Category Archives: Featured

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: From today’s Wyoming Supreme Court decision in Operation Save America v. Town of Jackson (Wyo. Apr. 10, 2012); the result seems quite correct to me . . .

Reuters: Oklahoma’s Personhood Act passed the state Senate in February and is expected to be approved by the Republican-controlled House within weeks. The state’s Republican governor, Mary Fallin, is an abortion opponent and is expected to sign the bill if it passes.

This year, Vanderbilt University has for the first time in its history demanded that our reli­gious student organizations leave campus simply because we insist that our leaders agree with and strive to live by the religious beliefs we espouse. Today, we—the members of eleven such groups, standing together in an act of Solidar­ity—have submitted applications for registered status with constitutions containing the same faith requirements that Vanderbilt has always approved, until last year.

LifeNews reports, links to the full video and embeds some video excerpts. “Margaret Sanger, the leader of the birth control movement in America, talks to Wallace about why she became an advocate for birth control, over-population, the Catholic Church, and morality.”

Findlaw (AP): Maryland’s highest court is poised to hear arguments in a precedent-setting case involving two women who married in California but were denied a divorce in Maryland, a state that does not currently allow same-sex weddings.

Breitbart (video): In a new video provided to Breitbart.com, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas demonstrates why Holder should stop attacking voter ID laws–by walking into Holder’s voting precinct and showing the world that anyone can obtain Eric Holder’s primary ballot. Literally.

s part of a court order issued Thursday, members of the Wyoming State Building Commission admit they unconstitutionally violated the free speech rights of WyWatch Family Action in February of last year when they approved but later removed the group’s pro-life signs from Herschler Gallery at the state capitol.

ADF lawsuit sought change to unconstitutional policy that required fees, waiting period to engage in free speech

LifeSiteNew: Catholic schools will no longer be allowed to teach the Catechism’s doctrine that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” says a cabinet minister in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government.

Fox25.com: Following outrage from parents; a changed version of “God Bless the USA” has been pulled from an upcoming school assembly concert.

San Francisco Chronicle: The denial of insurance coverage to the same-sex spouse of a federal court employee in San Francisco was an act of discrimination, the court’s chief judge has ruled in an order that entitles the employee to compensation for the costs of private insurance.

National Law Journal: At the oral arguments, Clement said that the 1st Circuit’s 2008 ruling in Cook v. Gates is binding. The ruling upheld the military’s former “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about homosexuals in the military and applied a rational basis review to sexual orientation classifications: “When it got to the equal protection claim, the court was quite specific in saying that rational basis applied.”

NY Daily News: Manhattan chef pocketed $1.6 million after restaurateur Edward Globokar turned his TriBeCa Mexican eatery into a makeshift house of worship where he prayed for God to heal gay workers.

Washington Post: Legislation that would allow a range of benefits for same-sex domestic partners of federal employees gained a boost last week with the announcement of 20 new Senate co-sponsors and the endorsement of 35 organizations.

News-Herald.com: Supporters of a measure that would allow gay marriage in Ohio were cleared by state officials Tuesday to continue their ballot effort to amend the state’s constitution.

The Atlantic: For $8,000 it was easy for the author to justify selling her eggs the first time. The second time, too. Only then did they share the bad news.

South Sider Magazine: Parsing the potential legal arguments in the recent controversy involving Hands On Originals and the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) is no easy task. At odds in this case are two fundamental concepts of American liberty: freedom of speech and free exercise of religion as delineated in the First Amendment vs. freedom from discrimination. The tension arising from pitting First Amendment notions against other important American values fuels this controversy and reflects a burgeoning conflict in the modern political climate.

Jennifer Roback Morse at Public Discourse: The primary business of the state is justice. Because children cannot be autonomous, adult society has an obligation in justice to provide institutional structures that protect their most basic interests.

Anchorage Daily News: With more than 90 percent of the precincts reporting late Tuesday, 58 percent of voters had voted against Proposition 5 . . .

American Independent: A federal court judge in Minnesota ruled on Monday that a marriage between a man and a transgender woman was legal under Minnesota law and that a health insurance plan could not drop the woman from her husband’s health benefits. The judge said that because one person is male and the other legally transitioned to female, the couple qualifies as legally married under the state’s Defense of Marriage Act . . .  In his decision (PDF), he said that the Radtkes’ marriage was legal. He went on to lecture the health plan administrators for their actions. | Radtke v. Miscellaneous Drivers & Helpers Union Local #638 Health Welfare Eye & Dental Fund

Baptist Press: A survey of 1,191 likely voters by Public Policy Polling has the amendment ahead, 58-38 percent, while a poll of 1,001 by SurveyUSA has the amendment up, 58-36 percent.

CBS: In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president’s bluff — ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.

ADF files suit after school district prohibited third-grader’s handwritten Bible club invitations

Steven D. Smith at the Law of Library and Liberty: Indeed, for reasons we will notice, the proposition that government should remain “neutral” in matters of religion appears to be virtually irresistible. Which leads to embarrassment: that is because, upon closer inspection, religious neutrality also turns out to be impossible. Worse yet, the attempt to maintain religious neutrality subtly works to undermine the constitutional commitment to religious freedom. This essay briefly considers the predicament and reflects on possible responses.

Jennifer Roback Morse at the Ruth Institute: Libertarians are being taken in by rhetoric that sounds libertarian but, in fact, will lead to a dramatic shift in the balance of power between the state and civil society, indeed between the state and the natural order itself.

LifeSiteNews (includes video): Last Thursday’s high-charged rally against the Ontario government’s Bill 13, imposing the province’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy (EIE) on all public and private schools, revealed many parents are dismayed over this attempt to remove parental rights.

LifeSite News carries the the story and the image. “According to English reports regarding the original post, the pregnant mother was forcibly held down as she was given an injection to induce labor, after which the baby ‘even gave a cry when it came out,’ but was left in a bucket to drown.”

Boston Globe (AP): The Senate is faced with deciding whether a House-passed bill to cut off taxpayer funding to hospitals, clinics, doctors and others who perform elective abortions will put New Hampshire’s Medicaid program in jeopardy.

LifeNews: The pro-abortion president added, “I just remind conservative commentators that for years we’ve heard that the biggest problem is judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. That a group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example. And I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step.”

ADF lawsuit results in new policy affirming club’s right to promote itself like all other groups

City park board agrees with Pride Festival that people handing out Bibles must be exiled to ‘no pride zone’

Jennifer Roback Morse at Public Discourse: We cannot escape the fact that marriage is an intrinsically public institution. We can’t avoid making collective decisions about its meaning and purpose. If we don’t do it explicitly, we will end up doing it implicitly.

Atlanta J. Constitution: Although the House — including McKillip and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge — initially balked, they agreed Thursday to move forward with a compromise. It was to include a definition in the bill describing what “medically futile” means: Profound and “irremediable” anomalies that would be “incompatible with sustaining life after birth.”

Washington Post: The mere possibility that a rich benefactor or interest group with endless amounts of money could swoop in, write massive checks and remake an entire court for ideological reasons has prompted judges here in Florida and elsewhere to prepare for battles they never expected to fight.

NY Sen. Rubin Diaz: You should know that since Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed for gay marriage in the State of New York and convinced the Democratic Party in the Assembly and the Senate to follow his lead to legalize gay marriage, the Democratic Party in New York City has not won a single victory.

Jess Bravin at Wall Street Journal (via Google or Google Plus): But if Justice Kennedy votes to uphold the law, some believe the chief may join him, thereby retaining the power to shape the court’s opinion on a case that is sure to be a landmark.

Washington Examiner: Which undercuts the Democrats latest campaign to intimidate the Court into compliance. Yesterday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), a former attorney general of Connecticut, said from the Court’s steps, “The court commands no armies, it has no money; it depends for its power on its credibility. The only reason people obey it is because it has that credibility. And the court risks grave damage if it strikes down a statute of this magnitude and importance, and stretches so dramatically and drastically to do it.”

David Bernstein at the Volokh Conspiracy: The Court’s Legitimacy

ArkLaTexHomePage.com: The strict liability law allowed legal action against doctors who performed abortions – regardless of whether they committed any fault or negligence in the abortion procedure

Center for Reproductive Rights press release

NECN: The American Civil Liberties Union has won a legal round in its efforts to overturn a Kansas law restricting abortion insurance coverage.

Business Week: Could crushing student loan debt be a bigger-than-expected culprit behind recent trends showing that young adults are waiting longer than ever to get married and have children? A new report (not yet online) by economic forecasting firm IHS Global Insight . . .

Politico: Even more than that, Republican leadership has evolved, too. It has quietly worked behind the scenes to kill amendments that reaffirm opposition to same-sex unions, several sources told POLITICO.

Thomas Messner at the Heritage Foundation: But striking down the entire law would also reduce conflicts between branches of government by eliminating the need for federal courts to resolve the potential tidal wave of religious freedom litigation threatened by Obamacare.

AZ Republic: The Arizona Senate agree Thursday to hold a revote on House Bill 2625. No date has been set for the revote.

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: Texas Penal Code § 21.15(b)(1) makes it a crime to photograph someone “without the person’s consent” and “with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.” (A separate provision applies to photographing people in bathrooms or private dressing rooms.) InEx parte Nyabwa (Tex. Ct. App. Dec. 13, 2011), a Texas appellate court upheld the statute . . . Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to review the case [two judges would have taken the case one judge wrote in dissent] . . .

Jess Bravin at Wall Street Journal (includes audio): Arguments Over Health-Care Law Veer Into a Challenge to Medicaid as Obama’s Signature Measure Faces a Rough Ride.

SCOTUS Blog.

SCOTUS Blog: Unless a closing oration by a top government lawyer stirs some real sympathy for the poor, the new health care law’s broad expansion of the Medicaid program that serves the needy may be sacrificed to a historic expression of judicial sympathy for states’ rights.

LifeNews: An Oklahoma judge has struck down as unconstitutional a state law that would allow women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before an abortion.

AZ Republic: The Arizona Senate on Wednesday voted down a controversial bill to allow employers and insurance companies to opt out of covering contraception for religious reasons.

Politico: “Mr. Kneedler, what happened to the Eighth Amendment?” Scalia asked — a joking reference to the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. “You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages?

Transcript and recording of oral argument.

LifeSiteNews: An Ontario Court of Justice judge erupted in a lengthy, angry tirade against pro-life activist Mary Wagner – and ejected a spectator from the public gallery – in a downtown Toronto courtroom Wednesday. The judge then sent Wagner to jail for an additional 92 days, added to 88 days already served . . .

The Hill: The court’s conservative members, including possible swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy, leaned toward invalidating the whole law, while the liberal justices said the court should leave it to Congress to determine how much of the law depends on the mandate.

The Hill: The court will begin its final day with arguments over “severability” — how much of the healthcare law should fall if the justices decide that the individual mandate is unconstitutional.

Lawrence Goodman at the Wall Street Journal (via Google): Last year the Fed purchased a stunning 61% of the total net Treasury issuance, up from negligible amounts prior to the 2008 financial crisis. This not only creates the false appearance of limitless demand for U.S. debt but also blunts any sense of urgency to reduce supersized budget deficits . . .

Jurist: The US Supreme Court [official website] denied certiorari [order list, PDF] Monday in Fields v. Smith [opinion, PDF; JURIST report], allowing a lower court decision that transgender hormone therapy is a medically necessary procedure to stand. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found the Inmate Sex-Change Prevention Act(Act 105) [text], a 2005 Wisconsin law, was unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments

Washington Post (includes video): “Government is supposed to be a government of limited powers,” he said. “What is left if the government can do this? What can it not do?”

Real Clear Politics has the audio and transcript.

Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy: Kennedy seems to be of the view that requiring a mandate under the Commerce Clause requires a “heavy burden of justification,” and that his major question is whether the uniqueness of the health care market satisfies that heavy burden.

Transcript and Audio

The Hill: The questioning was enough for Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst and staff writer for The New Yorker, to predict that the healthcare law appeared likely to be struck down.

Lyle Deniston at SCOTUS Blog: If Justice Anthony M. Kennedy can locate a limiting principle in the federal government’s defense of the new individual health insurance mandate, or can think of one on his own, the mandate may well survive. If he does, he may take Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., along with him. But if he does not, the mandate is gone. That is where Tuesday’s argument wound up . . .

MyFoxPhoenix: The Arizona Senate has approved a sweeping anti-abortion bill that generally bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and institutes new disclosure requirements, including one that requires women to look at a state-run website with images of fetuses at two-week intervals.

AP on Findlaw: At the beginning of the school year, gay pride events at a military academy with titles like “condom Olympics” and “queer prom” would have been unthinkable. This week, they’re a reality.

San Francisco Chronicle: But Obama’s Justice Department asked the full appeals court Monday to bypass the customary three judges and convene an 11-judge panel.

Business Week: Medical advances have made it increasingly common for older Americans such as Dick Cheney to receive heart transplants, extending their lives. The shift may make it more difficult for younger patients as aging Baby Boomers compete for available organs, top cardiologists say.

The audio: here. The transcript: here.

CBS: The federal court judge who presided over the federal case has ordered the city to repay the Scouts $877,000 in legal fees.

Findlaw

SCOTS Blog: One of the telltale signs of that sentiment was that not one Justice, and no lawyer at the lectern, said that it would be premature and a contradiction of the Court’s tradition against deciding constitutional issues prematurely for the Court to rule promptly on the mandate’s validity.

ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull at American Thinker: Note the fact that those who support protecting marriage do not argue that Ben & Jerry’s has no right to their opinions or business practices. Chick-fil-A, of course, doesn’t get the same pass that Ben & Jerry’s does because, in the eyes of those who love political conformity, Chick-fil-A doesn’t hold to the right opinions. But that’s the sad thing about the political left. They’re always pushing their morality on everybody else.

“Every student deserves a quality education. Banning classical religious texts denies students the right to learn what they need to know about world history and the world in general. For that reason, the decision of the Supreme Court not to review this case is regrettable, especially in light of the high court’s existing precedent stating that even ‘the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like.’

Doug Farrow at Touchstone: Here we have what is perhaps the most pressing reason why same-sex marriage should be fought, and fought vigorously. It is a reason that neither the proponents nor the opponents of same-sex marriage have properly debated or thought through. In attacking “heterosexual monogamy,” same-sex marriage does away with the very institution—the only institution we have—that exists precisely in order to support the natural family and to affirm its independence from the state. In doing so, it effectively makes every citizen a ward of the state, by turning his or her most fundamental human connections into legal constructs at the state’s gift and disposal.

Pope Benedict said on Friday communism no longer works in Cuba and that the Roman Catholic Church was ready to help the island find new ways of moving forward without “trauma.”

Christian Institute (carries the video): Even the Prime Minister – who personally backs gay marriage – was caught on camera looking irritated by the Speaker’s brash actions.