Daily Archives: July 29, 2011

LaTimes.com: The latest round of changes was made on Friday, after House leaders spent hours in tense and unsuccessful backroom bargaining sessions with members on Thursday night. They ultimately agreed to amend the bill to insist on passage of a balanced-budget amendment in both houses of Congress as part of a debt-limit hike. That move won over roughly a dozen members.

Boston.com: Massachusetts lawmakers have given final approval to a bill aimed at overhauling the administration of the state’s courts, including the way job applications are handled.

CSMonitor.com: The Texas trial of Warren Jeffs should shine a spotlight on the global problem of child marriages, and efforts to prevent them.

The Guardian: Judge describes Bilal Zaheer Ahmad as a viper in our midst before jailing him for 12 years for threats on websites.

The Republic (AP): Kansas officials drafted new regulations for abortion providers without independently compiling data or studies on how the new rules would make the procedures safer for the women seeking them, and attorneys for providers expect the apparent lack of such research to be a central issue in a federal lawsuit challenging the rules.

The Washington Post: Cleo Powell was elected by unanimous votes in the House and the Senate along with Elizabeth A. McClanahan. Both are being elevated from the Virginia Court of Appeals.

National law Journal: His dismissal was prompted by a long-running dispute with university administrators over the amount of law school-generated money demanded by the larger university, the letter said. According to Closius, the university retained 45% of the revenue generated by the law school during the 2010-11 academic year — well more than the industry standard, he said.

In a 2–1 decision Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit upheld a district court’s ban on prayers by clergy that may mention a particular deity prior to public meetings in Forsyth County, N.C.

The Times of India: Most would have expected it to be ‘big news’, but the opposite happened when a runaway lesbian couple, Beena and Savita, (from Khekada village in Baghpat) was given recognition of their marriage by a Gurgaon court, along with police protection.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., ruled 2-1 on Friday in favor of a couple who sued after the prayer before a December 2007 meeting thanked God for allowing the birth of his son to forgive us for our sins and closed by making the prayer in the name of Jesus.

LaTimes.com: Members of the Senate and House plan to introduce legislation that would require Internet-only retailers to collect sales taxes. Amazon is fighting efforts by California and New York that would force it to collect taxes, but it says it would support a nationwide system for tax collection.

LifeNews.com: A Catholic hospital in Colorado will face protests next Thursday by pro-life advocates who are upset that it has in its employment an abortion practitioner who works at Planned Parenthood.

The Federalist Society: The 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, replaced the election of U.S. senators by state legislators with the current system of direct election by the people. In this article, Professors Todd Zywicki and Ilya Somin of George Mason University School of Law debate whether repealing the 17th Amendment would restore the principles of federalism to the constitutional system by increasing state power, or whether repeal would have little if any effect on the respective powers of the federal government and the states.

Associated Press: Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs broke his silence Friday, delivering before jurors a 55-minute sermon defending plural marriage as ordered by God and protected by the U.S. Constitution.

San Francisco Chronicle: A state commission has scheduled an Aug. 31 confirmation hearing in San Francisco for Goodwin Liu, a UC Berkeley law professor nominated Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown to the California Supreme Court.

Religion Clause Blog: All Africa.com reported yesterday that the two houses of Rwanda’s Parliament are split over the definition of “religion” in a proposed “Bill Governing Religious Communities in Rwanda.”

Christian Post: The battle over Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage, is set to resume September 6 when the California Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether proponents of the ban can legally defend the initiative they sponsored.

The court ruled that DNA isolated from the body was eligible for patents because it was “markedly different” in its chemical structure from DNA that exists in the body.

Forbes.com: An Alamogordo man can keep his controversial billboard along the city’s main thoroughfare – for now, a state district judge has ruled

630 WMAL: The ACLU of Virginia today sent an email to local and regional jail officials reminding them that they must allow Muslim inmates to take their meals between sundown and sunrise during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan begins on August 1 and ends with the celebration of Eid ul-Fitr on August 30.

Reuters: A study from the University of Missouri-Columbia revealed that as an alternative to fully cohabiting couples are spending three of more nights together a week and still maintaining their own homes, which could help to explain recent U.S. census data that indicates people are getting married later.

Center for AZ Policy Foundations Blog: As a part of our ongoing series discussing the importance of protecting marriage as the union of one man and one woman, Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel Dale Schowengerdt guest blogs about the implications redefining marriage would have on our religious freedom

LifeNews.com: This week, Texas governor and potential Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry took a states’ rights position on abortion saying states should have the ability to ban abortions. Now, a pro-life organization is challenging him to go a step further by endorsing a federal Constitutional amendment that would offer legal protection for unborn children.

Politico: Americans are sharply divided over New York’s recent legalization of gay marriage, according to a new poll on Friday that revealed a huge generation gap in how same sex nuptials are viewed.

Most troubling is Liu’s support of same-sex marriage and opposition to Proposition 8, which will be before the Court this fall. He was one of 59 legal professionals who signed a joint statement released by the No on 8 campaign during the initiative campaign, wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times following the election, and filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing the challenge to Proposition 8.

FoxNews.com: We’ve already seen that a chaplain had an assignment pulled because he was critical of the repeal of DADT,” says retired Col. Ron Crews, a former U.S. Army chaplain. Crews, along with several other chaplain endorsers (denominations that sponsor military chaplains) are meeting with attorneys this week in Scottsdale, Ariz . . . Without guidelines or uniform rules, commanders will become judge and jury. That is why Crews and the conservative legal advocacy group The Alliance Defense Fund” are making this preemptive move.

Post Chronicle: Lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) claim the group’s desire to have the cross removed from the 9/11 memorial museum is “completely out of step with the Constitution.”

NCRegister.com subcaption: Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,’ said Steven Aden, senior council at the Alliance Defense Fund, which supported the lawsuit. The group is reviewing its options for appeal.

One News Now: Gregory Baylor of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says the problem surfaced when discriminatory policies against religious organizations were discovered at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). We resolved that situation with [UTSA], and we had a concern that other … public colleges and universities in the state of Texas might have similar policies,” Baylor explains.

Missouri Lawyers Media (subscription) (blog) – Tom Schoenberg, Scott Lauck – ‎16 hours ago‎ Their lawyer, Steven Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund, said his clients are weighing all of their options for an appeal. Missouri Cures, a nonprofit organization that helped pass a 2006 state constitutional amendment passage that protects the ability …

LifeSiteNews.com: “One atheist group’s agenda shouldn’t diminish the sacrifice made by the heroes of 9/11,” said ADF Senior Counsel Byron Babione, who argued that the cross “simply does not amount to a government establishment of religion.” “The cross is not only known far and wide as a religious symbol, but also as a symbol of death, remembrance, and honor for the dead. Americans have long recognized this. Nothing in the Constitution authorizes atheists to scour the landscape on a mission to seek and destroy memorial crosses.”

OneNewsNow.com: With the increasing national popularity of school choice and reform legislation, teachers unions are ramping up their attacks against school-choice advocates.

Washington Times: But Dale Schowengerdt, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal group that specializes in religious freedom issues, said Mr. Banzhaf is missing a critical step. “[Mr. Banzhaf has] infamously filed hundreds of sex discrimination complaints and all of those complaints have one common seed — either males or females were treated discriminatorily,” Mr. Schowengerdt said. “When males or females are treated the same, then unlike race, there are reasons for the distinction of male or female living quarters.”

Christian Post: “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” said ADF senior counsel Steven H. Aden. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision,” he added. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

San Francisco Bay Times: Austin Nimocks of the Alliance Defense Fund; Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family; and Ed Whelan from the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Rep. Steve King, (R-Iowa) cited a 1947 Supreme Court case that declared, “Marriage and procreation are fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race.” King said sanctioning same-sex marriage could lead to marriages between “fathers and daughters … mothers and sons” and “poly-amorous relationships.”

International Business Times: “American should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and would violate federal law,” said ADF senior counsel Steven Aden. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all our options for appeal of this decision. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

World Net Daily: ADF said, “The judge explained that he believes his hands have been tied by an appellate court decision that reversed his August 2010 order to stop the funding in light of a federal law that prohibits it.” ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden said Americans “should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law.” “The district court’s injunction simply enforced that law, which makes sure Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research,” he said. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision. In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

Christian Post: “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden in a statement. “The district court’s injunction simply enforced that law, which makes sure Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research. The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision. In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

WORLDmag.com: Holly Carmichael, of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), said New York’s same-sex marriage law “conflicts with fundamental American religious freedoms.”
According to the ADF, the law also conflicts with New York’s Human Rights law and Domestic Relations law, which protect workers from acting in conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs.

WSJ.com: So when Mr. and Mrs. Beckham welcomed their fourth child this month, the appropriate response seemed either to congratulate them or—better yet—to say nothing at all and let them get on with their lives, as they have largely done for everyone else. That proved too much for Simon Ross, the chief executive of the British nonprofit group Population Matters, which sees “overpopulation” as a culprit in everything from African famine to resource scarcity to poverty to climate change

Maine Watch with Jennifer Rooks | PBS Video (26:45 mins): Carrol Conley of the Christian Civic League defends marriage on Maine Watch

TheHill.com: House Republicans will link passage of a balanced-budget amendment to Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) last-ditch debt-ceiling plan, which GOP lawmakers said would move the measure to passage in a high-stakes vote later on Friday.

Greg Lukianoff of FIRE at EducationViews.org : But make no mistake, the dilemmas posed by fraternity incidents like these and, more importantly, from the way fraternities choose to handle them, have ramifications far beyond the strange parallel universe of Greek life. The free speech controversies posed by fraternities — and the responses to them — often threaten the free speech rights of all students

Alliance Defense Fund atRed County: So if you’ve been wondering how someone else’s same-sex “marriage” will affect your marriage, now you’ve got a significant part of the answer: if you’re among the 62 percent of Americans who believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman, prepare to be regarded as the Ku Klux Klan down the street—and for your children to be taught that perspective at your local government-run school.

Steven Aden at Townhall : For starters, this means the law of the land in Indiana declares that “human physical life” begins at conception. An amazing feat considering the fact that Planned Parenthood’s “bioethics expert” in the case, Lee M. Silver, a Princeton University professor and American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, relied on the same Leftist-lexicon that has been so thoroughly dominant in academic and naturalistic circles for generations.

AP: Foreign governments and human rights groups say the relatively light sentences given to 12 men who participated in the brutal killings of three minority Muslim sect members sends a chilling message about growing religious intolerance in Indonesia.

AP: . . . Salafis chanted for the implementation of strict Islamic law – spurring accusations that they violated an agreement to keep the rally free from divisive issues.

AP: Rural America now accounts for just 16 percent of the nation’s population, the lowest ever.

NationalJournal.com: June was the deadliest month in more than two years for U.S. troops, with 14 killed. In May, the U.S. death toll was two. In April, it was 11. Senior U.S. commanders say the three primary Iranian-backed militias, Kataib Hezbollah, the Promise Day Brigade, and Asaib al Haq, and their rockets were behind 12 of the deaths in June.

NCPA Policy Digest: The federal health law, which will expand coverage to 30 million currently uninsured Americans, will have little effect on the nation’s rising health spending in the next decade, says a new report by the Medicare Office of the Actuary, reports Kaiser Health News.