Daily Archives: December 21, 2011

Keith Ablow at Fox News: Trust me, if marriage were thus structured as a union of heart and mind between competent adults making reasoned decisions, rather than abdicating their autonomy and infantilizing themselves, it would have a much better chance of surviving in our culture. As currently conceived—with the state lording over anyone who decides to pull a marriage license—the institution is doomed and will barely exist in 75 years.

LifeSiteNews.com: In fact, the opposite is true,” Mr. Woodworth said in a press release. “Canadian law provides no human rights protection whatsoever for children before the moment of complete birth.”

LifeSiteNews.com: The rest of the country is holding on, but only barely, as the Supreme Court stands on the verge of imposing abortion on the entire country. For Americans and Canadians, the above scenario evokes bitter memories of a not-so-distant past, a lost world that slipped away, a society we only dream of having again. But for those of us who live in Mexico, that scenario is a daily reality. It is happening right now.

EuropeNews: Interview with Kamal Fahmi, director of Set My People Free (10th of December 2011, Stockholm). What is the purpose of today’s event? Today, actually is the international day of human rights. This is one of the reasons we chose this day, and the second one also, that it is that we give the Nobel prize, so there is a lot of media attention, and what we want to bring the attention of the people to is the apostasy law in Islam, which not many people know about. Islam is a one way religion. If you are a Muslim you can not change your belief. And this is very sad that this is happening in the 21st century.

The Washington Post: The spokesman of Egypt’s ultraconservative Islamist party told Israeli Army Radio in unprecedented remarks broadcast Wednesday that the group is not opposed to the country’s historic peace treaty with Israel.

UK – The Independent: A Muslim man who had a baby with an unmarried woman has been told that his daughter must remain with an adopted family because there is too great a risk that his love child could become the victim of a so-called “honour killing”.

Telegraph: The growth rate of 0.92 per cent was the lowest since the mid-1940s.

The Christian Institute: In his speech to the think-tank Demos on Monday Mr Clegg said: “We shouldn’t take a particular version of the family institution, such as the 1950s model of suit-wearing, bread-winning dad and aproned, homemaking mother – and try and preserve it in aspic.

Turtle Bay and Beyond – International Law, Policy, and Institutions: The U.S. branch of the Salvation Army has quickly distanced itself from the Salvation Army International’s controversial stance on abortion as reported by WND.

JSOnline: The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed a second ethics complaint Wednesday against Justice Michael Gableman. This complaint, charging that the justice had received free legal services . . .

Washington Times: Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Wednesday that he would appeal to the state Supreme Court a lower court ruling that could force the state to spend billions of dollars more on education.

The Republic: An Ohio anti-abortion group has refiled paperwork with the state in its effort to amend the Ohio Constitution to declare that life begins when a human egg is fertilized.

Cleveland Plain Dealer: House Bill 79, the third anti-abortion bill Kasich has signed this year, prevents health insurance plans available through the new federal health care law from paying for abortions, unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

ADF Attorney Dave Cortman on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the case. | MP3 audio 6:02 mins

Engage Family Minute: A week or two earlier, a little 6-year old boy in a West Virginia first grade classroom was given the assignment to answer the question, “Christmas is about ______.” This is a long-standing tradition in the rural county in which he lives. The county paper receives the papers, scans them, and publishes them so the whole county can “Ooo” and “Aweee” over the backwards letters and funny quips common to 6-year olds. But, 3 of these boys got it right. They answered, “Christmas is about Jesus’ birthday.” When they received their papers back, bold, black lines were crossed through the words, “Jesus birthday.”

The Daily Caller: Attorney General Eric Holder’s list of Operation Fast and Furious critics has grown over the past several days, as four more have signed on to a resolution of “no confidence” in him.

It’s a time-honored tradition at Navy homecomings – one lucky sailor is chosen to be first off the ship for the long-awaited kiss with a loved one.

CBS St. Louis: A Missouri city is fighting back against an adult sex-shop by not turning on the store’s water as the owner takes his case against the town to federal court.

The Hill: But they face vehement opposition from Republicans and industry groups, who argue the rules will harm the economy, force the closure of coal-fired power plants and threaten the reliability of the country’s power grid.

ADF seeks review of 9th Circuit ruling that upheld ban on all religious, Western Civ. texts from objective study in every public school, university

LifeSiteNews.com (video embedded): As Premier Dalton McGuinty presses forward with his controversial “anti-bullying” bill, he is invoking his Catholic faith to justify his effort to impose “gay” clubs on the province’s Catholic schools in violation of Catholic teaching.

LifeSiteNews.com: A new report produced by the United Nations Population Fund, the Armenian ministry of health, and the Institute of Perinatology found that 7,000 Armenian women – or 0.8 percent of all Armenian women of child-bearing age – had elected to have sex-selective abortions since 2006.

LifeSiteNews.com: n a blow to her former leftist supporter base, Peruvian president Ollanta has appointed a pro-life woman to the head of the Ministry of Women and Social Development, after firing her pro-abortion predecessor.

LifeSite News (video ad is embedded): A new video featuring former patients of Ron Paul’s OB-GYN practice in Texas has been released by his campaign.

Chaplain endorsers, representing more than 2,000 military chaplains, commend the commander of Travis Air Force Base and his legal team for their decision to keep the traditional manger scene as part of the 17-year tradition of displays during the Christmas season.

Gerard Nadal at LifeNews: The word from LifeNews.com is that the NAACP is opposed to the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011, which criminalizes abortion on the grounds of race or sex.

ADF Attorney Benjamin Bull at Townhall : All Domenic Johansson really wants for Christmas is his life back . . . In this season, as so many of us are thinking – as we should – of the children who don’t have toys or a turkey for Christmas, let us also remember those children who long not just for something to eat or play with, but for the freedom to honor the deepest convictions of their souls.

The Smoking Gun: Police this morning arrested a 25-year-old Virginia woman for the theft last week of Baby Jesus.

Canoe.ca: The statues of the infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph were spray-painted red and a cardboard sign was left beside the display with the phrase, “Keep the state separate from religion” written on it.

Religion Clause: Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution urging the Secretary of State to pressure Turkey on issues of religious freedom. House Resolution 306, adopted by voice vote on Dec. 13, is summarized by the Congressional Research Service. The resolution . . .

Religion Clause Blog reports.

Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews following a court hearing Thursday in the case of 12 nurses being forced to assist with abortions at a New Jersey hospital.

Religion Clause Blog reports.

William Saunders and Kellie Fiedorek at Life News: As 2011 draws to a close, it is worthwhile to pause and reflect upon the many victories gained in the protection of all human life. It is through the accumulation of these victories that we draw ever closer to our goal: a country where every human being is welcomed in life and protected in law.

Sunshine State News: Attorney General Pam Bondi has resubmitted ballot language a week after a Leon County judge agreed with critics that the wording of the “Religious Freedom” amendment was too “ambiguous.” The revised ballot summary for Amendment 7 on the November 2012 ballot adopts suggestions from Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis, the attorney general’s office stated in a release.

WAFF.com: A Tennessee Valley school proceeds to keep the song, “Silent Night” in their Christmas pageant despite one group’s request to consider taking it out of the program.

Daily Tribune: Reacting to criticism from an atheist group that a Nativity scene at Warren City Hall violates the constitutional separation of church and state, Mayor James Fouts said Tuesday he won’t allow displays that seem to “attack” religion.

Texas Pastors’ Council: A trans-denominational, multi-ethnic coalition of pastors in cities across Texas is asking all thirty two Texas U.S. Representatives to support a rule change that would reverse a long standing prohibition on any mention of holidays in their “franked” mailings or other official communications from their office. The Franking Commission has interpreted a 1974 code very broadly and some Congressmen are now asking for change.

AFA of Indiana: Thankfully, the Alliance Defense Fund, one of the nation’s top religious liberty law firms, did a lengthy legal analysis of the Evansville ordinance that was devastatingly effective. They noted over a dozen serious flaws in the ordinance and cited more than 200 court cases, founding quotes and examples of the problems these ordinances create for churches, charities, business owners and vital community groups like the Boy Scouts and the Salvation Army. (Even groups that tend to be known for their economic expertise, like the Heritage Foundation now have studies showing the conflicts between same-sex marriage and non-discrimination ordinances with Constitutional freedoms.)

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at Baptist Press: I work with a group of Christian attorneys in a full-time ministry devoted to defending religious freedom in America. We don’t lack for work. Strangely, in a country founded first and foremost on the principle of religious liberty, we find a growing hostility throughout the legal system and the culture at large toward people of faith.

Ray Clarke, Sr. at DailyAdvance.com: Fabricated” war ? No, I do not think so. These are not isolated cases. All you have to do is go see the website of the Alliance Defense Fund or the American Center for Law and Justice to see the well documented attacks — not just on Christmas but the very Judeo-Christian foundation of this nation.

News from The Associated Press: Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who has drawn little attention with his bid for the Republican nomination for president, is dropping his GOP campaign to run for the Libertarian Party nomination.

News from The Associated Press: “Batman” star Christian Bale should feel embarrassed for trying to visit a human rights activist while he was in China to promote a movie the country has submitted for an Oscar, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

LifeNews.com: The Planned Parenthood abortion business has botched the abortion done on a woman and her unborn child in Iowa that has resulted in sending the woman to a local hospital for medical attention.

News from The Associated Press: Washington, D.C., is growing faster than any state in the nation.

News from The Associated Press: The National Labor Relations Board has approved rules that could give labor unions a boost in organizing new members.

News from The Associated Press: British judges Wednesday gave the government four weeks to obtain the release of a Pakistani man held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan – a ruling that could make for prickly discussions between Britain and the U.S.

Jacob Sullum at Townhall: For 35 years, Ron Paul has been speaking truths that the foreign policy mavens of both parties prefer to ignore: that the Constitution gives Congress alone the power to declare war, that unjustified interventions breed resentment that undermines our security, that there is a difference between military spending and defense spending, that foreign aid rewards autocrats and their cronies and that economic sanctions are an “an act of war” that hurts people in the name of punishing the governments that oppress them. If there really is no room for these arguments in the Republican Party, that is the party’s fault, not Paul’s.

Education News: Hawaii’s Charter School Review Panel has “misinterpreted state law and minimized its role in the system’s accountability structure”, says an audit of the state’s charter school system, writes Katherine Poythress at Honolulu Civil Beat.

“She finally went over the head of the case worker, then over the head of a supervisor to the program director,” said Allen’s attorney Chris Branson. ” She was told in no uncertain terms that that was a bad move on her part and they were going to show her exactly what happens to people who make bad moves.”

HSLDA : Christer and Annie Johansson have won a small but hopeful victory in their quest to regain custody of their nine-year-old son Domenic who was taken from them over 2 years ago in a dramatic raid while the family was seated on an airliner departing the Nordic country. Ruby Harrold-Claesson, the couple’s attorney, reported to HSLDA that the Gotland District Court ruled in favor of the Johanssons, allowing them to retain their parental rights of Domenic . . . HSLDA continues to work with the Alliance Defense Fund and Harrold-Claesson at the European Court of Human Rights representing the family in their lawsuit against Sweden.

HSLDA: On Tuesday, December 13, the U.S. Senate’s Subcommittee on Children and Families held a hearing on S. 1877, a bill to require all adults to be mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. HSLDA believes that this bill will create a police-state reporting environment that will lead to baseless investigations of innocent families, and actually hurt at-risk children. HSLDA opposes S. 1877.

Washington Examiner: A coalition of groups have challenged the HHS rule in federal court. Kevin Theriot and Matthew S. Bowman of ADF argue in their suit that “no federal rule has defined being ‘religious’ as narrowly and discriminatorily as the [HHS] mandate appears to do, and no regulation has ever so directly proposed to violate plain statutory and constitutional religious freedoms.” | The article incorrectly mentions a lawsuit.  ADF submitted this letter to HHS on behalf of several organizations and colleges.

The Hill: Vander Plaats — who endorsed Rick Santorum on Tuesday — asked her to consider the vice presidential slot instead, according to a source close to the Bachmann campaign.

The Washington Post: As the first votes in the Republican presidential race approach, Rep. Ron Paul has become a serious force with the potential to upend the nomination fight and remain a factor throughout next year’s general-election campaign.

The Hill: While the large religious conservative voting bloc remains split between Santorum, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, many experts in the state say Santorum has more structure and momentum than the other two and could coalesce enough support to win the state.

Evansville Courier & Press: The Vanderburgh Commission voted Tuesday night to table an ordinance that broadens how county code recognizes people of sexual orientation, gender and disability.

We, being the representatives of the civil society and non-governmental organizations of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, taking part in the second hearing conducted in Saint-Petersburg on November 24th, 2011, addressing the influence of international political organizations on the condition and welfare of the family in our countries, have examined the current trends concerning family problems in the United Nations, and in particular some activities of the UN treaty monitoring bodies, including the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

George W. Dent, Perry v. Schwarzenegger: Is Traditional Marriage Unconstitutional?, 12 Engage (J. of Fed-Soc. Practice Groups) (Nov. 2011)

Religion Clause Blog: In Jankowski v. City of Duluth, (D MN, Dec. 20, 2011), a Minnesota federal district court granted a preliminary injunction to prevent city of Duluth police officers from interfering with activities of two street preachers at the Bentleyville Tour of Lights . . . An Alliance Defense Fund press release reports on the court’s decision.

Duluth News Tribune: Attorney Jonathan Scruggs of the Alliance Defense Fund represented Jankowski and Scott. “We’re thrilled with the ruling,” Scruggs said in a phone interview from Memphis, Tenn., on Tuesday. “We believe that the decision correctly applied First Amendment principles and returned free speech to Bayfront Festival Park.”

Bellingham Herald: The preachers’ attorney, Jonathan Scruggs, of Memphis, Tenn., had argued that the public retains its rights to free speech and freedom of religion while attending a public event on public property. But he acknowledged that the city and the Bentleyville group could alter the contract to try to get around Davis’ ruling. “We would then evaluate that,” said Scruggs, who works with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. “We take them as they come.”

Baptist Press: Jordan Lorence, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund organization that fought the city rule in court, said churches in other cities that meet in school buildings should not necessarily be concerned. New York City, he said, is the only city among the Top 50 U.S. school districts with such a law. “The Supreme Court has not repudiated its earlier decisions supporting the First Amendment rights of religious groups to meet in public buildings on the same terms as other community groups,” Lorence wrote in an analysis piece. “What the Supreme Court did Dec. 5 is decline to review the Bronx Household of Faith decision. Although this was very disappointing, the court’s action did not affirm the lower court ruling, or repudiate any of its earlier opinions supporting equal access for religious groups. Equal access is still the law of the land, according to the Supreme Court.”

Newsday (AP): Reached by phone, owner Phyllis Young declined to comment and referred questions to her attorney. Honolulu attorney Jim Hochberg said he is representing her on behalf of the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization of attorneys representing people whose religious freedom is infringed. He said he hadn’t yet seen the complaint.