Daily Archives: July 14, 2011

Missouri Gov, Jay Nixon, who supports legalized abortion, let a ban on late-term abortions become law today without either signing the bill or issuing a veto of it — likely because the legislature approved it on a wide margin.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a landmark bill adding lessons about gay history to social studies classes in California’s public schools.

CSMonitor.com: Mr. Shatter, who said that the findings of the 400-page report “could not be starker or more disturbing,” said there would be no “legal grey area” on reporting allegations – breaking the Catholic church’s “seal of confession.”

The Irish Times: Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton will publish legislation in the next year to provide for recognition of the acquired gender of transgender people.

International.to: Australian Christian Lobby Managing Director Jim Wallace has called for an end to the serial demonisation of anyone who publicly resists the gay activists’ agenda to redefine marriage. This follows today’s attack on Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s sister, Loree, for her comments expressing concern at the global propaganda machine of the homosexual lobby and equating this to a “global gay Gestapo”.

The Australian: The divorced nurse from the Sunshine Coast town of Nambour, who once trained as a nun, has accused Labor members supporting the proposed changes of being brainwashed by a “global gay Gestapo”, which is lobbying political parties and governments worldwide.

NYTimes.com: China, one of the United States’ biggest creditor, urged the United States government on Thursday to act to protect investors’ interests, highlighting rising concerns around the globe about the protracted budget talks taking place in Washington.

The Local: Muslim leaders have slammed the lack of an Islamic spiritual counsellor in the German armed forces in spite of the fact that an estimated 1,200 Muslims serve in the Bundeswehr.

OneNewsNow.com: Homosexual activists in Maine have announced future ballot plans for a referendum on same-gender “marriage.”

WSJ.com: Mr. Marbut isn’t basing his pro-gun effort on the Second Amendment, the one that talks about a right to bear arms, but on the 10th, which discusses the limits of federal power. “This is really about states’ rights and federal power rather than gun control,” Mr. Marbut says. There is “an emerging awareness by the people of America that the federal government has gone too far,” he maintains, “and it’s dependent on a really weird interpretation.” He is talking about the 1942 Supreme Court case of Wickard v. Filburn, which looms for him the way the Dred Scott decision denying rights to blacks did to antebellum abolitionists.

Heritage Foundation: An article in the The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that our budget situation is likely worse than what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects, meaning we could be in much more debt than we realize.

In a snapshot summary of her memoir released on Tuesday, In Spite of Everything, Susan Gregory Thomas gives a firsthand account of what remains of children and parents after the devastation of divorce. Thomas presents a vivid portrait of the children of divorce in her neighborhood who, with her, wandered as “sad-eyed, bruised nomads.”

International News Network: A vast majority of young Muslims in Indonesia and Malaysia disapprove of the traditional acceptance of polygamy. They are, however, reluctant to openly support interfaith marriages or premarital sex, says a new survey.

John Gerardi at The Daily Caller: Michele Bachman has been taking some heat lately for the views of the conservative Christian denomination to which she used to belong, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), which believes that the Pope is the Antichrist. | Related Catholic League press release: Bachmann’s beliefs under scrutiny

The Nonprofit Quarterly : In one instance, a church lost its tax exemption, but we suspect that the IRS and the federal government in general are little interested in publicizing cases about the IRS telling ministers what they can and cannot say from the pulpit or on church websites. There is probably little appetite to take on Pastor Brown’s argument that the Americans United complaint is “just harassment and persecution of anti-religious people against people of faith.”

Americans United, Allied Groups Oppose Taxpayer Funding of Religious Schools In Washington, D.C. | Americans United: Americans United for Separation of Church and State has joined 52 educational, religious and public policy groups in calling on Congress not to divert taxpayer dollars to religious and other private schools in the District of Columbia.

LifeNews.com: Two pro-life organizations are sponsoring a rally on Friday in New Hampshire in support of a decision by the Executive Council there to revoke a $1.8 million taxpayer-funded contract with the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

The Blog of Legal Times: The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted today to move ahead with five of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees, including two for the high-profile U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

NOLA.com: The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved the nominations of Stephen Higginson of New Orleans for the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th U.S. Circuit, and Jane M. Triche-Milazzo of Napoleonville for a federal District Court seat in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

LifeNews.com: News reports indicate that the first two patients have been injected in their eyes with retinal cells made from human embryonic stem cells. The actual injection of the hESC-derived cells comes about a month after the trials’ sponsor, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced that they had signed up the patients for the embryonic stem cell experiments.

LifeNews.com: On Tuesday, Hon. Richard D. Bennett of the federal district court for the District of Maryland issued a 49-page opinion in a civil rights action filed by attorneys with the American Catholic Lawyers Association in 2009. The decision, following extensive motions for summary judgment by both plaintiffs and defendants, holds that the First and Fourth Amendment rights of the seven pro-life advocates who are the plaintiffs (as well as two pro-life advocates represented by the Alliance Defense Fund) were violated when the state troopers arrested and jailed them.

The Christian Institute: Health warnings are set to be placed on abortion adverts in Russia – where over a million abortions were carried out in 2008.

MyFoxTwinCities: Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, saying he “reluctantly” agrees to accept the Republican budget proposal from June 30 if it will end the government shutdown .

UN.org: The General Assembly today admitted the Republic of South Sudan as the 193rd member of the United Nations, welcoming the newly independent country to the community of nations.

LifeNews.com: Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit against the city over the law that the pro-life legal group says “threatens non-medical, pro-life pregnancy care centers with steep fines and potential closure if they don’t post signs and publish in their ads that the city health department encourages women to go elsewhere.”

The Albany Times-Union reports that Grisanti raised $153,469.19 in the second quarter, making him the eighth biggest Senate fundraiser. The Buffalo News reports that approximately $50,000 came from same-sex marriage advocates, including a $10,000 donation from activist Tim Gill.

LifeSiteNews.com: Chile’s president Sebastian Piñera, who bills himself as a social conservative and is known for his defense of the right to life, is preparing to introduce a bill in the nation’s congress instituting “civil unions” for homosexual couples, according to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, which says that it has seen a recent draft of the legislation.

The Volokh Conspiracy: Habush v. Cannon, 2011 WL 2477236 (June 8), holds that such purchases can’t be enjoined under Wisconsin “right of publicity” law.

Adam J. White: While I’ll clearing out my “Alito Trivia” file, let me add one more anecdote that did not make it into my article, but which may be of some historical amusement.

Anchorage Daily News: Christen, an Alaska Supreme Court justice, and Gleason, presiding judge for Anchorage Superior Court, are up for federal judgeships. They underwent their confirmation hearings Wednesday before the judiciary panel and have support from both of Alaska’s U.S. senators.

N.Y. Republican Senators Rewarded for Marriage Vote | News | The Advocate: The four New York state Republican senators who voted for marriage equality last month have been rewarded with generous campaign contributions from advocates including New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who joined others in giving the maximum amount allowed to the lawmakers.

Christian Post: Some of the Episcopal Church bishops in New York will require its gay clergy to avail themselves to the state’s Marriage Equality Act that legalizes same-sex marriage when it goes into effect on July 24

FoxNews.com: The Obama administration’s policies on immigration and gay marriage are being tested in another case of a gay man fighting deportation by citing his marriage to a U.S. citizen.

LifeSiteNews.com: he New York Times launched what one prominent Catholic professor has called a “peculiar” attack on natural family planning (NFP) last week by sharing the tale of a young Evangelical couple that had championed the practice and then recanted, only to get divorced three years later.

LifeSiteNews.com: Unless conservatives elect a president who is determined to defeat Obamacare in 2012, they will have lost their final chance for its repeal, said presidential candidate Michele Bachmann Wednesday morning.

BusinessWeek: A woman who once ran the political action committee for high-profile abortion provider George Tiller is raising funds to open a clinic in Wichita, where he was murdered more than two years ago.

LifeNews.com: The Ohio legislature today signed off on a bill banning late-term abortions in the Buckeye State and now it heads to pro-life Gov. John Kasich for his signature. H.B. 78, the Late-Term Abortion Ban, passed by a 64 to 32 vote in the House late last month and the Senate approved it today.

LifeNews.com: Headlines regarding the Casey Anthony tot mom murder trial are giving way to news of mothers who have sacrificed dearly for their children.

LifeNews.com: The Sendate Judiciary Committee will reportedly vote on Thursday on President Barack Obama’s latest pro-abortion nomination for a federal judicial position, pro-abortion former Kansas Attorney General Steven Six.

Greg Quinlan at PFOX-ExGays: Why have gay activists instigated media attention over ex-gays and the husband of Presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann? Apparently, Mr. Bachmann, who has a PhD in clinical psychology, operates several counseling centers which also offer services to homosexual clients seeking to overcome unwanted same-sex attractions. But because even one ex-gay proves that homosexual behavior is not innate or immutable, the gay lobby’s fear of their former members results in false claims and attacks aimed at preventing homosexuals from exercising their right to self-determination.

California Watch: A state law prohibiting cyber-bullying at public schools has been expanded to ban harassment through social networking websites. AB 746 . . .

The Tennessean: The Sumner County Board of Education will change some of its policies in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee accusing the district of promoting Christianity.

ADF Attorney Jeremy Tedesco at Minnesota Public Radio News: “Over the top” only begins to describe a June 27 commentary piece authored by Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Kate Kendall of the National Center for Lesbian Rights regarding the Anoka-Hennepin School District’s sexual orientation curriculum policy.

AP: The ordination is Beijing’s third without a papal mandate in eight months, deepening a standoff between China and the Vatican over the Holy See’s insistence on the pope’s sole right to appoint bishops. Beijing’s communist rulers see it as foreign interference.

Redding.com Jim Wilson’s blog: It is likewise conservatives – like Pacific Justice Institute and the Alliance Defense Fund – who fight in the courts for just rulings and procedures today. But the shoe remains on the other foot for only a moment. Scripture says we need the Law and the Prophets to remain straight and God uses both camps in due season. Speaking as a conservative, we needed each other then and we need each other now.

Pacific Justice Institute: The PJI suit challenges the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the new law, which requires that nearly all Americans to buy health insurance, whether they want it or not. The Ninth Circuit is currently weighing whether to allow the suit to go forward.

Courthouse News Service: A lawyer for the facilities praised the injunction in a press statement. “This order keeps the city from enforcing a law that is specifically designed to deter pregnant women from receiving the help they need to make fully informed choices about their pregnancy while this lawsuit goes forward,” wrote Matthew Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian advocacy group. “The order also means that the court is likely to find the ordinance unconstitutional.”

ADF attorney Jim Campbell at The Christian Post: Thus, like the schoolyard bully who hides his fear by creating it in others, the groups attacking marriage display a front of academic superiority, knowing all the while that a breach of that façade will expose the alarming void within.

Charisma: “Christians shouldn’t be silenced and threatened with arrest for attempting to express their beliefs at a free public event on public property,” says Jonathan Scruggs, ADF litigation staff counsel. “The city did the right thing by directing police officers to stop restricting such constitutionally protected expression. It was especially fitting on a day when our nation celebrates its freedom.”

LifeNews.com: ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman commented on the law and the lawsuit in remarks to LifeNews.com. “Pro-life pregnancy centers, which freely offer real help and hope to women and their preborn children, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of those who make their money aborting babies,” he said. “This order keeps the city from enforcing a law that is specifically designed to deter pregnant women from receiving the help they need to make fully informed choices about their pregnancy while this lawsuit goes forward. The order also means that the court is likely to find the ordinance unconstitutional.” Bowman noted the court was also critical of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s defense of the city ordinance: “Given the New York Civil Liberties Union’s (“NYCLU”) usual concern for First Amendment rights, its amicus brief supporting Defendant’s expansive view of the commercial speech doctrine is puzzling.”

AP on NPR: “The ordinance threatens non-medical, pro-life pregnancy services centers with heavy fines and possible closure if they don’t provide posted, printed, and oral notices crafted by the city that encourage women to go elsewhere,” said the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative religious rights organization that represented two pregnancy centers and a maternity home in the case.

AP: The United States and Russia ended an ugly dispute over the abuse of adopted Russian children on Wednesday, with Washington signing an agreement that will increase oversight of adopting families to curtail possible maltreatment.

AP: A poll in Europe finds that most West Europeans believe that China has either supplanted or will supplant the United States as the world’s leading power.

AP: China is watching whether the Federal Reserve launches a new stimulus that might hurt China by pushing up commodity prices, a Cabinet researcher said Thursday.

Four Roman Catholic bishops have gone missing in China – Vatican Insider: The wherabouts of four Catholic bishops who were taken away by Chinese police are unknown

ABC News: Harvard University child obesity expert Dr. David Ludwig’s recent claim that some parents should lose custody of their severely obese children has sparked outrage among families and professionals across the country.

Asia News: Three bishops were taken in the past two days: the bishop of Guangzhou has been missing for days. In Shenyang Mgr. Pei Junmin, designated to preside over the celebration, is being defended by his priests and faithful with a non-stop sit-in in the cathedral. PA claims the Vatican “divides the Church in China and creates more disputes.”

Catholic Culture: Iraq’s embattled Christian community has opened a new church, for the first time since war began in 2003.

ADF legal analysis says lawsuit by DC law professor isn’t right ‘by a long shot’

Bloomberg: Moody’s Investors Service put the U.S. under review for a credit rating downgrade as talks to raise the government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit stall, adding to concern that political gridlock will lead to a default.

The Iona Institute : Instead of accepting at face value that the interpretation of UN conventions by UN committees is authoritative either in international or in Irish law, Ireland should instead strongly challenge those committees where their interpretations depart from both the text and the spirit of the various treaties.

Catholic Culture: Berlin’s newly appointed archbishop has promised to meet with the homosexual activists who have protested his appointment, hoping to convince them of his goodwill.

Neo-neocon Blog: City and town clerks are in an unusual position, because they are government officials. On Long Island, the Nassau County district attorney, Kathleen M. Rice, sent a sternly worded letter to clerks last week, warning that they could be subject to criminal prosecution if they declined to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. | The NY Daily News has published the text of the letter in an article by Celeste Katz, dated July 8 and titled: Nassau DA Kathleen Rice To Clerks: Don’t Even Think About Refusing Gay Marriage Licenses

HSLDA : There seems to be special resistance to homeschooling older children, desiring them to be socialized into the public school and wider culture. But, as several families told us, even younger children may be approved for homeschooling one year and disapproved the next year with little to no justification. In some families, approval is granted for one child and not a sibling, with little rhyme or reason given.

HSLDA: The Spanish-speaking homeschool movement began in Mexico but is expanding throughout the world. In May, El Hogar Educador mailed the spring issue of its magazine to 5,428 families in 28 countries.

Thomas M. Clark, The Problems of Perry: Exposing the Flaws of Its Assault on Traditional Marriage, Human Life Rev. (Winter/Spring 2011)

Alfred Regnery at Townhall: Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1798 to liberal political theorist and Virgina Senator John Taylor that he wished the constitution included strict debt limitations: “I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing. I now deny their power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender. I know that to pay all proper expenses within the year would, in case of war, be hard on us. But not so hard as ten wars instead of one. For wars could be reduced in that proportion; besides that the State governments would be free to lend their credit in borrowing quotas.”

Freedom From Religion Foundation: The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a 16,600-member state/church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., filed a federal lawsuit this morning in the Southern District Court of Texas in Houston seeking to block Texas Gov. Rick Perry from continued association with the evangelical Christian prayer rally he initiated at Reliant Stadium in Houston to take place on Aug. 6.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: Americans United for Separation of Church and State today warned the South Bend (Ind.) Common Council that its plan to use public funds to support a religious school is unconstitutional.

TriValley Central : In a letter to the 137 public school superintendents, the group reminded administrators that holiday celebrations focusing primarily on one religious holiday amount to a school’s unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

The Blog of Legal Times: In the ongoing battle between the for-profit education industry and the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer handed both sides a win and a loss in a ruling (PDF) yesterday.