Daily Archives: February 17, 2012

Baltimore Sun: The House of Delegates is expected to be back in session at 4:30 p.m., when the final debate and vote is expected.

Baltimore Sun: As a handful of undecided Maryland delegates wrestle over their position on same-sex marriage, they’ve received calls from national leaders trying to move them one way or another on the bill.

The Irish Times: The legislation, to make abortion legal where there is a “real and substantial risk to the life” of the pregnant woman, will be introduced by Socialist Party TD Clare Daly in private members’ time and will be voted on in the House on April 19th.

Huffing Post.

Monreal Gazette: The federal government has tabled legislation to close a loophole that has called into question the legitimacy of thousands of gay marriages among foreigners who’ve come to Canada to wed.

Turtle Bay and Beyond – International Law, Policy, and Institutions: In a recent series of posts, we have shed some light on the strange fact that the European Commission is maintaining, at the expense of taxpayers, a fake “non-governmental organization” called ILGA-Europe, which, pretending to be a voice of civil society, seeks to promote the opinion that homosexual behaviour should be rewarded through legal privilege.

The Christian Institute: Bideford Town Council, the Devonshire Council which last week was banned from having prayers as part of its formal meetings, has voted to appeal the decision.

Christian Concern: An all-party parliamentary group of MPs has been formed to ensure that Religious Education continues to be taught as a priority in school following concerns over its exclusion from the Government’s list of “core” subjects contained in the new English Baccalaureate.

Christian Concern: Christians who want their historic freedom of conscience respected are equivalent to Muslims who want to impose sharia law, claimed the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The Volokh Conspiracy: As I’ve said before, the Supreme Court has never decided whether K-12 schools may remove books from school libraries based on their viewpoints, or may filter out Web sites based on their viewpoints . . . This makes yesterday’s Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, Inc. (PFLAG) v. Camdenton R-III School Dist. (C.D. Mo. Jan. 15, 2012) especially interesting . . .

First Things: What the debaters could have pointed to, of course, was the fact that the “right to privacy” interpretation (variously and ambiguously related to the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution), which has been used to support the right of couples to use contraceptives, was also an important ingredient in the 1973 decision protecting the right of a woman to abort her child.

WSJ.com: “The court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups,” said Jordan Lorence, the senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal coalition representing the lead plaintiff in the case, the Bronx Household of Faith.

LifeSiteNews.com: In what’s sure to come down as a devastating blow to parental freedom, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously rejected this morning the pleas of a Christian family to have their child exempted from the Quebec government’s mandatory ethics and religious culture course. | Christian Legal Fellowship press release here.

Catholic Culture: The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has shut down a Catholic television station.

Today, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision in S.L., et al. v. Commission scolaire des Chênes, et al., a case originating in Québec, dealing with the question of parental rights with respect to religious instruction.

Catholic Culture: The attackers dismantled the cross on top of the church and ransacked the premises.

Religion Clause: In Bendross v. Readon, (FL App., Feb. 15, 2012), a Florida appeals court held that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine does not apply to prevent a civil court from adjudicating a dispute over the make up of the a church’s board.

LifeNews.com: While most of the attention in the debate over the Obama mandate focuses on the divide between Obama, pro-abortion forces and pro-life and religious groups over conscience issues, insurance companies say they are concerned as well.

Connie Cass and Jennifer Agiesta write here.

Creators.com: My days as a political analyst at MSNBC have come to an end. After 10 enjoyable years, I am departing, after an incessant clamor from the left that to permit me continued access to the microphones of MSNBC would be an outrage against decency, and dangerous.

OneNewsNow.com: Another lawsuit is challenging the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. But a different approach is being taken this time, as a clause in the Massachusetts Constitution — not the federal Establishment Clause — is being cited.

OneNewsNow.com: A Rhode Island public school district committee has voted not to appeal a federal court decision ordering the removal of a prayer banner displayed in a high school auditorium.

CBS Seattle: “If we are allowed to deal with our eternity and all that we believe in spiritually, and if we’re allowed to read any book that we want under freedom of speech, why is it we can’t put into our body whatever we want?” Paul told more than 1,000 people at a rally in Vancouver, a suburb of Portland, Ore.

Findlaw: So it may come as a surprise that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a noted advocate of the women’s rights movement, wishes that Roe v. Wade hadn’t happened.

ADF Attorney Dave Cortman appeared on the Victoria Taft Show to discuss the ruling. | MP3 audio 7:05 mins

ADF Attorney Joe Infranco apeared on the Georgene Rice Show to discuss the ruling. | MP3 audio 9:40 mins

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence and NYC Councilman Fernando Cabrera appeared on the Jason Mattera Show to discuss the situation. This was recorded a week or two ago. | MP3 audio 21:20 mins

Liberty Counsel: Today the Alabama Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that a mother may pursue a wrongful death claim on behalf of her pre-viable unborn child. In the case of Hamilton v. Scott . . .

Steven Aden at Townhall: The bottom line: Planned Parenthood has no business telling employers what they can and can’t provide their employees in the way of healthcare coverage, but through this mandate they’re doing just that.

The New American: Looking past the 10-day temporary reprieve, the ADF’s Jordan Lorence said that the churches would continue to fight for their right to use the school space. “We’ll litigate this case as long as we have to,” he said, adding, “No other large school district in the country except for New York City has a policy like this.”

One News Now: As ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence puts it, “Churches help communities; evicting churches hurts communities. Empty buildings offer nothing to communities that need hope.” Lorence says “the court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups.”

Baptist Press: The Alliance Defense Fund sought the order earlier this month to stop the evictions. “Churches help communities; evicting churches hurts communities. Empty buildings offer nothing to communities that need hope,” said ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence, who argued before the court. “The court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups. ADF will continue to fight this battle relentlessly until the city no longer unconstitutionally prohibits activity for purely religious reasons.”

FRC: When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg trashed the Constitution on Egyptian TV this month, most Americans were horrified. President Obama must not have been one of them, because his latest judicial nominees seem to feel the document is as “deeply flawed” as he does. Case in point: Jesse Furman, the President’s nominee to the U.S. District Court in New York’s Southern District.

Christian Post: Matt Sharp, the ADF attorney who works at the ADF’s Public School Litigation Team, told The Christian Post that this case was about the rights students should have while in school. “We think this is an important case,” said Sharp, who also believed it was “important to stand by students” who “want to express their rights” on campus. [more . . . ]

LifeNews.com: A new poll released today by CNN indicates half of Americans oppose the new mandate pro-abortion President Barack Obama put in place that requires religious employers to pay for birth control or drugs that can cause abortions.

LifeNews.com: Every one of the 181 Catholic bishops in the United States have now issued individual comments, statements or opinion columns condemning the new mandate pro-abortion President Barack Obama put in place forcing religious employers to pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs.

USCCB: The U.S. Senate urgently needs to support legislation that would apply longstanding federal law on conscience protection to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), said the chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Politico: Assembly spokesman Tom Hester says the bill was delivered to Christie’s office by the Assembly clerk’s office Friday morning, a day after the chamber approved it 42-33. The Senate passed the gay marriage proposal on Monday.

The Weekly Standard: The Richmond Tea Party group is blasting the IRS for allegedly failing to grant tax exempt status to the pro-limited government organization.

Maggie Gallagher at Townhall: Why is gay marriage emerging as a big issue in the campaign? Obviously economic issues dominate this year, as they do every bad economic year. But thanks to President Obama, the culture war is heating up as well.

Tamary Snyder at WSJ.com: Judaism, Christianity and Islam have various prohibitions on charging interest—and various ways around them.

The Independent: End of controversial property tax breaks leaves the Pope facing €600m-a-year bill

ADF Update: Watch this important message from ADF President, CEO, and General Counsel Alan Sears about this amazing development in the 17-year battle for equal access—not only in New York City, but for churches across the nation.

An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney asked a federal court Thursday to order the Obama administration to produce records it was required to disclose more than 100 days ago in a lawsuit over its illegal funding of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defense Fund Chief Solicitor Gary McCaleb regarding today’s 6-3 Arizona House Judiciary Committee vote to pass HB 2625 (the “strike everything” amendment) out of committee: