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“Once again we see that Americans are married to marriage, the fundamental building block of a healthy, thriving society. The people of North Carolina, like 31 states before them, recognized that marriage should be strengthened and protected from legal attacks. ADF applauds the people of North Carolina who’ve followed in the footsteps of diverse cultures and faiths, throughout history and across the globe, in upholding marriage as the ideal.”

Examiner.com: A labor union with strong ties to President Obama is helping make the Occupy Wall Street movement a more permanent fixture in the nation’s capital, moving Occupy DC into office space the group can use to organize and grow through the presidential election.

Huffington Post:President Obama is expected to address gay marriage in an exclusive ABC News interview with Robin Roberts on Wednesday.

LA Times: Speaking from his office in Washington, D.C., Human Rights Campaign communications director Fred Sainz said the president’s expected comments could be the end to his “evolving” views on the issue. “I think the term ‘evolving’ implies constant motion with an end. I think at some point, the evolution has to end,” Sainz said. “I’m hopeful that it will be today.”

LifeNews: How would Americans react to find out that the nation’s biggest abortion business is fine with women coming through the doors of its clinics and arranging an abortion merely because the gender of their unborn children is not what the women preferred.

Fox News: Both the gay advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign and the Huffington Post posted the documents — the National Organization for Marriage has claimed it appears someone in the IRS fed the documents to the Human Rights Campaign.

Washington Post: A review of Obama’s top bundlers–those who have brought in $500,000 or more for the campaign–shows that about one in six publicly identify themselves as gay. His overall list of bundlers also includes a number of gay couples who have wed in jurisdictions where same-sex marriage was legal.

WNDU.com: The ACLU says Indiana allows religious groups to perform marriages, but marriages performed by a non-religious group that trains and certifies secular celebrants are not recognized. | ACLU press release

InsideCostaRica: According to Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Piero Tozzi, ADF pointed out that Costa Rica was acting within its sovereign capacity in outlawing the procedure, which almost always results in the destruction of “spare” human lives at the embryonic stage of development. ADF argued that the Court should grant Costa Rica a “margin of appreciation,” whereby it may decide the best way to protect the life of a developing human being, and that the Court should not exceed its authority by intruding upon an area that is solely within the competence of Costa Rica. “No one should try to usurp the sovereign right of a nation to determine the best way to protect life. The court should not exceed its authority by intruding upon an area of domestic policy that is solely Costa Rica’s to decide,” he said.

The New American: As for the Arizona measure, the state’s Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act (H.B. 2800) will cut off abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood from funding designated for family Planning. “The bill is based on model legislation developed by the Susan B. Anthony List and the Alliance Defense Fund, and prioritizes family planning funds away from abortion-centered businesses like Planned Parenthood to entities that provide women with comprehensive health care,” reported LifeNews.com. “The measure prohibits the state or any local government from using public money to contract with an organization that includes abortions.”

AfterElton: Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, two anti-gay amendments for the National Defense Authorization Act have been prepared with a who’s-who of anti gay groups, including the Alliance Defense Fund, the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council. One would give huge latitude to military chaplains to preach hate from the pulpit on government bases, and the other would assert DOMA more strongly as it relates to military affairs.

Concord Monitor: Meanwhile, the ADF and its allies regrouped and responded to the Indiana setback with a more intricate attack on Planned Parenthood, with the ironic title of “Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priorities Act.” [more]

World Magazine: The latest lawsuit, Newland v. Sebelius, is the first filed on behalf of a private company and one that could put a stop to the mandate before it goes into effect Nov. 1. Religious institutions have until August 2013 to comply. But Hercules Industries, a family-owned business in Denver, seeks immediate relief from the requirement. The Alliance Defense Fund represents the family, whose members said their Catholic beliefs will be violated if they are forced to provide health coverage that pays for abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization.

MetroWeekly: Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) plans to introduce an amendment on Wednesday to the National Defense Authorization Act in a mark-up of the bill before the House Armed Services Committee that is aimed at creating “a conscience protection clause” for military chaplains in the wake of the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” . . . Among the advocates included in the planning for the amendments being offered and from whom Johnson was seeking input were Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness; Brian Duggan, a lobbyist for the National Organization for Marriage; Austin Nimocks and Daniel Blomberg, lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund . . .

Baptist Press: The SBA List and the Alliance Defense Fund drafted model legislation on which the new law is based. SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said the measure “recognizes that women deserve whole-woman care, not abortion.”

AZ Republic: “Alliance Defense Fund just went ahead and filed this lawsuit against the school district and expended somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000,” Pauole said. “They could have saved themselves all of that if they had simply picked up the phone and inquired about the matter.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Algeria, the National Legislative Election Monitoring Commission has warned Islamist groups that the country’s law on political parties prohibits the use of religion for political ends.

AP: Veteran Sen. Richard Lugar’s loss in the Indiana GOP primary provides warnings for President Barack Obama and his Democrats as well as Mitt Romney and fellow Republicans six months before the November election.

AP: North Carolina voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman, but not much is expected to change immediately.

AP: Blind activist Chen Guangcheng has drawn a global media spotlight after setting off tensions between the U.S. and China, but he’s almost unknown at home – and the Chinese government is working to keep it that way

AP: The candidates may be the same, but Wisconsin isn’t.

AP: It will enable people to prepare advanced health care directives, and when damage is irreversible, families will be able to decide whether or not to keep them on life support. It also says that doctors cannot be prosecuted for following a family’s wishes. Some opponents worry that withdrawing food and fluids could cause pain . . .

NCPA Policy Digest: Though calls for education reform have been a persistent staple of American politics for decades, the nation’s schools continue to fall in international competitiveness. This is largely because, whether it’s No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top, schools at the ground level change very little, says John Katzman, executive chairman of 2tor, Inc.

Telegraph: Police and social workers were last night accused of failing to investigate an Asian paedophile gang for fear of being perceived as racist, allowing them to prey on up to 50 young white girls.

Denver Post (includes video): Social conservatives who believed the bill would die in the GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee for the second year in a row were enraged and lobbied McNulty and House Majority Leader Amy Stephens to use every procedure to kill Senate Bill 2.

NBC (includes video):  Republican foreign policy elder statesman Sen. Richard Lugar, 80, first elected to the Senate in 1976, was defeated in the Indiana primary Tuesday by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who was backed by conservatives ranging from the National Rifle Association to local Tea Party activists to the Washington-based fiscal conservative group the Club for Growth.

LA Times: The Senate confirmed Jacqueline H. Nguyen of Los Angeles to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, making her the first Asian American woman to sit on a federal appellate court

Fr. Frank Pavone at LifeSiteNews:

“No one should usurp the sovereign right of a nation to determine the best way to protect life. Costa Rica protects preborn life ‘from conception.’ The Inter-American system must not intrude upon an area of domestic policy that is solely Costa Rica’s to decide.”

Nature.com: In vitro fertilization (IVF) does not cause birth defects in children conceived with the technology. Instead, the higher rate of congenital disease in children born after IVF, compared to natural conception, is probably explained by factors underlying the parents’ infertility. Those conclusions come from a study of more than 300,000 births, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Blog of the Legal Times: The District of Columbia Superior Court is accepting applications to fill a magistrate judge vacancy. Superior Court Magistrate Judge J. Dennis Doyle is expected to retire June 30 . . .

Kansas City Star: The Kansas attorney general’s office paid outside lawyers almost $628,000 through April to defend anti-abortion laws enacted last year.

Examiner.com: Winston Blackmore is no stranger to money disputes. The final decision in his latest dispute lies in the hands of a federal tax judge. Blackmore, the head of a polygamous group in Bountiful, B.C. claims to be eligible for the same tax exemption granted to the Hutterites.

Reuters: San Jose is part of a broader legal and political struggle shaping up across the United States as cash-strapped state and local governments, Republican- and Democratic-led, try to rein in rising pension costs that are gobbling up big chunks of their budgets.

Alan E. Sears at The Alliance Defense Fund Blog: One of the most pernicious – and frankly, most ridiculous – ongoing assaults on religious freedom isn’t happening in the halls of Congress or on college campuses or even in the workplace. It’s happening every day in elementary schools around the country, where young children with no agenda whatsoever are being penalized simply for inviting their friends to church.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: The House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations subcommittee released its FY 2013 appropriations bill making serious cuts to international organizations that perform or promote abortion.

Christian Newswire: Yesterday afternoon (May 7, 2012) Georgia Governor Nathan Deal held a bill signing ceremony for HB 766. The new law amends a 2006 law that allowed the posting of 9 historical documents, including a copy of the Ten Commandments, in Courthouses. The new law allows “The Foundations of American Law & Government Display” to be posted in ‘all’ public buildings!

Baptist Press: Even though Baptist Collegiate Ministry was approved as a recognized student organization on the campus of Vanderbilt University, the BCM will decline that status.

Baptist Press: The Chinese government is engaging in a three-phase campaign to eradicate Protestant house churches, according to the China Aid Association.

Reuters: Viewing child pornography on the Internet without taking further action such as printing or saving files does not necessarily constitute possession, NewYork’s top court ruled on Tuesday. | People v. Kent

BayNews9.com: A produce stand that trades food for donations is causing some controversy in Polk County. Jonathan Friedt, who is the associate pastor of Believers Fellowship Work of Faith Church in Lakeland, said he has been told by the city that the stand will have to be shut down because it is violating regulations.

Dallas Morning News: The Lewisville school district has always allowed students to say prayers at high school graduations . . . “I don’t think there’s any legal requirement not to use ‘invocation’ or ‘benediction,’” said Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the Liberty Institute, a Plano-based non-profit legal firm focused on religious issues. “They can have corresponding secular meanings.”

Post Bulletin: Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede’s second attempt to install a period for prayer at the start of city council meetings was stopped short in the face of a higher power — a 6-1 council vote against it.

Globaltvedmonton: This fall, Sturgeon Heights Public School will reintroduce the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer. The Sturgeon School Board made the decision after surveying parents of the school’s student

Charlotte Observer (includes video): Opponents of the marriage amendment on Tuesday’s ballot today announced that Clinton has recorded a robo-call message that will be going to North Carolinians. Here’s what he says . . .

Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy: Last week I had the pleasure of reading a pre-publication draft of Brian Tamanaha’s new book, Failing Law Schools, which has not yet been released but can be pre-ordered now. I found the book engrossing and its argument powerful. I read it in 2 days after receiving a copy, and I think it should be required reading for all legal academics. Brian’s basic argument is that law schools have been on an unsustainable path fueled by the ready availability of student loans, the cartel power of the ABA, and the influence of the U.S. News rankings, all of which have led schools to adopt policies that help law professors more than they serve students.

LifeSiteNews: The blind lawyer, who exposed China’s brutal forced abortion policy, said “thugs with wooden spoons” beat his nephew, Chen Kegui, “ruthlessly

Life News: More information is coming in on a national bowling marathon sponsored by a national organization that raises funds for abortions for women who can’t afford them. Some of the money is going to pay for abortions for girls as young as 14.

Washington Post: This census of sexual orientation appears in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey for the first time this year, along with other new questions inviting federal workers to say whether they are disabled or have ever served on active military duty.

BBC: The Welsh government has written to all Catholic schools in Wales to remind them to give a “balanced perspective” when discussing same-sex marriage.

WDAM: In 1988, 15 year old Jones County resident Karen Knotts, was kidnapped, raped and murdered. The man convicted was her stepfather James Pugh. He was sentenced to life in prison, but became eligible for parole this year. Karen’s Law, a Mississippi bill named in her honor, set out increase the sentence of manslaughter from 20 years to 30 years.

Jordan Lorence at Townhall: Therefore, the “domestic partner” plans in Durham, Orange County, and elsewhere give the financial benefits of marriage to unmarried partners without imposing the duties of marriage. That means these local “domestic partner” ordinances treat unmarried couples better than married couples. If local governments want to give benefits to households under no legal duty to support others, they can do so with neutral criteria that apply to all unmarried households.

Austin R. Nimocks at American Thinker: Question for Mr. Biden: can you look a child in the eye and tell him (or her) that you’re “absolutely comfortable” with depriving him of a mother or a father because you decided that he doesn’t need one?

San Francisco Chronicle: White House press secretary Jay Carney just told reporters to watch for President Obama to clarify his “evolving” position on same sex marriage . . . Look for a statement no later than Obama’s New York City fundraiser with Ricky Martin May 14, targeting the gay community . . .

PBS News: Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine inched toward an endorsement of gay marriage Tuesday and said his party should take a stance on the issue.

Politico: Perdue told MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown” host Chuck Todd that she considers her state’s vote on Tuesday “our Rosa Parks moment in North Carolina because it’s about taking away civil rights.”

Hazelton Standard Speaker: But now that the board has removed elective abortions from the employee benefit package, the union plans to file a grievance.

LoHud.com: In a party-line vote Monday night, the Westchester County Board of Legislators passed a bill creating a 25-foot buffer zone outside clinics that provide abortions to tighten penalties against protesters who harass patients.

Miami Herald: The tax code is becoming the new weapon in the war against abortion with Kansas pioneering the way. The Kansas House passed a bill Monday that would further restrict abortion by rewriting state tax law. “Nobody on the state level has gone through their tax code in this manner,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health issue.

OregonLive.com: Nonetheless, Richard Baldwin, Nena Cook and Timothy Sercombe each have tried to stand out in the race for one of Oregon’s most influential judicial seats.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: A new Gallup Poll shows Americans divided down the middle, with a tiny advantage to those who believe that the country should legally recognize marriage between couples of the same sex. | Gallup Poll

AFP: Thousands took to the streets of the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil on Tuesday as a rally to demand swift punishment for a magazine editor who ran a story decried as “against Islam” turned violent.

LA Times: Days after a bloody street battle led to more than 100 arrests, authorities in Germany’s biggest state braced for the possibility of more violence Tuesday between a right-wing political party and an Islamic group.

Republic (AP): Catholic business leaders are suing the Obama administration and Health and Human Services officials to block a federal rule that requires employers and individuals to get health insurance to cover contraceptives and sterilizations. The Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center says Tuesday that the suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit on behalf of Legatus. | Thomas More Law Center press release and link to the complaint

Thomas Sowell at Townhall: The “Occupy” movement, which the Obama administration and much of the media have embraced, has implications that reach far beyond the passing sensation it has created.

Christian Concern: Following the late intervention of the Christian Legal Centre, an employee of a major London tourist attraction is able to continue in his job, as his employer has now agreed to let him take Sundays off so that he can worship at church.

The Hill: Annual financial reports filed with the Labor Department by national and local unions show they gave nearly $16 million in contributions to more than a half-dozen umbrella groups, according to a review by The Hill.

One News Now: ADF attorney Erik Stanley weighs in on the issue. “Public monuments to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice should not be dismantled because a few offended activists want to scrub the public square clean of anything that hints of religion,” says Stanley . . . ADF attorney Joe Infranco says that complaint is getting old. “The idea that this 91-year-old memorial is unconstitutional is a tiresome claim from a radical group that has dreamed of a purely secularized society for years,” states Infranco.

One News Now: Theriot says the unconstitutional policies are setting a dangerous precedent. “We are teaching our kids that there are certain views or … certain religious beliefs that have fallen out of favor and they’re allowed to be restricted and it’s okay to restrict them,” he laments. “And of course, that undermines the foundational principles this country was founded upon.”

One News Now: “To say than an Easter egg hunt invitation offered from one student to another during non-instructional time is somehow not allowed in America is preposterous,” states [Matt] Sharp. “ADF has litigated numerous cases similar to this one, and the law is clear: invitations like this are protected by the Constitution.” [more – Jeremy Tedesco also quoted)

Religion Clause Blog: NECN News reported yesterday that federal district judge Michael Urbanski sent the case into mediation, suggesting that the parties consider whether the display could be modified by leaving out the four Commandments that mention God.

Religion Clause Blog: In Liberty Temple Full Gospel Church, Inc. v. Village of Bolingbrook, (ND IL, April 12, 2012), an Illinois federal district court refused to grant summary judgment to defendants in a RLUIPA case in which the parties disagreed over what the zoning designation was for the area in which a church leased land on which it wished to build.

Examiner.com: On May 1st, President Barack Obama signed a new Executive Order which opens the door for the United States to give up economic and environmental sovereignty through the promotion of a single international regulatory system.

AP: Rights advocate Chen Guangcheng says the Chinese government has quietly promised him it will investigate abuses he and his family suffered at the hands of local authorities, in a rare instance of Beijing bowing to demands of an activist.

NCPA Policy Digest: This system of school choice functions well because it precludes the top-down emphasis and instead allows schools to pursue their own educational model. It would, however, require the government to maintain control of four basic provisions for administering an education system.

NCPA Policy Digest: In 2012, Americans will pay approximately $4.041 trillion in taxes, which is $152 billion, or 3.9 percent, more than they will spend on housing, food and clothing.