Category Archives: Featured

LifeNews: Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA), offers this pithy saying as her favorite quote. In order to figure out who the Girl Scouts are, I suppose we must follow Ms. Chávez’ logic and look at the organizations that GSUSA associates with.

The Hill: House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) slammed White House spokesman Jay Carney as a “paid liar” Sunday over the administration’s handling of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal.

“The ongoing, robust debate about marriage continues. Today Illinois’ elected officials represented the position of the people of Illinois that marriage–the union of husband and wife–is timeless, universal, and special, particularly because children need a mother and a father. That’s why 37 states affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman, just as diverse cultures and faiths have throughout history.”

A legal effort Alliance Defending Freedom launched last year to change unconstitutional policies at America’s public universities and colleges has resulted in policy changes at 30 universities across the country, according to the most recent data compiled this week.

KIOS 91.5 FM: The clock is ticking for those who hope Illinois will become the 13th state to legalize same-sex marriage. The Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn its spring session Friday night, and the marriage equality bill still has not been called for a vote in the state House, where supporters are struggling to round up the 60 votes necessary to pass it.

Robert Gilligan of the Ill. Catholic Conference at the Chicago Tribune: If such support is “barreling ahead,” why hasn’t the House passed Senate Bill 10 by now, three-and-a-half months after Senate passage on Feb. 14? Because millions of Illinois residents oppose redefining an institution that underscores the foundation of our society, and have made that opposition known to their state representatives.

State-Journal Register: Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, the bill’s sponsor, has told supporters he intends to call the controversial legislation for a vote before the scheduled spring session ends Friday.

CNN provides a timeline and summary of legal enactments in various states and countries.

Baptist Press: Less than a week after the Boy Scouts changed its policy to allow gay-identifying youth, the California Senate passed a law that would revoke the organization’s tax-exempt status if it doesn’t also allow gay leaders.

Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently held hearings on and took comments about religious freedom in the U.S. What made it a commission priority? How is religious freedom a civil-rights issue today? . . . There were also many groups and institutions that submitted comments, including the Becket Fund, the American Center for Law and Justice, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Cru (perhaps better known as Campus Crusade for Christ), Alliance Defending Freedom, the Heritage Foundation, the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, the Bioethics Defense Fund, Belmont Abbey College, Franciscan University of Steubenville, the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, and Kairos

The Hill: Attorney General Eric Holder is under pressure from House Republicans to give a German family asylum so its children can be homeschooled in the United States and be taught “Christian values.”

LifeSiteNews: “Forcing them to surrender their faith in order to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. The administration’s attacks on faith and business prove that it doesn’t respect either one,” explains Mike Wilkins, an allied attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the Grote family.

David Sterrett at Washington Post: Why is it that some people of faith are in favor of abortion rights, while other people of faith are against them? . . . During the hearing of HR1797, Dr. Anthony Levatino, who claims to have completed 1,200 abortions before leaving the industry, testified in support of the legislation. Levatino, who has served on the faculty at the Albany Medical College, described performing a second trimester D&E abortion. He testified . . .

An Alliance Defending Freedom opinion letter sent to a House committee Wednesday outlines serious constitutional problems with a proposed bill that would require the Federal Trade Commission to regulate the speech of pro-life pregnancy resource centers.

David Cortman of the Alliance Defending Freedom and John O’Connor of Equality California appeared on Voice of Russia’s Due Diligence with Carmen Russell-Sluchansky | MP3 audio 17:19 mins

Jonathan Turley at Washington Post: The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.

U.S. News and World Report: Originally administered in the immediate aftermath of World War II, The American Soldier studies were conducted by the Army’s Information and Education Division. An upcoming analysis of that data, to be published in the Journal of Religion and Health, finds when soldiers reported that battles became “more frightening,” as many as 72 percent of them turned to prayer as their primary source of motivation. When battles were less frightening, just 42 percent of soldiers regularly prayed for motivation.

Wall Street Journal: The IRS has admitted targeting groups that wanted to speak on issues during the 2012 election season. But did the agency also target tax-exempt groups that opposed Administration policy priorities?

Army Times: Making a sex tape is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military’s highest court has ruled. While it is perfectly legal for civilians to make videos of themselves having sex, service members are prohibited from doing so because it is “both prejudicial to good order and discipline and service discrediting.” The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled . . . | U.S. v. Goings

The Independent: Earlier about 400,000 people, including many children, had defied warnings of possible far-right violence and marched in peaceful protest against France’s newly enacted law permitting same-sex marriage.

Joel Alicia at Washington Times: f our elite law schools are to serve their students and the country well, they must actively seek out the best minds representing all points of view. That does not imply giving conservative candidates preferential treatment when making hiring decisions; all candidates must be held to the same academic standards. It does mean, though, that law schools should be eager to hire scholars who represent perspectives that are absent from their faculties. Law school campuses would have a richer and more vibrant intellectual life as a result, and the country would be the primary beneficiary.

Religion Clause Blog: In New Zealand today, the organization Family First announced that it is filing an appeal with the High Court challenging the decision of New Zealand’s  Charities Registration Board to deregister the organization as a charity.

Daily Mail: Firefighters in eastern China have rescued an abandoned newborn baby boy lodged in a sewage pipe. The infant was stuck in a pipe directly beneath a toilet commode, state television reported, in a case which has sparked anger on social media sites.

NY Times: President Obama will soon accelerate his efforts to put a lasting imprint on the country’s judiciary by simultaneously nominating three judges to an important federal court, a move that is certain to unleash fierce Republican opposition and could rekindle a broader partisan struggle over Senate rules.

SCOTUS Live Blog reports: The Indiana Planned Parenthood cases (involving a private right to sue under Medicaid) — 12-1159 and 12-039 — were both denied. The Supreme Court order list is here.

Alan Sears appeared on Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk Radio a few weeks ago.  | PART I: MP3 audio 24:39 mins | PART II: MP3 audio 24:46 MINS | The Broadcasts can also be streamed from here.

New Jersey Newsroom: The Secular Coalition for America today said the Boy Scouts’ recent decision to allow openly gay boys is a positive step in the right direction, but does not go far enough. The SCA expressed disappointment that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has decided to continue its policy of discrimination against atheists and gay Scout leaders. | Freedom from Religion Foundation: Boy Scouts of America still practices discrimination

Brett Harvey at Alliance Defending Freedom: Is the government obligated to control the way people pray in public? The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide this very question. You see, the Town of Greece, NY has been sued because, when they open their town council meetings, they refused to censor the prayers of citizens who volunteered to deliver the opening invocation.

Sadly, the Boy Scouts Executive National Council’s decision disregards not only the nearly 19,000 Americans who signed a petition urging BSA to ‘uphold the values that have defined the organization for over 100 years,’ but also the millions of Americans who have supported the program. Those promoting the agenda to change what the Boy Scouts have always been won’t rest until there is complete acceptance of any sexual preference for both leaders and members.

OnMyHonor.net: What’s Next

“It is with great sadness and deep disappointment that we recognize on this day that the most influential youth program in America has turned a tragic corner. The vote today to allow open and avowed homosexuality into Scouting will completely transform it into an unprincipled and risky proposition for parents. It is truly a sad day for Scouting. The Boy Scouts of America has a logo that bears the phrase ‘Timeless Values.’ Today, the BSA can no longer use this phrase in good faith. It has demonstrated by its actions that the organization’s values are not timeless, and instead they are governed by changing tides of polls, politics and public opinion.

Wayne Perry at USA Today: Boy Scouts president: Let in gay boys
While some people wish the proposed resolution would go further, it was clear from our listening phase that changing adult standards would have conflicted with the majority of our partners, 70% of which are religious organizations, and would have disrupted our ability to deliver Scouting.

We commend the New York City Council for urging the state legislature to repeal the Department of Education’s policy banning worship services from vacant school buildings. Alliance Defending Freedom will continue to defend the freedom of churches and other religious groups to meet in public schools until they are as free as other groups to serve their communities.

Doug Napier at Townhall: For years, Iowa law relied on a rather reasonable bit of biological reality: it takes a man and a woman to make a baby. From that fact, the state reasoned that for questions of paternity, the answer would involve someone commonly called a “father.” So when the state recorded births as a matter of public record, it (rather logically) looked for a man as the non-birth parent. As reasonable as that may seem, in the brave new world of “marriage equality” it is now “prejudicial” for state officials to ask this simple “who’s your daddy?” question.

Christian Science Monitor: A judge has ruled that a North Texas lesbian couple can’t cohabitate — live together — because of a morality clause in one of the women’s divorce papers.

Mark Regnerus at Public Discourse: Our language about sexuality is dominated by public health, with its talk of risk, “protection,” health, choice, and rights. In so doing we scoff at babies–the crowning glory of human creativity–and where they come from.

Yakima Herald:

Q: Your office is suing Richland florist Arlene Stutzman for refusing service to a gay customer who was getting married. Then Alliance Defending Freedom countersued on religious-freedom grounds. How do you reconcile the gay marriage law and laws banning discrimination based on sexual orientation with a state constitution that protects “freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment, belief and worship”?

A: I reconcile it by looking at the law. And the law is clear: If you run a business, you can’t discriminate against certain classes of individuals. You can’t discriminate on the basis of race. You can’t discriminate on the basis of sex. And since 2006 you cannot discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. That’s the law in Washington state. From my perspective the case is clear. A court will ultimately determine who’s right in this case. But I’m confident the outcome will be favorable.

OnMyHonor.net: Meeting Thursday in Grapevine, Texas, the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America will decide whether it will retain or revise its historic membership policy on the issue of homosexuality. The 1,400 voting members of the B.S.A. National Council hold the future of one of America’s most iconic organizations in their hands. In reality, they are not only deciding a matter of membership policy. They are actually deciding the future of the entire organization.

LifeNews: The Internal Revenue Service conducted an internal probe over its targeting of pro-life and conservative groups that ended well before the 2012 presidential election, but reports show the results were hidden. The agency hasn’t officially reprimanded a single staffer over it.

FRC (video embedded): Join FRC as we promote Live Action’s new video series, exposing America’s late-term abortion industry. Speakers include: – Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council – Lila Rose, President, Live Action – Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) – Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.)

Washington Post: These Republicans want to move ahead despite recent court decisions that have struck down similar state laws. The GOP lawmakers also are taking on their own leadership, which has shown little desire to hold votes on contentious social issues.

Isaacson v. Horne, No. No. 12-16670 (9th Circuit)

Before: Mary M. Schroeder, Andrew J. Kleinfeld, and Marsha S. Berzon, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge Berzon; Concurrence by Judge Kleinfeld

Our question is whether the Constitution permits the Arizona legislature to prohibit abortion beginning at twenty weeks gestation, before the fetus is viable. We hold that it does not.

Alliance Defending Freedom has delivered a petition to the Boy Scouts of America signed by 18,724 Americans–including 11,795 who are members of current or former Scouting families or are former Scouts themselves. The petition urges BSA to “uphold the values that have defined the organization for over 100 years” and to reject any efforts to change its membership policy.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews Wednesday immediately following his oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on behalf of an Indiana-based job provider challenging the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate.

“Numerous florists are willing to assist in same-sex ceremonies, so the ACLU has no reason to try to force this florist to violate her deeply held beliefs. Arlene’s Flowers has both served and employed people who identify as homosexual. Barronelle Stutzman’s only desire is that she not be forced to violate her faith when it comes to her beliefs about marriage. Family business owners are constitutionally guaranteed the freedom to live and work according to their beliefs.”

David Rivkin and Lee Casey at WSJ (access via Google): Such a scandal was bound to happen after the government started trying to rule the expression of political views . . . The proper lessons of the unfolding IRS scandal are twofold. First, any effort to have the IRS police advocacy activities of social-welfare organizations is bound to be clumsy and prone to degenerate into either selective or broad witch hunts. Second, the remedy is not to further limit political speech by nonprofit entities—which would certainly raise significant constitutional issues—but to encourage such speech by imposing fewer restrictions.

ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM NEWS RELEASE May 20, 2013 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS: (480) 444-0020 orwww.adfmedia.org/home/contact   Prayer will be heard on high US Supreme Court to weigh in on prayers presented before public meetings   WASHINGTON — The U.S. …

LifeNews: With Governor Peter Shumlin’s signature on a bill the state legislature approved, Vermont today becomes the third state after Oregon and Washington to legalize assisted suicide.

Reuters: Up to half of Cameron’s 303 lawmakers in the lower house of parliament are expected to back an amendment that the government says would sabotage its efforts to legalize gay marriage.

The Blaze: Mothers and fathers, beware: Your days of honor may soon be expiring. An elementary school in Nova Scotia has made a curious decision to cancel Mother’s Day and Father’s Day celebrations and to, instead, replace them with a more benign “Family Day” commemoration.

“Society should protect and strengthen marriage, not undermine it. That’s the belief of the people of France. This redefinition of marriage has been pushed through at great speed without their support. Millions have taken to the streets in protest, but the government has not responded by listening to the people. Instead, it has sought to silence them with police brutality.”

AP: A federal judge granted a request Friday to temporarily block enforcement of a new Arkansas law that bans most abortions 12 weeks into a pregnancy. | Edwards v. Beck, No. 4:13-cv-00224-SWW (E.D. Ark.)

The Hill: Only two Democrats sided with Republicans in the party-line 229-195 vote — Jim Matheson (Utah) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.). All Republicans voted in favor of repeal.

SCOTUS Blog has posted its most recent Petitions to Watch here.

Buzz Feed: In a short letter dated May 2, a Navy official told Autumn Sandeen, a veteran and transgender activist: “Per your request the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) has been updated to show your gender as female effective April 12, 2013.”

Josh Israel at Think Progress: The Losing Arguments Of Anti-LGBT ‘Alliance Defending Freedom’

ADF testimony in Minnesota, Colorado, and Washington all failed to sway legislators. Asked whether ADF believes its tact has been effective or swayed any lawmakers’ votes, legal counsel Jim Campbell told ThinkProgress: “First Amendment-protected freedoms are vital to the continued flourishing of our constitutional republic. They should not be ignored by state legislators who vote to redefine marriage. The failure to respect freedoms long-enshrined in our Constitution will lead to needless litigation. Sadly, even when those rights are eventually vindicated in court, the legal process will take a significant toll on innocent citizens who are simply trying to live in accordance with their conscience. Alliance Defending Freedom will be at the forefront of defending those Americans.”

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Washington florist sued by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a countersuit against him Thursday.

Zenit: The archbishop said the decision “also renders senseless the very idea of President Obama’s National Fatherhood Initiative, in that a bill now becomes law in Minnesota that effectively claims that a mother and a father together are superfluous and can be replaced by two men or two women.”

Todd Starnes at Fox News: IRS Told Pro-Life Group Not to Picket Planned Parenthood

Washington Examiner: IRS officials refused to grant tax exempt status to two pro-life organizations because of their position on the abortion issue, according to a non-profit law firm, which said that one group was pressured not to protest a pro-choice organization that endorsed President Obama during the last election.

CNSNews: While the first reported instances of extra IRS scrutiny for conservative groups began in Cincinnati in March of 2010, the attacks began to pick up steam on a national level soon after Soros-funded groups began firing off letters to the IRS in October of that year – following the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.

Politico: The 2-1 decision Thursday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (posted here) found that the presidential recess appointment power is limited to breaks between sessions of Congress, not breaks within sessions or other adjournments during which the Senate might meet in pro forma sessions. The reasoning mirrors that in a ruling of the D.C. Circuit Court in January.

NY Times: The command was read at 10 consecutive roll calls. Each of the city’s 34,000 officers, in theory, got the message: For “simply exposing their breasts in public,” women are guilty of no crime

Life News: The Lt. Governor of Texas is today demanding an investigation of an abortion practitioner who is considered the second Kermit Gosnell.

Life News: Due to legal issues raised by the former clinic workers, Operation Rescue contacted attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom, which handled many of the women’s legal concerns. Once the women quit their jobs, finances became an issue. Newman contacted Abby Johnson, whose new organization And Then There Were None, which offers support to former abortion clinic workers. She agreed to help the women with some financial assistance.

CNN: Treasury Secretary Jack Lew requested – and has accepted – the resignation of the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in the wake of its handling of requests by conservative groups for tax-exempt status, President Barack Obama said Wednesday.

NPR: “The tentacles of this type of approach to abortion are all over the country,” says Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. “He is not an outlier. You just have to do a Google search and you’ll find in the last several months many other examples” of rogue abortion providers, she said.

James Bovard at Wall Street Journal: As David Burnham noted in “A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power” (1990), “In almost every administration since the IRS’s inception the information and power of the tax agency have been mobilized for explicitly political purposes.”

YouTube: In this Two-Minute Warning John Stonestreet interviews Ryan Anderson from the Heritage Foundation on the topic of same-sex marriage.

LifeNews: Abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell has given up his right to appeal the verdict that found him guilty on three of the four first-degree murder charges he faced.

Disabled children attending faith-based schools who qualify for aid under a federal program will now be eligible to receive tuition aid in the wake of an Alliance Defending Freedom lawsuit against the Montana Office of Public Instruction.

Jonathan Adler reports on the ruling at the Volokh Conspiracy: The relevant legislation applies only to those who have a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A). There is a difference between the persecution of a discrete group and the prosecution of those who violate a generally applicable law.

AP: An elderly Swiss woman who would rather end her life now than decline further in health found sympathy Tuesday from the European Court of Human Rights, which called on the Swiss to clarify their laws on so-called passive assisted suicide. | Gross v. Switzerland, 67810/10

Mercury News (AP): California education officials took the first step this week toward complying with a law that requires public schools to include prominent gay people and gay rights’ milestones in the curriculum, adopting a set of classroom material guidelines that prohibit “pejorative descriptions” based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

AP: The Minnesota Senate voted Monday to make gay marriage legal, the last legislative step before Gov. Mark Dayton’s promised signature will make the state the 12th in the U.S. to do so.

LifeNews: The jury in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell returned a verdict and found him guilty on three of the four first-degree murder charges he faced.

Erik Stanley at Speak Up Movement: But what should be reported is that the targeting by the IRS goes even deeper than what is just reported. Because the IRS has been targeting churches since the passage of the Johnson Amendment in 1954. There is no difference between what the IRS has been caught doing with conservative groups and what the IRS has done to churches for the last 59 years. Both are intimidation.