805936

RiaNovosti: A Muslim crescent should be part of Russia’s national emblem along with Orthodox crosses, Chief Mufti of Russia Talgat Tadzhuddin said on Friday in an interview with Moskovskiye Novosti daily.

Washington Post: Virginia Social Services Commissioner Martin Brown, who was appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell and who also worked for two other Republican governors, George Allen and Jim Gilmore, is advising a state board that it cannot impose proposed regulations that some argue would, for the first time, allow same-sex couples in Virginia to adopt children. The State Board of Social Services will consider the issue Wednesday.

TheSpec.com: Making babies, or trying to adopt them, can be a costly heartbreak for Ontarians. And politicians don’t want to pay the price for overpromising or underdelivering. Rising infertility problems have spawned an intense debate about who should pay for prohibitively expensive in vitro fertilization treatments.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes freedom of religion as a basic human right . . . “It would be impossible today at the United Nations to have such an article accepted by the majority.” Why? The “freedom to change his religion” would not be allowed. “You would have, at once, 55 to 60 countries say, ‘No! We cannot accept that,’” Graz said.

Irish Times: A transsexual who was awarded more than €35,000 compensation for workplace discrimination has spoken of her relief that the case ended successfully.

AGI News: “A full 27 percent of cases pending at the European Court of Human Rights concern Italy.”

LifeNews: Businessman Donald Trump faltered when responding to a series of questions on abortion that saw NBC reporter Savannah Guthrie attempt to challenge him on the so-called right to privacy the Supreme Court invented to create a “right” to abortion.

Christian Institute: Calls in Scotland for marriage to be fundamentally redefined for homosexual marriage have come under fire from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland.

Hindustan Times: The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred its hearing on the issue of legalisation and decriminalisation of gay sex among consenting adults in private. A bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi adjourned the matter without specifying the date of the next hearing . . .

Christian Institute: The centuries-old ban on a Roman Catholic becoming a British monarch should be scrapped, the Prime Minister has said.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Advisers for Justice David Prosser on Monday said a recount by challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg is unwarranted and would be too costly for taxpayers.

MDJOnline.com: The list of speakers is being finalized and the time is drawing near for the 27th annual Cobb County Prayer Breakfast. But a small group of protesters from the Smyrna-based Atlanta Freethought Society and American Atheists say they will protest the event . . .

Orlando Sentinel: Orange County leaders are poised Tuesday to extend benefits to the domestic partners and children of gay employees, a move that would mark another significant victory for local rights activists.

The appeals court said Kessler must “order restitution equal to the amount of harm the government proves the defendant caused the victim.”

PNJ.com: Mediation is scheduled to begin Wednesday between the Santa Rosa County School District, the American Civil Liberties Union and a Christian legal group over the controversial agreement that ended prayer in school. Liberty Counsel . . .

LifeNews: There is an ugly statistic made well known by none other than The New York Times from a 2007 article; 90 percent of all pregnancies where the unborn child is given a diagnosis of Down Syndrome end in abortion.

Politico: Of those surveyed for a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday, 51 percent said they think marriages between lesbian and gay couples should be recognized as legal and come with the same rights as heterosexual unions, while 47 percent said the marriages should not be recognized.

The Hill: Leaders in the House have agreed to pay up to $520 an hour and up to $500,000 to a law firm retained to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act after President Barack Obama instructed the Justice Department not to defend a key part of the law.

Politico: A whopping 48 percent of Iowa Republicans said they don’t believe that Obama was born in the United States, according to the automated survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling out Tuesday. Another 26 percent said they weren’t sure whether or not the president was born in America as the Constitution requires to be eligible to serve in the nation’s highest office.

LifeSiteNews: The Texas Senate will vote April 19 on a bill that would require women considering an abortion to view an ultrasound image and hear their unborn child’s heartbeat beforehand. House Bill 15, was passed by the Texas House in March, but has been stalled in the Senate . . .

LifeSiteNews: Idaho is now officially the third U.S. state to have a law banning late-term abortion on the basis of fetal pain. Gov. Butch Otter on Thursday signed SB 1165 into law.

LifeNews: The Tennessee state Senate has approved again an amendment pro-life groups are fighting for to limit the reach of a pro-abortion state Supreme Court ruling preventing the passage of any legislation limiting abortions.

LifeNews: “Looking at a 2010 fact sheet from their own website, Planned Parenthood provided 324, 008 abortion services, 2,405 adoption referrals, and 9,433 prenatal services in 2008. When calculated, abortion services accounted for 96% of the services provided to pregnant women.”

AP: “Media organizations are joining lawyers for two-same-sex couples in urging a federal appeals court to release videotapes of a lower court trial on California’s gay marriage ban.”

Rasmussen Reports: Perhaps the most stunning data point is that even among people who bought their home more than five years ago, just 52% believe their home is worth more than the mortgage. Among those who purchased a home three to five years ago, 64% think they owe more than it’s worth. Overall, 36% of all homeowners now believe their home is worth less than the mortgage.

South Florida Gay News: “Mark my words, there will be litigation over this,” said Douglas Napier, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative religious rights organization.

David Moshman at the Huffington Post: Adams appealed the summary judgment with the support of the Alliance Defense Fund, the American Association of University Professors, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. On April 6 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed with respect to Adams’ First Amendment claim, ruling that the First Amendment did apply to the speech in question and so the case must go to trial.

One News Now: “What’s troubling here is that numerous other community groups were regularly allowed to have their fliers distributed at the school. This includes fliers for . . . ” reports ADF attorney Matt Sharp. “All of those were allowed to be handed out to the students, but our clients were denied from advertising their ‘After School Christmas Story Hour’ because it was religious…expression.” So Sharp decides this is a clear case of viewpoint discrimination. “Christians can’t be censored for expressing a religious viewpoint,” he contends. “They have to recieve equal treatment to other community groups that want to send fliers home with students or distribute them at the schools.”

As The Wall Street Journal reports, “companies cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million.” That’s in stark contrast from a decade ago, when for every job U.S. multinational companies created abroad, they created nearly two jobs here in America, according to economist Matthew Slaughter.

NCPA Policy Digest: Taxpayers must spend significantly more than $1 in order to provide $1 of income tax revenue to the federal government, says Arthur B. Laffer, the chairman of Laffer Associates.

The Hill: Pelosi also noted in her letter that she agrees with Obama and the DOJ the law is unconstitutional. “You note that President Obama and Attorney General Holder have determined that DOMA is unconstitutional, a conclusion I share, and have declined to engage in further judicial proceedings in defense of the law,” Pelosi wrote.

The Hill: “This could mean that a justice is writing a dissent from the denial; or that a justice is writing a statement respecting denial; or that a potential fourth justice to grant is unsure and needs more time; or even that the Court is unsure whether to deny or dismiss the petition (for lack of jurisdiction),” writes Brad Joondeph of the ACA Litigation Blog, which tracks healthcare reform challenges.

AP: “Malaysian authorities have sent 66 Muslim schoolboys identified by teachers as effeminate to a four-day camp where they will receive counseling on masculine behavior to discourage them from being gay, an official said Tuesday.”

AP: Records obtained by The Associated Press show that over the past 13 years, a little-known Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers . . .

AZ Republic: Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday shot down an effort by the Arizona Legislature to require presidential candidates to provide proof of citizenship in order to get on the state’s ballot.

AP: Burned corpses with machete wounds lay in roads and smoke rose above this city where rioting broke out again Tuesday among Muslim opposition supporters who were angered by the announcement that the Christian incumbent president had won the election.

Henning, Kristin N., When Parental Authority Goes Too Far: The Fourth Amendment Rights of Minors in Their Parents’ Homes (December 28, 2010). William & Mary Law Review, Forthcoming; Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 11-32. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1797810

Shulman, Jeffrey, Epic Considerations: The Speech that the Supreme Court Would Not Hear in Snyder v. Phelps (April 4, 2011). Cardozo Law Review de Novo, pp. 35-42, 2011; Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 11-36. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1802549

Eastman, John C., Full Faith and Republican Guarantees: Gay Marriage, FMPA, and the Courts (February 10, 2006). Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law, Vol. 20, p. 243, 2007. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1805277

Sifris, Adiva and Gerber, Paula, Jack & Jill or Jack & Bill: The Case for Same-Sex Adoption (2009). Alternative Law Journal, Vol. 34, No. 3, p. 168, 2009; Monash University Faculty of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 2010/40. …

Cohen, I. Glenn and Sayeed, Sadath, Fetal Pain, Abortion, Viability and the Constitution (April 8, 2011). The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Vol. 39, 2011. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1805904

Aroney, Nicholas and Ahdar, Rex, The Topography of Shari’a in the Western Political Landscape (November 2010). SHARI’A IN THE WEST, Rex Ahdar and Nicholas Aroney, eds., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1807801

Witte, John and Nichols, Joel A., Faith-Based Family Laws in Western Democracies? (2010). Fides et Libertas: The Journal of the International Religious Liberty Association, pp. 119-132, 2010; U of St. Thomas Legal Studies Research Paper No. 11-09. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1805304