Daily Archives: November 16, 2012

LifeNews: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman, who argued before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Nov. 9. Bowman told LifeNews: “The court has done the right thing in halting the mandate while our lawsuit moves forward. For the government to say that a Bible publisher is not religious is startling. It demonstrates how clearly the Obama administration is willing to disregard the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom to achieve certain political purposes.”

Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement Church Blog: The ongoing legal battle for equal access of churches to meet in New York City’s public schools returns to court Monday

Travis Barham at Speak Up Movement University Blog (video embedded): But our friends at FIRE recently unveiled a new way of illustrating the problems with speech codes—a video replete with whiteboard illustrations.

KTUL.com: Some civil rights groups say legal action is possible over a Ten Commandments monument installed Thursday on the Oklahoma state Capitol grounds.

Jill Stanek at LifeSiteNews: The GOP is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy on the life issue, squandering an American pro-life majority as if it didn’t/doesn’t exist.

Blog of the Legal Times: Justice Samuel Alito defended the 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission on Thursday night, jabbing at critics of the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority opinion but also admitting the success of their public relations campaign.

Ms. Magazine: A recent study conducted by UC San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) found that women who are denied an abortion in the United States are three times more likely to be under the federal poverty line. Of 956 women who sought abortion care, the study found that 65% of “turnaways” (women who were denied abortion care) were below the poverty line compared to 56% of women who had abortions. Two years after seeking an abortion, turnaways were three times more likely to be below the poverty level compared to women had abortions.

Catholic Culture: Australian editorial writers have stepped up the pressure on Church leaders to discard the confessional seal in cases of sexual abuse.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: Can a candidate who embraces the Catholic Church’s teachings on issues such as abortion and homosexuality serve as the European health commissioner? Do such views exist as one of many perspectives within a continent full of diverse opinions, or are they incompatible with “European values”? These proved to be the broader questions surrounding the November 13thhearing in the European Parliament evaluating the Maltese designate Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Tonio Borg.

LifeSiteNews: With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), she plans to expose at least 87,000 instances of fraud during her time as a clinic manager in Southeast Texas.

LifeSiteNews: The death of a young woman in Galway, reportedly from complications of a miscarriage, has abortion-promoters demonstrating in the streets of Dublin, demanding legislation to legalise abortion. Pro-life leaders in Ireland and abroad, however, have slammed the media and abortion campaigners for using the young woman’s tragic death despite the dearth of details about what actually happened. They have also pointed to clear evidence that pro-abortion groups knew about Savita’s case days before it hit the media, and that they were already planning on using the case to further their cause.

LifeSiteNews: A pro-family organization in Alberta is warning parents that an upcoming meeting of the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) will push for government mandated full time kindergarten, and will look at policies intended to combat so-called “homophobia, transphobia, and heterosexism” in schools.

A federal court Friday stopped enforcement of the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate against a Bible publisher represented by attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom.

LifeSiteNews: Research attorney suspended for nasty tweets about Phill Kline: Report The Associated Press is now reporting that the research attorney who tweeted nasty and disparaging comments about Phill Kline – Sarah Peterson Herr – was suspended Friday morning, pending …

LifeNews: We cannot know the all the details about her condition, treatment, and untimely death until the investigations are completed and the results made available to the public. What we do know is that the standard medical practice, in conformity with Irish law and medical ethics, requires that pregnant women receive all essential medical treatment during pregnancy – even if it won’t be possible for the baby to survive that treatment.

LifeNews: On Thursday, in a letter to the Third Court of Appeals, Planned Parenthood admitted that they have been charging women for services that should be free under the Women’s Health Program (WHP), which serves low-income Texan women. Providers enrolled in the program are reimbursed by the federal government.

The New American: With voters in four states handing their support to the legalization of same-sex marriage, homosexual activists in Illinois think it might be a good time to further the normalization of their lifestyle in the Land of Lincoln. Maine, Maryland, and Washington State all passed referendums in support of gay marriage, and voters in Minnesota defeated a ballot initiative for a state constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as only between a man and a woman.

AP: Adela Hernandez, a biologically male Cuban who has lived as a female since childhood, served two years in prison in the 1980s for “dangerousness” after her own family denounced her sexuality. This month she made history by becoming the first known transgender person to hold public office in Cuba . . .

Sacramento Bee: The newly elected, 113th Congress includes the first Buddhist to serve in the Senate, the first Hindu to serve in either chamber and the first member of Congress to describe her religion as “none,” according to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life of congressional data compiled primarily by CQ Roll Call.

The Republic: North Dakota’s House Republican majority leader says the Legislature may revisit whether the state should take part in running a new health insurance marketplace that is a key part of the new federal health care law.

Christian Institute: A judge has today ruled that bosses at a housing trust were wrong to demote a manager who said gay weddings in churches would be “an equality too far”. | Smith v. Trafford Housing Trust

Washington Post: Britain’s High Court ruled Friday that a Christian was unfairly demoted for posting his opposition to gay marriage on Facebook. Adrian Smith was stripped of his management position with the Trafford Housing Trust in northwest England and had his salary cut by 40 percent after posting that gay weddings in churches were “an equality too far.”

Atlanta J. Constitution: A study shows the number of abortions in Iowa hasn’t increased since doctors were allowed starting in 2008 to prescribe an abortion-inducing drug via a remote-controlled system to patients in rural areas, The Des Moines Register reported Friday.

Washington Blade: A Colorado congressman who’s set to become the most senior openly gay member of the U.S. House is pledging to take the lead on perhaps the most high-profile piece of pro-LGBT legislation: the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Omaha.com: The council voted 6-4 to add the bias protection. Nickerson had voted against the proposal, along with council members Chuck Haase and Scott Dugan and Council President Peg Gilbert.

Washington Post: Strong majorities of adults under age 30 support gay marriage and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and a majority supports legalizing small amounts of marijuana according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The fact that younger Americans are consistently more supportive of these measures than the oldest generation may signal change in the years to come. For those under age 30, about two thirds support gay marriage and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

NY Times: Mr. Obama’s more than three-to-one edge in exit polls among the 5 percent of voters who identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual was more than enough to give him the ultimate advantage, according to the study, by Gary J. Gates of the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law, in conjunction with Gallup

Catholic Culture: “The mother did say that Bishop Michael Hoeppner of the Diocese of Crookston informed her that if Lennon stood before the church and denounced his support of same-sex marriage claims, he could be confirmed,” the Fargo Forum added.

Daily Times: Thousands of government-linked religious groups met in Sudan on Thursday, under pressure from Arab Spring-inspired reformers who say the Islamic regime has drifted from its religious foundations. Reformers say corruption and other problems have left the vast African nation’s government Islamic in name only, and question how much longer President Omar al-Bashir should remain in office.

PatriotPost.us: Coming to the defense of these children and young people is the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF, formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), whose senior legal counsel David Hacker accurately noted, “Little girls should not be exposed to naked men, period. A college’s notions about ‘non-discrimination’ don’t change that.” Furthermore, in a letter to the college13, Hacker wrote, “Clearly, allowing a person who is biologically a man to undress and expose himself to young girls places those girls at risk for emotional distress and harm. Any reasonable person would view this as dangerous to the young girls involved.” Indeed! Unfortunately, Evergreen State College has subjugated reason to political correctness at the expense of innocent children.

Nick Vadala at The Philly Post: Headed up by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian group out of Arizona, the stunt essentially makes a mockery out of the IRS’s code enforcement. Most endorsements, unsurprisingly, go to Romney or Republicans generally, but that’s beside the point. Endorsement on either side is simply against the law . . . Erik Stanley of the ADF told the Washington Times that the FFRF’s lawsuit “borders on frivolous” and that it probably will go nowhere in court. There’s also very little chance that the FFRF will be able to prove they’ve been done damage by the IRS’s un-enforcement of the Johnson Amendment. But even if they could, as much as I hate to say it, he’s right about the lawsuit missing the mark . . . All I hear when pastors endorse Romney (or Obama, or Jill Stein, or whoever) is “charge us, we would like to contribute to the society that pays our way.” Let the ADF think they’re freedom fighters for the religious set; it’ll cost them eventually.

Rebecca Downs at Live Action News: Wednesday night, Students for Life of America’s group, Law Students for Life, and Harvard Right to Life held a debate, as part of the Law Students for Life tour. The debate was titled “Should Roe Survive Another 40 Years?” The event was broadcast live via USTREAM, and it is still up on the “Resources” section of the Law Students for Life website for those who are interested . . . Instead, the event first featured a presentation from Steve Aden, from Alliance Defending Freedom, followed by Professor Teresa Collett, of the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Now, I consider myself someone well-versed in the pro-life movement and the Roe v. Wade decision. However, there was much I learned from Aden’s carefully crafted presentation, which started off with the premise that Roe v. Wade is the single worst decision the Court has made and is a Supreme Court decision that the pro-choice side has never been able to get the other side to fully accept. The rest of his presentation involved the top-ten reasons to support his premise. The following portion of the article is my recounting of Aden’s reasons and explanations.

First Things: I don’t have any illusions about “earning” this award. Dante has a circle somewhere in The Inferno for people who believe their own good press. But I’m very glad to accept the Meese Award to serve the efforts of the Alliance Defending Freedom. The ADF does crucial work for religious liberty, and it’s never been more urgently needed than now. Ed Meese, Robert Bork, Chuck Colson, Robert George—all of these men whom the ADF has honored in the past are heroes to me. I’m grateful to be included in their company . . . The wind is the business of God. Success is the business of God. Our business is to fight the good fight. Philippians 4:6-7 says “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Again: Our business is to fight the good fight. The Alliance Defending Freedom is vitally important in that work. That’s really why I’m here today—not to be honored, but to honor the ADF, its leaders and its staff, and to ask all of you to continue your generous support for its service.

Tennessean: The preachers and their allies at Alliance Defending Freedom, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based Christian legal group, say the ban is unconstitutional. More than 1,000 preachers nationwide endorsed candidates in this year’s Pulpit Freedom Sunday, in hopes of prompting IRS investigations. So far the IRS has not responded. Now those preachers may have their day in court, with help from an unlikely source – the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

Charisma News: “No American should be forced to give up a constitutionally protected freedom, nor should any American be forced to give up his or her job to maintain that freedom,” said ADF Senior Counsel Austin R. Nimocks. “Religious freedom is paramount to every American, including those issuing marriage licenses. They can perform their job without violating their conscience.”

One News Now: The legal guardians, acting on the basis of their faith, were in Washoe County Family Court arguing in favor of the life of the unborn child for three weeks. Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Catherine Glenn Foster was pleased when the court finally decided this week in favor of life.

Telegraph: The future of faith schools was safeguarded today after a bid to block two new Catholic schools was dismissed by the High Court.

Tennessean.com: But attorney Matt Kairis argued on Thursday that this case is different. Kairis, representing the Diocese of Nashville, claimed that local nonprofits already have been injured by the mandate.

Stuart Benjamin at the Volokh Conspiracy: The most commonly used scores for ideological distance are DW-Nominate scores, based on representatives’ actual votes. These measures reduce various flavors of “liberal” and “conservative” to a single metric, but they are the scores most widely used and trusted by political scientists and political commentators because they measure virtually all the actual votes in a careful and rigorous way. As many people have noted, there used to be lots of ideological overlap between the parties, and lots of moderates in both parties, but there is less overlap, and in particular there are fewer moderate Republicans.

Josh Blackman’s Blog reports on the event.

Huhn, Wilson Ray, The Future Interpretation of the Constitution as a Result of the Reelection of President Barack Obama (November 13, 2012). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2174934

On November 6, 2012, Barack Obama was reelected President of the United States. What effect will this have on the future interpretation of the Constitution? This article identifies 19 areas of constitutional law that would likely change if one more liberal justice is appointed to the Supreme Court.

Religion Clause Blog: In BK v. Toumpas, (D NH, Nov. 14, 2012), a New Hampshire federal district court rejected a Hindu father’s claim for damages against state child welfare officials for placing his 3 minor children in temporary foster care with families that disrespected the children’s religious upbringing by serving them beef and taking them to Christian religious services.

Religion Clause Blog: On Saturday, President Obama leaves on a 4 day trip to Thailand, Burma and Cambodia. (USA Today).  On Wednesday, in advance of the trip, Katrina Lantos Swett, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote the President urging him to raise with Burma issues of religious freedom and ethnic and communal violence.

God Discussion Blog: For the past few years, religious right groups have been encouraging pastors to endorse candidates and political matters from the pulpit during “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” The effort has been spearheaded by the Christian advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly known as the Alliance Defense Fund) and actively promoted by groups such as Liberty Counsel. At least 1,500 pastors reportedly participated in “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” this year, on October 7.

Washington Times: “I think the lawsuit itself really borders on frivolous. I don’t know how the FFRF can claim they’ve been harmed by the IRS‘ refusal to enforce the Johnson Amendment,” Mr. Stanley said. “But, on the chance it does, then we will seek to protect those churches.”

AP: Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, who opposes abortion rights, testified during divorce proceedings that he and his former wife made a mutual decision for her to have two abortions, according to divorce transcripts released Thursday.

AP: An Oregon woman will be the first openly lesbian lawmaker to lead a state legislative chamber in the U.S.

AP: After two years of political battles and a Supreme Court case, many if not most states are expected to tell the federal government Friday if they’re willing carry out a key part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will be available for media interviews following his oral argument Monday in favor of a ruling that would allow churches and other faith groups to continue meeting for worship services in New York City public school buildings on weekends.

AP: A Greek prosecutor is pressing blasphemy charges over a troubled Athens performance of an American play that portrays Jesus as gay.

SCOTUS Blog: On Thursday, the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, by a vote of eight to seven, held that the 2006 voter-approved amendment to the Michigan constitution, which prohibited any use of race in the admissions process to any of Michigan’s public colleges and universities, was itself unconstitutional.  The court held that the amendment had impermissibly “reorder[ed] the political process in Michigan to place special burdens on minority interests.”

CBS New York: It was anything but a standard birth. Tara Tan, 42, the former manager of Manhattan’s swanky Meatpacking hotel, has filed a $10 million discrimination suit against The Standard.