Daily Archives: August 16, 2011

ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: It’s tragic and dangerous that most people don’t see churches as providing a moral compass for communities. Churches and pastors must boldly step into that roll. Otherwise, someone or something else will. We all can see it’s already happening.

ADF Attorney Erik Stanley at Speak Up Movement Church Blog: So why can’t ADF just file a prospective lawsuit against the IRS asking the Court to issue a declaratory judgment that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional as applied to a pastor’s sermon? Or why couldn’t ADF file a lawsuit against the IRS and ask the Court for an injunction to stop the IRS from applying the Johnson Amendment to a pastor’s sermon from the pulpit?

ADF attorney David Cortman at FFRF: Imagine No Religion |: Are we that far gone in this country where community members–even those who work for the government–can no longer voluntarily gather together to pray for our students, schools, community, or country? And isn’t that what we do each year at See You at the Pole and on the National Day of Prayer? If FFRF has its way, these events will no longer be “legal” under the supposed evolving, changing version of our founding documents.

Congratulations to allied attorneys Steven Amjad, Jim Bopp, Dana Cody, Kim Colby, Natalie Decker, Cathi Herrod, Nik Nikas, Deborah Sheasby, Katie Short, Demetrios Stratis, Alan Reinach, and Steve Ryan as well as new Honor Corps members Mark Guevara, Zach Kester, …

WorldNetDaily: More than 100 children from Malawi’s southern district of Nsanje have been forced at gunpoint to receive measles vaccinations, according to a report from the southern African nation. And the partner in the forced medication program? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to Natural News.

Independent.ie:
MANY children from broken homes are born “losers” and so deprived of love that they grow up to be dysfunctional adults, according to a Catholic bishop. Bishop of Elphin Christopher Jones said that during his 17 years working in social services in Sligo he had seen the damage wrought on children as a result of marriage breakdown.

Full story – Norwaynews.com: Norwegian authorities no less than Muslims are to blame for the fact that the issue of the relations between natives and immigrants is that prominent. It was them who opened the doors of this quiet country to people of dubious reputation, who had the opportunity to influence the attitudes of local Muslims and thereby slow down the process of their integration. So far the leadership of the Northern Kingdom has done little to alleviate the problem. If nothing changes, it will be impossible to peacefully solve the issue. Radicalism is increasing both among the immigrants, and among the “natives.”

The Washington Post: The leaders of France and Germany called Tuesday for greater economic discipline and unity among European nations but declined to take the expensive financial measures seen by many investors as the only way to halt the continent’s spiraling debt crisis.

Christian Post: Whilst the Nepali government has lost its prime minister during the struggle in drafting a new constitution, the country’s Christians and other religions minorities are rallying to ensure that they will be ensured of their religious freedom.

Baptist Press: R. Albert Mohler Jr. and Jim Wallis will debate the role social justice in the church’s mission in a live webcast Oct. 27.

LifeSiteNews.com: A hospital in London that recently attempted to force two Christian nurses to commit abortions has backed down after legal threats.

KOB.com: Monday night, Albuquerque city councilors heard and rejected an appeal from Defined Fitness who said having The Palms Gentleman’s Club next to them violated city ordinance. The two businesses share a parking lot. The argument revolved around Defined Fitness’ claim their daycare is actually a school and city ordinance clearly states adult businesses are not allowed near schools.

FamilyPolicy.net: A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicates that almost 20% of homosexual men have the AIDS virus. An even more shocking aspect of the new study shows that nearly half of those men are unaware of their infected status.

Reuters: Voters in two Wisconsin State Senate districts headed to the polls on Tuesday in the last of nine recall elections triggered by the fight earlier this year over Republican-backed curbs on union rights of public workers.

Elizabeth Marquardt at Family Scholars: Our third edition, just published today and available for order here, with special discounts for bulk purchases. A team of family scholars now summarizes 30 conclusions from the social sciences about marriage, finding among other things that cohabitation, not divorce, is now the leading cause of rising family instability in America today.

Forbes: Yesterday the Free Speech Coalition posted on their blog a call to action for all website owners “to demand that their trademarks be protected from sale on .XXX domains to third parties.”

Reuters: Long famous for its top-notch highways and passion for cars, the United States is letting bridges rust as traffic chokes overburdened roads, threatening a pillar of its economic strength.

WSJ: But student loans are up sharply. There was $550 billion in student debt outstanding in the second quarter, up 25% from $440 billion in the third quarter of 2008.

LifeSiteNews.com: The city council of São José dos Campos (Saint Joseph of the Fields) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, has passed an ordinance imposing a fine equivalent to 620 USD on anyone distributing materials designed to induce children to become homosexuals, according to Brazilian media sources.

CNN.com: According to the 2011 census, the sex ratio of the country’s children has dipped from 927 females per 1000 males to 914, a 60-year low. Ratios in the northern states are particularly alarming: only Himachal Pradesh now has a ratio of girls to boys above 900.

LifeNews.com: What we glimpse here is the underlying malignancy of IVF, and the reason why we ought not allow our sympathy for the childless to cloud our reason and judgement.

LifeNews.com: Another new campaign produced by black pro-life advocates says African-American political leaders have betrayed the black community with their support for abortion, which has destroyed millions of black Americans.

ABA Journal: The ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has sanctioned Villanova University for inaccurately reporting law school admission data

CJOnline.com: When Brownback announced last week that the state would reject the health care grant, he cited a concern that the federal government would not be able to meet its financial commitments. He also said states should be preparing for fewer federal dollars, not more. But those concerns didn’t prevent the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services from seeking $2.2 million a year for three years to pay for counseling that encourages unwed parents to marry, The Kansas City Star reports

CSMonitor.com: Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev chose a painful anniversary – that of the 1991 August Coup, which tried to reverse his democratic reforms – to criticize Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

American Civil Liberties Union: The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri filed a lawsuit today challenging a Kansas law that prohibits insurance companies from including coverage for abortion in their comprehensive plans. Since 2010, 13 states have enacted laws that prohibit some or all insurance policies from covering abortion care. Today’s lawsuit, ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri v. Praeger, is the first to challenge one of these laws.

Times Union: Time Warner Cable gave advocates of same-sex marriage $70,846 of free airtime this spring, lobbying records show.

USA Today: GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is criticizing the Federal Reserve, suggesting the central bank is almost “treasonous” and that Chairman Ben Bernanke would get an “ugly” reception in Texa

Daniel Larison at the American Conservative: Since sanctions are an ineffective mechanism for preventing the development of an Iranian nuclear weapon (if there were a consensus inside the Iranian government in favor of building one, which there isn’t), Derbyshire asks why Paul’s “more honest” statement of the Iran policy all of the other candidates share comes in for so much criticism . . .

The Transformation of Michele Bachmann : The New Yorker: Bachmann belongs to a generation of Christian conservatives whose views have been shaped by institutions, tracts, and leaders not commonly known to secular Americans, or even to most Christians.

Findlaw: Ask any ambitious 3L this question: what is your dream job fresh out of law school? “General counsel” is likely not something you’d hear, partially because most law students recognize that it used to be near-impossible to land an in-house position without years of experience.

Guardian.co.uk: Only recognised orphanages in China will be able to offer infants for adoption to prevent demand for abducted children.

Religion Clause: In Rosenstein v. Rosenstein, (TX App., Aug. 11, 2011), a Texas appeals court held that in a divorce action, the trial court violated the mother’s Establishment Clause rights when, in an amended decree, it awarded the father exclusive possession of the couple’s children on four Jewish religious holidays, and on every Sunday morning.

AP: Panetta said the Pentagon is prepared to make $350 billion in cuts over the next 10 years, as agreed by Congress. But he warned of dangers to the national defense if bigger reductions are required.

NPR: At times of partisan stress in American Politics, the Supreme Court often becomes part of the game, and the ethics of individual justices become a focus of criticism. Liberal groups are leading the charge now.

Jennifer Haberkorn at POLITICO.com: The court has two very strong reasons to take the case now. First, there are two circuit courts that have ruled in opposite directions on the constitutionality of the law’s individual mandate. And second, because the Obama administration lost in the latest ruling, it is going to be the one filing the appeal. The Supreme Court rarely turns down such requests from the federal government, especially on an issue with the scope of the health reform law.

William Eskridge at SCOTUSblog: How ought the U.S. Supreme Court handle the appeal in Perry v. Schwarzenegger once the case is ripe for appeal? The Court ought to avoid any broad pronouncements on the merits of plaintiffs’ claim that denying marriage equality to lesbian and gay couples violates the Fourteenth Amendment. If the Court reaches the merits, the Justices ought to affirm the district court decision based upon Romer v. Evans (1996).

Robert Levy, Chairman of Cato Institute, at SCOTUSblog: Rather than discuss specific legal questions raised by Perry and Windsor – on which other participants will no doubt write at length – I’d like to comment briefly on three jurisprudential issues that are central to the debate over same-sex marriage: religious freedom, federalism, and judicial activism.

SCOTUSblog: Thomas C. Berg, Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of St. Thomas, discusses potential conflicts between same-sex marriage and religious liberty, and why legislatures may do a better job than courts of balancing these two rights.

Asia News: Protests of the faithful against the crackdown imposed by the government in recent weeks after more than 40 arrests. A Mass to remember the raids by police in the Diocese of Vinh and Thanh Hoa. Priest in Saigon: non-Catholics also involved. For the Vietnamese “The days of silence are over.”

Beverly K. Eakman at Education News: Most voters today no longer remember a time when the tenets of “progressive education” were not part of their everyday lives. It no longer seems strange to the average parent, for example, that what once gave America its cohesiveness, as well as its economic and cultural “edge” over other countries, is largely missing from the school environment and curriculum.

Michael Cook at Crisis Magazine (7/12): How is this law going to hurt your marriage? That is the jeer hurled at opponents of New York’s new same-sex marriage law. As the Boston Globe put it memorably some time ago, same-sex marriage will “no more undermine traditional marriage than sailing undermines swimming”.

ADF attorneys Joe Infranco and Byron Babione at The American Spectator: The plain fact is that a memorial cross at this site does not “establish” a religion. The agenda of a few atheists should not diminish the sacrifice of the heroes and victims of 9/11. The place of this potent symbol of our shared tragedy and courage should remain for all time.

Three churches sue Port St. Lucie, claim zoning laws discriminate: “The law is very clear that when you allow similar uses that include assembly of people, you have to allow churches,” said the attorney for the churches Kevin Theriot. He is with the Christian nonprofit Alliance Defense Fund based in Kansas City. Theriot said the city claims the churches have to leave because they’re not allowed in areas zoned “neighborhood convenience commercial.” [more]

Public Discourse: merica’s laws and institutions come from a moral worldview shaped by Christian belief. They depend not on where her people came from, but on what they are willing to sacrifice to keep the experiment alive. Adapted from a keynote address delivered to the national gathering of CALL (Catholic Association of Latino Leaders).

FoxNews.com: Travis Barham, who worked on the Georgia case as part of the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, which has defended Adams in a court battle with the university over a promotion he claims he was wrongly denied, said he’s not sure whether the University of North Carolina Wilmington is in danger of a similar violation. But Barham questioned whether it was appropriate for the university to put out such a guide. “Whether they’re promoting denominations or whether they’re promoting individual churches … that’s not the business of a university,” Barham said. | Daily Mail: North Carolina University Puts Out List of ‘Gay Friendly’ Churches

Susan Brown at Townhall: The hysterical reaction to Republican presidential hopeful Governor Rick Perry’s faith is about as overblown as his home state of Texas is big. Perry is facing a federal lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) – purportedly because Perry prayed publicly for our nation.

ADF attorney Steve Aden at Townhall : A June 24 column I wrote for Townhall.com highlighted the grassroots effort to defund Planned Parenthood one state at a time. At that time, I covered the fact that North Carolina’s legislation had overridden Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto and passed a bill that cut funding to Planned Parenthood by approximately $434,000 annually. And while that was great news, on July 28, the legislature overrode another veto to enact even more encouraging measures for defenders of life throughout the country: an informed consent law . . .

Bob Beauprez at Townhall : The 2011 Cost of Government Day fell on August 12 – last Friday – meaning Americans labored a full 224 days into the year to pay for local, state and federal government spending and regulations.

The Washington Post: President Obama has directed a small team of advisers to develop a proposal that would keep the government playing a major role in the nation’s mortgage market, extending a federal loan subsidy for most home buyers, according to people familiar with the matter.

LifeNews.com: A Florida judge has dismissed a request by a Florida abortion practitioner looking to get out of paying a the survivor of a failed abortion $36 million in damages for injuries she suffered from the abortion.

A judge Monday declined to halt Indiana’s broad new school voucher program, saying the law was “religion-neutral” and likely to be upheld.

“I share a real concern that the attempt to impose the current prevailing template of equality and discrimination on religious organizations is an erosion of religious liberty,” Lord Sacks told a House of Commons committee in June. “We are beginning to move back to where we came in in the 17th century—a whole lot of people on the Mayflower leaving to find religious freedom elsewhere.”

The Hill: Vice President Biden will tout the debt ceiling deal during a trip to China and Japan, two holders of huge amounts of U.S. debt.

Butculescu, Claudiu Ramon, International Law – Vector to Uniformization of Legal Cultures (May 1, 2010). Studii de Drept Românesc – Serie Nouă, Vol. 22, No. 55, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1903974

Rautenbach, Christa, Comments on the Constitutional Protection of Religion in Swaziland (August 10, 2008). African Human Rights Journal, Vol. 8, pp. 432-457, 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1907666