Daily Archives: September 30, 2011

The coverage in today’s Alert is less comprehensive than normal. Normal coverage will resume Monday. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Trail Blazers Blog: And, in the Western District, Robert Pitman, a federal magistrate in San Antonio, becomes the state’s first openly gay chief federal prosecutor.

NECN.com: The number of abortions reported in Ohio has decreased for a 10th straight year, dropping to the lowest level since record-keeping started in 1976, according to new data from the state Department of Health.

Seattle Times: A group of doctors filed a lawsuit Friday to stop a new Washington state rule limiting Medicaid patients’ visits to emergency rooms for routine health care.

LifeSiteNews.com: A Conservative MP says Planned Parenthood in Bangladesh, which will be now be funded by the Canadian government, commits first-trimester abortions. As a result, he says, the government’s recent $6 million grant to the International Planned Parenthood Federation violates their pledge to not fund abortion abroad.

LifeSiteNews.com: French doctors are increasingly refusing to do abortions, and look down upon the practice of killing the unborn, according to an unusual confession by a French abortionist published on the prominent blog of medical journalist Martin Winkler.

LifeSiteNews.com: The Obama administration’s plan to force virtually all private insurers, including faith-based employers, to offer free abortifacient birth control is open for public comment until midnight tonight.

LifeSiteNews.com: The Holy See condemned attempts to inject euthanasia into the right to health, and Latin American and Caribbean delegations called for a new UN treaty at two recent UN meetings on the rights of the elderly.

Telegraph: Two local councils have been ordered to stop members praying before each meeting in case it offends non-believers or other religious groups.

Brewer seeks to deny gay workers’ partner benefits: Gov. Jan Brewer is asking the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to let it deny benefits to the domestic partners of the state’s gay employees.

Catholic Culture: Over 50 Christian churches have been shut down or demolished in Indonesia since January 2010 . . .

Asia News: A petition of the Global Council of Indian Christians in the National Commission for Human Rights draws up a long list of crimes, injustices and complicity of local and state authorities to the detriment of the victims of anti-Christian pogroms of 2008. The Hindu radicals continue to persecute Catholics and Pentecostals, aided by the police.

LifeNews.com: A leading pro-life attorney who has experience battling Planned Parenthood over taxpayer funding and Medicaid fraud says those are two great issues that should compel Congress to move ahead with the investigation a congressman has announced.

Catholic Culture: A desire for divorce is the cause of much of the tension between Muslims and Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt, according to a newly published article in the Catholic Near East Welfare Association’s ONE Magazine.

Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy : The sentence reads, in a context that shows the authors agree with the argument: Proponents of a more refined First Amendment argue that this freedom should be treated not as a right but as a privilege — a special entitlement granted by the state on a conditional basis that can be revoked if it is ever abused or maltreated.

National Law Journal: But some law faculty members and alumni raised concern that the $600,000 startup funding for the center, which would be independent from the institute, would come from Art Pope, a prominent Raleigh businessman known for his staunchly conservative views and for his financial support of Republicans.

U.S. Supreme Court to decide major legal issues:
The U.S. Supreme Court, in the 2011-12 term that starts Monday, will examine . . .

The Hill: The lawmakers on Thursday asked the U.S. Judicial Conference to formally request that the Department of Justice look into Thomas’s failure to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars his wife has received from groups that want the healthcare law repealed. Their letter comes after 75 House Democrats in February asked Thomas to recuse himself from the case following reports that he’d failed to report his wife Virginia’s income since he joined the bench in 1991.

The Washington Post: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (Oct. 5.) will hear one of most important religion cases in decades, centered on the degree to which religious institutions should be exempt from anti-discrimination laws.

News from The Associated Press: Employees who worked for an abortion doctor charged with murdering a patient and seven newborns must stand trial with him, even if they are not charged with killing anyone, a Philadelphia judge ruled Friday

ADF Attorney Erik Stanley and Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss Pulpit Freedom Sunday. | MP3 audio 24:55mins

475+ pastors from 46 states plus Puerto Rico embrace constitutional freedom over IRS censorship

Mexico City lawmakers are proposing legislation that would allow newlyweds to apply for temporary marriage licenses, instead of making the plunge into wedded life a lifetime commitment.

LifeNews.com: Three members of the Council, as represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, requested that HHS declare the grant void. In their complaint, they say “the Grant by HHS was improper, irregular, unnecessary, in contravention of the authority of the Executive Council and its duly

WORLDmag.com | Chaplains allowed to perform same-sex marriages: Jordan Lorence, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund said, “This is unique in American history where you have military policy at odds with the belief system of the chaplains that they rely on.”

Boston.com: Represented by lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund, Republican Councilors David Wheeler, Dan St. Hilaire and Ray Wieczorek asked the government on Wednesday to void the contract as contravening the state’s sovereign authority. They said there was no emergency or urgency in delivering the services.

Dakota Voice: Pastors from more than 475 churches nationwide have registered to participate in the Alliance Defense Fund’s fourth annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday on Oct. 2. The total reflects nearly five times as many participants as last year’s total of approximately 100 pastors.

Following the money trail, labor unions pay heavily into the coffers of pro-choice candidates and government leaders. But what about those union members who are pro-life or find abortion morally objectionable but who have to pay union member dues in order to keep working?

The Republic: Represented by lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund, Republican Councilors David Wheeler, Dan St. Hilaire and Ray Wieczorek asked the government on Wednesday to void the contract as contravening the state’s sovereign authority. They said there was no emergency or urgency in delivering the services.

Matt Bowman at LifeNews.com: On Thursday September 29, 2011, the Alliance Defense Fund submitted a comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, pointing out the illegal character of HHS’s proposal to mandate that the vast majority of religious entities, individuals, and insurance plans must cover abortifacients, contraceptive and sterilizing drugs, devices and information. ADF submitted its comments on behalf of The Cardinal Newman Society’s Center for the Advancement Catholic Higher Education and multiple Catholic Colleges and Universities.

CSMonitor.com: The group pushing this legal test, the Alliance Defense Fund, has been enlisting more and more pastors since 2008. The yearly autumn protest, called Pulpit Freedom Sunday, is timed just before elections. Many participating pastors are eager to turn the US into “a Christian nation” by playing a direct role in politics.

KansasCity.com: City Administrator Mike Scanlon said today that the council agreed to exempt the churches if the Alliance Defense Fund dropped the lawsuit. The ordinance approved by the City Council takes effect Oct. 11. Scanlon declined to comment on the lawsuit.

LifeSiteNews.com: Belforti plans to fight for her right to retain her position without violating her conscience. She has obtained representation with the Alliance Defense Fund. “This is about religious freedom,” she told the Times, citing the first chapter of Romans. “This is not about trashing gay people.”

Iowa Independent: “This is an appalling attempt by the Religious Right to turn houses of worship into house of partisan politics,” said Rev. Berry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “Americans attend church for spiritual guidance, not to get a list of candidates to vote for on election day.” The Alliance Defense Fund, a religiously motivated legal group which considers itself as a counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, is encouraging pastors throughout the nation to “freely speak to their congregations on political matters from a biblical perspective.

PinkNews.co.uk: Ms Belforti is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian group which will argue that her beliefs must be protected by the law. The case is being seen as a test for Christian rights in the US.

Dakota Voice: As part of a settlement of an Alliance Defense Fund lawsuit, the city of Mission voted Wednesday to exempt from its “driveway tax” churches and other entities who are exempt from property taxes under state law.

AP Top Kansas News at 5:45 a.m. CDT | www.newstalkradiowhio.com: The Alliance Defense Fund said Thursday the Mission City Council agreed to the exemption Wednesday to settle the lawsuit. The council decided last fall to add the charges as a way to raise revenue for road repairs in the Kansas City suburb. The Alliance Defense Fund says because the city labeled the charges a “fee,” tax-exempt entities paid, too.

OneNewsNow.com: Lorence says that contradicts established U.S. Supreme Court precedence. “The U.S. Supreme Court has definitely ruled that the government cannot limit access to generally available public spaces merely because government officials disapprove a form of expression,” the attorney notes. “Equal access means equal access, and that includes religious services.”

Sracuse.com: Carmichael and DiBiaggio may sue, and the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way is working on their case. Belforti’s legal advocate is the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, based in Arizona. So the lines are drawn. Belforti could end up facing a misdemeanor count.

KMBC Kansas City: The council decided last fall to add the charges as a way to raise revenue for road repairs in the Kansas City suburb. The Alliance Defense Fund says because the city labeled the charges a “fee,” tax-exempt entities paid, too. The group says other cities should take note and not try the same thing.

The Pentagon will permit military chaplains to perform same-sex marriage in states that legally recognize gay marriage, it said Friday.

Christian Post: “When you enforce the laws of the state, you don’t get to pick and choose,” Cuomo said, adding that those who disobey the law would be charged with a misdemeanor. Belforti’s lawyers have a different point of view. “That’s a hard statement to reconcile with New York’s Human Rights laws, which protect religious freedom,” said Holly Carmichael, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a conservative Christian advocacy group, who is working with Belforti.

LifeNews.com: The appeal was organized by The Center for the Advancement of Catholic Higher Education, a division of The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), and authored by attorneys Kevin Theriot and Matthew Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund. Joining the Center and 18 colleges in the letter were the Society of Catholic Social Scientists and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Bishop Curry, who signed in his individual capacity, is chairman of the Committee for Catholic Education at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

LifeSiteNews.com: A letter signed by 18 Catholic Colleges and Universities was sent to the Department of Health and Human Services today objecting to the Obama Administration’s health care mandate requiring employers to cover sterilization, contraception, and abortificients. The letter, which was authored by attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), appeals to the administration to rewrite the mandate’s religious exemption, which the ADF argues is so narrow that it could be construed to exclude Catholic institutions of higher education. | Similar reports at Catholic Culture and Catholic News Service

Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement Church Blog: Tuesday, ADF asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision of the federal appeals court in New York City allowing the Board of Education there to single out religious worship services run by private groups, and exclude them from meeting in the public schools during non-school hours

Peter Heck at Kokomo Perspective: It’s amazing that the mainstream media and educational establishment are so complicit with this duplicity. I have said before and I will reiterate, groups like Liberty Counsel and the Alliance Defense Fund are simply irreplaceable and so worthy of your financial support. They are a bulwark of legal defense for Americans who are being assailed by these radical leftists simply for expressing their First Amendment rights (when their views contradict the leftist agenda, that is).