Daily Archives: November 10, 2011

Commentary Magazine: Immigration is good. When handled properly, it can rejuvenate societies; seize advantage from other nations’ brain drain to infuse expertise into key industries; and correct demographics to ensure healthy growth. When uncoordinated, however immigration can undercut societies.

Mirror.co.uk: The organisation Muslims Against Crusades will be banned from operating in the UK from midnight, the Home Secretary has said.

Christian Post: Egypt’s Coptic Christians continue to protest military rule, and fear further marginalization with the upcoming parliamentary elections starting Nov. 28.

The Washington Post: Evangelical Christians want to talk about sex. And not in the same old punitive way. They want to talk about hot sex — as long as it’s between a man and a woman who are husband and wife.

Turtle Bay and Beyond – International Law, Policy, and Institutions has embedded the video.

The Republic: A lawyer has argued before the Wyoming Supreme Court that the town of Jackson violated anti-abortion protesters’ rights when it secured a court order prohibiting them from appearing on the town square.

Steven Ertelt at LifeNews.com: With the defeat of the personhood amendment in Mississippi, it’s time for the pro-life movement to put aside these amendments and focus on the task at hand: ending abortion and protecting unborn children under law.

C-Fam Friday Fax: he Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a New York-based pro-abortion law firm, reported on the conclusion of a proceeding under the optional protocol of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), even though the official decision has not yet been published by the CEDAW committee. It involves the case of L.C. v. Peru, brought before the CEDAW committee by CRR.

CBS Atlanta 46: Private investigator TJ Ward said presidential hopeful Herman Cain was not lying at a news conference on Tuesday in Phoenix.

OregonLive.com: After a three-year campaign to build support for legalizing same-sex marriage, Oregon’s largest gay rights group has decided against putting the issue up for a vote in 2012

The Persecution Times: Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has received a report from sources inside Kachin State, Burma alleging that soldiers from the Burma Army shot at worshipers in a church in Wai Maw Township two days ago.

Catholic News Agency (CNA): Homosexual rights advocates in the U.K. have “hegemonic ambitions” and are using the push for “gay marriage” to impose their worldview on everyone else, Alan Craig charged in a controversial column for an Anglican newspaper.

The Persecution Times: It was a few minutes before 10 at night when the staccato sound of gunfire interrupted the serene worship of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church near Zonkwa, Kaduna state. When the chaos ended, two women lay dead and 12 people were wounded.

The Persecution Times: Sources close to the Yousef Nadarkhani apostasy case have informed Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) that Pastor Nadarkhani’s lawyers have been told to expect a decision from the Supreme Leader in mid-December, occasioning fears that it may be issued to coincide with the Christmas season in order to avoid an international outcry.

The Christian Institute: Christian who was demoted and subjected to a 40 per cent pay cut over comments he made about civil partnerships on Facebook has received the backing of the Government’s Housing Minister.

CNN: He occasionally got a spanking from mom, or a swat on the rear and a stern look from his dad. But he remembers one day when his kindergarten teacher, school principal and a social worker came to their home. They worried Ian wasn’t fitting in; they wanted to talk about the “abuse.”

Jewish & Israel News: The Anti-Defamation League has condemned a film that compares abortion in the United States to the Holocaust.

Hurriyet Daily News: After a visit to jailed deputies in Silivri Prison, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party, says the judicial system in Turkey is ‘under the control of the political authority, and the prison in Silivri is a ‘concentration camp’

Lexology: The Human Rights Act 1998 has been in the news recently, with certain politicians and other commentators lamenting the fact that British courts are bound by European Court rulings. David Cameron appears to be leading the crusade. He plans to use the UK’s forthcoming chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to spearhead a radical shake-up of the European Court of Human Rights. But, leaving aside those relatively rare cases where the European Court disagrees with what have been the accepted norms in the UK, such as for example whether prisoners should have the right to vote, what effect has the Human Rights Act had on decisions within the medical sphere?

Federation for Children: The Georgia Department of Revenue this week approved $50 million in donations to provide scholarships to students to attend private schools under the Georgia Scholarship Tax Credit Program.

Guardian.co.uk: fter months of wrangling over the influence of Europe on our human rights law, today the United Kingdom begins its 6-month chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s (CoE) committee of ministers. Among other things, the CoE supervises compliance with judgments of the European court of human rights.

Today the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment on the V. C. v. Slovakia case (no. 18968/07), founding a violation of article 3 and 8 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment and right to respect for private and family life) of the Convention and considering that it is not necessary to examine separately the complaint under article 12 (right to marry and to found a family) of the Convention . . .

Todays Zaman: The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found the Turkish government guilty of failing to carry out an effective investigation in the case of a transgender woman who was harassed by a police officer.

California Catholic Daily carries the text of the document.

Steven Aden at Townhall: An excellent public image just one week ago has now been justifiably tarnished as people rethink their support for an institution that could effectively facilitate sexual abuse against children. I’m speaking of Penn State. But this should also describe Planned Parenthood.

FRC: “Marriage is not some prize that liberals can award to a small, vocal and already well-off special interest group. Marriage between one man and one woman was created prior to the formation of any governments and is given benefits by governments because it uniquely contributes to a productive society.”

NYTimes.com: The Obama administration is preparing to delay a decision on the contested Keystone XL pipeline while it studies an alternate route, effectively pushing any action past the 2012 election, officials and lobbyists who have been briefed on the matter said on Thursday. An announcement is expected as early as Thursday afternoon.

ChicagoTribune.com: The Iowa Court of Appeals ordered the Allamakee Community School District to remove two reprimands from Ben Lange’s personnel file that were issued after he let students at Waukon High School publish articles the principal claimed were offensive in two issues.

Ashland Current: In the Ashland Current poll conducted on Facebook, 48 percent of readers said praying should be used to open Ashland City Council meetings, while 52 percent of readers said praying should not be used to open Ashland City Council meetings.

NJ.com: In a suit filed in July, weeks after the law went into effect, DePascale, who sits in Hudson County, contends the state Constitution specifically forbids judges’ and justices’ salaries from being reduced.

Politico: The nine Supreme Court justices could decide as soon as Thursday whether — and how — to wade into the politically charged legal waters of health reform.

School holiday an ‘in-your-face’ gesture (OneNewsNow.com): Some Massachusetts residents don’t agree with a school district deciding to give students a day off in recognition of a Muslim holiday.

One News Now: “There [are] enough pro-marriage Democrats in the Senate who are Catholics that, if they decide to be bold and actually stand for marriage rather than their own party, we still do have a chance of getting the marriage amendment through. But the ball is largely going to rest in their court,” he concedes. | Lange v. Diercks, No. 1-587 / 11-0191 (Iowa Ct. App. Nov. 9, 2011)

Los Angeles Times: The lawsuits, filed in California’s four federal judicial districts, are aimed at quickly winning court orders to stop the U.S. attorneys from shutting dispensaries.

Reno Gazette-Journal: ackers and opponents of two proposed ballot initiatives in Nevada to ban abortions were resolute Wednesday in their efforts a day after voters in conservative Mississippi defeated a similar ballot measure there.

The vote was 10-8, with all committee Democrats supporting repeal and all Republicans opposed.

KATC.com | Acadiana-Lafayette, Louisiana: Today the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, affirmed the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana’s ruling that the newspaper “The Final Call” cannot be censored or denied to a prisoner who has requested it as part of his religious practices. | Leonard v. Louisiana

LifeNews.com: Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has asked the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office to launch an investigation into the scandal surrounding the destruction of abortion records during the administration for former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School District (N.D. Cal.), decided the day before yesterday, upholds a California high school’s decision to forbid students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

How Appealing links to DuMont’s letter and a report.

Guimerà R, Sales-Pardo M (2011) Justice Blocks and Predictability of U.S. Supreme Court Votes. PLoS ONE 6(11): e27188. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027188
Successful attempts to predict judges’ votes shed light into how legal decisions are made and, ultimately, into the behavior and evolution of the judiciary. Here, we investigate to what extent it is possible to make predictions of a justice’s vote based on the other justices’ votes in the same case.

Christian Post: Pro-adoption organizations have the right to a specialty license plate on the same terms as any other organization, and the court’s decision affirms that,” ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer said in a statement. “The state is not authorized to censor The Children First Foundation for its life-affirming viewpoint, but it has gotten away with doing so for 10 years now since the application was first submitted.”

Catholic News Agency (CNA): “This is (the) strategy of the opposition – manipulate the truth by claiming that there is a global right to abortion and repeat it over and over again,” said Piero A. Tozzi, senior legal council at the Alliance Defense Fund, in a speech to Human Life International’s Second International Congress for Truth and Life. “Repeated enough, perception becomes reality,” he warned, as he described the attempt to raise non-binding statements about abortion “rights” into “something that must be followed and obeyed.”

LifeNews.com: DF Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer told LifeNews today that he’s glad the appeals court has now sided with the Choose Life plates. “Pro-adoption organizations have the right to a specialty license plate on the same terms as any other organization, and the court’s decision affirms that,” he said. “The state is not authorized to censor The Children First Foundation for its life-affirming viewpoint, but it has gotten away with doing so for 10 years now since the application was first submitted.”

Albany Times Union: Here’s the release from the Alliance Defense Fund and then from the Catholic Conference, which was not a party to the suit but whose members support their aims. Alliance Defense Fund . . .

Syracuse.com: The state has denied another 100 or so other requests because of the moratorium, said Jeffry Shafer, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented Children First.

Politics on the Hudson: The Alliance Defense Fund first brought the case in August 2004 after the DMV rejected the license plate, claiming it might offend some New Yorkers.

The Republic (AP): Harris, R-West Fork, has said he thought religious displays are permitted if paid for with private money. Harris said he met Tuesday with a lawyer from the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which works to preserve religious freedom. The attorney is planning to meet with state officials, Harris said

Fox News: “Pro-adoption organizations have the right to a specialty license plate on the same terms as any other organization, and the court’s decision affirms that,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer.

Florida Independent: “Giving women the information they need before such a weighty decision is clearly more important than an abortionist’s bottom line,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “Those attacking this law are obviously more concerned about financial gain from abortion than the best interests of women and their preborn children.”

WSJ.com (AP): Attorney Jeffrey Shafer of the Alliance Defense Fund, who argued on behalf of the foundation, said state lawyers have 30 days to file a notice of appeal. Otherwise, McCurn’s order will take effect. He said that would make New York the 29th state with “Choose Life” license plates. “Illinois was kind of an odd turn, an anomalous result,” Shafer said. “We’ve had success in just about every other state we’ve sought to have some progress in this issue.”

Catholic Review, Nov. 10, 2011

LifeNews.com: A fifth defendant has pleaded guilty in the gruesome case involving the botched abortion deaths and the abortion-infanticides of dozens of unborn children that took place at the abortion facility run by Kermit Gosnell.

Religion Clause: In Big Hart Ministries Association, Inc. v. City of Dallas, (ND TX, Nov. 4, 2011), religious groups that drive around the city of Dallas looking for homeless individuals with whom to share food challenged the city’s Food Establishments Ordinance.

Religion Clause: In East End Eruv Association, Inc. v. Village of Westhampton Beach, (ED NY, Nov. 3, 2011), a New York federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the Town of Southampton (NY) from interfering with a Jewish group’s constructing an eruv (symbolic boundary) by attaching plastic strips to utility poles . . .

The case, Log Cabin Republicans v. U.S. (Circuit dockets 10-56634 and 10-56813), was under review in the Ninth Circuit when the Obama Administration, responding to the repeal of the policy against gays and lesbians serving openly in the military services, asked the panel to declare the case moot and to vacate Judge Phillips’ decision against the ban.

NCPA Policy Digest: That is, unless we consider Christmas trees to be wholly secular, this is an obvious burden on the free exercise of Christianity, and one that no other religion faces.

The Hill: Abortion-rights supporters say the issue can help President Obama’s reelection campaign regain ground with voters who supported him in 2008 but have drifted since.

The Hill: The group’s website, NotMittRomney.com, launched this week.

The Hill: Rick Perry struggled to remember which federal agencies he would cut, Herman Cain had the crowd’s support in dealing with sexual harassment allegations, and Mitt Romney sailed through Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate.

News from The Associated Press: Senate Democrats who back gay marriage have decided now is the time to repeal a federal law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

News from The Associated Press: As war, the economy and persecution by Muslim extremists push Arab Christians and religious minorities out of the Middle East, the refugees and immigrants are quietly settling in small pockets across the U.S.

News from The Associated Press: Israeli police say they are investigating anti-Arab graffiti found on Muslim tombs in central Jerusalem.

The Hill: Those in the crowd at the CNBC debate booed moderator Maria Bartiromo when she asked Cain about whether he had the character needed for the nation’s highest office.