Daily Archives: October 7, 2011

Balkinization: Get ready law schools: A Senate hearing on the ABA regulation of law schools might be coming. That is the subtext of Senator Boxer’s most recent letter to the ABA. It’s overdue.

News from The Associated Press: More than two decades after Scott Anderson told his California congregation that he was gay and therefore must resign as its pastor, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) is preparing to welcome him back with mostly open arms.

International Business Times: Herman Cain holds an astounding 20-point lead over Mitt Romney in a poll of Republican primary voters released Thursday, and he is in a statistical tie with President Obama.

ADF Attorney Piero A. Tozzi at C-FAM: While applauding the decision, Mexican pro-lifers are concerned that the respite may be temporary, as pro-life stalwarts Aguirre and Ortiz are nearing the end of their terms. Intriguingly, both were appointed by Ernesto Zedillo, the last president from Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the anti-clerical, secularist movement that dominated Mexican politics for most of the twentieth century. Adding to the uncertainty are upcoming presidential elections.

The Australian: THE push to recognise sharia law in Australia has entered an ambitious new phase that draws on the tactics that have handed success to Islamists in Britain.

Christian Today: The former Bishop of Rochester has written to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to ask that he grant clemency to a pastor sentenced to death for apostasy.

The Christian Institute: The Free Church of Scotland has added its voice to that of the Roman Catholic Church in speaking out against moves to rewrite the definition of marriage.

The Washington Post: The Obama administration is about to draw a bright red line challenging Catholicism over what constitutes “religious activity.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State:  In a Sept. 9 decision, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the Elmbrook School District’s use of Elmbrook Church to hold graduation ceremonies for two local high schools does not violate the Constitution.  Americans United today asked the full 7th Circuit to review the case.

Document calls for nations to ensure laws and policies protect human life

Fox News: However, the town council voted to consult with the Alliance Defense Fund about their legal options.
“This is their cause in life – to ride up and down the highway and find small towns that maybe have a religious symbol somewhere on public property,” he said. “I have to admit it – checking their website, they’re batting 100 percent on this stuff.”

Pat Buchanan at Townhall: Deadlock. There will be no big jobs-for-taxes deal. The can will be kicked down the road into the next administration. A second truth is emerging. When the cutting comes, as it shall, the Pentagon will be first to ascend the scaffold. Why so? Consider.

Ron Prentice at California Family Council: Still, since the day after Prop 8 was passed on November 4, 2008, marriage’s meaning has been embroiled in courts of law. Three years later, the battle continues.

MSNBC.com: In a pediatric hospital in North Korea’s most productive farming province, children lay two to a bed. All showed signs of severe malnutrition: skin infections, patchy hair, listless apathy.

OneNewsNow.com: Liberty Institute is filing a lawsuit against the city of Austin, Texas, for its ordinance that limits the constitutional rights of free speech for pregnancy resource centers.

OneNewsNow.com: Geoffrey Surtees of the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), who represented Judge DeWeese, contends that the “‘Philosophies of Law and Conflict’ display, which includes the text of the Ten Commandments, is simply not an Establishment Clause violation. It was our hope that the Supreme Court would take the opportunity [to] correct the lower courts on this point of law, but for whatever reason, it chose not to do so.”

OneNewsNow.com: Liberty Institute is filing a lawsuit against the city of Austin, Texas, for its ordinance that limits the constitutional rights of free speech for pregnancy resource centers.

OneNewsNow.com: The Rutherford Institute is preparing to appeal a recent court decision against an Ohio science teacher who tried to teach his student to think critically about evolution

The Hill: Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Thursday proposed legislation that would require mothers to have ultrasounds performed and be shown pictures of their unborn child before an abortion could be conducted. Bachmann said her bill, the Heartbeat Informed Consent Act . . .

The Empire: The group, the National Organization for Marriage, is targeting Alesi with billboards that mention his name and then warn, ominously, “you’re next.”

LifeSiteNews.com: Videos showing naked men graphically sodomizing one another – included as “resource material” in an “anti-bullying” initiative for Vancouver’s schools – are “really inappropriate,” says a trustee.

LifeNews.com: The number two Republican in the House of Representatives told thousands of pro-life activists at the Values Voter Summit today that Republicans will hold another vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood if voters give the GOP control of the Senate next year.

ABC News:“I’m hoping that the ‘ living’ Constitution will die,” Scalia said, adding that the controversial nature of recent confirmation proceedings is partly attributable to a notion that the Constitution evolves. “It’s like having a mini-constitutional convention every time you select a new judge.”

The Associated Press: A former employee has sued one of the government’s most secretive security agencies, alleging he lost his security clearance because his wife attended an Islamic school and worked for a Muslim charity.

Religion Clause: In Marcavage v. City of Chicago, (9th Cir., Oct. 4, 2011), a Christian outreach group, Repent America, sued claiming that their religion, free speech and equal protection rights were violated during the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago when police in three instances ordered the group to change the location of their activities.

Reports are emerging today that Chan Guangcheng, a prominent human rights activist who had led the fight against forced abortions under the one-child policy in China, may have been killed by Chinese officials.

ADF Attorney Jeremy Tedesco appeared on AFA Focal Point with Bryan Fischer to discuss the Julia Ward case. | MP3 audio 9:53 mins

Marcia Segestein at WORLDmag.com: At a hearing earlier this week, attorneys for the ADF argued that it was Ward who suffered discrimination. “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree,” said Jeremy Tedesco, one of Ward’s ADF attorneys. “Rather than allow Julea to refer a potential client to another qualified counselor—a common, professional practice to best serve clients—EMU attacked and questioned Julea’s religious beliefs and ultimately expelled her from the program because of them.”

The New American: Even before its debut, reported by The New American, the show had come under an intense assault from a group called the Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography, which charged that the show was little more than prime-time porn that should never be aired. The coalition was made up of such groups as Focus on the Family, the Alliance Defense Fund, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, and the American Family Association, among others, whose leaders issued a stern condemnation, declaring that “NBC is contributing to the sexual objectification and exploitation of women and encouraging greater acceptance of pornography with its soon-to-be-aired series.”

Examiner.com: According to Nate Kellum of the ADF, the ordinance violates the “constitutionally protected right to free speech in public areas at a free event that’s open to everyone.”

KTSM News Channel 9 (includes video): The law firm is called the Alliance Defense Fund. It’s a private organization that provides free legal service for people when they feel their first amendment right has been violated. Attorney Joel Oster based in Kansas City, MO will provide free legal counsel for Brown.

Times Union Capitol Confidential Blog: . . . now a group opposing gay rites is starting its own video series. It shows local municipal clerks whose jobs have been affected by the need to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms is suing to have the law overturned, and the Alliance Defense Fund has offered money to defend clerks who refuse to issue the certificates . . .

News from The Associated Press: A Muslim-American woman who was removed from a plane in San Diego last spring sued Southwest Airlines on Thursday, alleging she was discriminated against because she was wearing an Islamic head covering.

News from The Associated Press: Williams and 16 other transgender men and women are graduating Friday from a month-long, city-funded job training and life skills pilot program in the District of Columbia that aims to find jobs for an often-marginalized population.

NCPA Policy Digest: Nearly half — 48.5 percent — of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010 . . .

News from The Associated Press: Rental car company Hertz indefinitely suspended 34 Somali Muslim shuttle drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for praying on company time, and the workers’ union is trying to put them back in the driver’s seat after what it calls a sudden policy change.

NCPA Policy Digest: The Small Business Lending Fund was meant to raise capital at smaller banks, which tend to lend more heavily to small businesses, in the hopes of jumpstarting growth and employment. But instead of directly lending to small businesses, many of the banks used the money to rid themselves of higher cost TARP debt and tougher restrictions.

The Washington Post: or months, Herman Cain languished on the margins of the Republican presidential campaign. But in the past few weeks, something happened that even Cain did not see coming. He became a front-runner for the nomination.

The Hill: With the introduction of a new bipartisan Senate bill, lawmakers and operatives pushing for a corporate tax holiday believe their idea is gaining momentum in the halls of Congress.

News from The Associated Press: The federal government is taking on a crucial new role in the nation’s health care, designing a basic benefits package for millions of privately insured Americans. A framework for the Obama administration was released Friday.

Christian Civic League of Maine: This wide disparity between casino licensing fees in the two states is just one of the reasons why Maine’s casino and racino proposals – Questions 2 and 3 on November’s ballot – are such bad deals, said Dennis Bailey, executive director of CasinosNO!, the grassroots organization opposed to the expansion of casino gambling.

Christian Civic League of Maine: Following Tuesday’s hearing, Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, said he believes the Appeals Court will overturn the ruling because it violated Ward’s First Amendment rights.
”Ultimately, the university has a really tough battle here,” Tedesco told FoxNews.com. “The bottom line to us is that this is very clear violation of her First Amendment rights in a couple of different contexts.”

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a counterclaim Friday against the mayor of El Paso, Texas in a lawsuit the mayor initiated against Tom Brown Ministries, the Word of Life Church of El Paso, El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values, and other local citizens

Mark W. Leach at Public Discourse: New research on Down syndrome presents an overwhelmingly positive picture of how Down syndrome can affect individuals and families. These findings need to be shared as they will affect decisions made to accept prenatal testing and following a prenatal diagnosis.

TheHill.com: In a shocking development Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered a rarely used procedural option informally called the “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules.