Daily Archives: June 10, 2011

Pastor Robert Hall at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: The Internal Revenue Service has taken upon itself the authority to write regulations in response to this amendment in order to silence the pastors of our nation.

LifeNews.com: Twenty-eight members of the U.S. Senate signed a letter they released today to President Barack Obama’s Medicaid Administrator, Donald Berwick, defending Indiana’s ban on taxpayer funds going to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.

ADF attorney Gary McCaleb at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: The good Captain claimed that the reasoned opposition of dozens of veteran chaplains and the “endorsing agencies” (which provide the majority of chaplain candidates to the military) was no more than a desperate “SOS” raised by “bigots” who are being cast onto the scrap heap of history. But the Captain’s arguments scarcely left port when a Christian fighter pilot loosed a few saintly salvos with devastating results . . .

ADF attorney David Hacker at the Speak Up Movement University: Perhaps the real reason we need robust academic freedom is not to protect American society from itself, as the AAUP believes, but to protect the “unpopular” or “politically incorrect” faculty from an academy in ideological lockstep.

NCRegister.com: Piero Tozzi, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, noted that this manipulation could be carried out from the judge’s bench, especially since the new text of the constitution calls for a “broad application” of human rights. “As it does not specify which ‘human rights’ are to be incorporated and elevated on par with the constitution, while instructing that these undefined rights are to be given broad application, it potentially gives a judge latitude in expanding or even fabricating rights beyond what was contemplated when treaties were drafted and ratified,” he said.

Casey Mattox at theSpeak Up Movement University Blog: As Amy Poehler (or at least her character) once said, “Freedom of Speech! Look it Up! It’s in the Thing!” Perhaps officials at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee should move Baby Mama up in their Netflix queue so that they can hear that message. The school – and the Board of Regents that oversee all Tennessee colleges and universities – are in flagrant denial of the basic applicability of the First Amendment to the campus.

Metro Weekly: The bill is the Student Non-Discrimination Act, legislation introduced by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) that is modeled after Title IX to prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in education.

Judge David Rubin, a former veteran prosecutor and current four-year member of the San Diego County Superior Court bench, was elected the California Judges Association’s 80th president today.

Minnesota Public Radio News: On paper, a policy in Minnesota’s largest school district says that it’s not a teacher’s job to explain what it means to be gay. Moreover, it states they must remain neutral if the subject comes up in class. In practice, though, that policy is being interpreted a variety of ways.

Star Online: South Australia has become the final state in Australia to recognise non-biological same-sex parents on birth certificates of children born to same-sex couples.

Catholic Culture: Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez of Guadalajara has condemned the swift approval of a constitutional amendment that bans discrimination on the basis of “sexual preference.”

Alabama lawmakers late on Thursday passed a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the latest state legislature with Republican majorities to tighten abortion restrictions.

My Way News: Falling real estate prices are eating away at home equity. The percentage of their homes that Americans own is near its lowest point since World War II, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. The average homeowner now has 38 percent equity, down from 61 percent a decade ago.

OneNewsNow.com: North Dakota residents will have the chance to decide whether the state will adopt a constitutional amendment that defines religious freedom, as enough petition signatures were gathered to place it on a future ballot.

ADF attorney Erik Stanley appeared on the Global Freedom Report with Brent Johnson to discuss Pulpit Freedom Sunday. | MP3 audio 26 mins

ADF-allied attorney secures right of church ministering to military families to meet on its rented property

Alliance Defense Fund also provides legal help through hundreds of attorneys connected to local pregnancy centers, she said.

OneNewsNow.com: David Cortman, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says Christians are not to be treated differently from anyone else. “Christians should be allowed to express themselves on public school campuses, just like everyone else,” says the attorney. “It is cowardly to shut down everyone’s participation in this program simply to keep out Christian speech.”

AP: Dozens of pregnant teenagers found at an illegal clinic in Nigeria and accused of trying to sell their babies are helping investigators find the organizers of baby trafficking rings, officials said.

WorldNetDaily: “Rather than allow the verses on a few pavers along walkways at Palm Desert High School, the Desert Sands Unified School District censored everyone participating in the program and refunded their money,” ADF announced . . . “Christians should be allowed to express themselves on public school campuses just like everyone else,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “It is cowardly to shut down everyone’s participation in this program simply out of animosity toward Christian speech. There is absolutely nothing unconstitutional about a Bible verse on a brick when a school opens up a program for anyone to express a personal message. The school could simply have allowed the Bible verses, but instead, it chose to punish everyone.” . . .

AmLaw Daily: The Alliance Defense Fund, which represented proponents of Proposition 8 in California in Perry v. Brown (originally known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger), issued a statement expressing its own disappointment with the ruling. “From its inception, marriage in Wyoming for all purposes has been the union of one man and one woman,” litigation staff counsel Daniel Blomberg said in a statement. “It is disappointing that the Wyoming Supreme Court ignored Wyoming’s clear definition of marriage in favor of the definition of a foreign country.”

Charisma: “Pregnancy centers, which offer real help and hope to women, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of the abortion industry,” ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman says. “As the district court ruled, the government cannot create special speech rules for people who want to talk about pregnancy choices. And it also cannot target pro-life centers for special sign requirements and fines while leaving speech by abortion clinics unregulated.”

Religion Clause: The Internal Revenue Service announced yesterday that some 275,000 non-profit organizations have automatically lost their tax-exempt status because they failed to file their annual return (Form 990 or 990-N) for three consecutive years.

Religion Clause: : In Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance v. Littlejohn, (MS Sup. Ct., June 9, 2011), the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the public reprimand and assessment of $100 costs on a chancery court judge for misusing his powers of contempt.

AP: Catholic bishops are urging reforms in Swaziland, calling sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy a police state that is “tearing itself apart.”

Asia News: Peter Pham Minh Hoang, professor at the University of Ho Chi Minh City is accused of activities aimed at overthrowing the government and of joining a democracy group. His arrest has caused concern and protests worldwide. Fears that the sentence has been decided before the start of the trial.

The Guardian: Protesters subject British clinics including Marie Stopes to prayer vigils and ‘silent sieges’

William C. Duncan has authored this Institute for Marriage and Public Policy Research Brief: In court cases challenging the definition of marriage in the United States, a prominent claim is that same‐sex marriage is a fundamental right. This brief provides excerpts from cases from non‐U.S. jurisdictions that have weighed in on this claim and found that there is no right to same‐sex marriage in the relevant legal charters the courts were assessing. It also notes court decisions that have relied on the organic law of the nation to mandate a redefinition of marriage.

What are you going to do?” my friend Kate whispered across the square table at Le Pain Quotidian. She squeezed my hand. “I have no idea,” I said. I could feel tears collecting in the corner of my eyes. I would not cry in public. I would not. This is all a bad dream, I tried to tell myself.

Tenn. Board of Regents sued after college silences Christian student, then enforces three-week waiting period, levies $30 solicitation fee

Religion Clause: In the Pakistani province of Punjab, the province’s chief minister Shahbaz Sharif has created controversy by apparently going along with pressure from a number of members of his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Party (PML-N) to prevent the Party’s current finance minister, a Christian, from delivering the annual budget presentation in the Punjab Assembly

KBOI 2: The city of Mountain Home has agreed to let a church hold worship services at a local building after church leaders sued, saying its parishioners had been discriminated against. | Hat tip: Religion Clause Blog

TheHill.com: Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) on Thursday announced the second in the House Homeland Security Committee’s series of hearings on radicalization within the American-Muslim community.

Senior Attorney Job Description:

Conservative, non-profit, legal watchdog group located in Washington, D.C. seeks creative, independent attorney with 5-7 years of litigation experience; must have ability to handle a case from start to finish; FOIA/Open Records, civil rights, constitutional, campaign finance or whistleblower experience a plus.

Judicial Watch provides fully employer-funded health benefits, including medical, dental, vision and prescription. In addition, each employee receives a life insurance and LTD policy, and is eligible to participate in our 403(b) retirement program.

Submit resume and cover letter along with salary requirements to careers@judicialwatch.org with job title in subject line.

Who needs an excuse to raise taxes when a state Supreme Court will tip the scales? That’s the story in New Jersey, where the justices recently inserted themselves into state fiscal policy, much to taxpayer dismay. By a 3-2 vote, the state high court ordered the state to spend an additional $500 million for 31 schools in some of the state’s worst districts.

Daily Mail: Hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money earmarked to counter terrorism was instead handed to extremist groups, it emerged last night. Radical Islamists were bankrolled with money which should have been used to combat their anti-Western ideology, a Government report concluded. The money was spent as part of the Prevent programme which was funded with hundreds of millions of pounds to try to stop young Muslims from becoming radicalised.

Mail Online: Britain’s best-known youth movement is going gay-friendly. The Scout Association has revealed plans to boost its number of gay members and leaders in a bid to banish the perception that homosexuals cannot sign up.The half-a-million-strong movement has released a video as part of the campaign – which will also let Scouts attend gay pride parades in uniform.

It was then that the option of embryo donation was suggested to the couple. The process involves taking sperm and eggs from donors and using them to create an embryo which would then be placed in Jo’s womb.

MSN News UK: Couples wanting children should be offered three cycles of fertility treatment wherever possible, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

Christian Concern: he Care Not Killing Alliance has heavily criticised the BBC’s decision to film and screen a man’s dying moments at the Dignitas suicide facility in a documentary fronted by Terry Pratchett due to be shown on 13 June.

Telegraph: Hillary Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about stepping down from her job as Secretary of State to become head of the World Bank, according to reports.

Ars Technica: A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to “transmit or display an image” online that is likely to “frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress” to someone who sees it. Violations can get you almost a year in jail time or up to $2500 in fines.

Jerry Newcombe at Crosswalk: There’s something rotten in the state of England, and I hope it’s not a picture of what is to come here in America. It’s a serious loss of religious freedom for Christians, even to the point where there’s a serious loss of freedom of speech.

Yahoo! News: Political correctness has stopped Christians expressing themselves, Northern Ireland’s new Presbyterian Moderator has claimed.

Telegraph: A leading humanitarian campaigner will today launch proposals for a new law to tackle the increasing influence of sharia courts in Muslim communities.

USATODAY.com: Going to the local convenience store to buy a lottery ticket might be the next common practice to give way to technology.

MarketWatch: Well, it turns out that working longer is indeed an option, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute latest study. The only problem is that the latest research shows that you’ll have to work much longer than you anticipated. In fact, many Americans will have to keep on working well into their 70s and 80s to afford retirement, according to the study, titled “The Impact of Deferring Retirement Age on Retirement Income Adequacy.”

Yahoo! News: A Chinese ratings house has accused the United States of defaulting on its massive debt, state media said Friday, a day after Beijing urged Washington to put its fiscal house in order.