Daily Archives: December 22, 2011

The Persecution Times: A Muslim villager in Kaduna state allegedly helped Fulani herdsmen and other Muslims from nearby Kafanchan to ambush a Christian settlement, resulting in the death of one woman and gunshot wounds to two other Christians on Dec. 10, area sources said.

LifeNews.com: A 21-year-old man has awaken from a coma just hours before doctors were ready to shut off life support and take his organs for donation purposes.

LaTimes.com: The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that plaintiffs who claimed that President Obama was not born in the United States and is therefore not eligible to hold the office have no standing to sue him.

“The state’s high court has determined that an unborn child qualifies as a minor child and, therefore, wrongful death lawsuits may be filed on behalf of those who die before birth.”

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Title Board voted Wednesday night allowing Personhood Colorado’s proposed personhood amendment to proceed.

Daily Mail Online: Callous raiders have shown little regard for the sacrosanct; striking churches in a Lancashire town in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Smashing stained glass windows for entry, the thieves have attacked eight churches near Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in the last few weeks.

The Charlotte Post : N.C. amendment could impact legal protections, benefits CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina’s “Marriage Amendment” could affect the health benefits and legal protections of all couples in the state, according to law professors at the University of North Carolina who say they are concerned about the proposal’s potential unintended consequences.
The amendment passed the General Assembly this fall and will appear on next May’s primary-election ballot.

The Hill: Twelve liberal House members are urging the Obama administration to rewrite the rules for foreign aid so it’s clear that information and counseling on abortion — and the procedure itself, in some cases — can be covered.

Judge James E. Wilson granted an injunction to stop a group called Personhood Nevada from going forward with its initiative petition, the so-called personhood amendment. Wilson said he expects his ruling to be appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Reuters: South Carolina cannot enforce several key areas of its new law aimed at curbing illegal immigration, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

The Christian Institute: A controversial attempt to allow homosexual couples in Northern Ireland to adopt children has been adjourned by the High Court until March.

George Neumayr at The American Spectator : Hillary Clinton was once seen as a radical busybody, clamoring for this or that absurd invented right, such as the right of children to sue their parents. Now she is seen as a safe establishment figure. But the truth is that she hasn’t changed. She is still a radical scold. Back in the days of the Clinton presidency she pushed the world to embrace an international right to abortion. These days her ambition is to impose upon all the nations of the earth “LGBT” rights.

NYTimes.com: Long before he announced his presidential run this year, Newt Gingrich had become the most prominent American politician to embrace an alarming premise: that Shariah, or Islamic law, poses a threat to the United States as grave as or graver than terrorism.

LifeNews.com: In case you missed it, the appeal that was filed in the federal embryonic stem cell lawsuit regarding taxpayer funding, Sherley and Deisher et al. v. Sebelius et al., is moving forward.

LifeSiteNews.com (video embedded): In an exclusive video interview with LifeSiteNews, Fr. Azevedo tells LifeSiteNews that Marxists have moved into the cultural sphere following the discrediting of their economic views, and are now seeking to subvert all of the institutions of society from within.

ADF Allied Attorney Jim Hochberg appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the suit in Hawaii that lesbians have filed against a bed and breakfast. | MP3 audio 33:53 mins

LifeNews.com: Sixty pro-life leaders and heads of faith-based organizations have signed off on a letter to President Barack Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius protesting the very narrow exemption to the health insurance contraceptives mandate.

Heritage Foundation: ADF’s request for review in Alpha Delta Chi v. Reed provides an important opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the rights religious organizations at public universities enjoy under the U.S. Constitution. At the same time, decision-makers throughout the country should reflect more deeply on why religious selection by religious organizations is socially beneficial conduct worth protecting, not unjust discrimination that should be banned.

BizJournal.com: Spurred by disgruntled law school graduates who can’t find work amid a tough legal job market, more law schools could face class action lawsuits in 2012, according to one Boston law firm.

TheEagle.com: The person who stole a baby Jesus figurine from a Nativity scene in Texas A&M’s All Faiths Chapel was probably playing a prank.

Toronoto.ctv.ca: A Toronto family that had pieces of its Christmas nativity scene stolen says they have received an outpouring of support and donation offers, but will rebuild the missing pieces themselves.

Boston Herald: Police in Fairhaven say whoever crashed their vehicle through a Nativity scene in a public space in town did it deliberately.

CBN: “I think this is a dark turn against religious liberty if the Bronx Household of Faith decision is being viewed as some sort of all-purpose permission slip from the courts to single out religious worship and exclude it from public buildings,” said Jordan Lorence, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund.

One News Now: Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit which led to the recognition of the Frontline Club of the Hicksville Union Free School District. Matt Sharp, an ADF litigation staff counsel, tells OneNewsNow about the situation. “This club has been for several years trying to get started, and it had been repeatedly denied by the principal,” Sharp explains. “In fact she had told them, ‘I don’t care if other schools have Christian clubs. I don’t want one at this school.’”

Tulsa World: The plaintiffs’ legal representation includes local counsel Richard D. White Jr. and attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund, which on its website describes itself as “a servant organization that provides the resources that will keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel through the legal defense of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family.” Matthew Sharp, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, said Wednesday that for the entire fall semester, Owasso Kids for Christ has been denied any opportunity to inform parents and students about its weekly before-school meetings . . . [more]

MPR News: Attorney Jonathan Scruggs with the Christian group Alliance Defense Fund says the judge upheld the plaintiffs’ main complaint. “And that is, the city cannot ban the First Amendment in a public park just because event officials don’t like the message that a person is sharing.”

Religion Clause: In New Delhi, India yesterday, a court issued an ex parte restraining order requiring 22 social networking websites to remove videos, text and photos with anti-religious or anti-social content that promote hatred or communal disharmony.

CTV Ottawa: Quebec will allow its correctional officers to wear hijabs — the traditional Muslim headscarf that does not cover the face. The government will also provide the item of clothing to those who want it.

Religion Clause Blog: Supermarkets have become ‘ashamed’ of selling Christmas cards with religious themes, Christian leaders said yesterday. They claimed a creeping ‘multicultural indoctrination’ had led to an aversion to Christianity, and that shops were worried about stocking cards that might offend other faiths.

Religion Clause Blog: In Schutte v. Department of Corrections, (CO Pers. Bd., Dec. 19, 2011), a Colorado State Personnel Board administrative law judge held . . .

Religion Clause Blog: CNN reports that in the Russian city of Tomsk, a court has  postponed until Dec. 28 its decision on an attempt by the prosecutor to ban the Bhagavad Gita as an extremist book that sows social discord.

Religion Clause Blog: Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that it has filed a petition for certiorari (full text) with the Supreme Court in Napa Classical Academy v. Goesling

Independent Voter: Linder says Paul being smeared because he is a threat to the establishment

NYTimes.com: And the Republican Party suddenly has a shot of picking up a United States Senate seat that has been in Democratic hands for more than 30 years, with the announcement by Linda Lingle, a Republican former governor, that she will seek the seat held by Senator Daniel K. Akaka, the retiring Democrat.

Middle East Forum: A recent Fox News report tells of how “a rash of attacks on Christian-owned businesses in northern Iraq has raised troubling questions about the future safety of the country’s shrinking Christian community, particularly as U.S. forces withdraw completely from the nation they’ve refereed since 2003.”

News from The Associated Press: Dozens of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail officers lined up at a news conference in Phoenix Wednesday to ceremoniously hand in their federal credentials a week after they were stripped of the ability to verify the immigration status of inmates.

News from The Associated Press: Mitt Romney is telling The Associated Press that he won’t agree to debate Newt Gingrich one on one.

Danny Hays at The Washington Post: Those ideas have been roundly criticized across the political spectrum, but the notion at the core of Gingrich’s criticism — that the court is an inherently political institution, not merely an objective arbiter of justice — is embraced by much of the public.

Idaho Press-Tribune: Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday that asks the court to weigh in on the now-defunct Nampa Classical Academy’s lawsuit against Idaho state officials for prohibiting the use of the Bible in the school’s curriculum.

Idaho Press-Tribune (AP): “If the commission’s misinterpretation of state law is allowed to stand, all Idaho public school and university students will be subject to the ban,” the Alliance Defense Fund said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Doctor-prescribed death is illegal under Hawaii law despite what a pro-death group has argued, according to a newly authored legal opinion issued by Hawaii Attorney General David Louie to Sen. Josh Green, M.D.