Daily Archives: May 11, 2011

AsiaNews.it: Once more, Pakistan’s ‘black law’ strikes again. A Muslim businessman has used the infamous blasphemy law against a rival and former associate, who happens to be Christian

AsiaNews.it: Government employees abduct “illegal” children born beyond the quota allowed, but even only children. An orphanage that gave children up for adoption was taking 2760 dollars per baby sold for, the state employees 142 dollars. The plight of the one-child rule leads to forced abortions and sterilizations, selective abortions of female fetuses, arrests of activists against the abuses.

Lexington Clipper-Herald: A bill to block the use of telemedicine for drug-induced abortions in Nebraska appears headed to approval in the Legislature. On a 34-9 vote Tuesday afternoon, state lawmakers gave first-round approval to LB 521.

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: ast week I participated in a discussion sponsored by the Federalist Society at Stanford Law School in California on redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, and its collision with the First Amendment rights of those who define marriage as one man and one woman only . . . What I did not expect at Stanford was a debate on the relevancy of the 1967 Supreme Court decision striking down Virginia’s law banning interracial marriage, Loving v. Virginia . . . Because so many find the argument persuasive, let me state here what I said to the law students at Stanford . . .

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement Blog: The Minnesota Senate today approved a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman by a vote of 38-27. The Minnesota House of Representatives plans to take up the amendment before the end of the session, which ends in two weeks.

Erik Stanley at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: The IRS seems to have simply ignored Pulpit Freedom Sunday. So what is going through the IRS’ collective mind on this issue? Well, answering that question requires a level of prognostication and insight reserved for the Divine. But I think we can take some educated guesses as to what is going on.

LifeNews: Geron has announced that the second patient has been injected with embryonic stem cell derivatives. This spinal cord injury patient was injected Saturday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The Telegraph: Outdated family laws have fuelled an “alarming” rise in marital breakdown, causing “profound” damage to millions of children, a High Court judge has warned.

Guardian: America funding technology to break web censorship in repressive regimes, such as China and Iran

Guardian: Ugandan MPs will debate a bill calling for gay people to be imprisoned for life on Friday after a walkout by women MPs over an unrelated matter forced parliament’s adjournment.

WPRI.com: The House committee on Judiciary will hear legislation Wednesday that will allow same sex civil unions in Rhode Island.

The Hill: Reid said the NLRB “acts as a check on employers and employees alike” and is consistent with the “spirit of checks and balances” established by the Founding Fathers. Reid’s defense comes as Republicans have gone on the attack against the NLRB over a complaint issued earlier this year that faulted Boeing for opening a new factory for its Dreamliner 787 fleet in South Carolina.

Society for the Protection of Unborn Children: The Swedish Parliament voted this afternoon to campaign against a European resolution upholding the right to conscientious objection to abortion.

Christian Institute: The findings are based on research conducted by Dr Tim Jones, senior lecturer in Cognitive Psychology at Worcester University and top criminologist Professor David Wilson from Birmingham City University.

The Christian Institute: David Cameron believes Britain is a Christian country and says he cannot understand why there is any debate over Christian political involvement.

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arkansas sent letters today to the Little Rock School District and eStem Public Charter Schools demanding that the schools cease viewpoint-based censorship of web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. The organization has sent demand letters to school districts across the country as part of the organization’s national “Don’t Filter Me” initiative, which seeks to combat illegal censorship of pro-LGBT information on public school computer systems.

The Tennessean: Cchools in White County, Tenn., will ban the Gideons from distributing Bibles to students in classrooms, according to a deal announced Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.

The New American: At the moment, the U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association and the Alliance Defense Fund are appealing the case to a European-level court in an effort to reunite the family based on violations of human rights and international treaties to which Sweden is a party. That case is progressing slowly, and no arguments have been heard yet. But the pressure is mounting as more and more organizations get involved.

Liberty Counsel: Staver said, “To hear the Acting Solicitor General admit that if the court upheld this massive health insurance law, then Congress could force individuals to purchase certain kinds of food was an astonishing, but true, admission. If ObamaCare is upheld, then Congress would no longer have any limitations on its regulatory power. Today it is health insurance, and tomorrow it could be food, transportation, or housing. Big Brother would be able to be the CEO of every business and dictate our private choices. The implications are staggering. This law is the beginning of centralized government. The stakes in the outcome of this case could not be higher.”

ADF letter says policy requiring visitors to pay fee, buy insurance, wait 14 days
before engaging in free speech on campus is unconstitutional

Charisma Online: In other words, the ACLU and AU are advocating censorship,” says Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) Senior Legal Counsel Brett Harvey. “They do not wish to allow private citizens invited by the board to express themselves consistent with the dictates of their own conscience.” . . . In a country whose founders opened public meetings with prayer, its public officials should be able to do the same. Nor should they be forced to whitewash the prayers of those invited to offer them simply because secularist groups don’t like people praying according to their own conscience,” says ADF Allied Attorney Mike Johnson. “We are confident that the 4th Circuit will acknowledge our nation’s heritage of prayer above the unfounded arguments to eradicate it.”

AP: The latest measure, passed 263-163 on Wednesday, gives the government a maximum of 60 days to decide whether a company can drill. Afterwards, the permit is automatically approved.

One News Now: Advocacy Director for Open Doors USA Lindsay Vessey says, “I have looked for any type of statement by Dr. Susan Johnson Cook, the new Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, and I haven’t been able to find any statement by he

LifeSiteNews: In their new report, The National Men’s Council of Ireland (NMCI) and the Family Rights and Responsibilities Institute of Ireland have taken the government to task for attempting to equate natural marriage with so-called gay “marriage” and civil unions, even though the Irish constitution specifically demands that marriage and the family be protected.

LifeSiteNews: Just three months after a city in Kansas enacted a policy to give special privileges and protection to individuals based on sexual “orientation,” Manhattan city commissioners have voted to repeal the gender identity policy.

FoxCharlotte.com: Shallow, uneducated and ignorant.” That’s how some people describe what happened over the weekend when four Muslims were denied their flights: two in New York and two in Memphis. North American Imams Federation Chairman Dr. El Tayeb Abuelyaman, speaking on behalf of the four passengers, says “Just because of my name, just because I’m Muslim, it doesn’t mean that I’m a terrorist.” . . .

MyFoxChicago.com: A class action lawsuit was filed Tuesday claiming that the state of Illinois refuses to change the gender on birth certificates of transsexual people unless they’ve undergone genital surgery. Lauren Grey, Victor Williams and Nicholas Guarino . . .

Reuters: China’s state media on Wednesday sought to play down disagreements with the United States over human rights during their latest talks in Washington, signaling a more mature approach to tackling the thorny topic.

National Journal: A three-judge appeals panel pressed hard on Tuesday on Virginia’s standing to sue the federal government over its health law — perhaps signaling they are seriously considering throwing the case out. The three Democratic-appointed judges spent two hours hearing oral argument . . .

LifeSiteNews: The lone Republican among Minnesota legislators who is opposed to a voter referendum on same-sex “marriage” appeared to threaten a priest with legal repercussions for defending true marriage; his office later backed down under fire from critics, calling the original conflict a misunderstanding.

NY Times: With only weeks to go before the end of the legislative session in June, a senior Democratic lawmaker in the New York State Assembly introduced legislation on Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriages, signaling that Assembly lawmakers were unwilling to wait for efforts by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and gay rights groups to pull together enough votes to move the measure through the Republican-controlled State Senate.

Boston Herald: North Carolina is doing an about-face on abortion policy, with a slate of proposals that seek to limit abortions under consideration in the Legislature. A House of Representatives Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a package of changes that abortion-rights opponents have pushed for years . . .

Education News: Although the Supreme Court held that illegal citizens have a right to attend public schools almost 30 years ago, not all districts are complying.

David Savage at the LA Times: By their comments and questions Tuesday, the judges signaled they were likely to uphold provisions in the law that require virtually all Americans to have health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty.

How Appealing reports on the identity of the panel in Thomas More Law Center v. Obama, No. 10-2388 (6th Cir.).

The Senate’s vote was 56-42, as a handful of Republicans crossed party lines to join Democrats supporting [Edward] Chen.

The Hill: Chinese officials agreed to end policies that favor domestic firms, making it easier for U.S. companies to compete, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday at the end of two days of talks.

Religion Clause Blog: November 2012, Missouri voters will vote on a proposed state constitutional amendment (full text) that, if passed, will expand the language of the religious freedom protections in the current Art. I, Sec. 5 of the Missouri Constitution. HJR 2, approved by the House in March was approved by the state Senate yesterday . . .

AP: At least 25 people were killed on Wednesday when hundreds of Islamist insurgent fighters briefly seized a town in a region of northern Somalia that is usually relatively peaceful, an official said.

LifeNews: Chinese police are holding a South Korean Bible instructor and his wife following a raid on an underground Protestant church, an activist group said Wednesday, as the government pressures Christians worshipping outside the Communist-controlled church.

LifeNews: After his speech in El Paso, Texas, President Barack Obama made his way to Austin for a campaign rally where he asked hundreds of supporters to help him with his re-election bid. In a more private affair, he curried favor with the head of Planned Parenthood.

Human Events: A return to the gold standard by the United States within the next five years now seems likely, because that move would help the nation solve a variety of economic, fiscal, and monetary ills, Steve Forbes predicted during an exclusive interview this week with HUMAN EVENTS.

SCOTUS Blog: The 14-month-old federal health care law’s most important provision appears to be on its way to surviving its first constitutional test in a federal appeals court. The key problem for the challengers: their activity-inactivity distinction did not seem to work.

Jim McNereny at the Wall Street Journal: Washington’s actions have assaulted the capitalist principles that have sustained America’s competitiveness since it became the world’s largest economy nearly 140 years ago.

Michael Reagan at Townhall: Restriction of movement — telling citizens or groups they cannot travel or relocate freely. We are now witnessing a shocking example of that dictatorial practice at the hands of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is insisting that a major U.S. employer may not move some of its operations from one state to another because to do so might somehow violate workers’ rights.

The effect of the new language also opens up the possibility that persons in same-gender relationships can be considered for ordination.

Under pressure from more than five dozen House lawmakers, the Navy late Tuesday abruptly reversed its decision that would have allowed chaplains to perform same-sex unions if the Pentagon decides to recognize openly gay military service later this year.

“The precious tax dollars of the people of Indiana should not be funneled to abortionists, especially during tough economic times,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “The Indiana Legislature has worded a bill that allows them to be good stewards of the people’s money in this regard without fear of jeopardizing other funding that is clearly not at issue in this bill. In fact, if the governor signs the bill and it is ever attacked in court, ADF would offer to assist in mounting a legal defense of the law free of charge.”

Attorneys with ADF available for media interviews following hearing to decide whether ACLU, AU can force censorship of prayer before public bodies

Thomas J. Webb, Verbal Poison–Criminalizing Hate Speech: A Comparative Analysis And A Proposal For The American System, 50 Washburn L.J. 445 (Winter 2011)

Yusuf Z. Malik, The Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act: A Perspective On The Unreasonable Limitations Provision, 78 Tenn. L. Rev. 531 (Winter 2011)

Hessick, Carissa Byrne, Disentangling Child Pornography from Child Sex Abuse (March 24, 2010). Washington University Law Review, Vol. 88, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1577961

Claudio J. Pavia, Constitutional Protection Of “Sexting” In The Wake Of Lawrence: The Rights Of Parents And Privacy, 16 Va. J.L. & Tech. 189 (2011)

Teresa L. Watson, Adult Entertainment And Zoning: A Starting Point For Adopting Or Updating Adult Business Ordinances, 80-APR J. Kan. B.A. 30 (Apr. 2011)

Kim Forde-Mazru, Tradition as Justification: The Case of Opposite-Sex Marriage, 78 U. Chi. L. Rev. 281, 343 (2011)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has selected Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) to fill Ensign’s slot, sources confirm.