Tag Archives: State: Arizona

The Hill: Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) will offer a bill to ban late-term abortions in response to the gruesome case of Kermit Gosnell, an abortion provider recently convicted of killing three viable infants.

Talking Points Memo: Far more Arizonans support same-sex marriage than oppose it, according to the latest Rocky Mountain Poll released Tuesday. The poll showed that 55 percent of Arizona voters favor the idea.

KTAR (AP): A groundbreaking civil union ordinance in the southern Arizona city of Bisbee will lose much of its punch after Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne on Monday said he’s reached an agreement in principal on changes that will remove his opposition and a threat to sue to block it from taking effect.

Robert McNamara and Paul Sherman at the National Law Journal: As if the facts of these cases weren’t provocative enough, the challenges to California’s law are complicated by the fact that the plaintiffs, practicing psychologists who are licensed in California, simply engage in “talk therapy” with their patients. As a result, these cases raise an important, unresolved constitutional question: Is the kind of one-on-one counseling and advice at issue in talk therapy “free speech” protected by the First Amendment?

Forbes: Michigan’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, was among the many GOP state executives who made national headlines this winter by endorsing Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, America’s government-run health insurance program for the poor. But what isn’t making headlines is that Michigan’s legislature, like its counterparts in Florida, Ohio, and Arizona, is not going along.

Christian Post: The openly gay son of a conservative Republican Congressman has stated that he benefitted from undergoing the controversial practice of reparative therapy as a teenager.

AZ Central: Attorney General Thomas Horne has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that requires the Legislature to provide an annual boost in public school funding to cover inflation.

AZ Catholic Conference: The Arizona Senate has passed an important school choice bill (HB 2617) today that would expand the pool of potential donors under the existing corporate scholarship (tuition) tax credit to include S corporations and Limited Liability Companie

ABC 15: Facing increased competition for students and the funding that comes with each, many public schools and districts are embracing new ways of promoting themselves.

AZ Central: The Bisbee City Council has backed down in the face of legal pressure from Arizona’s attorney general and will rewrite its controversial ordinance granting civil unions.

AZ Republic: Horne’s decision comes hours after the small southeastern Arizona city of Bisbee ignored vociferous opposition and threats of lawsuits and legalized civil unions for same-sex couples Tuesday night. It was an historic council vote that turned into a political circus, as nearly 100 people packed the chambers in both opposition and support.

AZ Republic: Ignoring vociferous opposition and threats of lawsuits, the small southeastern Arizona city of Bisbee legalized civil unions for same-sex couples Tuesday night in an historic council vote that turned into a political circus, as nearly 100 people packed the chambers in both opposition and support.

Jeremy Tedesco at Speak Up Movement: Rarely can the essence of a lawsuit be captured through pictures. But in Alliance Defending Freedom’s case involving a tiny Church’s First Amendment challenge to the Town of Gilbert’s discriminatory treatment of signs advertising its religious services, a picture truly speaks a thousand words.

AP: Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach ruled last week that he has no jurisdiction to approve the divorce because Arizona doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages and there isn’t enough evidence that Beatie was a man when he married Nancy Beatie in Hawaii.

AP: A letter from the Phoenix-based Center for Arizona Policy says an ordinance scheduled for a Tuesday night vote by the Bisbee City Council would violate the Arizona Constitution’s ban on same-sex marriage, and would be the subject of a costly legal fight.

CBS: An Arizona House panel late Wednesday approved a measure targeting transgendered people who want to use bathrooms of the gender they identify with, voting along party lines to advance a bill that protects business owners who bar the practice.

Cronkite News: Ken Connelly, a lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which defends the traditional definition of marriage, said he hopes the court will “let the debate continue where it should – at the people.”

Think Progress: The Center for Arizona Policy is using an opinion from the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal-defense organization, to argue that the draft Medicaid legislation should be amended to disqualify the non-profit women’s health provider Planned Parenthood from receiving public money. [...]

Mary K. Reinhart at AZ Republic: The Center for Arizona Policy is using an opinion from the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal-defense organization, to argue that the draft Medicaid legislation should be amended to disqualify the non-profit women’s health provider Planned Parenthood from receiving public money. (excerpt also posted on CNN and Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report)

AP: The original bill would have made it a crime for a transgendered person to use a bathroom other than his or her birth sex. The new bill instead seeks to shield businesses from civil or criminal liability if they ban people from restrooms that don’t match their birth sex.

BizJournals.com: The Goldwater Institute is jumping into the fray between the Arizona Board of Regents and the Arizona Students Association, which is fighting for its financial life.

AZ Central: Republican lawmakers in Arizona are backing legislation that would create one of the strongest religious freedom laws in the nation. The measure would make it more difficult for governments to place any limits on a person’s religious freedom.

Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy at AZ Republic: If you watch much of what’s portrayed about the marriage debate today, you’d be left wondering why anyone would support the true definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Sadly, in the political discourse and media hype about marriage, the honest conversation about the meaning and purpose of this essential union is lost.

AP: The Bisbee City Council is poised to make the southeastern Arizona town the first in the state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples.

Alan Sears at Alliance Defending Freedom: The dangers posed more and more across America to the First Amendment protections of Christians like you – and your children – often show themselves in subtle ways. A small legal bias here, an evasion of religious freedom there, and those who would sideline people of faith gain one more crucial foothold of legal ground they can use to block the spread of the Gospel.

AP: Arizona lawmakers have jumped in to the national debate over the rights of transgender people with a bill being debated Wednesday that would make it illegal for people to use public restrooms not associated with their birth gender.

NCPA Policy Digest: There is substantial evidence that choice raises the quality of education in public, charter and private schools and improves educational outcomes. Arizona is a national leader on school choice, says Jonathan Butcher, education director at the Goldwater Institute.

Cronkite News: To Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, the state law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration is “common sense,” not a burden. To opponents, Arizona’s Proposition 200 is just another obstacle that would restrict access to the polls for the young, elderly and minorities.

NC Register: But Kevin Theriot of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy group, told the Register that Phoenix’s expanded code “goes further than any I’ve seen. It has profound implications, especially for business people. It prohibits any speech that makes people feel unwelcome.”

American Thinker: On Feb. 26, the Phoenix City Council passed the so-called “Bathroom Bill,” which will allow not only “transgendered” men, but also any man who thinks he is a woman to use many of the same public restrooms that women and young girls use.

Washington Post: O’Connor was in the panel majority that said Arizona’s requirement of proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections conflicted with federal law.

AP: The ruling cited two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases – Roe vs. Wade and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey – to show a woman has an absolute right to an abortion before the point of viability, Hearn said.

NY Times: When Douglas J. Sylvester, dean of the law school at Arizona State University, was visiting the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota a couple of years ago he mentioned the shifting job market for his students — far fewer offers and a new demand for graduates already able to draft documents and interact with clients. The Mayo dean responded that his medical students and graduates gained clinical experience in hospital rounds closely supervised by attending physicians.

Ahwatukee Foothills News: Steven Aden, an attorney with the privately funded Alliance Defending Freedom that is helping the state defend the law, said blocking the law “would frustrate the public’s interest, expressed through its elected representatives, in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not directly or indirectly support abortions.” Aden also is arguing the state has sovereign rights in determining who can participate in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program. He said it is irrelevant that most of the funds for the program come from the federal government.

NPR: A panel of the the San Francisco-based U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stood with a lower court, ruling that a ban on drivers soliciting day laborers violates the constitution’s free speech guarantee.

KPTV.com: “It gives an open door to any sexual predator, not the transgender community, but any sexual predator that pretends to be transgender. That person can go into the women’s restroom and this gives them easy access to women and, especially, children,” said Joe La Rue of the group Alliance Defending Freedom.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys have asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to weigh in on a church’s lawsuit over a Phoenix suburb’s flawed sign ordinance.

KPHO (Joe LaRue in the video): It gives an open door to any sexual predator, not the transgender community, but any sexual predator that pretends to be transgender. That person can go into the women’s restroom and this gives them easy access to women and, especially, children,” said Joe La Rue of the group Alliance Defending Freedom.

Religion Clause Blog: In Cooke v. Town of Colorado City, Arizona, (D AZ, Feb. 13, 2013), an Arizona federal district court, while dismissing some of plaintiffs’ causes of action, permitted them to move ahead with their claims that Colorado City, Arizona and two utility companies discriminated against them on the basis of religion.

Douglas Dispatch (Howard Fischer Media): Steven Aden, an attorney with the privately funded Alliance Defending Freedom that is helping the state defend the law, said blocking the law “would frustrate the public’s interest, expressed through its elected representatives, in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not directly or indirectly support abortions.” Aden also is arguing the state has sovereign rights in determining who can participate in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program. He said it is irrelevant that most of the funds for the program come from the federal government.

KTAR.com (2/14): “There is a potential concern for businesses that have offices in multiple cities across our state to have unequal enforcement of the law throughout our state,” Legal Consultant Joseph La Rue, with the Alliance Defending Freedom said. La Rue said the new proposals may make hiring decisions difficult for multi-city companies. The Alliance Defending Freedom is a nonprofit religious rights group dedicated to defending religious freedom, marriage and family, and pro-life issues. La Rue also opposed the new proposals because of potential costs to small businesses if further protections are added to the city ordinances. “What we’ve seen in other places where amendments like these are passed is the cost to small business owners goes up,” La Rue said. “There is the threat of litigation anytime [businesses] fail to hire someone who is a member of the protected class.”

LifeNews: Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, which co-authored the legislation with the SBA List, have helped state Solicitor General David Cole defend the law to date. The state is expected to appeal today’s ruling. | Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Betlach

AZ Daily Star: Steven Aden, an attorney with the privately funded Alliance Defending Freedom, which is helping the state defend the law, said blocking the law “would frustrate the public’s interest, expressed through its elected representatives, in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not directly or indirectly support abortions.” He also argues the state has sovereign rights to decide who can participate in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, regardless of who provides most of the money. | also reported on NBC: Judge blocks Arizona from cutting off Planned Parenthood funds because of abortions | Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Betlach

Cronkite News: The church’s attorney, Jeremy Tedesco, said they have 14 days to appeal for rehearing by the full circuit court, “so you’ll know in 14 days what we plan to do.” “To us it’s a very simple case of content-based discrimination,” said Tedesco, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom. “Of course we’re disappointed the court did not see it this way.”

Religion Clause Blog: 9th Circuit In 2-1 Decision Rejects Church’s Challenge To Town’s Sign Restrictions
The majority concluded that the ordinance does not violate free expression guarantees since it is not a content-based regulation . . . Judge Watford dissenting argued that the ordinance is content-based because it favors political and ideological signs over signs promoting events sponsored by non-profit organizations.

American Federation for Children: The ESA program, which was enacted in 2011, allows parents to receive 90 percent of the per-pupil expenditure to use on a variety of educational tools for their children, including tuition and fees, textbooks, educational therapies, and tutoring. There are currently more than 300 students enrolled in the program, which serves students with special needs.

AZ Capitol Times: Saying members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community deserve equal treatment under Arizona law, a Democratic lawmaker has introduced four bills addressing employment, adoption and marriage.

Education News: Two Arizona lawmakers are stirring Constitutional debate and threats of legal action after introducing bills that would require the state’s students to express love of country under God.

AZ Central: Despite winning many battles over the past four decades, anti-abortion forces may be losing the war.

AZ Central: The Arizona Legislature has been told by an appeals court that it cannot pick and choose which parts of a voter-approved school funding initiative it wants to pay.

AP: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Monday she plans to push for an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the federal health care law, a surprising decision that could have an impact on other Republican governors weighing a similar decision.

Verde News (Howard Fischer Media): But Steven Aden, an attorney with the privately funded Alliance Defending Freedom which is helping the state defend the law, said allowing the injunction to remain place “would frustrate the public’s interest, expressed through its elected representatives, in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not directly or indirectly support abortions.”

AZ Republic: But a growing atheist lobbying group is taking on the Christian-based center and its well-connected president, Cathi Herrod, and aims to create a higher profile at the Legislature next session. Serah Blain, executive director of the Secular Coalition of Arizona, said the state is the first in the nation to have a full-time legislative lobbyist representing a “non-theistic” organization.

Kansas City Star: Another big showdown over abortion brewing in the federal courts could have meaning for Kansas. Two years ago, Kansas was among just a handful of states to ban abortion starting at 22 weeks — with some limited exceptions — regardless of whether the fetus was able to survive outside the womb.

French Tribune: The privately funded Alliance Defending Freedom’s attorney Steven Aden says that allowing it to get funds means frustrating the public’s interest in making sure that abortions are not directly or indirectly aided by taxpayer dollars. “The question of who is qualified makes the whole law vague and amorphous”, said he.

Arizona Daily Star: But Steven Aden, an attorney with the privately funded Alliance Defending Freedom that is helping the state defend the law, said allowing the injunction to remain in place “would frustrate the public’s interest, expressed through its elected representatives, in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not directly or indirectly support abortions.” And Aden said the state has sovereign rights in determining who can participate in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program. He said it is irrelevant that most of the funds for the program come from the federal government.

AP on Cox News: Jim Campbell, an attorney for a conservative Christian legal organization that isn’t involved in the Beatie case, said in an email that the failure of the courts to protect traditional marriage has led to chaos and that children are being led into “increasingly bizarre situations.” “Sadly, the deep confusion created by these two women, and the biological father who helped conceive the children, is just a symptom of much greater societal problems,” said Campbell, of the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Star Tribune: A judge is questioning whether a same-sex marriage ban bars him from ending the union — or even recognizing its validity — because the husband was born a woman and underwent a sex change but retained female reproductive organs and gave birth to three children.

Prescott News: The FFRF complained that the religious overtones of the Courthouse Lighting ceremony were a violation of the separation of Church and State, and even went so far as to dictate what songs they felt were more appropriate. But not so fast. According to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the ceremony is protected under the First Amendment as it was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and was not a government-organized event. The ADF even offered free legal assistance in the event of a legal challenge by the FFRF.

One News Now: Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jeremy Tedesco has sent a letter [PDF] to assure those officials that their actions were not illegal. “Of course it’s legal to celebrate national holidays like Christmas in the public square,” he insists. “Public officials should not fear attacks from atheist groups, because their freedom to participate in these events is protected under the First Amendment. “The attacks on Christmas are part of a larger campaign to snuff out all references to our Christian heritage and are best ignored by government officials.”

KPHO.com: “It is legal to celebrate national holidays like Christmas in the public square,” said Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is an alliance-building legal ministry advocating for the right of people to freely live out their faith. “Public officials should not fear attacks from atheists because their freedom to participate in community celebrations is protected under the First Amendment,” Tedesco said in his own letter to the Arizona secretary of state and various city and school officials in Prescott. [Click here to read the full letter (PDF)]

Examiner.com: Today, Dec. 19, 2012 it was announced by Alliance Defending Freedom that the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) officially complained to the Arizona Secretary of State that their participation in a privately sponsored Christmas lighting ceremony in front of the county courthouse violates the Constitution. A false claim to be sure, but they will try anything to stifle the traditions that they do not agree with.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys sent a letter Wednesday to the Arizona Secretary of State, and Prescott city and school officials after the Freedom From Religion Foundation officially complained that their participation in a privately sponsored Christmas lighting ceremony in front of the county courthouse violates the Constitution.

The Hill: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) warned his conference on Wednesday that leaders are “watching” how the rank-and-file vote to determine committee assignments, according to sources in the closed-door meeting.

Tom Goldstein at SCOTUS Blog: The upshot is that the parties and lawyers driving the gay-marriage cases have cornered the Justices. They brought and won cases striking down a federal law, a California initiative, and an Arizona statute.

East Valley Tribune: The U.S. Supreme Court could decide this coming week whether to let Arizona argue that it can deny benefits to the domestic partners of its gay workers.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley will be available for media interviews following his oral argument Tuesday at the Arizona Court of Appeals in defense of a church facing an illegally assessed property tax bill that would force it to shut down.

AZFamily.com: Thousands of Arizonans have signed a petition calling for the state to secede from the Union. The petition, filed online through the White House’s petition page, shows that Arizona, along with several other states, is calling for secession to leave the United States and start its own new government.

Advocate: Kyrsten Sinema has officially been elected as the nation’s first openly bisexual congresswoman, the Associated Press reports.

AZ Central: Judges are rarely voted off the bench in Maricopa County or in the Arizona appellate courts. And despite a campaign by “tea party” and other conservative groups to unseat certain judges in retention elections because of perceived political or judicial leanings, no judges were turned out this year, either.

The American Federation for Children—the nation’s voice for educational choice—today congratulated a slate of bipartisan legislative candidates across Arizona who were victorious in last night’s elections and have pledged to support and advocate for meaningful education reform, including educational choice.

Bloomberg: An Arizona law making it a crime for doctors to perform abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy was questioned by two federal appeals court judges who said it appears to flout the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

AP: Utah seized control of the community trust in 2005 amid allegations of mismanagement by church officials, including now-jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs.

Bloomberg: An Arizona law making it a crime for doctors to perform abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy is being challenged before a federal appeals court on claims it violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

AZ Central: Americans for Responsible Leadership, which has also poured $11 million into two California campaigns, immediately asked for a temporary stay until 9 a.m. Monday to produce the records for the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

AZ Central (includes video): An Arizona Supreme Court justice has taken the highly unusual step of forming a campaign committee to fight a Republican and “tea party” effort to vote him off the bench. Fliers and Web postings advocate a “no” vote on retention of Justice John Pelander because he joined in a Supreme Court decision allowing an initiative that would scrap the two-party primary system to appear on next month’s ballot.