Daily Archives: May 10, 2011

AP: A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a new Utah immigration law that would have allowed police to check the citizenship status of anyone they arrest.

LifeNews: North Carolina would join more than two dozen states that currently have Choose Life license plates if the state legislature approves a bill the House Transportation Committee held a hearing on today.

Albany Times Union: The $1.5 million pledged by the Washington-based National Organization for Marriage comes with the organization’s expertise after recent success against same-sex marriage bills in Maryland, Rhode Island and in a New York congressional primary.

Christian Post: A Christian weatherman in Bakersfield, Calif., says he was recently fired from his job days after he objected to an ABC-affiliate airing a story on successful local strip clubs.

Daily Mail: A controversial new scheme will allow parents in South Africa to dump unwanted infants anonymously in a ‘babe safe’ mounted on a wall in a street. The unusual initiative was launched last week after a charity installed a unique secure dumping unit at a community centre in Cape Town.

LifeNews: Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia drew strong opposition to its request to expand at a hearing where pro-life advocates said they were worried the request would mean more abortions.

Asbury Park Press: A potential American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against the Neptune school district could lead to the end of a 60-year-old tradition – graduation commencement at cross-bedecked Ocean Grove’s Great Auditorium. School administration officials said they first received a First Amendment complaint about mixing church with state shortly after a nonresident attended the 2010 ceremony.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: A complaint that Boeing illegally retaliated against Washington workers by putting its second 787 Dreamlinerassembly line in South Carolina is not unusual, National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon said Monday.

LifeNews: Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana has signed a bill to revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The bill makes the Hoosier state the first to go as far as it has in shutting down funding.

Telegraph: A priest whose church was at the centre of sectarian riots at the weekend has said Egyptian Christians were “under organised attack” as religious authorities warned the country was at risk of civil war.

CBC.ca: Members of Canada’s Muslim community say the government is guilty of hypocrisy in allowing a prominent critic of Islam to enter Canada on a speaking tour.

Des Moines Register: I’m simply appalled at the manner in which state Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal is handling himself over the debate of House File 657, aka the ban on late-term abortions (“Abortion Bill Moves in Senate, but Debate in Doubt,” May 4).

Politico: But the vigorous legal, legislative and public relations campaigns mounted by the left against Thomas and the right against Kagan show no signs of abating – and that is hardly an accident. It means that both sides are determined to make the Supreme Court and its decisions a major political issue headed into the 2012 election.

David L. Hudson, Jr. at the First Amendment Center: The Court’s ultimate originalist believes strongly in applying the original views of the Founding Fathers in interpreting the Constitution. In First Amendment law, Thomas has taken bold stances that distance him from his colleagues. Usually, in separate concurring opinions, he explains why he would overrule a leading First Amendment decision or why the Court has gone astray.

STL Today: A proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to privately pray in public places, including schools, unanimously cleared the Missouri Senate Tuesday and will appear on the ballot in November 2012.

Washington Post: The Heritage Foundation says that its plan, “Saving the American Dream,” would balance the federal budget by 2021 and reduce the federal debt to 30 percent of GDP by 2030 by cutting federal spending roughly in half and without raising taxes.

UPI: Forty-five percent of working U.S. moms who are the sole provider for their family earn less than $35,000, a survey indicates.

BBC: The panic was sparked by rumours that seismologist Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979, predicted the city would be devastated by a quake on 11 May.

JournalStar.com: The Legislature took on the issue of telemedicine abortions Tuesday. The bill, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Tony Fulton, requires that a physician be physically present in the room when an abortion is performed, induced or attempted by instrument, device, medicine, drug or other substance.

AP on Yahoo: The second-ranking House Democrat said Tuesday he opposes a White House proposal to require anyone seeking government contracts to disclose political contributions.

LifeSiteNews: To those who believe that Sweden’s family policy is the model for a social utopia, well-known Swedish mentor, researcher and business consultant Jonas Himmelstrand says he is ready to “bust the myths.” Far from a utopia, Sweden is overwhelmed with parent-child alienation, a consequence of overly-obtrusive family policies that heavily favor state subsidized day care over home care, he says.

The Hill: In a sign of the growing power of conservatives within the Senate Republican Conference, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held a rare meeting with Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on Monday evening. The topic: an opening on the most powerful committee in the Senate, the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, trade, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

LifeNews: In a letter to several pro-life groups complaining about President Barack Obama’s decision to drop some of the conscience protections for medical professionals, the administration is defending the decision.

Mercury News (AP): The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is poised to abolish a celibacy requirement for gay and lesbian clergy, after decades of debate that has divided the denomination and split Protestants worldwide.

Lisa Leff at Mercury News (AP): As gay, lesbian and transgender people have succeeded in putting their fight for equality front and center in American politics, bisexuals—the often forgotten “B” in the LGBT rainbow—have been waging their own fight for recognition. From adopting a bisexual pride flag and commemorating Sept. 23 as bisexual pride day to . . .

LifeNews: A new study from Australia finds a high percentage of women using the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug require hospitalization — undermining the argument that the mifepristone pill is safe for women . . . Doctors in the Australian state of South Australia conducted the study and published their results in the medical journal Australian Family Physician.

State agencies would be prohibited from contracting with businesses that do not provide equal benefits to their employees’ same-sex spouses or domestic partners, under a bill narrowly approved by the state Senate.

A majority of Americans may strongly oppose the Obamacare law that allows abortion funding and presents rationing concerns, but the computers at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit apparently love the law.

Spitzer, Matthew L. and Talley, Eric L., Left, Right, and Center: Strategic Information Acquisition and Diversity in Judicial Panels (May 5, 2011). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1832765

Wall Street Journal: Much of the attraction between the sexes is chemistry. New studies suggest that when women use hormonal contraceptives, such as birth-control pills, it disrupts some of these chemical signals, affecting their attractiveness to men and women’s own preferences for romantic partners.

Religion Clause Blog: In Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Geithner, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a federal district court that Pastor Michael Rodgers, a Sacramento area clergyman, has not shown he is entitled to intervene as of right as a defendant in a challenge to the constitutionality of provisions in the federal and California tax codes that allow clergy to exclude from income the parsonage allowance furnished to them.

Atlanta Journal Constitution: “The Court finds through its own research that there is a basis in the Quran for both men and women to cover their heads as a religious observance,” Judge James T. Chafin wrote in an order obtained by the AJC. “Accordingly, the Court will permit the defendant to wear his hat in the courtroom as a valid religious observance.”

Christian Post: House churches in China are employing new methods to push the government to peacefully resolve tensions between the Communist Party and the largest unregistered church in Beijing.

Navy Times: Once the military’s ban on gays serving openly is lifted, Navy chaplains will be permitted to officiate at same-sex marriage and civil union ceremonies on base, according to an April 13 memorandum from the Navy’s head chaplain. | Hat tip: Religion Clause Blog

AP: Oregon senators voted Monday to impose a crackdown on companies that sell so-called “suicide kits,” which contain hoods or other items intended to help a person end his or her life.

AP: Muslim leaders are upset that a homeowner who lives next door to a newly opened mosque has posted a sign on his front lawn that reads “Bomb Making Next Driveway.”

Red State Blog: As so often seem to be the case, the GOP doesn’t follow the Democratic playbook when it comes to obstruction. They caved when it came to a vote last week on the nomination of Jack McConnell as a US District Court Judge. He’s only 52 or 53, so we can look forward to decades of his rulings.

AP: She responded: “They’re worried, and they are trying to stop history, which is a fool’s errand. They cannot do it. But they’re going to hold it off as long as possible.”

AP: One question would dissolve the current judicial oversight body and overhaul it. The other would create a government panel to police the news media.

ACLU press release: The American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit late Monday, urging the court to uphold a ruling that blocked implementation of a discriminatory and unnecessary Oklahoma state constitutional amendment that prohibits courts from applying – or even considering – what is broadly described as Islamic “Sharia law” and “international law.” . . .

Sonoran News: “Public officials should be able to recognize public prayer activities just as America’s founders did,” said 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.”

Rees Lloyd at News with Views: The Alliance Defense Fund has won an important victory in the Day of Prayer case (Freedom From Religion Foundation vs. Dobson, et al., 7th Circuit), especially on the issue of legal “standing,” which ordinarily requires a litigant to have a legally cognizable injury in order to sue. The Seventh Circuit ruled that a feeling of “alienation,” i.e., hurt feelings, taking offense at acts or symbols reflecting America’s own religious history or heritage, is not a cognizable injury conferring “standing” to sue.

Injury Board Blog Network: There are scores of other cases like these every year, filed by these groups and others, such as the Alliance Defense Fund, the Rutherford Institute, and many others… just as the Founders intended. The “tort reform” movement will eventually reach harm cases, through restrictions on the filing of any lawsuit, Americans don’t recognize the universality of the rights protected in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Rob Boston at the Americans United for Separation of Church and State Blog: The Alliance Defense Fund, a Religious Right legal outfit founded by a collection of radio and TV preachers, is representing the county. A local Southern Baptist pastor, the Rev. Steve Corts of Center Grove Baptist Church in Clemmons, has spearheaded efforts to raise money for the county’s legal defense, reportedly providing at least $300,000 so far . . . Winston-Salem television station WXII interviewed both AU’s Khan and ADF attorney Mike Johnson about the case. Johnson mentioned the dispute’s possible national significance. Indeed, this is a case worth watching.

National Catholic Register: The pro-life Alliance Defense Fund provided Indiana with a legal opinion that the law would withstand any challenge, based on the success of similar measures in other states such as Texas and Missouri against Planned Parenthood appeals.

AP on Findlaw: It was a storybook marriage in 1986 on a spring weekend on Cape Cod that united a princess of an American political dynasty, Maria Shriver, and the gap-toothed muscle-clad movie star famous enough to be known by one name, Arnold.

Two lower-court judges in Virginia last year ruled in opposite ways:

Washington Post: James M. Cole, a Justice Department veteran turned white-collar defense lawyer, was nominated for the post of deputy attorney general last May. But Republicans objected, citing, among other concerns, Cole’s previous support for trying international terrorism suspects in U.S. criminal courts.

Reuters: PIMCO’s Bill Gross, the manager of the world’s largest bond fund, raised his bet against U.S. government-related debt in April to 4 percent from 3 percent, according to the company’s website on Monday.

AP: Two appointees of President Barack Obama have been selected for the three-judge federal appeals court panel reviewing his health care overhaul in Virginia.

CNSNews: Anticipating the elimination of the military ban on homosexuality, the Office of the Chief of Navy Chaplains has decided that same-sex couples in the Navy will be able to get married in Navy chapels, and that Navy chaplains will be allowed to perform the ceremonies — if homosexual marriage is legal in the state where the unions are to be performed.

How Appealing links to the audio in the two pending cases.

McClain, Linda C., Religious and Political Virtues and Values in Congruence or Conflict?: On Smith, Bob Jones University, and Christian Legal Society. (May 6, 2011). Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 1959-2007, 2011; Boston Univ. School of Law Working Paper No. 11-18. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1833518

“In a precedent-setting move, Europe’s highest court ruled Tuesday that couples in same-sex civil unions deserve the same retirement benefits as those who are married.”