Daily Archives: November 30, 2011

CNN.com: Evangelist Billy Graham has been admitted to a hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, for “evaluation and treatment of his lungs,” the hospital said Wednesday.

Christian Newswire: Today, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 violates the Illinois State Constitution of 1970. The high Court is expected to grapple with the question of whether, and to what extent, the Illinois Constitution includes protection for abortion rights.

James Hochberg at Honolulu Star-Advertiser: On Oct. 5, state Rep. Blake Oshiro hosted a panel discussion on the legality of doctor-assisted suicide in Hawaii. The keynote speaker for the discussion was attorney Kathryn Tucker, director of legal affairs for Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group intent on convincing our population of the legality of doctor-prescribed death for terminally ill patients within the state. With her was the president of that group, Barbara Combs Lee.

The Washington Post: n an order issued Tuesday (Nov. 29), the city’s Office of Human Rights said offering only single-sex dormitories is not unlawful discrimination under the District’s Human Rights Act.

LifeSiteNews.com: The southern Indian state of Kerala might be the next in a long line of governments attempting to destroy their own greatest resource: their people.

LifeNews.com: Technology has been instrumental in moving public opinion on abortion. From the advent of ultrasound technology, which provides stunning glimpses into life in the womb, to iPad applications that allow a pregnant mother to track her baby’s development, the pro-life movement has benefited from greater awareness of the humanity of the unborn child. Now, the latest model of Apple’s iPhone provides women with alternatives to abortion when making related abortion searches on its new voice-directed Siri technology.

LifeSiteNews.com: One of the highest ranking cardinals in the Vatican has said that the United States is “well on the way” to the persecution of Christians.

Catholic Culture: Law Students for Reproductive Justice, a Fordham University student organization, has organized an off-campus birth control clinic because “our Catholic university prohibits the actual prescription of contraception at its health centers.”

LifeSiteNews.com: This quote in The Washington Post by one of the nurses stopped me in my tracks when I read it: One of the nurses, Fe Esperanza R. Vinoya, said a manager told her: “‘You just have to catch the baby’s head. Don’t worry, it’s already dead.’ ”

The Blog of Legal Times: The D.C. Bar Judicial Evaluation Committee recently kicked off its annual evaluation program and is looking for feedback from attorneys on the performance of 34 judges in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and Superior Court.

Express.co.uk: A PARALYSED man has taken his case to allow a doctor to “lawfully” end his life to the High Court.

Schools in England are set to receive a copy of the King James Bible from the Government as it marks 400 years of the translation.

The Christian Institute: Over 200 people gathered outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh to mark the start of “Scotland for Marriage”.

LifeNews: Leading pro-abortion groups are pushing members of the Senate to support an amendment to legislation that would overturn the ban on abortions at taxpayer-funded U.S. military base hospitals.

ADF Attorney Michael Norton at Townhall : Planned Parenthood Federation of America recently posted a job opening for Vice President of Communications. According to the announcement, it is looking for someone who is “strategic, innovative and experienced,” with the capability of providing “vision, leadership and direction for PPFA’s communications.” (I suppose it’s a given that possible applicants are those who were fortunate enough to be born instead of aborted as children.)

A federal judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction that stops the state from issuing license plates with an anti-abortion message . . .

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Laura Ingraham Show to discuss the situation. | MP3 audio 14:20 mins

Roanoke.com: A judge declined to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a display of the Ten Commandments in a Giles County school Monday, setting the stage for a long legal battle.

Religion Clause: Michigan’s state Senate yesterday passed the House version of “Matt’s Safe School Law,” an anti-bullying bill.

Religion Clause: According to a report by News.Az yesterday, one of the main roles of Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations is the review of religious literature and texts that religious groups wish to distribute in the country.

Religion Clause Federal Election Commission Releases Enforcement Files On Catholic Group’s Robocalls BNA’s Daily Report for Executives [subscription required] reports that on Nov. 25, the Federal Election Commission released documents in an enforcement case against Informed Catholic Citizens (ICC), a 501(c)(4) non-profit …

News from The Associated Press: The governor said Tuesday that lawmakers upset with his decision to call the blue spruce erected in the Statehouse a holiday tree instead of a Christmas tree should focus their energy on feeding the poor.

News from The Associated Press: Officials at Arlington National Cemetery are breaking ground on a new columbarium that’s expected to hold the cremated remains of more than 20,000 people.

News from The Associated Press: Here are some questions and answers about the crisis . . .

News from The Associated Press: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was leading in initial, partial results from Egypt’s parliamentary elections but it was facing stiff competition in many places both from more hard-line Islamic groups and from a liberal-secular alliance, judges overseeing counting said Wednesday.

News from The Associated Press: America’s strengthened military pact with Australia is a figment of “Cold War thinking” that will destabilize the Asia-Pacific region, China’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday, in Beijing’s strongest criticism yet of a move widely seen as intended to counter China’s rising assertiveness.

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears appeared on Catholic Radio of San Diego with Chuck LiMandri. | MP3 audio 27:32 mins

FRC Washington Update: What do you get when you combine pagans, two witches, and the Air Force Academy? Eighty thousand taxpayer dollars. That’s how much the government is spending in its pursuit of political correctness in the military.

StarTribune.com (includes video): Despite opposition at City Hall, a St. Paul resident said he hasn’t been officially told to remove the monument from its river-bluff perch.

TheHill.com: While vast numbers of the private-sector workforce have seen their pensions vanish over recent decades and find themselves with precarious, market-based 401(k) plans, members of Congress receive both a pension and a quality employer-match plan.

OneNewsNow.com: . . . and David Cortman of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) thinks that was the right decision. “I think the court opinion said it best,” he contends. “It basically said the Establishment Clause does not shield citizens from encountering the beliefs or symbols of any faith to which they do not subscribe, and I think that’s exactly what’s going on here.”

Public Discourse: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ABOG) are restricting opportunities for healthcare professionals to object to abortion and contraception on grounds of conscience. This will accelerate the growing problem of physician shortage.

CBN.com: Alliance Defense Fund attorney Jordan Lorence represents the church, which has has been meeting at “Public School #15″ since 2002. “This is not government sponsorship of religion,” Lorence told CBN News. “This is merely government accommodating one group, a religious group, among many community groups that meet.” “We are arguing that based on important precedence that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled five times at least since 1981 that religious groups, private religious groups seeking access to meet in a building, have to be treated the same as the non-religious private groups,” he explained. “All we are asking for is equal access,” he said.

The Associated Press: Keeton’s lawsuit was brought by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian advocacy group that that presses faith-based cases in court nationwide. It argues that the First Amendment protects Keeton’s rights to share her beliefs about gays with others.

»The Catholic Review Online: “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,” he said. “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.”

The Advocate: New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, with support from the Alliance Defense Fund, also launched the Courage Fund this summer to offer assistance to the handful of town clerks who have refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, most notably Rose Marie Belforti of Ledyard in upstate New York. The National Organization for Marriage also has supported the clerks.

LifeNews.com: The Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life law firm, worked with Franks’ staff on a previous version of the measure. “No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless, least of all because a child isn’t of the preferred sex or race,” ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven Aden told LifeNews.com. “There is nothing constitutionally protected or medically necessary about an abortion that takes place because a child is not the preferred sex or race. And there is nothing in the law or the Constitution that prohibits America from joining other civilized nations in prohibiting such barbaric procedures,” he said. “ADF commends Rep. Franks for his leadership in affirming the rule of law’s protection for every American, regardless of race or gender, beginning in the womb,” said Aden in 2009 when it was previously introduced.

OneNewsNow.com: Mayor Cook challenged the recall effort, arguing that Brown violated state election law by using church resources to collect signatures for the recall petition. The Alliance Defense Fund is challenging the constitutionality of that law in federal court.

Baptist Press at OpposingViews.com: 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.

CNN: he Federal Reserve, acting with five other central banks, took further steps Wednesday to make it cheaper for banks around the world to trade in U.S. dollars.

Harshly criticizing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for the tactics he used to win approval of same-sex marriage, a state judge has ruled that a lawsuit challenging the enactment of New York’s Marriage Equality Act can proceed.