Daily Archives: January 28, 2013

Baptist Press on Townhall: Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) — a group representing several plaintiffs — says the issue is likely headed to the Supreme Court, and the outcome could affect religious freedoms for all Christians who believe their faith extends to every area of life: “The question becomes: Is Jesus Christ the Lord of all human life or not? And the federal government is saying He isn’t allowed to be.” For the owners of Christian companies embroiled in one of the country’s most important religious liberty issues of the new century, faith isn’t an activity the government can sequester to Sundays. “You have to practice what you preach,” says Paul Griesedieck. “And you have to live your belief seven days a week.”

Bangor Daily News: The church is represented by attorney Joel Oster from the Alliance Defending Freedom organization of Leawood, Kan. Oster said Monday that the church is pleased with the outcome but will need to do its due diligence to see if it can form the nonprofit charitable organization to allow for the land to be exempt.

Catholic Culture: Archbishop Crepaldi said that the protest was organized against him because of “the false and very grave accusation of being intolerant and racist.” He said that gay-rights activists are determined to gain approval for same-sex marriage, and toward that end will accuse all opponents of “homophobia.”

Herald Sun: A PERTH GP investigated after he led a group of doctors opposing gay marriage on health grounds has reportedly been cleared by the Medical Board.

LifeSiteNews: In a close vote, Poland’s lower house of parliament (Sejm) has rejected legislation to create same-sex civil partnerships. The Civil Platform bill, supported by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and brought forward by the ruling Civic Platform party, was rejected in the first sitting by 228 to 211.

NewAdvent: As behavior contrary to Christian morality becomes a civil right, Catholics in particular could soon become, quite literally, outlaws. Our current President recently announced that he will disobey a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by his own hand, which states that chaplains cannot be forced “to perform any rite, ritual or ceremony that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles or religious beliefs of the chaplain.”

Telegraph: THE centuries-old concept of adultery could be abolished in law as a result of the Government’s plans for gay marriage, lawyers and MPs said last night.

Washington Post: As you’ve heard, there’s been some pressure on the Obama administration to file a “friend of the court” brief from the Obama Justice Department declaring its view is that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. Obama has come out for gay marriage while claiming its legal status should be left to the states to decide. However, he has not said whether he believes Prop 8 crosses the line into unconstitutionality — a position that can coexist with believing the states should ultimately decide these questions.

ABC: An unpredictable new element has entered Egypt’s wave of political unrest: a mysterious group of masked young men called the Black Bloc who present themselves as the defenders of protesters opposed to the Islamist president’s rule.

Kent Reporter: A bill introduced on Monday (Jan. 21) by Sen. Don Benton (R-17th District, Vancouver), who spoke at the rally the following day, would require abortion providers to notify a parent or legal guardian 48 hours before performing such procedure on a minor. Senate Bill 5156, known as the Parental Notification of Abortion Act, allows exceptions for incest if a court order is obtained. The notification requirement is also waived if there is a medical emergency.

Daily Press: The contentious — the state’s Health Commissioner Karen Remley, a Norfolk pediatrician, resigned her post over them — new regulations, approved by the Virginia Board of Health in 2012, which apply new-hospital architectural requirements to clinics providing abortion services, enter a new public comment period Monday, Jan. 28. The regulations were posted in the Virginia Register of Regulations on Monday and the public comment period will continue through March 29.

Disabled children a threat? Fredericksburg thinks so

Christian Post: The Boy Scouts of America announced today, under pressure from questions raised by The Christian Post, that the organization is likely to allow professed homosexuals to become scout leaders and that a vote on the matter is scheduled at the group’s executive meeting in Irving, Texas, the first week of February . . . It boggles my mind to think the BSA would make such a move,” said an executive in the Southern Baptist Convention who asked not to be identified. “If they have counted the cost of this decision in terms of relationships and numbers, then I believe they have miscalculated that cost.”

Christian Post: For the first time ever, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled against the United Kingdom on a matter of religious liberty involving a Christian woman who worked for British Airways.

LifeSiteNews: The NAACP will host its 44th Image Awards Show to honor cultural and entertainment luminaries presenting the best face of black Americans. Leading black pro-life advocates will be on hand to protest the event, because the NAACP promotes abortion.

York Daily Record: The Pentagon’s decision to allow women to join combat units is expected to reopen a legal debate the Supreme Court settled in 1981: Should women have to register with the government so it knows where to find them …

Heritage Foundation: The third annual National School Choice Week is officially underway. Once again, school choice advocates—including parents, teachers, schoolchildren and administrators, and many others—will come together to promote educational choice, with more than 3,600 events taking place nationwide.

LifeSiteNews: Mississippi’s last abortion facility received notice on Friday that the state health department intends to revoke its license. If the clinic closes, that would make Mississippi the first state without a single abortion clinic.

Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson & Robert P. George at National Review: Here, we respond to some challenges that even those sympathetic to our views might raise: Why worry about same-sex marriage in particular? Why worry about marriage policy? If marriage policy does matter, why not “broaden the definition” of marriage to promote family values? How would recognizing same-sex relationships as marriages harm marriage? Isn’t ours a losing cause, or at best a secondary one? And why privilege anyone’s sectarian values at all — doesn’t that compromise freedom and equality? We address each of these questions in turn.

Charlie Savage at the NY Times: In certain respects, the current dispute is knottier and more abstract than Bush-era fights over the laws of war. But a common concern connects them: reciprocity, or the principle that a military should treat wartime prisoners the same as it wants adversaries to treat its soldiers.

Kansas City Star: The number of abortions performed in America has been on the decline for a generation. Yet in few states has the trend been more dramatic in recent years than in Kansas, a change driven by a series of laws limiting the procedure and by the violent death of the state’s most prominent abortion doctor in 2009.

Abstract. It is generally assumed that the Constitution requires the Senate to vote to
confirm the President’s nominees to principal federal offices. This Essay argues, to the contrary,
that when the President nominates an individual to a principal executive branch position, the
Senate’s failure to act on the nomination within a reasonable period of time can and should be
construed as providing the Senate’s tacit or implied advice and consent to the appointment. On
this understanding, although the Senate can always withhold its constitutionally required
consent by voting against a nominee, the Senate cannot withhold its consent indefinitely
through the expedient of failing to vote on the nominee one way or the other. Although this
proposal seems radical, and certainly would upset longstanding assumptions, the Essay argues
that this reading of the Appointments Clause would not contravene the constitutional text,
structure, or history. The Essay further argues that, at least under some circumstances, reading
the Constitution to construe Senate inaction as implied consent to an appointment would have
desirable consequences in light of deteriorating norms of Senate collegiality and of prompt action
on presidential nominations.

Wall Street Journal: The ditty struck a nerve—and brought down the house, a largely pinstriped crowd of 80 or so lawyers there for a musical refresher course on the virtues of civility. But it is no laughing matter to those who fret that a tide of rudeness has engulfed the legal profession.

Rasmussen: Most voters think women in the military should be able to fight in combat just like men do. But they still believe overwhelmingly that women need to pass the same physical tests as men if they’re in special forces like the Green Berets and Navy SEALs.

American Constitution Society: – The judicial nomination process remains deeply flawed with President Obama’s judicial nominees facing massive delays between nomination and confirmation, a new ACS Issue Brief reports. The Issue Brief, “Is Our Dysfunctional Process for Filling Judicial Vacancies an Insoluble Problem?,” compares the number of President Obama’s judicial confirmations with his predecessors and offers suggestions to change the process.

Casey Mattox at Townhall: There is a 43-year-old woman, born in Texas, who should be dead right now. In fact, she should have never been born. Forty years ago, the Supreme Court decided that the Texas law that prevented Jane Roe from ending the life of her unborn daughter was unconstitutional.

LA Times: GOP lawmakers in several battleground states have proposed a proportional method for awarding votes, rather than the current winner-take-all system. But some within the party object.

The Hill: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) will retire from the Senate at the end of 2014, the five-term senator said Saturday.

Sacramento Bee: Hanon McKendry is an integrated marketing communications firm that helps build brands that matter. Whether working with nonprofit organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom, Salvation Army, Focus on the Family and World Vision, or corporations like Rayovac Batteries, Furniture Row Shopping Centers, Wilsonart and Zondervan (a division of Harper/Collins), Hanon McKendry helps clients grow their impact and resources so they can do more good. Hanon McKendry is a Gravity Six Alliance partner.

Charlotte Observer: Rep. Jacqueline Schaffer, R – A newcomer from southeast Charlotte, she won her seat by winning the primary in her heavily Republican district and ran unopposed in the fall. A 31-year-old lawyer, she’s counsel to her family-run executive search firm. She has worked with conservative policy groups, including “Alliance Defending Freedom,” a group that advocates for religious liberty and traditional values.

On Top Magazine: The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has criticized a proposed civil unions bill in Colorado, saying it would violate religious freedoms. The ADF is the leading group representing clients who claim gay marriage laws violate their Christian beliefs. At a Senate committee hearing held last week, Kellie Fiedorek, litigation counsel with ADF, testified that . . .

AP: “The promise of his release was a lie,” said the pastor’s wife, Naghmeh. “With today’s development, I am devastated for my husband and my family. We must now pursue every effort, turn every rock, and not stop until Saeed is safely on American soil.”

AP: Egypt’s main opposition coalition on Monday rejected the Islamist president’s call for dialogue unless their conditions are met, a move that is likely to prolong the country’s latest political crisis as violence that has left more than 50 people dead continued for a fifth day.

Virginia inmate Ophelia Azriel De’lonta (born Michael A. Stokes) filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming that prison officials denied her adequate medical treatment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. Because we conclude that De’lonta’s complaint states a claim for relief that is plausible on its face, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

CNSNews: Forty years of legalized abortion have profoundly demoralized American society, not only weakening respect for human life but undermining marriage, parenthood and individuals’ sense of duty to others, said U.S. Cardinal J. Francis Stafford

Washington Post: The drastic $85 billion in automatic spending cuts Congress approved in hopes of heading off another deficit showdown may or may not occur, but federal agencies say the threat has been disrupting government for months as officials take costly and inefficient steps to prepare.

Paul Campos at Salon: The Supreme Court justice is paid thousands to “teach” in Europe — and his law students are footing the bill

NY Times: The Alliance Defending Freedom — like Becket, a conservative group — has brought a case on behalf of Hercules Industries, a company in Denver that makes sheet metal products. It was granted an injunction by a judge in Colorado who said the religious values of the family owners were infringed by the law. “Two-thirds of the cases have had injunctions against Obamacare, and most are headed to courts of appeals,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the alliance. “It is clear that a substantial number of these cases will vindicate religious freedom over Obamacare. But it seems likely that the Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the dispute.”

AP: The legal challenges over religious freedom and the birth control coverage requirement in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul appear to be moving toward the U.S. Supreme Court . . . “The circuits have split. You’re getting different, conflicting interpretations of law, so the line of cases will have to go to the Supreme Court, `’ said Carl Esbeck, a professor at the University of Missouri Law School who specializes in religious liberty issues.

Reuters: On separate occasions in recent days, lawyers on opposite sides of a Supreme Court fight over same-sex marriage took an elevator to the fifth floor of the Department of Justice, entered a large conference room and made a pitch to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and other top Obama administration lawyers.

Breitbart (video) carries the CBS segment: From Georgetown law professor Louis Michael Seidman: I’ve got a simple idea: Let’s give up on the Constitution. I know, it sounds radical, but it’s really not. Constitutional disobedience is as American as apple pie. For example, most of our greatest Presidents — Jefferson, Lincoln, Wilson, and both Roosevelts — had doubts about the Constitution, and many of them disobeyed it when it got in their way.

The Sun: HUNGRY parents in North Korea have been caught eating their CHILDREN to avoid starvation, according to reports

Denver Post: The testimony came from Kellie Fiedorek, litigation counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom at its Washington, D.C., office. The non-profit advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith. Fiedorek was the first of 15 witnesses to testify against Senate Bill 11, which grants same-sex couples in civil unions most but not all of the benefits, protections and responsibilities of couples in traditional marriages. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill on a party-line vote. Here are her prepared remarks . . .