Daily Archives: November 21, 2011

LifeSiteNews.com: A TV sports anchor who was fired in the spring after tweeting his support for true marriage says he hopes the case will inspire other Canadians to take up the marriage battle, which is experiencing a lull in Canada six years after Parliament legalized same-sex “marriage.”

Telegraph: A growing number of British couples are divorcing in their 60s, official figures show.

Eurasia Review: More than 250,000 residents out of a total population of one million in Brussels have Muslim roots, according to a study carried out by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and published in the Belgian media Friday.

Rick Fitzgibbons at MercatorNet: Allowing same sex couples to adopt children deprives them of a mother or a father and subjects them to a dangerous social experiment.

Telegraph: Parents are dressing up their children in provocative clothes and allowing them to wear make-up and high heels because they lack traditional values, according to a leading headmistress.

The Hill: Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said that “after months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys representing 12 pro-life nurses filed a motion for an emergency court order Friday against the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. In violation of an existing court order, UMDNJ is attempting to force the nurses into meetings that would impose discriminatory job “transfer” and other “changes” to their employment solely because of their objections to helping with abortions.

The Independent: rom now on advocates in cases heard at the Supreme Court in London will be able to “dispense with any or all of the elements of traditional court dress”.

LifeSiteNews.com: With a court battle over Canada’s laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide proceeding just north of the border, a lawyer in Washington State has proposed that his state expand their Death with Dignity Act.

Telegraph: One sad side effect of China’s economic miracle: 23 million children under the age of five now live apart from both their parents, who have left home to find work in the country’s cities, according to a newly released statistic.

American Family Association Rightly Concerned: Did you know that an average of 23 manufacturing facilities were shut down every single day in the United States last year?

The Washington Post: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) compiled a list of over 1,000 words, the majority in English, that they deem “pornographic or offensive to Islam,” Newsweek Pakistan reported.

Christian Newswire: Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) has named Mike Griffin as its State Field Director.

Timesonline.com: Borough officials will attempt to continue a local tradition next month while avoiding federal legal action.

The New American: Citing the uncertain economy and the scarcity of needed capital, the company that launched the first government funded embryonic stem-cell trials announced that it is halting further stem-cell research and will lay off nearly 40 percent of its staff. The California-based Geron Corp., which began the first FDA-approved stem-cell trials in 2010, said that it would shift its focus to cancer research.

The Des Moines Register: The pledge advocates several issues, including the Defense of Marriage Act, personal fidelity to the signee’s spouse, appointment of “faithful constitutionalists” as judges, and reformation of anti-marriage elements in divorce, tax and welfare laws.

AOL: Each year newly minted college graduates head straight to law school hoping that another degree will help land them a job. This is increasingly looking like a bad idea.

Huffington Post: “We want to send a positive signal to students who are grappling with the issue of [sexual orientation] or gender identity,” Fitzsimmons said. “I think this campus is really welcoming to all students and that’s the signal we want to send.”

LifeNews.com: The attorney general for the state of Michigan has permanently closed down two abortion centers in the state, saying they had been operating without a valid license since last summer.

Herald Tribune: Women who have had ovarian stimulation to produce eggs for in vitro fertilization are at slightly increased risk for a type of ovarian cancer, a large study has found.

San Francisco Chronicle: Maine is being targeted because the issue probably will be on the ballot there next year. Instead of being preachy, the ads aim to empathize with the “journey” voters are taking as they try to sort out their conflicted feelings about same-sex marriage.

San Francisco Chronicle: Republican presidential candidates seeking to become the main alternative to Mitt Romney in Iowa criticized the Occupy Wall Street movement and called for a greater religious presence in civic life as they made their case to about 3,000 social conservatives at a Des Moines church.

Online Athens: The Georgia Supreme Court ruled today in a long-simmering property dispute over Georgia’s oldest church, saying a congregation that broke away from the national Episcopal Church in a dispute four years ago must give back the church’s $3 million property in the heart of downtown Savannah. | Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church in Savannah v. Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, No. S10G190

LifeNews.com: These pro-life nurses shouldn’t be bullied into employment discrimination that is forbidden both by federal law and a court order,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The hospital is threatening to impose discriminatory transfers or changes in the employment conditions for these nurses because of their religious and moral objections to abortion. Such discrimination against pro-life nurses violates state and federal law, the court’s order in this case, and even the hospital’s own public statements saying that no nurse must assist in procedures to which they object.”

LifeNews.com: A recent investigation conducted by Project Defending Life with the help of Operation Rescue has revealed that tax money received by the University of New Mexico (UNM) flows freely to the university-run UNM Center for Reproductive Health (UNMCRH) abortion clinic in Albuquerque.

WRAL.com: A potential showdown in court this month over whether North Carolina can sell anti-abortion specialty license plates that say “Choose Life” will be a mere sideshow if the lawmaker who shepherded the plates through the legislature has anything to say about it.

The Denver Post: Denver-based anti-abortion group that sponsored an unsuccessful personhood amendment in Mississippi — declaring fertilization the starting point of life — is mobilizing again to push a fortified measure in Colorado, Oregon and Montana.

CNSnews.com (includes video): Senate Republican leaders sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday expressing their view that testimony he gave in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week on the Justice Department’s handling of then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s involvement in litigation arising from the administration’s health care legislation was “belied by the facts.”

NYTimes.com: THE images streaming from Cairo’s streets last month were not as horrifying as those of the capture and brutal death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, but they were savage all the same.

Thomas L. Friedman at NYTimes.com: But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement.

he federal appellate court that covers Maryland has for years been considered one of the more right-leaning in the nation, finding that women can be banned from a military institute, that the FDA can’t regulate tobacco and that confessions count even when suspects haven’t been read their rights, among other conservative opinions.

Thomson Reuters: U.S. Senators on Friday brokered an agreement to take up five judicial nominees after the Senate returns from its Thanksgiving break.

Daily Mail Online: A Muslim lawyer has launched an extraordinary rant against Christmas, branding the celebration ‘evil’.

EWTN News: The data shows 58 percent of charges referred to conduct which was derogatory towards Catholicism, 37 percent was derogatory towards Protestantism, 2.3 percent towards Judaism and 2.1 percent towards Islam. The religion of the perpetrator or victim was not recorded.

Catholic Culture: A gang of men attacked an unregistered Baptist prayer meeting near Hanoi on November 13, smashing a cross and beating the pastor to the point of unconsciousness. Collaboration between the gang and local police is suspected.

Catholic Culture: Following cancellations of seminars offered by a consultant who, outside of his professional duties, vocally opposes same-sex marriage, Bank of America and Cisco have pledged that they will not discriminate against supporters of traditional marriage.

Bob Beauprez at Townhall : Four Republican Senators have joined the growing chorus of elected officials and leadership of citizen groups calling for Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself from the ObamaCare case now scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court.

OneNewsNow.com: A spokesman for the Family Research Council (FRC) says his organization’s new study on the family should shock the nation.

Washington Examiner: Virginia Senate Democrats are considering suing Senate Republicans after the GOP lawmakers claimed they have outright control of the Senate even though both parties control 20 of the 40 seats. At issue is whether Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling . . .

Religion Clause: In Bennett v. Attorney General for Canada, (Fed. Ct., Nov. 15, 2011), the Federal Court of Canada upheld a refusal by Canada’s Minister of Health to grant an exemption from Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to a member of the Church of the Universe who believes that cannabis is the “tree of life.”

Religion Clause: In Brownsville, Texas, the ACLU has filed an open records request with school officials in order to look into the a provision in the high school’s Code of Conduct that bans wearing “religious symbols which have been altered with the intent of causing offense or inciting or promoting gang activity, violence, or other prohibited behaviors.”

Standard-Examiner (AP): Over the past week, the 12-foot-high Roman crosses have been stripped of the brown and gold beehive-shaped logo of the Utah Highway Patrol, association attorney Frank Mylar said . . . “We’re hoping we can keep the memorials as much intact as possible but change them so that it complies with the (court),” Mylar said. “They really feel strongly that that without the cross there’s no memorial.”

Religion Clause: Britain’s Guide Association– a half-million member organization similar to the Girl Scouts– is considering amending its “Promise” to eliminate religious references . . .

LifeNews.com: The re-election campaign of President Barack Obama has hired an activist who formerly worked for one of the top pro-abortion groups to head up a new women’s outreach effort for the 2012 presidential election.

CSMonitor.com (includes video): Spaniards handed the conservative Popular Party a historic landslide victory and the incumbent Socialist Party its worst defeat in history in this weekend’s general elections, highlighting their overwhelming dissatisfaction with the status quo and a demand for new leadership that could help the country climb out of its worst economic crisis in decades.

ADF Attorney Joe Infranco appeared with Cy Kellett on KCEO (Catholic Radio San Diego). | MP3 audio 21:54 mins

The Hill: “The President designed a political strategy that doomed the committee to failure first by insisting the committee include $450 billion of his failed stimulus policies in any agreement, making deficit reduction much harder and second by issuing a veto threat warning he would not accept an agreement that did not include a job-killing tax increase,” the memo obtained by The Hill states.

Leigh Jones at WORLD Magazine | Campus conformity | Leigh Jones | Dec 03, 11: The Alliance Defense Fund, which also argued CLS v. Martinez, plans later this month to ask the high court to consider the California case. Its decision will determine whether religious organizations can maintain their autonomy and their status as official school groups . . . The Vanderbilt case has attracted the most media attention in recent months, but it’s just one of dozens of cases playing out on campuses all across the country, said David Cortman, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. Most adults, who only know what college life was like when they were in school, have no idea how prevalent discrimination against Christians on campus has become, he said. “The university is supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, but it ends up being the storefront of censorship,” he said. “Rather than being wide open to all viewpoints, including some you may disagree with, [administrators] want you to agree with liberal orthodoxy just to maintain equal status on campus.”

The Hill: H. Bartow Farr, a partner at Farr & Taranto, has been chosen to argue that the entire law can stand if the individual mandate is struck down – the conclusion the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta reached in April.

OneNewsNow.com: Two Georgia lawmakers are considering legislation similar to the “personhood” referendum rejected by voters in Mississippi last week.

The Hill: House Democrats wrote to the U.S. Judicial Conference on Friday urging the watchdog agency to request that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder investigate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Townhall: Editor’s note: Robert George made the following comments as he was presented with the Alliance Defense Fund’s Edwin Meese Award at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, DC, on Oct. 26, 2011.

WorldNetDaily: “Pastors and churches shouldn’t live in fear of being punished by the government for exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster in a statement. “No law or government official can rob a faith group of its constitutionally protected rights just because that official would prefer not to be removed from office.”

Louisiana Federation for Children: The Louisiana Federation for Children (LFC) today celebrated the bipartisan victories of numerous school choice supporters to the Louisiana Legislature and state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) during the Saturday, Nov. 19, statewide general elections.

Christian Post: Alliance Defense Fund attorney Dale Schowengerdt said that since the merits of the case were already briefed and argued by the 9th Circuit Court, the case should move faster. However, it is expected that whichever way the court rules, there will be an appeal by the loser.

Baptist Press – Life Digest: The order protected two nurses, Lorna Mendoze and Julita Ching, who were scheduled to help with abortions the next day, according to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which represents the nurses in the case.

Telegraph: Jim O’Neill, the head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has predicted that China could overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy by 2027 and urged a fundamental rethink of the operation of the G7 which he believes is too dominated by the West.

Dakota Voice: Eric Stanley of the Alliance Defense Fund was on Wallbuilders Live yesterday (they’re having some great shows, lately), discussing the Pulpit Initiative . . . The Alliance Defense Fund is an organization established to defend religious liberty in America from the assaults of secularists that have become so common in recent decades. They have allied attorneys all over the country who can help defend churches, pastors, ministry leaders and lay Christians to maintain their religious liberties. In many ways, ADF is the counter to the anti-Christian, anti-American ACLU.

TheHill.com: Today, the split between young Americans, their parents and grandparents is as glaring as the difference between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party. It extends to their votes but has its roots in racial, economic, religious and demographic differences.

NCPA Policy Digest: While it is tempting to cluster private-sector and public-sector unions together (as many believe they are more or less equivalent), their economic and political impacts differ drastically.

Florida Independent: John Stemberger, the president of the anti-gay and anti-abortion Florida Family Policy Council, has started a new project to get as many religious voters to the polls as possible . . . He also adds that pastors “have a virtual ‘army’ of attorneys at [their] disposal.” He cites the Alliance Defense Fund and the Liberty Counsel (who largely defend anti-abortion activists) as resources for the pastors.

FFRF.org: The Freedom From Religion Foundation has waited three years to declare victory over an election violation complaint it filed with the Federal Election Commission in 2008 concerning the political group Informed Catholic Citizens.

The Barna Group: A new Barna Group study illustrates that no single Christian leader captures the attention of the nation’s population. When asked to identify the single most influential Christian leader in the U.S. today, two out of every five Americans (41%) are unable to think of anyone who would meet that description.

NCPA Policy Digest: Over the last decade, the expansion of school voucher programs, which let some students use taxpayer dollars to pay tuition at private schools of their choice, slowed considerably. Losses in statewide referenda and in state Supreme Courts made vouchers an even tougher political sell than they had been in the past. However, this trend took a drastic reversal in 2011. . .

The Ninth Circuit Court, reacting to legal advice it has just received from the California Supreme Court, on Friday asked both sides in the constitutional dispute over the state’s ban on same-sex marriage to file new briefs on the impact of the state ruling on their case.

The video is here.

Kathryn Jean Lopez at NCRegister.com: “Public funding should go toward helping and caring for the most vulnerable Americans, not killing them,” said Matt Bowman, legal counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, which frequently goes to bat for conscience issues in court. “Clearly, the American taxpayers should not be forced to fund abortions, especially during tough economic times, but the health-care act threatens to do that and more. It threatens the conscience rights of health professionals, payers and employers, because it is not subject to existing federal conscience-protection laws, and Congress failed to apply comprehensive conscience protections to the statute. In addition, HHS recently mandated that all employers provide plans that cover abortifacients, contraception and sterilization.”

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys representing an El Paso church and its pastor filed suit in federal court Thursday to have a Texas election law struck down as unconstitutional. El Paso Mayor John Cook has been using the law to prevent churches from circulating petitions that seek to recall him from office.