Daily Archives: November 13, 2012

David Hacker at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Last month, the California Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights issued a report on Equal Educational Opportunity and Free Speech on Public College and University Campuses in California. The focus of the report was whether harassment policies at these institutions intrude too much on student free speech. As we’ve written about before on these pages, overbroad and vague harassment policies are major contributors to the national speech code problem. Alliance Defending Freedom has represented students who challenged these policies in California (multiple times), Washington, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.

Alan Sears at the Alliance Defending Freedom: The occupant of the White House isn’t the only thing that hasn’t changed in the last two weeks. Many friends of Alliance Defending Freedom have expressed grave concern about how our work will continue, in the wake of President Barak Obama’s re-election. Although this ministry is committed to being apolitical, there is no denying that this administration has been the most openly and aggressively hostile in American history to religious freedom, to preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and to the protection of life in the womb.

Mark Regnerus at National Review: This month yielded yet another published study — which received positive media attention — based on the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study. The NLLFS is about to enter its third decade of following the same 78 respondents, who were “planned” and born to lesbian mothers employing artificial reproductive technology; in nearly all the families studied, the children were being raised by their biological mother and her partner. While any sociologist worth his or her degree can appreciate the laborious task of keeping track of and reinterviewing the same group of people over many years, this particular data-collection effort probably ought to be retired. And yet it continues to appear in peer-reviewed journal articles in the health and social sciences. What exactly is the NLLFS and why do I say it should be retired?

WorldNetDaily: U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., calls a mysterious 4,000-vote swing late on Election Night “unconscionable” as he continues his fight to challenge his razor-thin apparent loss to Democrat Patrick Murphy.

LifeNews: hio lawmakers may vote on Wednesday on legislation that would cut funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.

LifeNews: Wouldn’t it be great if politicians and other public figures actually told us what they believe rather than talking out of both sides of their mouths? For example, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg actually did say what she believes about life-ending abortions in July 2009. Justice Ginsburg said: Frankly I had thought that, at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.

Christian Newswire: In the latest in a string of vandalism incidents to hit Christian holy sites in Israel this year, Calvary Baptist Church was defaced yesterday.

Baptist Press: The survey by the Polling Company shows that 60 percent of voters in this year’s election agreed that “marriage is between one man and one woman.” Fifty-one percent agreed strongly. All total, 34 percent disagreed with the statement.

CharismaNews.com: The American Center for Law and Justice recently assisted a church in gaining equal access at a public school to distribute materials related to release time religious and moral instruction

MLIVE.com: Roane and Thacker, both of whom are gay, are co-chairs of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender/Alternative Family Committee of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. The group’s primary target is the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which they say throws a wrench into one state’s ability to honor gay marriage vows that were made in another state or country.

STLToday: A new group in Missouri could soon start circulating petitions for a ballot measure that would make it illegal to discriminate against gays and lesbians in Missouri.

ChannelsTV.com: The bill, which passed without a dissenting voice, had previously been passed by the senate. Speaking on the bill, lawmakers said the notion of same sex marriage is an alien culture that must be preventing from taking root in Nigeria.

Deseret News: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Davis School District, contesting the district’s decision last spring to remove a book from elementary library shelves that depicted a family with same-sex parents

Wisc. State Journal: Clark had intended to participate in “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” a national effort by Alliance Defending Freedom to trigger a legal challenge to an IRS law that bars tax-exempt entities from endorsing political candidates.

KHOU.com (includes video): A bill submitted by State Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) would create new crackdowns on abortion-inducing drugs, including requiring patients and doctors to sign a detailed contract. A bill similar to Patrick’s SB 97 failed to pass the legislature last session. State Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth) filed HB 58, which would alter current law to remove language banning “entities that perform or promote elective abortions or affiliate with entities that perform or promote elective abortions” from participating in state programs which provide women’s health care, a change that would ostensibly allow Planned Parenthood to resume legal participation in the Women’s Health Program.

San Francisco Chronicle: The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal over a South Carolina program that allows high school students to earn elective credit toward graduation through off-campus religious courses. The high court on Tuesday denied the appeal from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

LifeSiteNews: A consortium of homosexualist, secular humanist and abortion groups are campaigning against the appointment of the Maltese Dr. Tonio Borg as the new EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner. The objection, they say, is nothing more than that Dr. Borg is a Catholic, with “staunchly conservative and outdated” views on homosexuality, divorce and abortion.

LifeSiteNews: End this pregnancy and tie her tubes.’ That was the stark advice given by a a court-summoned doctor in a possible forced abortion case involving a mentally handicapped woman in Nevada, according to a transcript of a Nov. 1 hearing obtained by LifeSiteNews.

It’s one thing for a Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like Philadelphia, but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions in the city, Mitt Romney received not one vote. Zero. Zilch.

AP: A top Roman Catholic bishop says the church will never comply with the Obama administration mandate to provide birth control coverage in health insurance.

PolicyMic: To date, citizens of 18 states have petitioned the White House for consideration of a peaceful withdrawal from the United States. That’s right, thousands of Americans have already signed petitions at whitehouse.gov asking President Obama to allow them to peacefully secede from the union.

AZFamily.com: Thousands of Arizonans have signed a petition calling for the state to secede from the Union. The petition, filed online through the White House’s petition page, shows that Arizona, along with several other states, is calling for secession to leave the United States and start its own new government.

Daily Journal: A sharply split New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a parental rights law that a couple claimed discriminates against infertile women. New Jersey law holds that an infertile man whose wife is artificially inseminated with his permission is the baby’s father. But it doesn’t give parental rights to an infertile woman whose husband’s sperm is used to impregnate another woman, even if the wife gives permission. | In the Matter of the Parentage of a Child by T.J.S. and A.L.S., h/w (A-130-10) (067805)

CJOnline.com: Kline has strongly disputed the allegations against him and called the complaint politically motivated. “I upheld my duty, upheld my oath of office and the integrity of my profession,” Kline said. “I will continue to speak and stand for the truth and for those who cannot speak for themselves. My ‘mistake’ was my willingness to investigate politically powerful people and to let that investigation go where the evidence led.”

AP: A potential showdown vote to limit Senate filibusters would not come until January. Democrats are threatening to resort to a seldom-used procedure that could let them change the rules without GOP support, all but inviting Republican retaliation.

Robert Barnes at the Washington Post: Just before Tuesday’s elections, a national gay-rights group sent its supporters in Maryland an e-mail listing an additional reason to go to the polls to approve same-sex marriage. “Justice Anthony Kennedy is watching you,” the subject line said.

The Press-Enterprise: During the ceremony, Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the Texas-based Liberty Institute, which focuses on religious-freedom cases and was involved in the Mojave cross case, talked of the indignities that crosses on the site have been through. “This memorial has been bagged, it’s been torn down and it’s been stolen,” he said. “And now it’s back, it’s up and you’re standing on VFW property,” Sasser said to loud cheers and clapping. “It’s fantastic.”

Cass Sunstein at Bloomberg: When politicians defer to “universal feeling,” they are often self-interested. Knowing that their electoral lives are on the line, they choose to live. Other politicians defer out of humility. Lacking confidence in their own views, they follow the judgments of their constituents. But in this context, Lincoln was being neither self-interested nor humble. Instead he was emphasizing democratic constraints on the achievement of clear moral imperatives. As he went on to say: “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.”

The Hill: On Friday morning, Louisiana Rep. John Fleming (R) issued a statement urging Boehner to “talk with House Republicans before making pledges on the national news.”

The Hill: Limbaugh played “Feliz Navidad” on his show Friday and argued Hispanics are moving to Democrats not because of immigration but because of the party’s positions on taxes and welfare. Allowing those in the United States illegally to stay wouldn’t help the party, he argued.

NY Times: They are also preparing for what they hope will be another milestone: the electoral reversal of a constitutional amendment defining marriage . . . campaigners see the potential for legislative gains in Delaware; Hawaii; Illinois; Rhode Island; Minnesota, where they beat back a restrictive amendment last Tuesday; and New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in February . . .

Charles Pope at the Archdiocese of Washington: It is rare that a respected segment of American life would become vilified and hated overnight. The usual transformation from respect to vilification goes in stages which grow in intensity. And hereby the Church, once a respected aspect of American life, along with the Protestant denominations has become increasingly marginalized and hated by many. It may help us to review these stages of persecution since it would seem that things are going to get more difficult for the Church in the years ahead. Generally there are distinguished five basic stages of persecution.

ABC: The petition to “Peacefully grant the State of Texas to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government,” was submitted on Friday of last week. Just three days later, it zoomed past the 25,000 mark at 3:22 p.m. today and kept going.

The HIll: Democrats have had only a one-seat majority on those committees in the 112th Congress, where they have a 53-47 seat advantage.

Washington Times: Last month, Scott Lautenbaugh, an Omaha attorney and Nebraska state senator, filed a lawsuit against the Nebraska State Bar Association in federal district court in Omaha. Days later, Mr. Lautenbaugh sought a preliminary injunction and to certify his case as a class action. Mr. Lautenbaugh is an outspoken opponent of the bar’s use of member dues for political and ideological purposes. In fact, he filed a petition with the Nebraska Supreme Court asking that it “de-integrate the bar,” that is, make membership in the bar voluntary.

Kansas.com: Voters in Salina and Hutchinson rejected ordinances offering legal protection from discrimination to members of the gay community.

NY Times: Christian conservatives, for more than two decades a pivotal force in American politics, are grappling with Election Day results that repudiated their influence and suggested that the cultural tide — especially on gay issues — has shifted against them.

Advocate: Kyrsten Sinema has officially been elected as the nation’s first openly bisexual congresswoman, the Associated Press reports.

Rapid City Journal: The Center for Religious Expression, a Memphis, Tenn., based nonprofit, filed the lawsuit on Gavin’s behalf. The lawsuit names Acting President Duane Hrncir, Vice President of Student Affairs Patricia Mahon and Surbeck Center Director Stephanie Lindsley as defendants. The center’s chief counsel, Nate Kellum, said Gavin is not selling phones or credit cards and that being confined to a table infringes on his rights. “It is not conducive to his type of speech,” Kellum said. “They are classifying his speech as commercial speech, and it is not.”

Religion Clause Blog: West Virginia is one of two states that have no religious exemption from requirements that students obtain immunizations before they can attend school.  AP reports that on Thursday, a West Virginia trial court continued a previously issued injunction requiring the Randolph County Board of Education to provide home instruction to high school senior Olivia Hudok who refuses immunizations for religious reasons.

Religion Clause Blog: As previously reported, last Friday Islamists in Egypt held a demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square demanding that the assembly drafting the country’s constitution include language giving more deference to Islamic law.

Religion Clause Blog: In Pocono Mountain Charter School v. Pocono Mountain School District, (MD PA, Nov. 8, 2012), a publicly funded charter school, along with students and parents, claimed that a Pennsylvania school district imposed harsher conditions on the school out of racial and religious animus

NY Times: On the Friday after Tunisia’s president fell, Mohamed al-Khelif mounted the pulpit of this city’s historic Grand Mosque to deliver a full-throttle attack on the country’s corrupt culture, to condemn its close ties with the West and to demand that a new constitution implement Shariah, or Islamic law.

Religion Clause Blog: In United States v. Martines, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160719 (D HI, Nov. 8, 2012), defendant, who was charged with conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute over 100 marijuana plants, sought a continuance in order to secure the testimony of an expert on the Rastafarian religion.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter to President Obama asking him to reject the way this country politicizes religion.

LifeNews: A top legislative staffer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says the nation’s Catholic leaders will push again for Congress to approve conscience exemptions for the Obama HHS-Abortion mandate in Obamacare.

The Hill: Gay-rights advocates plan to push President Obama to go big on their agenda in his second term.

The Hill: A new attorney general will face a thorough grilling from conservative senators on highly sensitive issues like the decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, attempts to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, moves to block the implementation of state voter ID laws and the department’s refusal to give Congress thousands of documents relating to a failed gun-tracking operation.

One News Now: Government officials in Ireland say a constitutional amendment which would give greater state control over children is set to be approved with an approximately 60 percent “yes” votes.

Ken Klukowski at Breitbart: It’s enough to make your head spin with the implications. What would a “divorce” look like? Can you divorce one partner but not others? What about child custody? For that matter, how many of the adults in the marriage have parental rights over the children? So we’re in a brave new world when it comes to the very definition of what we call a family. It will be interesting to see if all of these other proposed family units make Americans rethink whether we want to redefine the institution of marriage at all.

LifeNews: The state medical board in New Mexico is putting together a hearing to potentially discipline abortion practitioner Shelley Sella, who botched an abortion at 35 weeks of pregnancy that landed the woman in the hospital with a ruptured uterus.

Ken Klukowski at Breitbart: Unless they’ve been living under a rock, most Americans have heard that the Supreme Court decided a constitutional challenge to Obamacare’s infamous Individual Mandate in NFIB v. Sebelius. Plenty of Americans are unaware, however, that out of over 30 cases challenging the Mandate, NFIB was only one of five challenges that were considered serious and credible. Another one of those major cases was Liberty University v. Geithner, argued by the university’s law school dean Mat Staver, who is also chairman of Liberty Counsel, a public-interest law firm.

KBOI2.com carries this video and report.

LifeNews: The new Catholic bishop in Lincoln, Nebraska says the Catholic Church will openly defy the Obama-HHS mandate that compels religious groups and businesses to pay for drugs that may cause abortions.

Findlaw: A list of which law firms pay the highest starting salaries may seem strange in today’s economy.

Jurist: Voters in Ireland on Saturday approved a constitutional amendment [text] on children’s rights that changes existing wording in the constitution to make certain rights more explicit.

Alan Sears appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show. | MP3 audio 8:26 mins

David Hacker appeared on 570 KVI with John Carlson to discuss the situation at Evergreen College in Washington State. | MP3 audio 10:52 mins

American Thinker: For example, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg actually did say what she believes about life-ending abortions in July 2009. Justice Ginsburg said: Frankly I had thought that, at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.

One News Now: “The government went so far as to say that even if this were the church itself, it would lose its free exercise of religion claim,” he tells OneNewsNow. “This is a government that says that it can pick and choose what religion is, who can exercise religion and where they can exercise it, and can basically say that nobody can do it except in maybe in the four walls of your church — maybe not even then.”

AP: The philanthropic arm of shipping giant UPS said it will no longer give money to the Boy Scouts of America as long as the group discriminates against gays . . .

AP: Prosecutors are trying to get God off of Brazilian banknotes.

Bickers, John M., Standing on Holy Ground: How Rethinking Justiciability Might Bring Peace to the Establishment Clause (February 28, 2012). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2012756 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2012756