Daily Archives: June 1, 2011

LifeNews.com: The New Zealand Court of Appeal has issued a legal decision saying unborn children have no legal rights under the laws in the Pacific island nation. It also ruled on whether the Abortion Supervisory Committee was improperly approving abortions on mental health grounds.

Feminist Wire Daily Newsbriefs: Republicans in the Tennessee state Legislature have abandoned attempts to defund Planned Parenthood by attaching an amendment to the state budget after they were advised by the Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey (R) and House Speaker Beth Harwell (R) that it is unconstitutional to do so.

Charisma: “A person’s sex is a biological fact, not a state of mind, and altering one’s outer appearance doesn’t change that,” says Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund—which helped fund the case “The court was right to uphold marriage by affirming the reality that a person’s sex cannot be changed.”

Abortion Foes Push To Redefine Personhood : NPR (includes audio): The question being raised in legal terms is: When does someone become a person?

San Antonio Express-News: Medina Valley High School officials plan to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that barred public prayer at Saturday’s graduation ceremony, and apparently have the backing of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the San Antonio Express-News confirmed.

TheLedger.com: Since February, atheists from Pinellas and Hillsborough counties have made appearances before the Polk County School Board requesting that it no longer pray at its meetings.

Pastor Robert Hall, Calvary Chapel of Rio Rancho in New Mexico, at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: In this day and age when the Church is under attack, there are several steps pastors must take to guard our flocks: . . . -Understand our legal rights as pastors and citizens of the United States by forming a relationship with an organization that will champion your religious freedom, like the Alliance Defense Fund – “I appeal to Caesar.” -Understand the issues of our day and support those standing with us (ADF and allied organizations) – be “salt and light.” . . .

Greg Baylor at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: After months of deliberation, the University of Texas at San Antonio Career Center has agreed to post job announcements for a pro-life, Christian residential home for needy pregnant women. UTSA originally declined to post the announcements on the ground that they were “discriminatory.”

WIBW.com: During a debate May 13 over requiring women to buy abortion-only insurance policies, DeGraaf suggested that people had to be prepared for unplanned events in life.

Freedom From Religion Foundation: The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., filed a petition Friday seeking a rehearing of its National Day of Prayer challenge before the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, The Taxpayers League of Minnesota, and Coastal Travel Enterprises, LLC asked the entire 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a 3-judge panel’s decision upholding bans on their political speech.

LifeSiteNews.com: Quebec parents and daycare providers filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the Quebec Superior Court against new provincial directives for the province’s massively-funded daycare system that ban mention of religion and God.

Voice of America: ishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo says many of Nazareth’s minority Christians began emigrating more than a decade ago largely because of tensions with local Islamists who tried to build a mosque next to the city’s main church.

LifeSiteNews.com: Public interest groups, Alliance Defense Fund, The Justice Foundation, and Liberty Institute, had persuaded university officials to relent . . . “Christian organizations shouldn’t be discriminated against for their beliefs and denied equal access to public university services that are available to everyone else,” said ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor. Baylor said that while UTSA officials did “the right thing,” he added that “the larger battle isn’t over.” “More and more universities are excluding Christian organizations from their campuses and are thereby communicating the message that groups are free to use their facilities and services only if they don’t practice their religion,” he continued.

Rev. Robert Sirico at Crisis Magazine: Let us take the recent occasions of public discourse by Catholics on these matters occasioned by an open letter issued by a group of Catholic professors, which argues that the budget proposed by House Republicans violates Catholic social teaching, and in which they come close to calling the Speaker of the House a heretic.

The Blog of Legal Times: Frustrated by the lack of centralized information on the process for becoming a federal judge, a coalition of legal groups has created its own booklet about the process.

. . . Obama administration has told the state it can’t implement the new law, with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick denying a request to deny funds saying the federal Medicaid law stipulates that states can’t exclude providers based on the services they provide.

Daily India: A leading geneticist has sparked outrage in the Muslim community in Britain after he claimed that the practice of “inbreeding” or allowing cousins to marry each other in Islamic communities leads to an increased risk of birth defects.

NYTimes.com: Bayer’s birth control pills will be reviewed by regulators after some studies suggested they may cause more blood clots than competing medicines.

AP: A former nurse sentenced to 360 days in jail for going online and allegedly encouraging two depressed people to kill themselves is appealing.

AP: California medical officials have revoked the license of the fertility doctor who helped “Octomom” Nadya Suleman become the mother of 14 children through repeated in vitro treatments.

News Releases – Press – United States Senator John Cornyn, Texas: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today issued the following statement applauding the efforts of state leaders to prevent human trafficking, as Gov. Rick Perry signed Senate Bill 24, which will impose increased penalties on human traffickers and those who engage in child prostitution.

Augusta Free Press: The ACLU of Virginia and the Freedom From Religion Foundation today warned the Giles County School Board not to follow through with a proposal to mount displays featuring the Ten Commandments and several historical documents in public schools.

The University of Texas at San Antonio agreed Friday to permit a job posting seeking married, pro-life Christian houseparents after officials first refused the announcement on the grounds that it was “discriminatory.”

LifeSiteNews.com: he historic 13th century cathedral of Paris, Notre-Dame de Paris, filled up completely last Thursday evening from 8:30 onward in answer to the call of Cardinal André Vingt-Trois to a Vigil for Life. It was the second initiative of its kind by Paris’ archbishop . . .

LifeSiteNews.com: bill reintroduced into the U.S. House of Representatives this month proposes federal-level punishment for states that ban homosexual couples and non-married individuals from adopting children. Effectively, the bill would ban all Catholic and Christian adoption agencies or forbid them from acting on faith beliefs. Touted as the means for fixing a “flawed” system, the “Every Child Deserves a Family Act” . . .

LifeNews.com: Members of Congress, demographers and representatives from leading human rights organizations are launching a new effort today designed to target gendercide — the practice of eliminate girls via sex-selection abortions, infanticide, or selling or giving away infant or young girls.

LifeNews.com: The nation’s Catholic bishops are expected to debate and vote on a new document later this month that would renew their opposition to the practice of assisted suicide at a time when activists are trying to expand it.

The Brussels Journal: Europe risks losing all its precious gifts: human dignity, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, rule of law, separation of state and mosque. Across Europe there are dozens of journalists, cartoonists and writers who are living under terrorist threats. (…)

The Volokh Conspiracy: United States v. Danielzyck . . . Today, the court on its own motion asked for briefing on whether it should reverse its own ruling in light of direct Supreme Court authority on point.

The Volokh Conspiracy: Siagh Krimo was charged by the Criminal Court of the Djamel District in Oran, who based their decision on Article 144 bis 2 of the Penal Code which criminalizes acts that “insult the prophet and any of the messengers of God, or denigrate the creed and precepts of Islam, whether by writing, drawing, declaration, or any other means.” Krimo has ten days to appeal the sentence.

Texas Lawyer: Texas Lawyer senior reporter John Council interviews 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Edith Jones — the court’s most vigorous questioner — to get her thoughts on how lawyers should prepare for oral arguments

Religion Clause: On Monday, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist leaders (list of attendees) met in Brussels with leaders of the European Union. An EU press release says . . .

Ian Millhiser at the LA Times: The claims are ludicrous, but they highlight an unfortunate new reality for prolific legal scholars such as Liu. Once upon a time, senators examined a nominee’s record only to find if there was a compelling reason to keep the nominee off the federal bench. In this instance, Senate Republicans seemed intent on finding things in Liu’s scholarship that could be distorted to paint him as a radical. And because Liu has been a very prolific scholar, there was a lot of material that could be distorted.

AFP: Sitting in the shade of a large tree and surrounded by a group of women, Cambodian midwife Ly Siyan holds up a colourful poster displaying a range of contraception options.

Reuters: China warned on Tuesday that a European draft resolution asking the U.N. Security Council to condemn Syria would not defuse tension in the region, suggesting Beijing could block it if it is submitted for a vote.

God and Country » :
Homosexual advocacy websites have picked up on a rebuttal to the ADF statement by retired US Navy Chaplain (CAPT) John F. Gundlach, a member of a self-designated group of Chaplains working for repeal, calling themselves the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy . . . Gundlach does not explain from what source he derives a religious right to perform “homosexual weddings,” nor does he assert his denomination is morally or religiously obligated to support such a lifestyle choice . . . In perhaps the most shocking statement from the retired Navy Chaplain — whose role in the military was to protect religious freedom for all service members — is his explicit statement that Christians with traditional religious beliefs are bigots . . .

Religion Clause: Last year, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court restored certain provisions in the country’s 1972 Constitution, thereby reverting to provisions that affirm secularism in the country.

Religion Clause: The Jerusalem Post reported last week on a report issued by a special task force of Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs that focuses on activities of religious cults in Israel.

lliance Defense Fund attorneys have secured a settlement with Half Hollow Hills Central School District after filing suit in February 2010 on behalf of the student leader of a Christian club, which school officials cancelled without her knowledge. ADF attorneys voluntarily dismissed the suit after school officials agreed to reinstate the club, change district policy, and revoke unconstitutional guidelines for club formation and official recognition.

AP: hina has responded to more than a week of surprising protests in Inner Mongolia with its well-honed strategy: deploy overwhelming force, keep potential protesters from gathering and pledge to address at least some grievances.

AP: Hundreds of couples around Illinois lined up early for the chance to get civil union licenses, including five couples in line in southwestern Illinois’ St. Clair County when the clerk’s office opened at 8:30 a.m.

Washington Times: More than 77,000 federal government employees throughout the country — including computer operators, more than 5,000 air traffic controllers, 22 librarians and one interior designer — earned more than the governors of the states in which they work.

NCPA Policy Digest: Though public schools have long charged for extras such as driver’s education and field trips, many are now asking parents to pay for supplies needed to take core classes — from biology-lab safety goggles to algebra workbooks to the printer ink used to run off grammar exercises in language arts. In some schools, each class comes with a price tag, to be paid at registration.

LifeSiteNews.com: “A person’s sex is a biological fact, not a state of mind, and altering one’s outer appearance doesn’t change that,” said Austin R. Nimocks, Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, who provided funding for the case. “The court was right to uphold marriage by affirming the reality that a person’s sex cannot be changed.”

Ynetnews: Iranian Ayatollah endorses evil: Radical religious cleric known as President Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor says attacks on Israeli civilians permissible, suicide bombings a Muslim duty

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture War: . . . The Alliance Defense Fund mentions this in one of their alerts but makes no comment about it. It seems to me that even with the ADF’s focus on religious liberty — and they’re often right in religious liberty cases — this should be something they oppose. There are gray areas in the law where one could reasonably argue either side, but this is not one of them. If a school inviting a minister to give a prayer at an official school event for kindergarten students is not a violation of the First Amendment, what on earth could possibly be? Even the ADF should not be defending this kind of thing.

OneNewsNow.com: Brett Harvey, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defense Fund responds. “Private speakers, whether they be students or outside speakers who have some reason to participate in the graduation ceremony, speak freely,” the attorney explains. “And [if] that person chooses to include a prayer as part of their message to the graduates, then that’s entirely constitutional.”

Religion Dispatches: ADF legal counsel Daniel Blomberg has said that “service members should not be denied the very constitutional liberties they volunteered to defend,” completely disregarding the fact that many gay and lesbian soldiers who profess a faith, Christian or otherwise, should also have their religious liberty protected—which means not having to bear being insulted or demonized by anyone in the military, chaplain or otherwise.

OW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2011 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.