Daily Archives: October 31, 2011

CBC News: UNESCO approved a Palestinian bid for full membership Monday in a highly divisive breakthrough that will cost the agency a fifth of its budget, and that the U.S. and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts.

Joseph Infranco at National Review Online: The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it would not review an important case on whether displaying a memorial cross is an unconstitutional “establishment” of religion. Justice Thomas issued a 19-page dissenting opinion noting that “the Court reject[ed] an opportunity to provide clarity to an Establishment Clause jurisprudence in shambles.

The Washington Post: The conservative Alliance Defense Fund, which asked the court to consider the case, was disappointed. “Justice is not well served when unhappy atheists can use the law to mow down memorial crosses and renew the suffering for the survivors,” said ADF Senior Counsel Byron Babione.

Fox News: “The hospital told the nurses they have no regard for their religious beliefs,” said Matthew Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund. “They were going to be assigned these abortions or they would be terminated.”

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at the TellADF Blog: It’s the kind of case that’s become all too common in recent years – a public elementary school chiding children for attempting, in even the most gentle, harmless manner, to live out their faith.

ADF Attorney David Cortman at Townhall : Nearly every week, I come across an article where parents in some community are in an uproar over school districts promoting inappropriate sexual materials to our kids. Whether it’s related to homosexual behavior or other age-inappropriate sexual issues, there seem be school districts across the land intent on sexualizing our kids.

Balkinization: Nearly 90% of graduates have law school debt. The average debt for the class of 2010 was $92,500 (not including undergraduate debt). To comfortably manage the monthly payment on this debt, a graduate needs to earn $120,000 . . .

The Associated Press: Daniel Cox, the attorney for Mark Sanger and his mother, is a member of the Alliance Defense Fund. The Christian-based legal network says it is dedicated to protecting the sanctity of life and also was involved in Schiavo’s case.

Idaho Statesman: The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based firm that presses faith-based cases in court, issued a statement Monday saying the district was “duped” by gay rights activists into ditching the proposed parental consent policy. “School districts do not need to give in to activist demands that parents be left ignorant about what their children are exposed to,” said Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, in a statement.

Digital Journal: A recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report says the abortion drug mifepristone, used for terminating early pregnancies, has been shown to have serious adverse side-effects in women who have been using it since it was first introduced in 2000.

Christian Today: We’ve had enough now. Leaving Iraq has become a must,” Jamal Habo Korges, a Christian mechanic and father of three, told the United Nation’s humanitarian news outlet IRIN. “We’ve been suffering since 2003 and we can’t take it anymore. The latest carnage is the final warning.”

The Christian Institute: Former Scottish National Party leader Gordon Wilson has said a “lynch mob” booted him off the board of Dundee Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) because of his support for traditional marriage.

The Christian Institute: The housing association that demoted a Christian employee and slashed his pay was worried about losing an award from a gay rights group, it has emerged.

LifeNews.com: Human rights campaigners have launched a new campaign to support Chen Guangcheng, the blind attorney who has stood up to the family planning officials in China who have enforced the one-child policy with forced abortions and sterilizations.

Christian Post: Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said the Arab Spring and the Muslim campaign against Catholic University are symptoms of a growing anti-Christian climate, and pledged to defend religious freedom around the globe.

The Tennessean: But Byron Babione, an attorney with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the Family Action Council, said the group’s communications are protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to political speech. “Our clients make no apologies for being involved in the political process,’’ Babione said. | Also posted here.

The AP reports.

Seattle Times Newspaper: A new statewide poll by the University of Washington Center for Survey Research found most voters would support a state gay marriage law if it’s approved by the Legislature. Of voters surveyed, 55 percent indicated they would uphold a Legislature-approved same-sex marriage law if it were challenged by referendum.

NYTimes.com: ON Nov. 8, Mississippi voters will be asked to decide on a proposed amendment to the state constitution, which would define as a person “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.”

Spiegel Online: Nearly two-thirds of net private assets are concentrated in the hands of 5 percent of Americans. In comparison, the upper 5 percent of Germany hold less than half of net assets

LifeNews.com: Members of Congress will hold three days of hearings related to China’s one-child policy next week and the human rights abuses such as forced abortions and sterilizations that accompany it.

The Washington Post reports on Obama’s latest nomination to the D.C. Circuit.

Eastern Iowa Government: His name is Randall Terry, an anti-abortion advocate who already says he can’t win the election, but instead will attempt to keep President Obama from getting re-elected. Terry says he plans to do it by likely airing a series of controversial- graphic uncensored ads on abortion. He knows as a candidate, under federal law, TV stations can’t stop him.

Persecution News: Emboldened by government calls for a Sudan based on Islamic law since the secession of South Sudan, Muslim residents have attacked Christians trying to finish constructing their church building near Khartoum. Meanwhile, local authorities are threatening to demolish three other church buildings that already exist.

LifeSiteNews.com: A new Environics poll shows that 72% of Canadians want legal protection for children in the womb, with 28% supporting protections from conception.

LifeSiteNews.com: A constitutional referendum in Mississippi to declare all unborn children persons, which has the potential to permanently impact the national abortion debate, is on its way to become the first successful referendum of its kind in America, according to pro-life leaders.

LifeSiteNews.com: Reports from some northern Indian states that have the worst gender imbalance in the country due to sex-selective abortion say that “wife-sharing” among brothers is becoming a common occurrence.

LifeNews.com: The Dutch Medical Association is seeking to expand the practice of Euthanasia in the Netherlands to include more people under the “unbearable suffering” that allows physicians to kill patients and the elderly.

LifeNews.com: The pro-life group Operation Rescue has released a second undercover call it recorded exposing how abortion businesses are using money from Medicaid to pay for late-term abortions.

News from The Associated Press: The boy was born two months prematurely, weighed less than four pounds and lived less than nine hours.

The Hill: Three government contractors have filed a complaint against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) arguing a federal law that bars them from donating to political candidates is unconstitutional.

The Hill: House Republicans on Tuesday will try to pass a resolution reaffirming that “In God We Trust” is the national motto of the United States.

Orrin Kerr reports at The Volokh Conspiracy: From today’s per curiam summary reversal in Cavazos v. Smith, a habeas case from the Ninth Circuit . . .

The Volokh Conspiracy: So held the European Court of Human Rights in Altuğ Taner Akçam v. Turkey (Oct. 25, 2011), a case brought by a professor who had been subject to prosecutions (brought by individuals) under the law based on his work on the Armenian genocide. An excerpt from the court’s reasoning . . .

Ted Turner at CNN.com: There is no better value for the money than international family planning, which provides a higher return on investment than almost any other type of development assistance.

Lambda Legal provided inaccurate legal information to officials so students can join sexually focused clubs without parental permission

Wall Street Journal (via Google): According to Mr. Isaacson, Jobs “stressed the need for more trained engineers and suggested that any foreign students who earned an engineering degree in the U.S. should be given a visa to stay in the country.” The president reportedly replied that this would have to await broader immigration reform, which he said he was unable to accomplish. Apple’s founder on Obama: “The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done. It infuriates me.”

OneNewsNow.com: “In fact, the Freedom From Religion Foundation turns the constitution on its head,” Cortman contends. “It basically argues that because someone is employed by the government, they somehow forfeit all their constitutional rights — and that is simply not true.”

The New American: On October 27 the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the conservative legal advocacy group representing the county, filed a petition with the High Court asking it to overturn the Fourth Circuit ruling and once again “approve the historical practice of allowing citizens to offer prayers at public meetings according to the faith of the prayer-giver,” according to an ADF press release. “America’s founders opened public meetings with prayer,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “This county simply wants to allow its citizens to do the same. We trust the U.S. Supreme Court will want to review this case because of the long history in America of offering prayers before public meetings.”

Christian Post: “We’re confident the court will take a real interest in this case, and that opinion, I think, is shared by constitutional law scholars and litigators around the country,” Mike Johnson, a lawyer of Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal organization representing county commissioners, said Friday.

WorldNetDaily: But the board disagrees, and with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund is asking the Supreme Court to trump Wilkinson’s ruling. “America’s founders opened public meetings with prayer; this county simply wants to allow its citizens to do the same,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman in a statement. “We trust the U.S. Supreme Court will want to review this case because of the long history in America of offering prayers before public meetings. Public officials shouldn’t be coerced into censoring the prayers of those invited to offer them just because secularist groups don’t like people praying according to their own conscience.”

Religion headlines in the media around the country | Deseret News (AP): The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Tulsa by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Owasso Kids for Christ. It alleges the school unconstitutionally prohibits the group from distributing religious flyers, from taking part in an open house and from using the school’s public address system.

LifeNews.com: Roger Kiska, representing the Alliance Defense Fund which also took part in elaborating the Articles, highlighted that we should not forget why the international legal instruments were created after WWII: to oppose the totalitarian regimes. He emphasized that all of those legal instruments protect the right to life. Kiska found it troubling that still in 2011 many States allow forced abortion, abortion targeting the disabled, and sex selective abortions.

WXII The Triad: “We’re confident the court will take a real interest in this case, and that opinion, I think, is shared by constitutional law scholars and litigators around the country. There are many people watching this one closely,” said Alliance Defense Fund lawyer Mike Johnson.

Yahoo! News: So who is paying? The new study — by New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, and the Justice at Stake Campaign, a non-partisan reform group — found that a small group of super spenders plays the biggest role, using their money to buy the kind of judges they want hearing their cases.

News from The Associated Press: Johannes and other farmers took notice last year when The Humane Society of the United States pushed a ballot proposal to abolish fenced hunting preserves. They’ve also followed efforts to pass animal welfare laws in other states, and they don’t want any unreasonable rules in North Dakota.

FRC: Family Research Council (FRC) strongly criticized the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today to let stand one of the worst religious assaults in all of American history.

Findlaw: Attention attorneys: Want to know where you should move to stretch your dollar? NALP has the best cities for attorney salaries. Just take a look at the “buying power index” for the class of 2010.

News from The Associated Press: The mother of a Connecticut man facing a possible death sentence for killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion testified Monday she suspected he was visiting hundreds of pornographic adult websites days before the crime.

Education News: In mid-October Egyptian media published news of an altercation between Muslim and Christian students over a classroom seat at a school in Mallawi, Minya province. The altercation lead to the murder of a Christian student. The media portrayed the incident as non-sectarian. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic news website, refuted this version and was first to report that the Christian student was murdered because he was wearing a crucifix.

Religion Clause: Today’s Jerusalem Post reports that an Israeli Magistrate’s Court last week dismissed an indictment against a Greek Orthodox priest who punched a Jewish yeshiva student in the face after the student spat on the ground toward the priest as he passed.

LifeNews.com: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain went after the Planned Parenthood abortion business in a weekend interview on Face the Nation, saying the abortion giant was founded on racist roots and continues that racism today.

Carson Halloway at Public Discourse: A recent appellate court ruling in favor of a Westboro Baptist protester shows the decline of judicial ability to protect decency standards for public discourse.

NCPA Policy Digest: While Texas has made some strides in school choice over the last decade, there are many changes the state could make to enhance school choice for Texans.

David S. Kemp at Justia: The case arose after Kowalski was suspended by her high school based on scurrilous remarks she had made about another student on a MySpace discussion page, while she was in her own home, on her home computer.

UPI.com: With the American political season nearly in full venom, the U.S. Supreme Court is being given the chance to decide when a religious organization wanders off course into the realm of political advocacy, endangering the organization’s tax-exempt status.

U.S. Supreme Court allows ruling against memorial trooper crosses to stand

Daily Mail Online: The Church of England is threatening to use its financial power to stem the tide of internet pornography. It is considering withdrawing the millions it has invested in Internet Service Providers (ISPs) unless they take action.

Telegraph: Unesco, The United Nations’ cultural agency, has decided to give the Palestinians full membership of the body, in a vote that will boost their bid for recognition as a state at the UN.