Daily Archives: November 16, 2011

ADF Attorney Dave Cortman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt case to discuss the Joyner v. Forsyth County, NC. | MP3 audio 5:38 mins

Christian Today: The church member said that communication with Nadarkhani is limited, but that sources close to the imprisoned Christian indicated that he has undergone physical and psychological torture.

The Christian Institute: Two divorced fathers who became a transsexual ‘lesbian’ couple have been allowed to legally marry after one of the men had a sex change operation.

Jonathan Berry at The Federalist Society: April Mack sued to recover for the wrongful death of her unborn child, who miscarried after a car accident. The Alabama Supreme Court ultimately vindicated her right to recovery, despite her having miscarried her child before the point of viability. In order to do so, the court found that viability made no sense as a prerequisite to wrongful-death recovery, holding an unborn child’s gestational age irrelevant as a matter of law. Conspicuously, the court never saw fit to even mention the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence and its treatment of viability.

Joe Darger is a polygamist with three wives — Alina and identical twins, Vicki and Valerie. Together, they are raising 24 children.

CBN.com: Efforts are underway in nation’s capital to wipe out the Defense of Marriage Act — the federal law that defines marriage the traditional way.

Telegraph: ALL children could be vaccinated against flu in the future, the Department of Health has indicated.

Allied Attorney Updates November 2011 Congratulations to allied attorneys Richard Baker, Scott Bergthold, Leonard Brown, Kim Colby, Kyle Duncan, Roger Gannam, Vaughn Murphy, and Randy Wenger for their recent accomplishments and successes listed below.  Please take time to congratulate them! …

NOM Blog: Reports out of Washington are now indicating that – just a week after forcing a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) through the Judiciary Committee on a party line vote – Senator Diane Feinstein, Senate Judiciary Chair Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Majority Leader Harry Reid may now attach the DOMA repeal bill to the 2012 Defense Authorization bill, a bill that must be passed in order to fund our servicemen and women through the next year.

Is the prospect of group marriage far-fetched? Probably not. There are several avenues that could soon lead to legal recognition of unions involving three or more people.

Guardian.co.uk: The ICC may be here to stay, but more than words are needed to protect our growing system of international law

The Republic: Supporters of the so-called personhood movement, which defines life as beginning at fertilization, have formed a political action committee to help elect anti-abortion candidates and to educate voters.

FRC: Tomorrow, Family Research Council’s Marriage & Religion Research Institute (MARRI) will release its second annual Index of Family Belonging and Rejection. The first Index found that less than 50 percent of American children reach adulthood having grown up in an intact family

The Hill: Local Washington lawmakers are praising House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for his efforts to give the District more control over its local budget, but they are rejecting his proposed legislation limiting local funding for abortions.

Reuters: The Brooklyn Museum said a controversial video artwork of ants crawling on a crucifix will be displayed this week despite lawmakers’ complaints that it is anti-Christian and may endanger the institute’s public funding.

The Washington Post: Just don’t bring your cellphone or BlackBerry, don’t try to send an e-mail, don’t plan to stroll down a street, and never try to talk to strangers or take pictures of ordinary people. None of that is allowed.

Wall Street Journal senior editorial writer Collin Levy on whether Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan should recuse themselves from the ObamaCare case.

LifeNews.com: It’s very interesting that the abortion business’ legal team has changed venues, having filed this new case in a state court, presumably so if they lose in the first round, they can get their appeal up to the abortion-leaning, Sebelius-stacked state supreme court.

The Australian (includes video): JULIA Gillard’s support for a conscience vote on same-sex marriage and the certainty of a Greens motion on the issue have put the Prime Minister on a collision course with religious groups over her promise to “absolutely” leave the Marriage Act unchanged in this term of parliament.

Sydney Morning Herald: The Left will push at conference not for a conscience vote but for a change of policy to endorse same-sex marriage. Its senior operatives said yesterday that Ms Gillard’s attempt to frame the outcome in advance would not stop this push.

LifeSiteNews.com: A report from the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) saying that assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia should be “legally permitted” is nothing more than a “sham,” according to Alex Schadenberg, executive director of Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC).

LifeSiteNews.com: A study published in one of the most respected medical journals in the world this month has found that many “vegetative” patients are in fact fully conscious and aware.

OneNewsNow.com: Liberty Counsel filed suit to block the measure shortly after Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed it into law on June 24, 2011 (see earlier story). The government is asking the court to dismiss the challenge, but Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver suggests that based on the law, the judge ought to proceed with the case. He believes that will send “a shockwave down the spine” of those responsible for passing the law.

When Bethany Saros got pregnant shortly after deploying to Iraq, she came face-to-face with what she claims is the military’s “unspoken code”: that “a good soldier will have an abortion, continue the mission, and get some sympathy because she chose duty over motherhood.”

BBC News: A top human rights group in Bangladesh has praised a bride who disowned her husband within minutes of their wedding because he demanded a dowry.

TrustLaw: Pakistan’s parliament has passed a landmark law aimed at strengthening protection for women facing economic and social discrimination through practices such as forced marriage, the Express Tribune reported on Wednesday.

Forbes: With little fanfare two weeks ago, a key United Nations commission made a remarkable statement: it declared, unambiguously, that broadband access is a basic human right, right up there with the right to healthcare, shelter and food.

SCOTUSblog: Against very long odds, the C-SPAN network on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to allow live television coverage of the oral arguments that are to be held in March on the constitutionality of the new federal health care law.

Seattle Times: As a teen, Steven González earned money cleaning park bathrooms in the California town where he grew up. On Tuesday, Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed González to serve as one of nine justices on the Washington State Supreme Court.

Cheryl Gay Stolberg at NYTimes.com: As Barack Obama battled Hillary Rodham Clinton over health care during the Democratic presidential primaries of 2008, he was adamant about one thing: Americans, he insisted, should not be required to buy health insurance.

Religion Clause: In Muslim Advocates v. United States Department of Justice, (D DC, Nov. 10, 2011), the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the federal government can rely on the exemption in the Freedom of Information Act for certain law enforcement records to deny an advocacy group unredacted copies of chapters of the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide.

Religion Clause: The latest of the Continuing Resolutions extended USCIRF’s life to this Friday, Nov. 18.

LifeNews.com: Senate Democrats are attempting to gut four pro-life policies in the minibus bill the Senate will consider next week, and Concerned Women for America is urging pro-life advocates to contact senators to urge support for them.

LifeNews.com: Abortion practitioner Neal Adam Poch has quit doing abortions at a Fort Worth, Texas Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and local pro-life advocates say a new pro-life law the state legislature approved is the reason why.

David Savage at ChicagoTribune.com: If reproductive technology allows a child to be conceived after a father’s death, can the child claim Social Security survivor’s benefits? Justices will decide a mother’s case.

The Hill: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Tuesday pressed Attorney General Eric Holder for more information about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s involvement with the healthcare reform law after new emails emerged showing her rooting for the law when she was solicitor general.

The Hill: The Transportation Security Administration is encouraging families traveling for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to use a dedicated lane that would allow frequent fliers to avoid them.

TheHill.com: House Republican leaders began preparing their members on Tuesday to accept a potential deficit deal that includes new tax revenues.

News from The Associated Press: China, the largest foreign holder, bought 1 percent more to bring its total holdings to $1.15 trillion. China had cut its purchases 3.1 percent in August.

News from The Associated Press: Germany will create a national database as a clearing-house for information on far-right extremists amid mounting criticism its security agencies failed to detect a neo-Nazi terror group for years.

Findlaw: Step back, New York Times. Law students and attorneys no longer need you to tell the world that law school is a losing game. No, the hedge fund managers have entered the discussion, and they’ve got numbers on their side.

MarketWatch: Responding quickly to concerns that its iBoss Web Filters were blocking access to LGBT websites for employees of Montgomery County, Maryland, Phantom Technologies assures customers that its web-filtering technology is designed to function within the guidelines of the ACLU’s Don’t Filter Me campaign, which seeks to curb illegal filtering of pro-LGBT content.

WSJ.com: Sundays at Faith Fellowship Church, Pastor Gary Mortara calls on God’s help to heal the sick, repair torn marriages and rescue lost souls. But when city officials here rejected plans to move his growing congregation to a bigger building, Mr. Mortara turned to another authority: the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Congressman Chris Smith (NJ) appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show. | MP3 audio 8:38 mins | Cong. Smith Supports Nurses at Press Conference at UMDNJ

ADF Attorney Steven Aden at Townhall: The American Civil Liberties Union is offering us a 21st century rendition of this riddle in North Carolina, where they’ve pulled out all stops to keep women from viewing ultrasound pictures of their babies in the womb before deciding whether to abort them. The ACLU asks, “If you don’t see the baby, is it still a baby?”

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at the TellADF Blog: In a day when so many Christians in America are under legal attack for things like handing out gospel tracts on a public sidewalk, leading a prayer before a public meeting, or even wishing someone a “Merry Christmas,” it’s perhaps not surprising that some states and groups have tried to drive efforts to create life-affirming license plates off the road.

ADF Attorney Erik Stanley on the Mark Larson Show with Pastor Jim Garlow. | MP3 audio 23:09 mins | Pulpit Freedom Sunday

NRL News Today: These statements were read yesterday at a press conference by nurses Fe Vinoya and Beryl Otieno Ngoje. They are two of twelve nurses who are asserting their fundamental civil rights guaranteed by both federal and state law by saying “no” to coerced participation in the killing of unborn children at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).

OneNewsNow.com: Steven H. Aden is an attorney with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, one of the groups that defended the law. “A woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s desire to profit from abortions,” says Aden. “Without this legal roadblock, women will now be better protected — and so will pro-life medical professionals whom the law protects from being coerced into participating in abortions.”

NRL News Today: While the nuts and bolts of any story are essential, the “human element” is what makes it real to someone who is not directly involved . . . In response to a lawsuit filed on the nurses’ behalf by the Alliance Defense Fund, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey insists that nurses are not required to have direct involvement in abortions, which infuriates the nurses, Congressman Chris Smith, and the nurses’ attorney, Matt Bowman. Bowman quoted from an email from the hospital’s attorneys which Bowman pointed out was factually incorrect. First, nurses had been required—and had participated—in abortions. Second, the hospital conceded that “they [the nurses] are required to provide patients who have elected to terminate their pregnancies with pre-operative care (not including the administration of induction medications), and postoperative care.”

LifeNews.com: No nurse should be forced to violate her religious or moral beliefs in order to keep her job. Nursing is a healing profession, and the law protects our right not to provide any services related to abortion. We are thankful that the Alliance Defense Fund and Mr. Stratis are standing by our side to protect our rights. For a few weeks at least, we can sleep soundly at night knowing that we also will be respected in our right to choose not participate in killing innocent lives.

Huffington Post (Religion News Service): “The law said they don’t have to assist any part of the (abortion) case,” said Matt Bowman, the attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund.

Catholic News Agency (CNA): Alliance Defense Fund attorneys are representing the nurses in the lawsuit. “Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist or train in services related to abortions,” said ADF legal counsel Matt Bowman. “These 12 nurses have encountered threats to their jobs at this hospital ever since a policy change required them to participate in abortion cases regardless of their religious and moral objections.”