Daily Archives: April 20, 2012

A Lexington T-shirt company cannot be forced to help promote a message it doesn’t agree with, according to a response filed by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys Thursday with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission.

Available for media interviews following oral arguments in Sherley v. Sebelius, a lawsuit challenging an Obama administration policy that authorized the National Institutes of Health to fund additional research projects that destroy human embryos even though a federal law known as the Dickey/Wicker Amendment specifically prohibits such funding.

Catholic Culture: Catholics in Turkey are seeking the return of 200 properties that were seized by the Turkish government.

Kelly Boggs at Baptist Press: While the bill was touted as seeking to deal with bullying in broad general terms, there are reasons that indicate the legislation was really about focusing only on gay students.

The National Law Journal: The longtime partnership between the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association to provide continuing legal education programs has ended.

Baptist Press: The number of babies born to unmarried couples who are living together in America has increased dramatically during the past decade, according to a new report by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Baptist Press: Practicing a religious belief in nearly one-third of the world’s countries is increasingly difficult due to government restrictions and public hostilities, according to new data from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Des Moines Register: Senate Democrats this afternoon narrowly rejected a Republican proposal that would prohibit poor Iowans from having a taxpayer-paid abortion in cases of rape or incest.

KAALtv.com: The Minnesota House has sent Gov. Mark Dayton a bill to require abortion facilities to pay license fees and undergo inspections.

Portland Press Herald: The trial lawyer from Cape Elizabeth wins strong support as his 1st Circuit nomination heads toward a final floor vote.

ACLU: Earlier this afternoon, following a screening of the documentary Bully at the White House, the Obama administration officially endorsed the Student Non-Discrimination Act. The Student Non-Discrimination Act would provide LGBT students.

Personhood USA at the Christian Newswire: “We are not surprised that there are a few Republicans such as Representative Doug Cox and House Speaker Steele, who wish to suppress life-affirming and pro-family legislation such as the Personhood Act,” commented Keith Mason, Personhood USA President. “However, it is surprising that these Republicans can be allowed to do everything in their power to kill a bill and then blame the entire Republican caucus. It is not too late – truly pro-life Oklahoma Representatives can still call for a vote and pass SB 1433.”

Christian Newswire: Liberty Temple Full Gospel Church of Bolingbrook, a predominantly African American congregation, last year won an emergency injunction motion after a federal lawsuit (still pending) was filed against the Village of Bolingbrook.

Telegraph: A rich businessman’s plans to build a 50ft-high Islamic tomb on his green belt land has enraged neighbours who say the domed mausoleum will be a blot on the landscape in their affluent village.

Christian Institute: School children in Cornwall are to be taught about paganism as part of their religious education classes for the first time.

AP: Nebraska will not surrender its supply of a controversial execution drug to the Food and Drug Administration because it believes the court order requiring it to do so is flawed.

Catholic Culture: Amid political turmoil in the west African nation of Mali, the nation’s bishops have expressed concern about the potential for the imposition of Sharia throughout the nation.

LifeNews: The Obama administration has hired the former top spokeswoman for the Planned Parenthood abortion business as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.

NECN: A clinic spokeswoman says the registration was revoked “under false allegations.” The clinic says in a statement that a doctor who resigned was not its OB/GYN staff consultant — which is what the clinic needs to remain operating.

Reuters: State Representative Randy Terrill, a conservative Republican, called the announcement of the bill’s failure “stunning” and complained the speaker “threw the caucus under the bus.” “There was no vote in the caucus,” he complained. Instead, there was a private “whip count” in which party floor leaders polled fellow Republicans on the matter, Terrill said.

FIFE Today: Two Catholic midwives who lost a legal bid challenging a health board’s decision that they were not entitled to refuse to delegate, supervise or support staff involved in abortion procedures have launched an appeal against the decision.

FoxNews: The Conservative Jewish seminary in Israel says it will allow gays and lesbians to become rabbis . . .

Washington Post: A growing tide of young Americans is drifting away from the religions of their childhood — and most of them are ending up in no religion at all.

San Diego Gay & Lesbian News: Mitt Romney’s campaign late Thursday announced that it has hired Richard Grenell, an out gay former George W. Bush administration official, to serve as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s “national security and foreign policy spokesman,” according to a report from The Washington Post that did not mention Grenell’s sexual orientation.

Ballot News: A proposed bill to allow same-sex marriage in the state of Illinois has been put on the back burner, supporters of the bill noting that the state has higher priority issues to deal with first.

William Brown at the De Moines Register: In Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark Cady’s April 16 guest opinion article and his March speech at the Drake University law school, he defends his “living constitution” version of constitutional interpretation over the “originalism” view that is gaining broader public acceptance in the wake of recent court decisions which many citizens view as activist. Justice Cady’s position is largely focused on defending his opinion in Varnum v. Brien, which legitimized same-sex marriage in Iowa.

BBC: Thanet District Council has become the first local authority in Kent to officially support the government’s proposals for same-sex marriage.

RIANOVOSTI: Thousands of priests are expected to arrive in Moscow on Sunday for a nationwide prayer in defense of the faith and desecrated sacred objects, Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida said.

Florida Times-Union: The board will discuss a proposed policy change on how non-school entities use campus property. It would require the groups to meet at least 30 minutes before or after school lets in or out and also asks for event organizers to provide the board with the names, addresses and birth dates of adult attendees 10 days before any gathering. Board Chairwoman Carol Studdard said that should make it possible for Green Cove Springs pastor Ron Baker to continue praying with students and parents at Clay schools. The board stopped that last fall, and that led to the ongoing public outcry and scrutiny.

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: That’s the People’s Rights Amendment . . .

Randy Barnett at the Volokh Conspiracy: Following the links to the blog posts by David Schraub, led me to his post Strict Scrutiny for All! in which he writes, “Judge Brown’s critique is basically the indictment of Carolene Products,” and that “Judge Brown['s] argument doesn’t support strict scrutiny for economic regulation — it supports strict scrutiny for every law Congress passes.” But that ain’t necessarily so.

ChilliCothe Gazette: Five months after the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio threatened legal action against Union-Scioto Local Schools for allegedly not doing enough to address anti-gay bullying, the two sides are said to be close to an agreement that would stave off a lawsuit.

Kelly McParland at the National Post: A U.S. fertility clinic that placed an advertisement for sex-selection services in a British Columbia newspaper is doing nothing that should be criticized by anyone supporting Canada’s free-for-all baby market. Since there is no law on abortion in this country, anything goes.

Reuters: Now that Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, the names of people he might appoint to the U.S. Supreme Court are starting to roll off the tongues of conservative activists, lawyers and former Republican administration aides.

AP: . . . new media guidelines that some say require public TV and radio stations to be more religious.

Jordan Lorence on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss this: New York Churches To March For Equal Access Sunday April 22. | MP3 audio 5:28 mins

Joel Oster at Speak Up Movement Church Blog: Some people have no shame. The situation involving the demand to remove the crosses at Camp Pendleton is just such a situation. About nine years ago, seven Marines erected two crosses in a remote part of the camp, on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Daniel J. Mitchell at Townhall: I offered my two cents on this issue, rhetorically asking why the Founding Fathers would have bothered listing enumerated powers if the interstate commerce clause was designed to be a blank check for politicians in Washington.

AP: Islamists and liberals turned out together in force for the protest to show the widespread anger . . .

Rasumussen Reports: Consider this: Four years ago, 80 percent of homeowners thought their home was worth more than they paid for it. That number fell to 62 percent last fall and 49 percent today . . . But while the soft economy was the trigger, most homeowners recognize that the underlying cause of the housing crisis was a corrupt relationship between the federal government, elected politicians and well-connected financiers. While the housing market was collapsing, the financiers were getting bailed out.

Here.

Gay People’s Chronicle: Viars and OCPM are represented by attorney David Langdon and his law partner JoshuaBolinger of Sharonville, Ohio, and James Campbell from the Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, Arizona. Langdon authored the 2004 amendment the new proposal would repeal. The Alliance Defense Fund fights against LGBT equality around the nation. On the complaint, Viarslists her address as the office of the anti-gay Citizens for Community Values in Sharonville, a Cincinnati suburb. CCV organized and funded the 2004 marriage ban campaign.

In order to retain recognition, the group was told it must eliminate the requirement that leaders have a “personal commitment to Jesus Christ.” The university dictated that the following sentence be substituted instead:

The Hill: Romney, who put tens of millions of his own money into the race in 2008, has yet to make any personal loans or donations to his efforts to win the GOP nomination and unseat President Obama in November.

Religion Clause Blog: MSNBC reported Wednesday that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has sent a letter (full text) to the Secretary of the Navy and Commandant of the Marine Corps objecting to a commanding officer’s decision last month to reinstate the name “Crusaders” as the label for Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 . . .

Christian Fighter Pilot provides some additional background on the controversy.

Religion Clause Blog: Americans United announced yesterday that it has filed a formal complaint (full text) with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Illinois . . . Bishop Daniel R. Jenky (later reprinted in The Catholic Post) in which Jenky compares President Obama’s attitude toward churches with those of Hitler and Stalin . . .

Religion Clause Blog: In Cowher v. Carson & Roberts, (NJ App., April 18, 2012), a New Jersey state appellate court held that a truck driver formerly employed by defendant site construction company had a cause of action under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination . . .

Religion Clause Blog: In London Christian Radio Ltd. v. Radio Advertising Clearance Centre, (EWHC, April 20, 2012), Britain’s High Court (Queen’s Bench Division) for England and Wales held that the ban on political advertising on radio broadcasts imposed by Communications Act 2003 (Secs. 319 and 321) does not infringe a Christian radio station’s free expression rights . . .

Video Transcript at VIMEO.

LifeSiteNews: In the wake of a new study that indicates that unborn girls are being targeted for abortion by certain immigrant groups in Canada, evidence has surfaced that sex selective in vitro fertilization (IVF) is being regularly advertised in Canadian news papers.

Baptist Press: No matter where a person stands on abortion, everyone should agree that Planned Parenthood has to play by the same rules as everyone else,” said Michael Tierney, a Manchester lawyer who is affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

CNBC: Romney formed a committee of lawyers in August 2011 to advise him on court nominations and on legal policy questions led by prominent conservatives such as Robert Bork, whose conservative views led Democrats to block his 1987 nomination to the court.