Daily Archives: May 5, 2011

Deseret News: Utah taxpayers spend about $276 million on the effects of divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth. But while there are effective tools to strengthen marriage and families, those who statistically need help most are the least likely to seek it out, experts say . . . The cost of divorce and out-of-wedlock births to taxpayers nationally exceeds $112 billion a year . . .

Christian Newswire: “While the UNFPA claims that hundreds of millions of women in the developing world are demanding contraceptives, our research around the globe has shown that this is simply not true,” concludes Mosher. “What they are actually crying out for is better primary health care for themselves and their families. We should stop funding population control programs and instead turn our attention to real problems like malaria, typhus, and HIV/AIDS.” “People are our greatest resource. Everyone, rich or poor, is a unique creation with something priceless to offer to the rest of us.”

Paul Light at the Washington Post: The Senate is currently considering legislation to accelerate the presidential appointments process by pulling 200 positions from its confirmation calendar, turning those positions instead into ‘at will’ appointees that bypass Senate confirmation and serve at the president’s pleasure. Not a bad idea per se, but the Senate would do better to speed things up by cutting the total number of appointments all together, rather than ceding power. It should also stop using personal holds to delay confirmation of the top positions that will still remain under its control.

“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

ADF attorney Kevin Theriot at Townhall: The timing of the National Day of Prayer with the events of this week couldn’t be more appropriate if one would have planned it that way. And recent court decisions rebuffing the ability of anti-religious groups to go to court to strike down the event also couldn’t come at a better time.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys say they are ready to offer free legal counsel to any government entities legally challenged for recognizing events related to Thursday’s National Day of Prayer.

Catholic Culture: The Holy See Press Office has issued a statement in response to the trial of Bishop Raymond Lahey. The Canadian bishop pled guilty to possession of child pornography and faces a sentence of at least one year in prison.

Guardian: Close allies of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Catholic Culture: Muslim youth angered by the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan have set fire to four churches in northern Nigeria.

AP: Montgomery, who considers himself an Orthodox Muslim, said his kufi is a constant reminder of his devotion to his religion. Taking it off in public, even at the urging of a judge, would be a violation of his religious beliefs, he said.

TheAge.com.au: LABOR will face another battle over gay marriage and euthanasia, after a parliamentary committee recommended giving greater autonomy to the ACT and Northern Territory.

Baptist Press: The legislation, however, faces likely defeat in the Senate, where Democrats and abortion-rights advocates maintain control. Pro-life Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., introduced his chamber’s version of the bill May 5.

LifeSiteNews: The head of Ontario’s Catholic trustees union, who co-signed a letter with the province’s bishops last month approving homosexual clubs in the Catholic schools, has insisted the clubs will not be used to “cure” students struggling with homosexual temptations and appeared to criticize the Courage apostolate in the process.

KOB.com: Clovis Municipal Schools has approved an application for a gay-straight alliance club.

Russell Flannery at Forbes: The number of couples that formally notified the government of the end of their marriage increased by 17% in the first three months of 2011 from a year earlier to 465,000, according to a report in today’s Beijing Times, a Chinese-language daily.

Christian Newswire: Charges Dropped Against Anti-Abortion Protesters at University’s Commencement with President Obama.

Boston Globe: Nancy Torresen was one of five federal judge nominees who appeared Wednesday before the committee in Washington.

Star Tribune (links to letter): More than 60 current and retired members of the law school faculty at the University of Minnesota have sent an open letter to legislators, urging them not to place a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota on the 2012 ballot.

The Republic (AP): Georgia’s top attorney has rebuked an Atlanta law firm for withdrawing from its agreement to defend the federal ban on gay marriage.

Family Research Council: Family Research Council (FRC) will host a panel on government regulation entitled, “The Federal Takeover of Higher Education.” This event will be held on Wednesday, May 11, at FRC’s D.C. headquarters at 801 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001.

Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels on Thursday signed into law a plan giving Indiana the nation’s most sweeping private school voucher program.

Telegraph: A Romanian couple have been arrested in southern Spain for trying to sell their baby to passersby.

LifeSiteNews: According to Rep. Jackie Speier of California, ending taxpayer funding for abortion would amount to an imposition of “religious belief.”

LifeSiteNews: “I see that this is another push of the gay lobby to come into our schools,” said Anne Rooney, a retired teacher from the Toronto Catholic District School Board who attended the meeting. “It just goes farther forward and farther forward. These incremental steps by the gay lobby will not be good for our children. … It will confuse them more and more.”

Christian Institute: A homosexual lobby group is to spend tens of thousands of pounds on sending a “teacher training pack” to every primary school in Britain.

Chuck Colson at Christian Post: According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in March, the Missouri PTA advised all of its 420 member units to stop hosting charters with the Boy Scouts because the agreements put them in legal jeopardy. An official with the state PTA said the advice to local associations is not a criticism of the Scouts but rather flows from the liability issue. The official said, “We’re not telling them, you absolutely can’t. “We’re saying, it’s not in your best interest to do that.” A Scouting spokesman, however, says insurance provided by the Boy Scouts would preclude any financial or legal jeopardy to PTA sponsors.

Christian Post: ADF Senior Counsel Kevin H. Theriot has also sent out letters encouraging local government leaders, “You are free to proclaim your support for this event, and you are under no obligation to satisfy the demands of any disgruntled individual or civil libertarian group that may oppose such action.”

Charisma News: “Public officials should be able to recognize public prayer activities just as America’s founders did,” says ADF Senior Counsel Joseph Infranco. “After the events of this past weekend, it’s hard to imagine better timing for this event. We encourage all Americans to take part in National Day of Prayer activities to give thanks to God and ask for His guidance. ADF stands ready to defend such activities if they are challenged in court

Washington Times: The Republican-controlled House has passed the first of three bills aimed at making it easier for oil companies to drill offshore.

Verde Independent: Children who are adopted lose their legal right to sue over the death of a biological parent, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

Politico: In a statement released by the Human Rights Campaign on Thursday, Clinton said that the next step in the expansion of rights in the United States should be same-sex marriage in his adopted home state.

LifeNews: An Alabama state Senate committee has backed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which protects unborn children capable of feeling pain. The bill bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy as a result.

AsiaNews.it: A doctor from Xuyi county of Jiangsu province is being investigated by police over accusations of performing a failed abortion on a 17-year-old unmarried girl, and then helping her give away the baby.

Scott Lemieux at the American Prospect: Most think that Planned Parenthood v. Casey upheld abortion rights, but it actually cleared the way for curbing them.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: An anti-abortion activist accused of harassing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lynnwood has agreed to a federal order barring him from going near the clinic.

Deseret News: Although the country’s longest wait bill was signed nearly two months ago, none of the state’s pregnancy centers have stepped forward to register with the state as required by the law.

Times Record: Republican-led efforts to limit abortions in Maine brought an overflow crowd to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Tuesday with abortion rights activists warning that the new restrictions would turn back the clock on a woman’s right to choose.

Wall Street Journal: The Hungarian ad campaign, partly financed by the EU, will run for two months and show a picture of a fetus with the words, “I understand it if you aren’t ready for me, but rather put me up for adoption, let me live!”

ABC: Proposed legislation would impose a 24-hour waiting period before a woman could receive an abortion and also require a doctor describe an ultrasound of the fetus.

St. Petersburg Times: With the passage of two abortion bills by the Senate on Thursday, three antiabortion measures are now headed to Gov. Rick Scott. Among them is a bill requiring that women be offered the opportunity to see and hear a description of ultrasound images before undergoing an abortion.

Education News: Likely due to increased tuition and tighter family budgets, enrollment in British private schools declined for UK citizens while foreign student numbers rose.

LifeSiteNews: The UK’s First-Tier Tribunal of the Charity Commission rejected an appeal last week by Catholic Care, the last Catholic adoption agency in the country, to change its constitution to exclude homosexuals from adopting children.

LifeSiteNews: For almost fifty years, Warren Buffett has been one of the largest single benefactors of population control and abortion in the world, exceeded only by Microsoft’s Bill Gates, with whom he has in recent years joined forces.

LifeNews: HB 586 . . . makes it so signs may be posted at abortion centers across the state advising women of alternatives to abortion and that they have the right to refuse an abortion, now heads to the full state House.

Although 26 lawmakers have signed a discharge petition to bring the bill out of a Senate committee and on to the Senate floor, Gronstal has the power to determine whether or not the bill receives a debate and vote.

Amanda Frost at the SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court today has nearly complete discretion over its docket—too much discretion, some argue. In a world in which the Court grants only about one percent of the 8000 or so petitions it receives each year, the process of “deciding to decide” is almost as important as the Court’s rulings on the merits, and yet the public knows almost nothing about how such decisions are made.

Russell Korobkin at the Volokh Conspiracy: The bottom line is that, while last week’s decision preserved the status quo of permitting federal funding for now, it probably did not resolve anything. The strong odds now are that Judge Lamberth will grant the plaintiffs summary judgment in the lawsuit, reiterating his interpretation of Dickey-Wicker Amendment, that the D.C. Circuit will stay the ruling pending appeal, and that all the parties will wait while the D.C. Circuit considers essentially the same issue again.

Religion Clause Blog: In Stinemetz v. Kansas Health Policy Authority, (KS App., May 4, 2011), a Kansas state appellate court held that the Kansas agency administering the state’s Medicaid program violated the free exercise rights of a Jehovah’s Witness when it refused, for lack of medical necessity, to authorize coverage of an out-of-state liver transplant using a method that does not involve blood transfusions.

Heritage Foundation, The Foundry: Randall Stilley has witnessed firsthand the Obama administration’s job-killing agenda. As the president and chief executive of Seahawk Drilling, he had to lay off 632 employees before filing for bankruptcy — a direct result of President Barack Obama’s anti-energy policies.

AP: The Nevada Supreme Court is hosting an interactive Law Day Live forum linking courtrooms in Las Vegas, Carson City, and Winnemucca around an American Bar Association theme honoring the legacy of the nation’s second president, John Adams.

AP: “At a Capitol hearing on Monday, the St. Louis Park Democrat asked, “How many gays must God create before we accept that he wants them around? . . . ” Online at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vhXpOA3jPC04

AP: “The Medical Board of California has heard final arguments about whether “Octomom” Nadya Suleman’s fertility doctor should have his license revoked for allegedly providing substandard care to her and two other patients.”

Channel6newsonline.com: Today, President Obama nominated Dana L. Christensen, Katherine B. Forrest, Justice John M. Gerrard, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Edgardo Ramos, and Judge Robert N. Scola, Jr. for District Court judgeships . . .

Steven Harper at AMLawDaily: t was an impossible task. Take a multimillion-dollar-a-year Big Law partner with unambiguously conservative Republican credentials and make him look like a combination of Atticus Finch and Clarence Darrow as he pursues the far right’s ideological agenda. Somehow, while working at cross-purposes, Paul Clement and King & Spalding pulled it off. What should have been a nonevent became a major story because the firm said yes to Clement’s representation of the House Republican leadership on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) litigation–and then it said no.

Pacific Justice Institute: Ironically, the conflict arose after library officials frowned on the Tea Party’s distribution of the U.S. Constitution and similarly-themed information in the library’s breezeway during Constitution Week last September. Over the next few months, a library committee drafted a new policy designed to limit such activities.

Donald J. Boudreaux at the Wall Street Journal (via Google): What if groceries were paid for by taxes, and you were assigned a store based on where you

Karl Rove at the Wall Street Journal: Most states are not in play. Mr. Obama will not win Utah and Wyoming, and the Republican nominee will not carry the District of Columbia or Rhode Island. But right now 14 states (with 172 electoral votes) are up for grabs.

AP: Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Pence ended months of speculation Thursday when he announced he will run for Indiana governor in 2012, a move that quickly positioned him as a favorite to succeed Mitch Daniels in the state’s top office.

LifeNews: Leaders of the national Democratic Party on Wednesday unanimously elected Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the new chair of the Democratic National Committee. The pro-abortion stalwart will lead the party during President Barack Obama’s re-election.

AP: “The number of people applying for unemployment benefits surged last week to the highest level in eight months, a troubling sign a day ahead of the government’s report on April employment.”

One News Now: “Christians shouldn’t be excluded and restricted from using public meeting rooms and other facilities simply because they plan to express a Christian viewpoint,” Oster says. “These government officials who changed their policies have done the right thing, acknowledging that the Constitution prohibits the government from deciding who can and cannot use space based upon the viewpoints to be discussed at gatherings.”

One News Now: “The bill was really inspired by the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision in Christian Legal Society vs. Martinez, where a Christian student group was kicked off campus because of its religious membership restrictions, and the Supreme Court upheld that,” Tedesco explains. “So this bill addresses that; it provides…protection for religious student groups that select leaders and members based on shared religious values.” . . . [more]

New American: On the judicial side, St. Paul attorney Jane Bowman insisted that existing laws—and the state Supreme Court ruling upholding them—make the proposed amendment “redundant and unnecessary,” to which attorney Austin Nimocks of the pro-marriage Alliance Defense Fund pointed out that there was no guarantee that future courts would not use their power to overturn such laws. “The next Minnesota court challenged with this demand may not demonstrate the same level of judicial restraint,” Nimocks said, adding, “The Constitution is the people’s document, and they are entitled to change it.” . . . [other allies and opponents quoted]

CNBC: As a result of Mexico’s purchase, central banks, sovereign wealth funds and other so-called “official sector” buyers are on track to record their largest collective purchase of gold since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, which pegged the value of the dollar to gold, in 1971.

AP on MyWay: The Justice Department under President Barack Obama has taken a harder line against anti-abortion activists accused of trying to block access to clinics, suing at least a half-dozen of them under a federal law that lay mostly dormant during the Bush administration.

Krell, Reid Reid, The Ivory Tower Under Siege: A Constitutional Basis for Academic Freedom (December 27, 2008). George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal (CRLJ), Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1321125

Schwartzman, Micah, Conscience, Speech, and Money (January 30, 2011). Virginia Law Review, April 2011; Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2011-04. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1751588