Daily Archives: June 6, 2011

AP: : Ohio senators consider abortion changes bortions in Ohio would be banned at most publicly funded hospitals, clinics and other facilities under a proposal Senate Republicans are considering putting in the state budget.

AZ Republic: Gov. Jan Brewer has appointed Washington D.C.-based attorney and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement as lead counsel for the state’s petition against the federal government in the Senate Bill 1070 case.

A same-sex couple married in Canada can divorce in Wyoming, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled today.

Catholic Culture: This shocking figure was disclosed by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, representative of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, at the “International Conference on Inter-religious dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims,” sponsored the Hungarian presidency of the European Union (EU) in Gödöllo, near Budapest

Christian Concern: In a significant legal development, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has requested that the British Government state whether they believe that the rights of Christians have been infringed in recent cases where individuals have been penalised for expressing their faith in the workplace.

The Washington Post: The Senate has confirmed White House lawyer Donald Verrilli Jr. to succeed Justice Elena Kagan as U.S. solicitor general. With the 72-16 vote . . .

LifeSiteNews.com: Bailey was recently asked by Prime Minister David Cameron to conduct a review to examine ways to protect children from sexual exploitation. He found that modern society presents a “wallpaper of sexual images that surround children” and that “parents feel there is no escape and no clear space where children can be children.”

LifeSiteNews.com: The archetypal Italian family, with mamma and papa presiding over a noisy dinner table, surrounded by rambunctious children and grandchildren, has become a cultural artifact of the past. Not only are Italians not having children, they are increasingly not even bothering to get married, according to recently released government statistics.

LifeSiteNews.com: Volunteers with the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) were attacked while peacefully demonstrating in support for marriage in Fairport, New York, on June 2.

WSJ.com: New York state lawmakers are advancing a bill that would create an “educational reform program” for teenagers who get in trouble for creating and sharing pornographic images of minors.

AP: “So far this seems to be a non-event,” Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff for the Army, told reporters recently. But, he warned, “This is not going to happen without incident – I’d be crazy to say that. Somewhere along the line something is going to occur. But we’re doing everything we can to head that off in training.”

Liberty Counsel: Today Liberty Counsel will present oral argument at the Mississippi Supreme Court, defending Personhood Mississippi and Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann against a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Reproductive Rights

AP: A New Mexico man’s decision to lash out with a billboard ad saying his ex-girlfriend had an abortion against his wishes has touched off a legal debate over free speech and privacy rights.

WWL : A debate on banning abortion hits the Louisiana House floor this afternoon. Metairie Republican John Labruzzo’s bill would make abortion a prosecutable crime for doctors who perform them.

Telegraph: A major split has emerged between Alex Salmond and his Justice Minister after the First Minister said he would not withhold funding from the UK Supreme Court.

JSOnline: State Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism during a hearing Monday about a Dane County judge’s ability to halt a law limiting collective bargaining by public workers, as Republicans who control the Legislature watched for signals the court would act quickly.

Religion Clause: Kentucky Appeals Court Upholds Convictions of Amish For Refusing To Display Vehicle Emblem: In Gingerich v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, (KY Ct. App., June 3, 2011), the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of nine members of the Old Order Swartzentruber Amish sect for violating KRS 189.820 that requires slow-moving vehicles (such as Amish horse-drawn buggies) to display a fluorescent yellow-orange triangle with a dark red reflective border.

Bloomberg: Commodity markets need international oversight, more transparency and intervention to deflate bubbles because increasing speculation means prices are no longer driven by supply and demand, the United Nations said.

Religion Clause: : According to a report in today’s Chicagoist, two additional Catholic dioceses have followed the lead of Rockford Catholic Charities.

Reuters: Saying “there is hope for America, and we will find it on our knees,” Texas Governor Rick Perry has invited other governors to join him in a “solemn gathering of prayer and fasting” in August in Houston, according to the event’s website.

Religion Clause: In the Czech Republic, another attempt is being made to settle claims of churches for property that was nationalized after the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948.

AP: The Supreme Court ordered a federal appeals court on Monday to take a new look at a Pennsylvania city’s crackdown on illegal immigrants in light of the high court’s recent decision upholding an Arizona employer-sanctions law.

ADF attorney Bran Raum at First Things: While bullying is harmful and always has been, it is an even greater harm that anti-bullying policies have been hijacked by a political agenda for the purpose of promoting homosexual behavior and insulating it from public debate and discussion.

Three pro-life legal groups have weighed in on the case — including the American Center for Law and Justice, Alliance Defense Fund and Thomas More Society — and they have said the law is constitutional.

NCPA Policy Digest: There’s been nearly a 1,300 percent increase in core Marcellus Shale industry jobs in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier counties of Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wyoming since 2008, according to a Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry report, says Pennlive.com.

NCPA Policy Digest: Children, the mainstay of suburbia and residential neighborhoods across the nation for more than a half-century, are fewer and increasingly sparse in many places. The share of the population under age 18 has dropped in 95 percent of U.S. counties since 2000, says USA Today.

ThinkProgress: January-February 2011: The Alliance Defense Fund, Family Security Matters, and other neoconservative/Christian-right groups e-mailed action alerts promoting the South Carolina bill.

LifeNews.com: “No government must offer abortions simply because pro-abortion advocates demand they be provided. Neither European nor international law requires the Czech Republic to offer abortions,” said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska, who is based in Europe. “The Czech Parliament made the right decision to derail this bad and unpopular legislation.” [more quotes at the link] . . .

LifeNews.com: Pro-Life Wisconsin legislative Director Matt Sande also emailed LifeNews.com in support of the measure.“In 2010, an open records request by Pro-Life Wisconsin and the Alliance Defense Fund revealed that since 2007, more than $58,000 of UWHCA funds have been used to train future abortionists at the Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin abortion facility in Madison,” he said

LifeNews.com: “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.”

OneNewsNow.com: “Adoption Priorities wanted house parents who would model Christian living, offer Christian guidance to women in crisis pregnancies, and most of all, encourage them not to get abortions,” explains Greg Baylor, legal counsel for ADF. “And unmarried, non-Christian, pro-abortion couples simply couldn’t do that job.”

NYPOST.com: The Dix Hills school decided to reinstate the Ichthus Club in April after more than a year of tangling in court with the pro-religion Alliance Defense Fund, which sued the district in Brooklyn federal court. “It’s simply unconstitutional to cancel a Christian club based on the number of students participating,” ADF lawyer David Cortman said.

ACLU Blog: This Monday marks an historic first for the federal government. The Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Justice are hosting a two-day federal summit to focus specifically on the unique needs and challenges facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.

WNYC: “In New York City it’s either very expensive or in some of the poorer communities, neighborhoods, there’s not really a usable facility for meetings except in the public schools,” said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund in Arizona which represents the Bronx Household of Faith.

The Albert Lea Tribune: Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund filed the lawsuit on behalf of the group in federal court in April. The lawsuit alleged the high school denied the club the same benefits and access it provides to other groups.

Patrick J. Reilly, President of the Cardinal Newman Society, at Catholic Culture: All of which lead attorneys at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty to recommend that Catholic institutions ensure that their religious identity is “bona fide” and “sincerely held,” so they can be more certain of eligibility for First Amendment exemptions to federal laws and regulations. Kevin Theriot, Senior Counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, advises Catholic colleges to demonstrate their compliance with Vatican rules for Catholic higher education, as found in the 1990 apostolic constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae. One cannot, of course, fail to observe the irony in all of this . . .

OneNewsNow.com: “No one should accept the falsehood that governments must offer abortions just because pro-abortion advocates want that to happen,” contends ADF attorney Roger Kiska, who is in Croatia. “Neither European nor international law requires the Czech Republic to offer abortion.”

OneNewsNow.com: Jordan Lorence, the Alliance Defense Fund attorney representing the church, says it will appeal Thursday’s decision, which could affect many other churches that meet in public schools.

ADF attorney available to media after 9th Circuit hears arguments regarding charter school blocked from using books deemed ‘religious’

Czech Republic scraps proposed legislation that would have required providing abortions to citizens of other EU member states

Ken Klukowski at the Washington Examiner: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and the rest of the framers of the Constitution would be astounded to hear a federal judge order a valedictorian’s prayer is not protected by the First Amendment, but marketing sickening video games to children is protected by the First Amendment.

AP: Five Democratic senators are calling on Vice President Joe Biden to reaffirm his commitment to leaving Medicare unchanged during budget and deficit negotiations.

AP: A government study says gay and bisexual high school students are more likely than their heterosexual classmates to smoke, use alcohol or do other risky things.