Daily Archives: February 1, 2012

The ADF Alliance Alert Daily Email Digest will not be published on Thursday, Friday, and next Monday.  Normal publication will resume on Tuesday, February 7, 2012.

Baptist Press: When I was in New York City last weekend, I learned about a huge inconsistent way that the city’s public schools treat churches: Churches may not meet in public schools, but public schools can meet in churches.

Baptist Press: Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich finished in a virtual tie among evangelicals in Florida’s Republican primary, with each candidate claiming a small victory depending on which exit poll was used.

ChicagoTribune.com: Three graduates of John Marshall Law School in Chicago sued the university Wednesday over claims that it inflated its post-graduate employment information to attract students.

ABC News (includes video): or the first time ever, gay-rights advocates will launch a sassy advertising campaign aimed at football fans in the most macho of American venues — the Super Bowl.

Telegraph: Two senior judges ruled it would be “manifestly unjust” to stop them helping him prepare a legal challenge to the law on assisted suicide – even if doing so could assist his suicide, which would be illegal.

Lambda Legal: Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed a lower court ruling and remanded the case of Lambda Legal client, Richard Roe, back to district court. Roe applied to be a police officer with the Atlanta Police Department (APD), but was denied employment because of his HIV status. | Roe v. City of Atlanta

Palm Beach Post: After a heartfelt debate from both sides, the Florida Senate approved a measure authorizing student-led prayers at schools as long as adults are not involved.

New York Mag: It’s not exactly Darth Vader versus Obi-Wan Kenobi, but lawyers Jesse Strauss, David Anziska, and Frank Raimond have similarly completed the circle: Once, they were the learners; now, with a new series of lawsuits against fourteen law schools, they are threatening to take down their former masters.

BaltimoreSun.com: The House bill went in with 56 co-sponsors, including House Speaker Michael E. Busch, who rarely puts his name on legislation

ADF, allies seek new court order after city’s decision to replace one bad law with another

Seattle Times: Seattle-based Internet retailer Amazon.com said Wednesday it has joined other large Northwest companies to support legislation that would legalize gay marriage in Washington state.

LaTimes.com: An Iraq war veteran from Pasadena filed suit against the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday over its refusal to pay her full disability benefits because she is in a same-sex marriage.

Catholic News Agency (CNA): The “unique value” of Catholic education in Philadelphia is being threatened by a shortage of resources, and Pennsylvania Catholics should encourage their legislators to create vouchers to sustain them, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput says.

Asia News: The attack on the colleges of St. Joseph Anegal (40 km south of Bangalore) occurred on January 27. Reason for the assault, failure to display the Indian flag during celebrations for the national holiday.

Rosss Douthat at the NYTimes.com: But there are trade-offs as well, which liberal communitarians don’t always like to acknowledge. When government expands, it’s often at the expense of alternative expressions of community, alternative groups that seek to serve the common good.

Associated Baptist Press: “Our religious liberty is being similarly subverted and attacked,” Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said of the Obama administration’s inclusion of pregnancy in “preventive services” that health insurers must provide.

LifeSiteNews.com: Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s “ironclad” control over Conservative MPs is shutting down debate on public policy, a pro-life MP warned in a recent radio commentary.

LifeSiteNews.com: A report from Taiwanese health authorities says that a crackdown on illegal sex-selective abortions prevented the deaths of nearly 1,000 female unborn babies in 2011.

LifeSiteNews.com: s a formidable tide of Christian opposition began rising this week, including at least 115 U.S. bishops, the nation’s leading abortion lobby is leaping to defend the Obama administration order that will force religious institutions to provide free birth control next year.

Fox News: An Australian couple are seeking $10.6 million in damages from their IVF doctor because their son was born with a rare, genetic defect and will suffer a lifelong handicap.

LifeNews.com: In an email distributed by Human Events, a conservative publication, Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich takes the Obama administration to task of its new Obamacare mandate.

LifeNews.com: The Virginia state Senate has approved a bill, on a 21-18 margin, that allows women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before an abortion — something abortion facilities don’t always allow.

Washington Examiner: Gallup released their annual state-by-state presidential approval numbers yesterday, and the results should have 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue very worried

Scott W. Gaylord at NewsObserver.com: Since 1868, North Carolinians have elected the members of their judiciary, making our judges directly accountable to the people for these “political” decisions. The North Carolina Bar Association and other groups now seek to replace our system of elections with an appointment-based system, known in legal circles as the Missouri Plan.

Religion Clause: Q What about the constitutional right to freedom of religion?…
MR. CARNEY: I don’t believe there are any constitutional rights issues here, but I would refer you to others to discuss that. … I understand that there’s controversy … and we will continue to work with religious groups to discuss their concerns. But on the other side of this was the important need to provide access to women to the preventive services that they require….

Asia Times Online: Now we know that computers don’t help children learn and that drugs don’t help them concentrate, because the establishment mandarins who sold us the computers and drugs have conceded failure. In the January 29 New York Times, [1] a prominent professor of child development shows that attention-deficit-disorder drugs only harm the three million children who take them. One out of 10 American children have been diagnosed with so-called Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and most of them have been medicated. [2] Some months ago, the Times reported that test scores lagged in school districts that invested massively in digital education.

Seattle Times Newspaper: After her 10-year-old saw porn on a man’s computer screen at the Lake City library, a mom objected — to the library and to the media.

Religion Clause: Authorities in Gothenburg have formally notified the Namdars that they will be fined the equivalent of $2400 (US) per week if they do not enroll their children in a Swedish school by Feb. 1.

Freedom From Religion Foundation: FFRF has readied a legal complaint and plans to file it shortly in federal court in Montana. In an official memo released today by the US Forest Service, it announced it will reauthorize a special use permit for the Knights of Columbus to maintain a Jesus shrine in Flathead National Forest for the next decade.

News from The Associated Press: Lawmakers put Indiana on the verge of becoming the Rust Belt’s first right-to-work state, passing legislation Wednesday that prohibits labor contracts requiring workers to pay union representation fees.

MP3 audio 1 min.

ADF Attorney Jonathan Scruggs appeared on Across America with Gary Freeman. | MP3 audio 21:29 mins

Nicholas Jackson at The Atlantic: The key factor behind Komen’s decision, Aun told the Associated Press, is not ongoing protests of Planned Parenthood — the Alliance Defense Fund was quick to praise Komen “for seeing the contradiction between its lifesaving work and its relationship with an abortionist that has ended millions of lives” — but an audit launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, to determine whether public money had been spent on abortions over the last decade.

NY Daily News: In fact, if the city’s existing arguments against the churches weren’t dumb enough, Walcott just added another. He cited the involvement of a right-wing Arizona group fighting for equal access for churches — telling the Daily News that the Alliance Defense Fund is “not what we’re about as far as equal rights and equal opportunity.” Need we remind the schools chancellor that the mere fact that a conservative group defends a principle doesn’t mean that the principle isn’t worth defending?

JournalTimes.com: Anti-abortion groups, in contrast, welcomed the news. The Alliance Defense Fund praised Komen “for seeing the contradiction between its lifesaving work and its relationship with an abortionist that has ended millions of lives.”

Washington Blade – “America’s Leading Gay News Source”: Following McCoy was Maryland Baptist ministers Rev. Dr. John Lund, and Rev. Dr. Nate Thomas, as well as Presbyterian pastor Bob Borger, former mega-church pastor Joel Peebles — who recently lost a court battle over control over his Jericho City of Praise Ministry — as well as some Catholic voices such as Pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Father Eric Arnold, and Maryland Catholic Conference’s Mary Ellen Russell. The testimony was concluded by an attorney specializing in representing churches and ministers, Erika Cole, the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty’s Eric Baxter, and the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund’s Brian Raum.

The Washington Post: Brian W. Raum, senior counsel at the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, argued that protections should be extended to businesses, such as wedding planners, who do not believe in gay nuptials.

www.HometownAnnapolis.com – The Capital: The hearing attracted a few witnesses from out of state. Brian W. Raum, is senior counsel for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund. He said the bill fails to protect “religious-minded” individuals and businesses, such as wedding planners and venue halls. “Certain kinds of businesses are going to be negatively affected,” he said. “They may be people of deep faith who don’t want to participate.” After the hearing, Raum seemed perturbed when asked to explain why businesses should be free to discriminate against same-sex couples, while discrimination on racial or religious grounds is illegal. “If you don’t see the difference between race-based discrimination and a protection for marriage between a man and a woman, then I can’t help you on that,” he said.

Bill Berkowitz at The Huffington Post: Curious as to what this “Good News Club” was about, Stewart investigated and discovered that it was part of a nationwide effort sponsored by a conservative evangelical organization called the Child Evangelism Fellowship, a group aiming to “take back” America’s public schools. Backing this effort, she found, are three long-term Christian Right-founded and funded legal enterprises: the Alliance Defense Fund, the Liberty Counsel and the American Center for Law and Justice.

FIRE – The Moral Liberal: Under the new policies, which were put into place after pressure from the Alliance Defense Fund, students may still reserve the table in the free speech zone, but may also speak elsewhere on campus spontaneously and without prior approval. The college also eliminated a speech code that banned “offensive” or “derogatory” speech.

FRC: If Maryland’s same-sex “marriage” bill was controversial before, then the Governor’s wife just poured gasoline on the fire. In a speech last week, Catherine O’Malley certainly didn’t help her husband’s cause when she was caught on tape calling leaders “cowards” for supporting traditional marriage.

TheHill.com: With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Romney topped his nearest rival, Newt Gingrich, by 14 points, 46 percent to 32.

R.R. Reno at First Things First Thoughts Blog: We seem to be in a season of judicial sanity. As Jeremy Tedesco, the lawyer who argued the case reports, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision that vindicated the claims of Julea Ward.

USATODAY.com: The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the nation’s homeownership rate fell to 66% in the fourth quarter, continuing a seven-year drop from a fourth-quarter peak of 69.2% in 2004.