Tag Archives: Group: Arkansas Family Council

Arkansas News: Two Arkansas state legislators who own state-funded preschools say their schools include religious instruction in the curriculum but are not violating any state or federal law by doing so.

New American: . . . Babione said the court’s decision tells individuals that “you can go shack up with your boyfriend or girlfriend and that if you decide that you want to play house and have kids, the state has to allow you to come in and seek a child.” He added that it is “mind-boggling that we’ve come to a point in our society where you have a state Supreme Court basically saying that adult sexual desires and wants are the chief end of civil government at the expense of the best interests of children.”

Harvard Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review: The ACLU brought the suit on behalf of a group of families, while the Alliance Defense Fund, an alliance of Christian lawyers, defended the law in court.

Michael Foust at Baptist Press: “This can impact other states, and I am sure courts will take notice,” Byron Babione, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, told Baptist Press. ADF represented the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee, Act 1′s sponsor. “There is no doubt a political movement afoot to undermine and destroy marriage as we know it, and to eradicate protections that are in place for children when those protections conflict with adult sexual desires…. This lawsuit was part of a campaign to place adult wants and desires over the best interests of children.”

Wall Street Journal: The Alliance Defense Fund, an alliance of Christian lawyers, defended the Arkansas law in court. The Law Blog caught up with ADF attorney Byron Babione. “The court placed adult sexual acts above the best interests of children,” he said. The court “essentially nullified and vetoed the will of the people of Arkansas who raise families and understand what is best for children and know that children should be placed in homes with married mothers and fathers, which is supported by social science,” he said.

LifeSiteNews: The needs of children outweigh the wants of adults. The court’s decision tragically places more importance on the sexual interests of adults than on protecting children,” said Byron Babione, Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. The ADF was representing the Family Council Action Committee, which fought to get Act 1 on the ballot and approved in 2008. “The people of Arkansas believe that children deserve the most safe and stable home possible. They cast their ballots to ensure that children wouldn’t be deprived of the best possible family environment and decisively approved Act 1 for that purpose only, but the court struck down the people’s will anyway,” Babione said.

Washington Times: Alliance Defense Fund lawyer Byron Babione, who defended Act 1 on behalf of its sponsor Family Council Action Committee, said the high court’s ruling “tragically places more importance on the sexual interests of adults than on protecting children.”

“This is a classic example of judicial tyranny,” said Family Council Action Committee President Jerry Cox.

Associated Press: “The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Arkansas Family Council on Wednesday filed motions for summary judgment with a Pulaski County judge.”

Associated Press: “A group of Arkansans describing themselves as a ‘center-right’ coalition says they will monitor the confirmation hearings of President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court ‘to ensure that Arkansans understand the judicial philosophy’ of U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor”

Arkansas News Bureau: “A Massachusetts gay rights group Tuesday posted on the Internet the names and addresses of more than 83,000 Arkansans who signed petitions last year to put a gay adoption ban on the state ballot, action the leader of the ballot initiative condemned as ‘pure intimidation.’”

The Shreveport Times reports: “Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has approved wording of the proposed constitutional amendment by Texas businessman Michael Wasserman, owner of Arkansas Hotels and Entertainment Inc. It would give Wasserman’s company exclusive rights to operate casinos in Boone, Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson, Miller, Pulaski and Sebastian counties.”

. . . Friday, an Arkansas court granted a motion to intervene filed by attorneys with ADF on behalf of the Family Council Action Committee to join the state of Arkansas in defending Act 1 against a lawsuit filed by the ACLU.

Citizen Link reports on the pro-life bills pending in Arizona, Arkansas and Kansas defend human life.

AP:  ”. . . The ACLU claims that the Arkansas Family Council has no legal grounds to enter the suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court . . . “

The Morning News reports: The American Civil Liberties Union scored a victory Tuesday in Florida when a circuit judge declared that state’s law banning gays from adopting children unconstitutional. Representatives of the ACLU, which had challenged the Florida law, said …

NWANews.com reports: Officials with the Family Council on Friday accused the state Department of Human Services of having a ‘gay agenda’ and having a ‘sham’ meeting on whether cohabiting unmarried couples should be foster parents . . . Cox singled …

Jerry Cox of the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee says he has received his share of hate mail and hate e-mails in recent months — not to mention a few annoying phone calls.

The AP reports: “A coalition of child advocates is challenging an Arkansas policy that bars unmarried couples who live together from being foster parents. Officials with Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and other groups plan to testify Thursday against …

“A proposal aimed at effectively banning gays and lesbians from becoming foster or adoptive parents was cleared Monday to appear on this fall’s ballot in Arkansas . . . ”

The AP reports that the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee set a goal of gathering 100,000 signatures in support of its proposal to prohibit homosexual adoption and foster care, but has turned in “slightly more than the minimum 61,974.”