Daily Archives: December 23, 2011

The ADF Alliance Alert will not be published the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Normal publication will resume Tuesday, January 3, 2012. Merry Christmas!

Huffington Post: A new analysis of the U.S. National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) has revealed some surprising shifts in the sexual activity of teenage girls over the past decade, including a significant spike among those who claim to have had same-sex contact

The Atlantic: In mid-December, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) released a little noticed report (PDF) discussing the issue of discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Salt Lake Tribune report.

Winnipeg Free Press: The B.C. government has several options to take last month’s B.C. Supreme Court ruling upholding Canada’s ban on polygamy to a higher court to give it more weight, even though one appeal deadline expires on Friday.

The Salt Lake Tribune: One man has sued his wife’s lover for $1.5 million in damages, claiming the extramarital affair ruined his life and caused his wife to run off with her lover to Idaho.

NationalJournal.com: “If Barack Obama and the Democrats are counting on issues like same-sex marriage to help them in the general, they’re delusional,” said Keith Appell, a GOP political consultant.

The Washington Post: The state Division of Gaming Enforcement ruled Friday that it would be OK to have a strip club inside the Taj Mahal Casino Resort. It would be Atlantic City’s first so-called “gentlemen’s club” inside a casino in the 33-year history of legalized gambling here.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has issued a press release indicating that they sent a letter of complaint to Alsip, Illinois regarding a cross on top of the water tower.

An Arizona federal court judge on Friday issued a temporary injunction to halt a new abortion law from going into effect on Jan. 1. The law restricts which groups Arizona taxpayers can donate to if they want to receive a tax credit.

Gallup: This means that 95% of all Americans who have a religious identity are Christians.

CBS 5 – KPHO: Sheriff Joe Arpaio had his first run-in with a group of suspected illegal immigrants since things heated up with the Department of Justice.

CNSnews.com: As Christians celebrate their savior’s birth on Sunday, they are being urged to remember persecuted fellow believers unable to enjoy the day with their families, including death row prisoners Asia Bibi of Pakistan and Youcef Nadarkhani of Iran, both of whom will be spending their third Christmas behind bars.

CNSnews.com: Despite long-term U.S. military occupations aimed at establishing representative governments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Christianity now faces the real threat of eradication in those countries because of severe and persistent persecution of Christians there, according to the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

LifeSiteNews.com: By 2013 prospective teachers in Ontario will be required to undergo focused training in “sexual orientation” and “gender diversity,” says a cabinet minister in Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government.

“A county judge should not have decided a girl could not have an abortion simply because the teen did not tell her mother she was pregnant, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday as it clarified how minors can obtain the procedures.”

Governor O’Malley’s Blog: Governor Martin O’Malley announced today the appointment of Robert N. (“Bob”) McDonald, the Chief Counsel of Opinions and Advice for the Office of the Attorney General, to the Court of Appeals, Maryland’s highest court.

Religion Clause: In Reaching Hearts International, Inc. v. Prince George’s County, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146495 (D MD, Dec. 21, 2011), a Maryland federal district court ordered Prince George’s County (MD) Council to reconsider its partial denial of a water and sewer service category change for a church building that a Seventh Day Adventist organization wished to construct.

Religion Clause: The Becket Fund announced this week the filing of a lawsuit by Colorado Christian University (CCU) challenging on free exercise, free expression and other grounds regulations issued under the Affordable Care Act that require health care plans to cover all FDA-approved contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures.

Religion Clause: The Department of Defense has agreed to change its Army Junior ROTC uniform policy to permit Cadets to request to wear religious head coverings, such as the Sikh turban or Muslim hijab.

Religion Clause: In Regina v. D.J.W., (B.C. Ct. App., Dec. 22, 2011), the British Columbia Court of Appeal held that a father who botched an attempt at home to perform a religious circumcision on his 4-year old son should have been convicted of assault with a weapon and aggravated assault instead of “criminal negligence causing bodily harm”.

Catholic Culture: Catholics in India’s troubled state of Orissa have been encouraged to celebrate Christmas “with prudence and vigilance,” and a local prelate has asked police for protection, because of new threats.

Education News: Because of the faltering economy and slowed tax revenue, the Clark County School District needs to cut $78 million from its budget over the next two years. The district must do this either by freezing teacher pay and finding a more affordable employee health insurance carrier, or by laying off 1,000 educators as early as next month.

A family court judge had no business ordering a man to grant his ex-wife a ritual Jewish divorce, known as a “get,” which he never agreed to, a state appeals court held Wednesday.

CNN.com: A couple of years ago, my daughter and I were playing the classic board game “Life,” and her little car reached the roadblock at which everybody — absolutely everybody — gets married.

NYTimes.com (12/14): As the year ends, much of the talk around women — at least in the United States — has moved from empowerment and global gender gaps to the trend of young single women out-earning men and the rise of female breadwinners.

USCatholic.org: Church organizations are unhappy with the stance taken by the U.S. government to tie foreign aid to the assurance of homosexual rights.

Catholic Culture: An unidentified buyer has purchased the internet address “vatican.xxx,” raising the possibility that a pornographic site could occupy that space on the web.

Detroit Free Press: Many government employers in Michigan will be barred from providing health care benefits to the domestic partners of public employees under legislation signed by Gov. Rick Snyder on Thursday.

Amandala: Church leaders, politicians, business people, supporting organizations, young civic leaders and citizens turned out by the hundreds on Saturday at Battlefield Park in the center of the city, in support of a rally spearheaded by the Christian organization, Belize Action, against the homosexual agenda of UNIBAM (United Belize Advocacy Movement) and its president, Caleb Orozco.

WorldNetDaily: “Depressed patients need understanding and sound medical treatment, not encouragement to kill themselves. State law reflects this, and no one should believe the recent falsehoods that pro-death proponents have spread about the law. The Hawaii attorney general has clearly concluded that state law does not permit doctor-prescribed death and that any physician who participates in it can be prosecuted,” said Honolulu attorney Jim Hochberg, one of nearly 2,100 ADF attorneys.

New Hampshire NEWS06: Right-to-Life’s attorney Michael J. Tierney of Wadleigh, Starr & Peters, PLLC in Manchester, said . . . The Colorado-based Alliance Defense Fund filed an official protest with the U.S. Department of Human Services . . . In the protest, the ADF attorneys wrote, “the grant by HHS was improper, irregular, unnecessary, in contravention of the authority of the Executive Council and its duly elected members, and in disregard for the sovereignty of the state of New Hampshire.”

WorldNetDaily: Michael Donnelly, director of international relations at Home School Legal Defense Association, says this decision offers a glimmer of light in the case. “I am hopeful that this is the beginning of the end to the horrific treatment these people have suffered at the hands of Swedish authorities over the past two and a half years,” he said. “The Johansson family have endured unspeakable tyranny over their decision to homeschool their child and then to attempt to leave Sweden. Sweden’s behavior in this case has been shocking.” His organization and representatives of the Alliance Defense Fund are pursuing a case over the custody battle before the European Court of Human Rights

LifeSiteNews: We are glad that the hospital finally agreed to obey the law and not force our clients to do any work on abortion cases in violation of their beliefs,” Matt Bowman, the attorney who handled the case for the Alliance Defense Fund, stated in an e-mail statement sent to LifeSiteNews.com. “The hospital agreed not to penalize our clients in any way because they choose to not help abortions according to their legal rights.”

Samantha Henry Salon (AP): “I’m still scared about the part of them having four nurses brought in and we might become the surpluses,” Racpan Vinoya said, referring to the hospital hiring four nurses who do not object to assisting with the procedure. Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian lawyers and organizations that represented the nurses, said they were satisfied with the agreement.

NJ Star Ledger: “The hospital has agreed that pro-life nurses do not have to assist abortion cases,” said Matt Bowman, an attorney with Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian nonprofit group.

Curt Levey at WSJ (via Google): Gingrich would arrest judges,” scream the headlines. You’d think he’d proposed some crazy, unconstitutional crackdown on federal judges. Instead, Newt Gingrich’s position paper, “Bringing the Courts Back Under the Constitution,” has a set of controversial but thoughtful proposals for reining in judicial activism.

Natalie Singer at Harvard Law Bulletin (Winter 2012): There are two things Paul Clement ’92 won’t do: Tell you where he stands on same-sex marriage, and grouse about the controversy that enveloped him last spring when he resigned from his law firm in order to continue defending U.S. House of Representatives Republicans in litigation over the Defense of Marriage Act.

Stefano Gennarini at C-Fami Friday Fax: A new UN report provides a window into the aspirations of LGBT rights advocates and sympathizers within the UN human rights machinery, aspirations that go well beyond mere tolerance.

LifeNews.com: “I’m still scared about the part of them having four nurses brought in and we might become the surpluses,” Racpan Vinoya said. Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, said he was pleased with the agreement. “Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist or train in services related to abortions. Federal and state law both prohibit this,” said Bowman. “These 12 nurses have encountered threats to their jobs at this hospital ever since a policy change required them to participate in the abortion cases regardless of their religious and moral objections. It is disturbing that the hospital is fighting to continue violating laws that clearly protect conscience rights.”

C-FAM Friday Fax: or decades, a basic tenet of the international population-control lobby has been that declining fertility rates will generate a more stable international order. But according to an impressive panel of scholars who have contributed to a new book, this scenario of “geriatric peace” is untenably optimistic. Population Decline and the Remaking of Great Power Politics is a collection of nine research essays . . .

Karen Sloan at the National Law Journal: But can you afford it? Probably not — unless you can count on earning three times your annual tuition, assuming you’re borrowing the money. That’s according to University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law Dean Jim Chen. In an academic paper, “A Degree of Practical Wisdom: The Ratio of Educational Debt to Income as a Basic Measurement of Law School Graduate’s Economic Viability,” Chen uses qualification for a home loan while paying off student debt as a measure of whether a legal education makes economic sense.

TheHill.com: Members were indignant this week after it was reported that the House manual on “franking” — taxpayer-funded mail from Congress — includes a long-standing prohibition on specific holiday greetings. Under the rule, lawmakers can only wish constituents a generic “happy holidays” in official correspondence.

As a result of a federal court hearing Thursday, a New Jersey hospital has agreed that it will not force nurses to assist with abortion cases.

Telegraph: A tax system that acknowledges marriage makes sense economically and morally, writes David Green.