Daily Archives: May 16, 2011

Stars and Stripes: None of the items can go into law until the full House and the Senate approve them, and the authorization bill isn’t typically finalized before late September. Defense Department officials have hinted they’ll certify the repeal before then, effectively nullifying the effort to keep “don’t ask, don’t tell” alive.

Washington Post: The Rev. Billy Graham was back at his North Carolina home Sunday after being hospitalized for five days with pneumonia.

San Francisco Examiner: In this unique hour and a half interview with The Reverend Doctor Wayne Grudem by telephone from the writer’s home north of San Francisco to his study in his Phoenix area home. So much was covered regarding Gay Marriage and Same Sex Blessings, some in more depth because of Dr. Grudem’s generous willingness to spend so much time with the interview. This interview is the fourth in a series of what are now six interviews on the subject. It is the first with an Evangelical. To give the reader some idea of what kind of Evangelical are we talking about and with in this interview, here is the complete quote from Phoenix Seminary where Dr. Grudem is a teacher:

The new donations represent roughly two-thirds of the same-sex marriage coalition’s fund-raising, making New York the rare state where a lobbying campaign in favor of legalizing gay unions is not being financed primarily by liberal donors and Democrats.

Senate Republicans who say they are undecided about their stance on gay marriage are pushing for more assurances of legal protections for Catholic charities and other religious institutions that refuse to recognize same-sex couples.

Bloomberg: The U.S. Supreme Court refused to revive a challenge to the religious references that have become standard fare during presidential inauguration ceremonies. Justices today turned away an appeal by Michael Newdow . . .

CBS San Francisco: A 45-year-old man now living in the Bay Area may be the first person ever cured of the deadly disease AIDS, the result of the discovery of an apparent HIV immunity gene.

Heritage Foundation: The social consequences of unwed childbearing and delayed marriage make the sexual and relational decisions of emerging adults particularly significant for the future of marriage and family in America. To better understand what motivates the sexual decisions of these young people, researchers Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker assemble comprehensive survey data and illuminating personal stories in their new book, Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying.

AP on First Amendment Center: A state prison inmate in Virginia has won a seven-year legal battle with the state, allowing him access to Muslim reading materials, CDs and DVDs.

Christian Today: At least 78 people have been injured in another round of clashes between Christians and Muslims in Egypt over the weekend.

Christian Institute: Many people are unaware that a number of everyday phrases come from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, instead attributing them to pop stars, politicians or Shakespeare.

Allheadlinenews.com: Swiss voters on Sunday rejected a proposal to ban assisted suicide and “suicide tourism”

NY Times: The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Monday sought arrest warrants for Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya, his son and his brother-in-law on charges of orchestrating systematic attacks against civilians that amount to crimes against humanity.

Christian Post: The lawyers representing the two same-sex couples who filed a lawsuit against California’s Proposition 8 says former Judge Vaughn Walker’s sexuality and involvement in a same-sex relationship are not enough to prove he made a ruling based on a personal desire to be married. Conservatives, on the other hand, say doubt about his ability to serve impartially should have been enough for him to disclose it or step down from the case.

The Christian Institute: A Christian drugs expert is heading to court to get his job back after he was dumped from his role as a Government adviser over past comments he made about homosexuality.

ADF President and General Counsel Alan Sears at Baptist Press: Perspective is an interesting thing. For many on the left, Europe is the continent of ultimate sophistication, where they’ve outgrown such social drudgeries as Christianity, faith and religious freedom. For many on the right, Europe is a hotbed of cultural atheism, and all too indulgent of the sophistries of socialism and secularism. Mere weeks ago, a critical decision from the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights gave pause to both those perceptions.

Taipei Times: In two months, the Department of Health will release the results of an investigation into gender selective abortions that have taken place in hospitals and will fine violators, a health official said yesterday.

Telegraph: A Brazilian fertility expert who helped Pele father twins is suspected of having deceived large numbers of patients into bringing up children that are not genetically theirs.

Montreal Gazette: The U.S. government has ended a controversial counterterrorism program created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that required men living in the U.S. who came from mostly Muslim countries to register with federal authorities.

Today, a slim majority of Georgia’s Supreme Court ruled (in a 4 to 3 decision) that the law creating the Georgia Charter Schools Commission is unconstitutional. At stake in the ruling are no less than 16 charter schools serving approximately 15,000 children across the state.

KSTP.com: The Minnesota Senate has passed new restrictions on abortion in the state, but not with enough votes to override likely vetoes by abortion rights supporter Gov. Mark Dayton.

NY Daily News: “I started crying a little bit because they don’t believe we’re people,” said Erica Diaz, 22, who was with her girlfriend of two years.

News.stv.tv: Ms MacDonald, whose End of Life Assistance Bill was defeated at Holyrood in December, wants people over 16 to be able to ask for help to end their lives if they are terminally ill and suffering intolerably.

Dothan Eagle: Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb warned the state’s judges and circuit clerks to expect “substantial” layoffs because of the budget crisis in the state judicial system.

Kansas City Star: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation Monday that will require annual, unannounced inspections of abortion clinics and impose new health and safety standards specifically for the three clinics operating in the state.

LifeSiteNews: Long-time pro-life Member of Parliament John Cummins, now the leader-designate of British Columbia’s Conservative Party, sparked a media frenzy this week after insisting that those inclined to homosexuality be given the same rights as the rest of Canadians, and no more.

LifeSiteNews: A lawsuit backed by powerful international lawyers and pressure groups has placed the poor Central American country of Belize in the crosshairs of an international battle over homosexuality.

Wake up, America! When the executive branch of government rules by fiat and chooses not to enforce the law of the land, the democratic process and the consent of the governed are no longer possible.

LifeNews: An abortion practitioner in Australia has infected 50 women with the same strain of hepatitis C and the victims are asking officials to charge James Latham Peters saying they don’t think it was a coincidence.

Heritage Foundation Education Notebook: “Currently, the paperwork burden imposed by the Department of Education is larger than that of the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Justice. From 2002 to 2009, the Department of Education’s paperwork burden increased by an estimated 65 percent—an astounding number that continues to grow.”

Globe and Mail: The sudden retirement of two Supreme Court judges has handed Prime Minister Stephen Harper the chance to remake the high court along conservative lines, opening a debate over how to select their successors.

Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Despite complaints of inadequate funding, the Pennsylvania judiciary’s payroll increased almost 20 percent, from $159 million to $190.4 million, during the past six years, a Tribune-Review analysis of payroll records found. Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, whose $195,138 annual pay is third highest among state chief justices nationwide . . .

JSOnline: wo of President Barack Obama’s nominees for posts among the group, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler Jr. to fill a district court seat in Madison and law professor Victoria Nourse to fill a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, remain in limbo and appear unlikely to get the jobs.

Mark Baisley at Townhall: The school in my neighborhood told the Cub Scouts this week that their flyer cannot be distributed because it mentions God in the 12 core values. While this constitutional misstep is unseemly, it is somehow made worse when contrasted with the always-welcome creed of environmentalism.

Election Law Blog: In Minnesota Citizens Converned for Life, Inc. v. Swanson, the Eighth Circuit unanimously upheld a district court’s decision not to preliminarily enjoin Minnesota’s ban on direct corporate contributions

Politico: The publicity-loving New York developer and reality-TV star pulled the plug on his would-be 2012 presidential run Monday afternoon, saying he still believes he’d be best for the job but that he’s not ready to give up on making money in the private sector.

Religion Clause Blog: The New York Times reports that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee announced on his Fox News program tonight that he will not seek the Republican nomination for President. (Video of Huckabee’s announcement.)

Wall Street Journal (Nathan Hodge, Making Plans to Stop Mass Murder, 5/10/2011): The U.S. has launched a high-level initiative to make the military more ready and able to respond to potential mass killings. A senior Department of Defense official said the project, which is at an early stage, would help develop “a complete set of options that the leadership can consider in the preventive area before it comes to sending in the military, or not sending in the military.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Ruiz-Diaz v. United States, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50433 (WD WA, May 10, 2011), a Washington federal district court rejected a challenge to immigration rules that treat religious workers applying to adjust their immigration status to become permanent residents differently from those in various other employment-based preference categories.

Neither was she prepared for the cheering among homosexual activists for violent behavior against Christians.

AP: The Supreme Court has declined to hear a dispute over whether students challenging a private Hawaiian school system’s admissions policy must be identified.

One News Now: Jonathan Scruggs, litigation staff counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, says their client, Ryan Arneson, simply wanted to share his faith by distributing literature, speaking with those who might listen to him, and displaying a sign . . . “We think it’s clearly a violation of the First Amendment,” explains Scruggs. “So for that reason we hope that the university will agree with us, change their policies, [and] allow our client to simply go and express his beliefs in peaceful and non-disruptive ways.” [more]

The Local: Family Minister Kristina Schröder said on Monday she would try to make life easier for German couples who cannot have children naturally, with stronger financial backing for IVF treatment and easier adoptions.

NY Times: College-educated women are waiting longer to have children than those without a college education, according to new data from the Census Bureau.

AP: The Supreme Court is brushing aside an atheist’s challenge to religion in government, refusing to hear a complaint about President Barack Obama adding “so help me God” to his inaugural oath of office.

SCOTUS Blog: The same-sex couples who succeeded in their constitutional challenge to California’s ban on gay marriage urged a federal judge to release publicly the full videotape of the trial in the case, arguing that it would show how fair the trial judge was.

Education News: The number of states now considering bills that would limit or eliminate collective bargaining for teachers, or otherwise target teachers’ unions, is astounding: Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Nebraska, Texas, New Hampshire, Michigan, Idaho, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, Arizona and others. On Monday, the Tennessee Senate approved one of the nation’s most comprehensive bills eliminating bargaining rights for the state’s 65,000 teachers.

LifeNews: Just when it appears Mitch Daniels found a way to make up with pro-life voters after his “truce” talk on abortion by signing a bill to ban Planned Parenthood funding, the Indiana governor has done it again.

NWI.com: Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes. | Orin Kerr provides more information on the ruling at the Volokh Conspiracy.

Education News: This federal thrust was touted as the answer to Bennett’s “A Nation At Risk”. However, in order to participate (receive federal funds),each Governor was advised that its state eduction statutes had to be revised in order to receive grants that would reflect the reform underway.

Education News has posted this article by Matthew Lynch surveying some of the cases involving religion and the schools.

The Hill: RSC Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) endorsed the bill submitted Friday by top-ranking GOP appropriator Rep. Jack Kingston (Ga.) that would cap spending at 18 percent of GDP.

sst.live.co.nz: Schools are helping teenage girls keep abortions secret from their parents. Imogen Neale reports. A MOTHER is angry her 16-year-old daughter had a secret abortion arranged by a school counsellor.

LifeNews: The dangerous RU 486 (mifepristone) abortion drug has caused yet another death in Europe by subjecting a 16-year-old girl in Portugal to a deadly infection that claimed her life.

Wall Street Journal: He said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that seniors should not be required to use a new Medicare program, as envisioned by the House GOP, but should be persuaded to voluntarily migrate to a better system. “I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” he said when asked about a Medicare plan championed by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.)

The Telegraph: A blood test that can show how fast someone is ageing – and offers the tantalising possibility of estimating how long they have left to live – is to go on sale to the general public in Britain later this year.

Marshall, William P., Smith, Christian Legal Society, and Speech-Based Claims for Religious Exemptions from Neutral Laws of General Applicability (May 10, 2011). Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 32, No. 5, 2011; UNC Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1837609. Available at SSRN: …

Caster, Austin, ‘Charitable’ Discrimination: Why Taxpayers Should Not Have to Fund 501(c)(3) Organizations that Discriminate Against LGBT Employees (May 7, 2011). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1834884

Underkuffler, Laura, Odious Discrimination and the Religious Exemption Question (May 6, 2011). Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 32, No. 5, 2011. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1833625