Daily Archives: March 29, 2012

Advocates for Faith and Freedom at the Christian Newswire: Yesterday, a trial court in Riverside County, California, heard arguments why the prosecution’s case should be dismissed in the case of People v. Brett Coronado. Advocates for Faith & Freedom are defending Pastor Brett Coronado and Mark Mackey on misdemeanor charges after they were arrested in front of a California DMV while Mr. Mackey was reading the Bible out loud.

Catholic Culture: Yet S.B. 1070 and related state immigration laws have provisions that could either criminalize this charity, criminalize those who provide or even permit it, or require the institutions that provide it to engage in costly (if not impossible) monitoring of the individuals they serve, and then to exclude from that charity all those whose presence Arizona and other states would criminalize.

Care: Lady Howe said, “My Bill will help parents protect their children from access pornography by requiring internet Service Providers and Mobile Phone Operators to block pornography at the network level unless the customer buying access to the internet or mobile network is 18 or over and asks them to remove the block through an opt-in mechanism.”

Christian Concern: An attempt to stop the issue of abortion being freely discussed at University College London (UCL) has failed after a coalition of students objected to what they considered to be a serious attack on free speech.

Christian Institute: An attempt to undermine the law against assisted suicide has been unanimously rejected by the House of Commons.

Blog of the Legal Times: Nominees Richard Taranto for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and Robin Rosenbaum for the Southern District of Florida were approved with a voice vote, and only one vote against each. The committee also voted 10-6 to approve Gershwin Drain for the Eastern District of Michigan . . .

Chicago Tribune: Russian lawmakers have submitted a bill that would impose fines for spreading gay “propaganda” among minors, setting up a tolerance test for the Kremlin-controlled parliament ahead of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as president.

C-Fam: The UN Commission on Population and Development is considering “sexual and reproductive health and rights” for children as young as ten.

C-Fam: In a surprising ruling, the Supreme Court of Argentina has declared abortion is a woman’s right in case of rape under international law.

LifeNews: Appearing on the radio talk show of conservative radio host Laura Ingraham today, former President Jimmy Carter said he believes the Democratic Party should moderate its position on abortion, which it currently supports without limits and funded at taxpayer expense.

LifeSiteNews: A federal judge has ruled that allowing government grants to Catholic-run programs against human trafficking amounts to an unconstitutional endorsement of the Catholic religion because the Church does not facilitate abortions for trafficking victims.

LifeSiteNews: But as Secular Pro-Life discovered after setting up an information table at the convention and mingling among the 25,000 participants of the Reason Rally the day before, for many atheists, the enthusiasm for diversity ends where the philosophical line on issues like abortion begins.

Students for Life of America, along with the Center for Bioethical Reform, is pleased to announce our Spring Training Conference in Glendale, Arizona, on Saturday, March 31. More information.

LifeNews: The Tennessee state House has approved legislation making it so abortion practitioners can’t abandon women after failed abortions by not having admitting privileges at a local hospital when botched abortions occur.

Life News: The latest Human Rights Report on China (2010) from the Department of State links the One Child Policy with high female suicide rates in China . . .

AP: The gender imbalance in Chinese newborns has improved for a third year but is still alarmingly high,

WPXI.com (includes video): “We’ve decided to take a hard line on this,” Batterson said. “We have legal counsel and we are not going to remove the Ten Commandments.”

AP: France has barred a group of Muslim clerics, including one of the most prominent voices in Sunni Islam . . .

AP: Exxon Mobil is no longer the world’s biggest publicly traded producer of oil.

AZ Republic: The Arizona Senate agree Thursday to hold a revote on House Bill 2625. No date has been set for the revote.

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: Texas Penal Code § 21.15(b)(1) makes it a crime to photograph someone “without the person’s consent” and “with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.” (A separate provision applies to photographing people in bathrooms or private dressing rooms.) InEx parte Nyabwa (Tex. Ct. App. Dec. 13, 2011), a Texas appellate court upheld the statute . . . Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to review the case [two judges would have taken the case one judge wrote in dissent] . . .

Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy: In all the hoopla over the individual mandate, most people (myself emphatically included) have not devoted enough attention to the other big Obamacare case before the Court: the 26 states’ challenge to to the part of the act requiring the states to massively expand Medicaid coverage (covering every non-elderly with an income up to 138% of the poverty line) or face the loss of all their federal Medicaid funds.

One News Now: A pro-family leader in Canada says a case in Ontario illustrates why the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper must take steps to rein in judicial activism.

One News Now: A Kentucky businessman is facing the wrath of a pro-homosexual group after rejecting a business transaction because of his Christian beliefs.

Tulsa World: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt determined that the wording on a personhood initiative petition did not comply with state laws. As a result, his office has rewritten it because it did not adequately explain the effects.

The ACU complaint and post is here.

Las Vegas Sun: Organizers of one of two competing anti-abortion petitions decided Tuesday to pull their initiative, hoping to present a united front behind the so-called personhood initiative being circulated for signatures now.

AP on WTXL.com: The case before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday centers on a lawsuit the ACLU filed against Dixie County, Fl

Christianity Today: Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) teamed up with pro-life groups such as Americans United for Life to argue that the act violates the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment. The ADF coalition argued that the individual mandate would inhibit religious freedom by “effectively forcing” individuals to pay for an abortion premium because they may be enrolled by their employers in plans that cover abortion. The ADF argued that others may be “forced to choose between insufficient plans that respect their conscience versus other plans that happen to require an abortion premium, but that may otherwise better meet their health needs or their choice of doctor network.”

Alan E. Sears at the Christian Post: Frequently, in the fights for life, marriage, and religious freedom, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, throw one’s hands up in the air, and wonder if the struggle is worth it. And this is especially so when it seems court decision after court decision is going the wrong way…for a time.

The Hill: The House on Thursday is poised to approve Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget measure, which would give Republicans a much-needed lift after months of intra-party squabbling.

Jess Bravin at Wall Street Journal (includes audio): Arguments Over Health-Care Law Veer Into a Challenge to Medicaid as Obama’s Signature Measure Faces a Rough Ride.

Findlaw: Thinking about going into law? You may want to hold onto your transcripts a bit because law school might be getting cheaper. For those of you already in law school, stop reading unless you like getting angry.

ADF Attorney Brian Raum at Townhall: For example, Catherine Bessant, global technology and operations executive at the Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, has appeared in a video opposing Amendment One and is on record saying, “Amendment One has the potential to have a disastrous effect on our ability to attract talent and keep talent in the state of North Carolina.”

News-Leader: The ACLU said the Camdenton R-III School District has agreed to stop blocking the sites, submit to monitoring for 18 months to confirm compliance and pay $125,000 in legal fees and costs.

Religion Clause Blog: Three new Commissioners have been appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom– filling 3 of the 5 vacancies created by Congress’ newly imposed term-limits on members.

Religion Clause Blog: The Pew Research Center last week released a new poll on public attitudes toward the mixing of religion and politics. The 19-page report

Religion Clause Blog: The Pew Research Center last week (March 22) released a ground-breaking report, Religion in Prisons– A 50-State Survey of Prison Chaplains. The 108-page report covers the background and role of prison chaplains

SCOTUS Blog.

Washington Free Beacon: A former Chinese security official, whose attempted defection to the United States was rejected by the Obama administration, officially requested asylum during his 10-hour stay at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, China, according to an official Chinese report.

NCPA Policy Digest: On Sunday, the United States gets a distinction no nation wants — the world’s highest corporate tax rate. Japan, which currently has the highest rate in the world — a 39.8 percent rate on business income between national and local taxes — cuts its rate to 36.8 percent as of April 1. The U.S. rate stands at 39.2 percent when both federal and state rates are included, says CNN Money

SCOTUS Blog: Unless a closing oration by a top government lawyer stirs some real sympathy for the poor, the new health care law’s broad expansion of the Medicaid program that serves the needy may be sacrificed to a historic expression of judicial sympathy for states’ rights.

Washington Times: Minutes earlier, the House also defeated Mr. Obama’s own budget, submitted last month, on a 414-0 vote arranged by Republicans to embarrass the president and officially shelve his plan.

Ken Klukowski at Breitbart Big Hollywood: If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare’s individual mandate (which is very likely after yesterday), will it also strike down President Obama’s entire 2,700-page law? The justices signaled they might do so during the third day of Supreme Court arguments.