Daily Archives: June 9, 2011

Boston.com: The police blame a radical Muslim sect locally known as Boko Haram for the attack.

Jonathan Wynne-Jones at the Telegraph: There are many interesting aspects to the Archbishop’s attack on the Coalition, but for me the most significant point is the scale of the reaction it has caused. While the secularists want to exclude religious voices from the public square, and many Christians claim this is already happening, Rowan Williams has shown the weight that the Church and his office still carry.

The Washington Post: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says in an article for New Statesman magazine released Thursday that ministers in the coalition government need to understand that their plans, especially for education and health care, are arousing much fear.

WFMZ Allentown: The Diocese of Allentown has found itself the target of a lawsuit that claims a woman was fired for being a Muslim.

LifeSiteNews.com: When Ken Cuccinelli speaks publicly about his interpretation of Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, pro-family and conservative activists tend to stand up and cheer.

LifeSiteNews.com: The right to life was the foundation of American liberty, but a widespread moral change must occur before abortion is made illegal again, Republican lawmaker and presidential candidate Ron Paul told religious conservative activists on Friday.

EuroClinix.net: The organisation Planned Parenthood is suing the state of Montana because its low-income health insurance program does not provide birth control for teenage girls.

: A Moroccan court on Thursday convicted a top newspaper editor of discrediting court rulings and publishing information on unproven crimes and sentenced him to a year in prison.

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the Blackstone Legal Fellowship. | MP3 audio 21:55 mins

School district responds to ADF lawsuit, cancels entire memorial brick paver program to make sure a few Bible verses aren’t used

Romney: ‘Greatest enemy is overexposure’ – The Boston Globe: In the CNN interview tonight, Romney also sought to answer to concerns that some — particularly in states whose GOP politics are dominated by Christian conservatives — have over his Mormon faith.
“I’m not a spokesman for my church, and one thing I’m not going to do in running for president is become a spokesman for my church or apply a religious test which is simply forbidden by the constitution,” Romney said. “If you want to learn more about my church, talk to my church.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show to discuss the Bronx Household ruling. | MP3 audio 19:17 mins

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence on KFUO with Roland Lettner to discuss the Bronx Household ruling. | MP3 audio 9:57 mins | See Jordan’s commentary at Baptist Press: Church is like a rodeo? A court ruling says it is

NOLA.com: Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Higginson and Jane Margaret Triche-Milazzo, a state District Court judge from Napoleonville, appeared headed for confirmation to the federal bench after a noncontentious hearing Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

ADF attorney Brad Abramson appeared on the Grassroots America: We the People with George Stevenson to discuss the litigation in Schultz v. Medina Valley Independent School District. | MP3 audio 13:22 mins

Bellevue Sch. Dist. v. E.S., No. 83024-0 (Wash. Jun. 9, 2011)(Concurrence) (Dissent)

We are asked to decide whether the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution or the due process clause
set forth in article I, section 3 of the Washington Constitution requires appointment of counsel to represent a child at an initial truancy hearing.
The Court of Appeals, Division One held that due process protections compel appointment of counsel at that stage of a truancy proceeding. We hold that the Court of Appeals erred in making that determination and, therefore, reverse its decision . . .

For reasons set forth above, we hold that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not require that appointed counsel represent a child in an initial truancy hearing. We conclude, additionally, that in this context the Gunwall factors do not support an independent inquiry under article I, section 3 of the Washington Constitution. The Court of Appeals is reversed.

Reuters on TrustLaw: Contrary to popular belief women who go to war respond to combat trauma much like their male counterparts,” said Dawne Vogt, of the Veterans Administration National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the lead author of the study . . . She added that the findings, published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, ran contrary to popular belief and previous research.

A Milpitas man who used a computer to paste photos of his 13-year-old daughter’s head onto bodies of women in graphic poses shouldn’t have been convicted of possessing child pornography because the pictures didn’t show minors engaging in sex acts, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

AP: China rejected pressure from a U.N. human rights panel about more than 300 Tibetan monks and said Thursday that local authorities are “conducting legal education” for the monks to maintain order.

AP: Cambridge will soon start making payments to same-sex married public employees to defray the cost of what city officials call a discriminatory federal tax.

U.S. Appeals Court: Schools Can Ban Worship | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction: Like Good News Club v. Milford Central School, which also originated from the Second Circuit Court, the Bronx Household case may end up in the Supreme Court, said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. The Bronx Household of Faith plans to appeal the Second Circuit ruling and submit it for reassessment by the full circuit court or the Supreme Court, he said . . . The Supreme Court has reprimanded the Second Circuit Court for ignoring precedent in the past, [Kim] Colby said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the decision was instantly reversed just based on previous decisions.”

The Desert Sun: A request to dismiss the suit, filed by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Lou Ann Hart and Sheryl Caronna, will be filed today, said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian lawyers. . . . The district “basically took what I would consider to be the cowardly way out and they shut down the forum completely,” said Cortman. “Rather than allow a few Bible verses, they completely censored everyone’s speech.”

Baptist Press: he U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a stunningly wrong decision June 2 denying the First Amendment rights of churches and other religious groups to meet in government buildings on the same terms and conditions as other community groups.

Beliefnet News: Those with the most to lose might be liberal religious colleges that don’t require professions of faith or have otherwise strayed from their sectarian roots, according to Kevin Theriot, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, which specializes in religious liberty cases.

The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times: The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed skepticism today about the qualifications of four nominees for federal district court, including two for the high-profile Southern District of New York.

This breakdown of the American family has dire implications for American society and the U.S. economy. Halting and reversing the sustained trends of nearly four decades will not happen by accident. The federal, state, and local governments need to eliminate marriage penalties created by the tax code and welfare programs and instead use existing resources to better encourage and support family life.

Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty: The Christian Post reports on one side of the argument: “The government’s hyperactive censorship of classical religious texts severely limits the education of students by leaving them with an incomplete understanding of history and their heritage,” stated attorney David Cortman, a senior counsel with religious liberties law firm Alliance Defense Fund. Cortman is urging the court to consider the Bible’s historical and cultural presence in American history as well as a Supreme Court ruling protecting the religious book as an educational tool.

LifeNews.com: Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund says Judge Garbis’ ruling was a correct one. “The judge ruled that the law’s attempt to burden speech unconstitutionally discriminated against noncommercial, unlicensed speech on the explicit basis that it came from a perspective disfavoring abortion,” he said, calling it a “monumental decision protecting free speech and women’s health.”

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights: The Irish government correctly notes that it cannot “rewrite its history or right the wrongs that were done.” It should have used stronger language: it is obscene for an international body to hold the women religious of one nation accountable for alleged abuses that took place nearly a century ago. If this is the new standard of justice, then no nation can claim innocence. What’s driving this initiative is more than revisionist history—it smacks of an agenda.

Law.com: Since the days of Daniel Webster and Francis Scott Key, U.S. Supreme Court advocacy has been dominated by white men. It took until 1993 for a ladies’ room to be installed near the lawyers’ lounge at the Court. But change has arrived in the upper echelons of Supreme Court practice.

LifeNews.com: In May, Catholic educational watchdog Cardinal Newman Society discovered that Roxanne M. Martino, a newly-appointed member of the trustees board, contributed $16,150 to the pro-abortion group EMILY’s List between 2005 and 2008.

EducationNews.org: The evidence that British student campuses have become hotbeds of Islamist radicalization is overwhelming

NCPA Policy Digest: The housing bust has been kinder to higher-priced homes than to lower-priced ones, says USA Today. Nationwide, top-tier homes have lost 38 percent of their value since prices peaked in 2006. By contrast, prices for bottom-tier homes have dropped 63 percent since peaking in 2007, says real estate website Zillow.com.

Kentucky.com: A man charged under an Ohio fetal homicide law for taking his pregnant girlfriend to an abortion clinic at gunpoint faces 20 years in prison when a judge sentences him Thursday.

The Salt Lake Tribune: A controversial Utah law restricting material deemed “harmful to minors” on the Internet should be barred because it unconstitutionally restricts free speech and interferes with commerce, the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah is arguing in U.S. District Court.

The Hill: Last month, 44 GOP senators said they would filibuster any nominee to head up the agency unless changes were made to the bureau. That has been countered by a letter from 89 House Democrats sent to Obama last week calling for a recess appointment of Warren as head of the bureau.

Heritage Foundation, The Foundry: A shocking new study out by McKinsey and Company finds that 30–50 percent of employers who currently provide health insurance for their employees are likely to drop their coverage. Yes, that’s right. Even if you like your insurance, you will not be able to keep it, as President Obama often and famously promised.

LifeNews.com: A third poll in the last three weeks has results showing a majority of Americans are opposed to abortion and say that it is morally wrong. That’s what a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute finds.