Daily Archives: October 19, 2011

The case could be the third major controversy involving such crosses to head to the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years and is the fourth recent federal case–all of which has led to increased public discussion on the subject.

“An Oklahoma judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked from taking effect a new law designed to reduce the number of abortions performed in the state by restricting the ways in which doctors can treat women with abortion-inducing drugs.”

MyFox8.com: A federal judge heard Monday from attorneys for abortion providers urging that enforcement of a North Carolina law set to take effect next week should be blocked because the additional hurdles for women and doctors are unconstitutional.

Dover Post: The Capital School District Board of Education will table its proposed social media policy for students tonight in light of the ACLU’s concern that the policy would violate the First Amendment’s freedom of speech clause.

The Blog of Legal Times: The District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission released the names Wednesday morning of 20 applicants vying for retiring Judge Joan Zeldon’s seat on the District of Columbia Superior Court bench.

How Appealing links to coverage.

The Washington Post: U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Wednesday in a statement that the request is being pursued under World Trade Organization rules governing how member countries deal with trade issues. Kirk said the concerns center on the competitiveness of foreign websites in China

LifeNews.com: The Indiana affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business says it will not stop doing abortions in order to get state taxpayer funding that Indiana officials want to cut off to the abortion business.

VOANews.com: Lopez accused the Venezuelan Supreme Court of being controlled by Chavez.

Christian Concern: Official watchdog, the ‘Care Quality Commission’ (CQC), has found that hospitals are making use of ‘do not resuscitate’ (DNR) orders outside of medical guidelines, and that these potentially-lethal notices are being placed on the files of patients simply because they are old and frail.

Quasim Rashid at the Huffington Post: The problem is persecution, and in this case, of Christians. Some fourteen centuries after Prophet Muhammad wrote, “Christians are my citizens, and by God, I hold out against anything that displeases them,” Christian persecution has become a norm in these Muslim majority nations. While persecution in even one nation is too much, the problem is far beyond just one nation.

St. Louis American: Gov. Jay Nixon made history today by appointing Judge George W. Draper III to the Missouri Supreme Court. Draper will be the second African American in Missouri to serve on the state’s highest court.

Jeffrey H. Anderson at The Weekly Standard: Cain could make clear that he’s in favor of constitutionalizing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Khaleejtimes.com: A Spanish town is offering gay couples fast-track marriages before a likely November election win by the conservative Popular Party, which opposes same-sex marriage.

Register Guard: Basic Rights Oregon’s board will soon make a decision on whether to put forward a ballot measure for the November 2012 election to overturn Oregon’s 2004 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

KansasCity.com: Eastman, 51, has been appointed chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, the main organization advocating at the ballot box and in courts for traditional marriage, and against any effort to legalize same-sex marriage.

Reuters: For Walid, Tunisia’s revolution is an opportunity to turn one of the Arab world’s most secular countries towards Islam. “We paid a heavy price for the revolution so we are not ready to let secularists and supporters of the Zionists control our destiny,” said the young man, with a beard and a long white robe, after prayers in the Omrane district of the capital.

The Middletown Press: Abortion providers in Connecticut may be underreporting the number of procedures to the state Department of Public Health, which could mean those providers are not complying with other laws, such as counseling pregnant women before they receive an abortion, according to the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference.

Seattlepi.com: Indiana officials contend the state’s Planned Parenthood chapter could end a fierce legal dispute over abortion funding by simply separating its abortion business from other services.

The Christian Institute: The “appalling” content of sex education resources which are being used with children as young as five has been criticised by a Conservative Peer.

San Francisco Chronicle: On a 10-1 vote, the board gave initial approval to a proposed law that would bar pregnancy crisis centers from engaging in false or misleading advertising practices. Final approval is anticipated next week.

Ron Paul describes witnessing late-term abortion in hard-hitting pro-life ad | LifeSiteNews.com carries the video.

StarTribune.com: Minnesota’s Roman Catholic bishops are taking the unusual step of urging parish priests across the state to form committees to help get the proposed marriage amendment passed by voters in 2012.

Christian Post: The protesters took issue with the church’s stance on homosexuality, and carried banners and shouted obscenities at those in attendance as they exited the church. Then, after a request by a police officer, the protesters moved across the street from the church.

Christian Post: According to Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, the confusion began around the word “retrial” reported by Reuters’ sources in Iran. The Christian Post can now clarify that the case has not been posted for retrial, but rather it is being “reviewed” by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

NCRegister.com: The Diocese of Amarillo confirmed that despite an invitation from Bishop Patrick Zurek, Father Frank Pavone did not meet with him on Oct. 13 and has instead asked for mediation. “I advised Father Frank not to have this private meeting until the process of mediation is underway,” Father David Deibel, canon lawyer for Father Pavone and Priests for Life, said in an Oct. 14 statement.

The student debt crisis in one chart – The Washington Post

USATODAY.com: “It’s going to create a generation of wage slavery,” says Nick Pardini, a Villanova University graduate student in finance who has warned on a blog for investors that student loans are the next credit bubble — with borrowers, rather than lenders, as the losers.

OneNewsNow.com: Phill Kline angered pro-abortion politicos by conducting a probe of Planned Parenthood when he was attorney general, finding that the abortion provider was performing abortions on minors without parental involvement and without reporting the crimes to authorities.

The Hill: Groups opposed to abortion rights are pressuring the Senate to act on a bill passed by the House last week that would prohibit health insurers from offering abortion coverage if any of their customers receives federal subsidies.

National Post: The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal is hearing a complaint this week from a gay couple prevented from booking a room at a Grand Forks, B.C., bed and breakfast because of the pair’s sexual orientation.

Should the government force parents — at least those not rich enough to afford private schooling — to send their children to classes that may contradict their moral and religious values on matters of intimacy and personal conduct?

VirtueOnline: The Church of England has come significantly closer to appointing its first women bishops after a majority of dioceses voted in favour of reform A majority of dioceses have now voted decisively to allow women to become bishops for the first time

The Christian Institute: The family and marriage “existed before the state”, a Roman Catholic bishop has said as he criticised Scottish Government moves to consider redefining marriage. Motherwell Bishop Joseph Devine warned that governments cannot “rewrite human nature”.

Sacramento Bee: Members of Fremont Presbyterian Church – the largest Presbyterian Church in the Sacramento region – ended months of speculation Sunday when they voted to leave their national denomination and join one that church leaders said reflects more traditional beliefs.

The Daily Caller: The mass immigration of Muslims into Western Europe over the last four decades or so was a project of elite mainstream politicians, most of them left-wing, who never consulted the electorate on whether they thought this project was a good idea or not. Motivated by a multicultural sensibility . . .

National Review Online: In the Senate, H.R. 2867 was poised to pass under a unanimous consent agreement when a single senator anonymously called it back for undisclosed reasons. If that secret hold is not lifted by November 18, the Senate will not be able to act and USCIRF will go out of existence.

Christian Post: The South Carolina Episcopal Church may break from the National Episcopal Church because of its acceptance of homosexuality, among other things, according to a statement from the diocese.

The Aquila Report: We are also thankful for The Alliance Defense Fund which has stood by our churches, endorsers and chaplains in supporting the legal rights of our chaplain ministry.

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at the TellADF Blog: The tide is slowly but surely turning in the war against abortion. In Arizona, a decision you recently read about – in which, thanks to you, ADF and our allies helped persuade an appellate court to uphold the state’s Abortion Consent Act – is already having a dramatic impact.

ADF Attorney Casey Mattox at Speak Up Movement Blog: or all the pro-life student activists out there participating in today’s Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity with the unborn: Take heart. You’re winning. Why do I say this? . . . [includes video]

LifeSiteNews.com: Several students at a Hartford high school expressed horror and left the auditorium when two male members of a city-funded school play shared a passionate kiss onstage on Friday. School officials said they opted against informing parents about the event ahead of time, saying that the students needed exposure to homosexuality, and hailed the “chaotic” reaction as a victory for raising the gay issue.

LifeSiteNews.com: On Saturday, October 22, 2011, Ontario taxpayers will gather at Queen’s Park in Toronto to demand that the Ontario Legislature delist elective abortion as a service covered by taxpayer dollars.

Terry Jeffrey at Townhall : U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle, a Clinton appointee, ironically provided evidence last week that seals the case that Justice Elena Kagan is required by law to recuse herself from cases challenging Obamacare.
The law in question is 28 U.S.C. 455.

LifeNews.com: Kaza­khstan is the ninth-largest country in the world, nearly four times the size of Texas. It is located between Russia and China, and has only about 15.5 million people, giving it a very sparse population density indeed, far less than Utah, Nevada, or Arizona.

The Tennessean | tennessean.com: Two dozen members of the United States Congress fired off a letter to Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos this month, decrying a university policy that requires student religious groups to adhere to Vanderbilt’s policies on diversity and tolerance.

The Guardian: The Chinese foreign ministry has accused the Dalai Lama of “terrorism in disguise” for supporting Tibetans who have set themselves on fire in protest against Beijing’s rule.

The Tennessean | tennessean.com: David Cortman, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, said that teachers from Cheatham County have contacted his organization, which is considering a lawsuit. Cortman said Fields of Faith was a community event, and teachers were free to take part in it. He compared the situation to a teacher attending a church that meets in a school. In that case, a teacher would be free to talk about religion to students who attended that church, even though it met in a school. “Otherwise, they would have fewer constitutional rights than an ordinary person,” he said.

NBC Miami: “In this case, music or a religious message amplified so as to be heard twenty-five feet away from a vehicle would violate the statute, while a sound truck blaring ‘Eat at Joe’s’ or ‘Vote for Smith’ plainly audible at a great distance, would be authorized,” wrote Chief Judge Richard B. Orfinger.

Bloomberg: The Obama administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to limit its review of the landmark health- care overhaul, saying the justices shouldn’t consider two of the issues raised by 26 states in their bid for a hearing.

The Globe and Mail: Legal experts predict that a hearing on Wednesday to screen Mr. Justice Michael Moldaver and Madam Justice Andromache Karakatsanis will likely be neither illuminating nor satisfying to anyone craving a transparent process.

Religion Clause: The surprise, however, was the third-place showing of a new party, Palikot Movement (Movement of Support), which received 10% of the vote.

Findlaw: The Nine will also be considering whether Federal Communications Commission (FCC) indecency regulations violate First Amendment rights. The Second Circuit previously ruled that the agency exceeded its authority in fining ABC and Fox for a bare backside and awards show cursing, respectively.

Religion Clause: Last night’s Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas sponsored by CNN included a lengthy discussion of the role of religion in choosing a candidate, in light of statements earlier this month by Rev. Robert Jeffress that Christians should not vote for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon.

News from The Associated Press: The ruling Communist Party has approved a program to make ideology more popular at home and boost China’s image abroad at a time when the leadership is struggling with a more demanding public and a delicate political succession.

News from The Associated Press: In the ongoing political skirmishes among Iran’s leadership, it was the equivalent of bringing out the heavy ammunition: The country’s most powerful figure warning that the post of elected president could someday be scrapped.

The Hill: Rep. Ron Paul’s plan to “restore America” includes abolishing the Transportation Security Administration.

TheHill.com: The implosion of the long-term care benefit known as the CLASS Act, which administration officials acknowledged could not be made to pay for itself, as its critics had always maintained, is giving new life to lawmaker proposals to change the way CBO scores legislation.

Liberty Counsel: The United States Supreme Court has denied review of a case decided by a federal appeals court in Chicago last year that ruled a daily moment of silence as constitutional in public schools

Stanley Fish at NYTimes.com: The religion clause case recently argued before the Supreme Court — Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC — centers on the “ministerial exception,” the doctrine (elaborated over the last 40 years) that exempts religious associations from complying with neutral, generally applicable laws in some, but not all, circumstances.

Bloomberg: Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show.

News Radio 1200 WOAI San Antonio Texas: ‘pictures of courthouses, water systems’ from around the US found in the van used by five men believed to be Moroccan Muslims.