Tag Archives: State: Arkansas

The Republic (AP): Harris said he forwarded the proposed rules to his attorney, Joel Oster of the Alliance Defense Fund, and will decide how to proceed after consulting with him.

ParagouldDailyPress.com: Noble said he had not responded to the letters pending legal advice. He said the Rutherford Institute and Liberty Counsel had volunteered to help the school district in the matter and the Alliance Defense Fund had sent a list of court cases that might be applicable to the situation.

Personhood USA: Personhood Arkansas has resubmitted a state constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to life of all human beings

OneNewsNow.com: Personhood Arkansas has been blocked by the state attorney general’s office in its effort to take a proposed constitutional amendment to voters.

Arkansas News: A group pushing for an amendment to the state constitution that would ban abortion in Arkansas says it has submitted proposed ballot language to the state attorney general. If Attorney General Dustin McDaniel approves the language, the group Personhood Arkansas would have until July 6 to collect 78,133 signatures to place the measure on the November 2012 ballot.

KUAR.org: The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas is taking issue with a nativity scene displayed in a Paragould primary school. In a follow up to a story we brought you earlier in the week, the ACLU’s director Rita Sklar says although she wants to avoid a lawsuit, the school must obey the constitution.

The Republic (AP): Harris, R-West Fork, has said he thought religious displays are permitted if paid for with private money. Harris said he met Tuesday with a lawyer from the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which works to preserve religious freedom. The attorney is planning to meet with state officials, Harris said

LifeSiteNews.com: The national movement to constitutionally define an unborn baby as a person is now gaining traction in Arkansas, and may appear on the November 2012 ballot.

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.

The Republic (AP): Harris said the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit Christian advocacy group based in Scottsdale, Ariz., that handles cases related to the First Amendment’s freedom of religious exercise clause, will represent Growing God’s Kingdom if the school needs legal counsel.

Reuters: Arkansans shopped until they dropped on Saturday, braving temperatures deep into the triple-digits to take advantage of the state’s first sales tax holiday weekend.

LifeNews.com: n June, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH), a large and very aggressive affiliate, announced it would be opening a dozen new facilities in Iowa and Nebraska in addition to the abortion clinics it already operated in these Midwestern states.

AP: “Parents and teachers have launched a scholarship program that goes beyond offering money for college.”

The Blog of Legal Times: The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted today to move ahead with five of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees, including two for the high-profile U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arkansas sent letters today to the Little Rock School District and eStem Public Charter Schools demanding that the schools cease viewpoint-based censorship of web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. The organization has sent demand letters to school districts across the country as part of the organization’s national “Don’t Filter Me” initiative, which seeks to combat illegal censorship of pro-LGBT information on public school computer systems.

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.”

Christianity Today: FCAC was represented by Byron Babione, an Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney. “The court’s decision tragically places more importance on the sexual interests of adults than on protecting children,” Babione said. “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.”

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday against Arkansas Act 1, a voter-approved law designed to protect adopted and foster children.

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

The Arkansas Constitution was interpreted in Jegley v. Picado (2002) as securing a right to privacy, included in which is protection of “private, consensual, noncommercial acts of sexual intimacy between adults.”

“The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld a decision to strike down a state law barring gay couples and other unmarried people living together from serving as adoptive or foster parents.”

ADF attorney Matt Sharp on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this: Court: Ark. school wrong to ban flier for church-sponsored event. | MP3 audio 13:50 mins

LifeNews: A state House committee in Arkansas has killed legislation that would subject abortion facilities in the state to stricter standards to ensure the health and safety of women is protected.

One News Now: A federal court has issued an order that halts an Arkansas school district policy used by school officials to deny a third-grader and her mother permission to hand out flyers for church-sponsored activities . . . Cortman says there is a lot of public misinformation about religious speech. “There’s a widespread need for schools to be educated on what the First Amendment means,” he states. “The so-called separation of church and state does not justify censorship about religious speech, even though that’s what’s popularly thought.”

Policy that kept 3rd-grader, parent from distributing invitations to church activities on hold while suit progresses

One News Now: At the recent oral arguments before the Arkansas Supreme Court, Byron Babione — senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) — explained the law is about protecting kids. “The statute just tried to put children in the safest homes,” says the attorney, “and the other side argues that this violates the right of adults to engage in private sexual acts. It does no such thing — because the state is not trying to go into your home and punish you for what you’re doing. It’s just saying we’re not going to put our children into your home if you are in relationships that are characterized by instability.”

ADF attorney Byron Babione appeared on the Mary Reichard Show to discuss this: Ark. Supreme Court showdown Thursday over law protecting adopted, foster children. | MP3 mins 8:15 mins

The Republic: A bill that would require facilities that provide non-surgical abortions to be regulated by the Arkansas Health Department has advanced to the House.

Keen News Service: Defense lawyer Byron Babione, representing the Family Council Action Committee, also told the court that the issues in the case were part of the state’s larger policy of defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Act 1, he said, serves to encourage marriage and to channel children into “home environments where they do best” and are “less likely to be subject to risks.”

Washington Times: That is why the court should uphold Act 1, a 2008 voter-passed law that excludes cohabiting heterosexual and homosexual couples from being foster or adoptive parents, said Byron J. Babione, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund. Cohabitation is associated with risks and instability for children, and even biological parents in Arkansas who split up cannot have custody of their children if they are cohabiting with someone, said Mr. Babione, who represented Family Council Action Committee, a major backer of Act 1.

Ark. Times: Leslie Peacock is on hand for the Arkansas Supreme Court arguments in the case challenging the initiated act that prohibits adoptions and foster parenting by cohabiting couples. It was passed to keep children out of the homes of same-sex partners, who are prohibited from marriage in Arkansas, but also applies to heterosexual couples who are unmarried.

KSPR.com: “The bill by Rep. Andy Mayberry of Hensley received nine favorable votes Wednesday in the Public Health Committee, not enough to advance from the 20-member panel.”

The measure protects children who are adopted or placed into foster care, but an Arkansas judge struck down the law in a ruling last April that errantly characterized voters as attempting to target “homosexual couples…one politically unpopular group.” Act 1 clearly states that it “applies equally to cohabiting opposite-sex and same-sex individuals.”

Arkansas Online: “Arkansas lawmakers have advanced a bill to lay out guidelines for public schools that want to offer elective courses on the Bible.”

LifeNews: “But the House Public Health Welfare and Labor Committee tabled the bill after Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, a Democrat, attached an amendment to the bill on an 11-8 vote that would allow abortion funding in cases of rape and incest.”

LifeSiteNews: “Senate Bill 113, sponsored by Republican Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, maintains that “Health insurance exchange coverage of abortions in the state health insurance exchange [is] prohibited.” It will now go to the state House for a vote.”

KATV (AP): “The Arkansas Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in an appeal over a state law that prohibits unmarried couples who live together from fostering or adopting children.”

CNBC: “The Arkansas Legislature is wrapping up its week with action on legislation addressing abortion coverage under the health care overhaul and attorney’s fees for the indigent.”

KTTS: “The Branson Board of Aldermen say the city should give the motto ‘In God We Trust’ a prominent display at city hall.”

ABC: “A grocery store in Arkansas reversed its decision to put a ‘family shield’ over the cover of the current issue of Us Weekly that showed a picture of Elton John and his partner David Furnish with their new baby Zachary.”

Hot Springs Village Voice [subscription required]: “Quietly making the rounds inside Hot Springs Village recently was Doug Meyer, director of development for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). The non-profit organization began its work in 1994 and works as a legal alliance with other entities to defend the right to hear and speak the truth through strategies, training, funding and litigation.”

KSPR: “A graduation gift came early for a Marion High School senior. Sarah Lloyd will be able to wear a tuxedo for her picture in the school yearbook. The Crittenden County School Board voted Tuesday night to allow the teen to wear the formal outfit.”

Knoxville News Sentinel: “From a black Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Memphis native, watched two soldiers in fatigues smoking outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock. He aimed an assault rifle out the window and fired . . . ‘It’s a war going on against Muslims, and that is why I did it,’ an officer heard him say. ‘You see how I gave up with no problem.’”

Associated Press: “An Arkansas school board member who said on Facebook that he wanted homosexual students to kill themselves has resigned from the panel.”

ACLU: “The American Civil Liberties Union today asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to uphold a lower court ruling striking down a law that bans any unmarried person who lives with a partner, including those in same-sex relationships, from serving as an adoptive or foster parent in the state of Arkansas. In April, the Pulaski County Circuit Court found that the law, known as Act 1, did not serve the state’s interest in determining what is best for children. The state of Arkansas is challenging the circuit court’s ruling.”

Human Rights Campaign: “The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today once again called upon Clint McCance – a Midland School Board Member from Arkansas – to resign following an anti-gay tirade he unleashed on Facebook in response to national Spirit Day last week.”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and allied attorneys are working to defend Act 1, the voter-approved measure that protects children who are adopted or placed in foster care . . . ‘It says when it comes to foster and adoptive children — those children that are most in need of homes — the state of Arkansas places a premium on putting those children in homes consisting of a married mother and father. The law does not allow children to be placed in unstable cohabiting environments,” explains ADF attorney [Byron Babione].” ADF News Release

ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg appeared on the Mike Gallagher Show to discuss ADF’s involvement in defending Arkansas’ adoption law. | MP3 audio 6:11 mins

KTHV: “The Arkansas attorney general’s office is asking the state supreme court to uphold an adoption ban, voters approved two years ago. It bans unmarried couples who live together, from adopting a child in the state. Some argue it is a law that targets homosexuals and a lower court overturned it.”

Attorneys and allied attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed their opening brief with the Arkansas Supreme Court Wednesday in defense of Act 1, a voter-approved measure that protects children who are adopted or placed into foster care. An Arkansas judge struck down the law in April in a decision that erroneously characterized voters as attempting to target “homosexual couples…one politically unpopular group” even though the law does not do so.

Delaware Online (AP): “Arguments before the state Supreme Court will be webcast live starting this week, a first for a court that’s admittedly slow to embrace change, Chief Justice Jim Hannah said Tuesday.”

Texarkana Gazette: “The Searcy City Council, which last month approved an ordinance allowing the national motto, ‘In God We Trust,’ to be displayed on city property, has been urged by a national group to cease holding prayers at its regular meetings. Mayor Belinda LaForce said a group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the city a three-page letter arguing that praying in public at council meetings is unconstitutional, as a violation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion.”

KATV: “The trial of two men and their corporation accused of promoting obscene material ended in a not guilty verdict late Friday night at the St. Francis County Courthouse . . . The brothers and J&W Investments, Inc., were charged in November of 2008 with two counts of selling or promoting obscene materials after confidential informants with the sheriff’s department purchased movies from Adult World locations on Hwy. 38 near Interstate 40 at Widener.”

Associated Press: “Vending machines that dispense lottery tickets are headed to Arkansas retailers, after a legislative committee reviewed rules governing the machines but took no action.”

El Dorado News-Times: “The El Dorado registered nurse who has been charged with performing an unlawful abortion on a 20-year-old El Dorado resident waived her first appearance Wednesday in Union County District Court.”

Arkansas Times: “The Arkansas chapter of the ACLU says it is satisfied with North Little Rock’s response to a complaint about the sectarian prayers that have routinely opened City Council meetings. … ‘The city responded to the ACLU and indicated that it would use a system of rotational prayer that would include other faiths as well as non-sectarian prayer.’”

LifeNews: “The national pro-life women’s group Susan B. Anthony List issued a round of endorsements today for pro-life candidates in Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Nevada. SBA List backed two women and two men who face opposition from pro-abortion women in their races for Congress.”

LifeSiteNews: “A 10-year-old boy is being used as Grand Marshal of an Arkansas homosexual pride parade this weekend. The move has attracted opposition from pro-family leaders, who have decried the movement’s exposure of the boy to the lewd festival of sexual deviancy as ‘a form of child abuse.’ The boy, Will Phillips, attracted national media attention last year after he refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance at school, saying that homosexuals are refused ‘liberty and justice’ because the government defines marriage as between a man and a woman.”

AP: “In winning the Senate primary Tuesday, Lincoln overcame a flood of outside money from labor unions and liberal groups that had backed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s challenge. She’ll fight for her seat against Republican Rep. John Boozman in the fall.”

The Hill: “Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) survived a hard fought primary against Democratic challenger Bill Halter . . . With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Lincoln had 51.7 percent of the vote to Halter’s 48.3 percent.”

The Hill: “Organized labor faces an Arkansas showdown with the Democratic establishment on Tuesday. Unions and their allies have spent more than $6.5 million to take down Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and turn Arkansas into yet another symptom of a national anti-incumbent mood.”

LA Times: “This was no ‘tea party’ rally. These were Democrats. But their feelings had a lot in common with their disgruntled counterparts on the right — anti-spending, anti-bailout and, most of all, anti-incumbent. The fact that such feelings are boiling up at both ends of the political spectrum speaks volumes about the angry, topsy-turvy political climate . . . ”

Center for American Progress: “An analysis of the battle over same-sex adoption in Arkansas points out the importance of several key factors necessary for success. These factors include:
Early mobilization
Statewide grassroots outreach
Alliances between faith and advocacy groups
Rapid response to conservative scare tactics
Faith-based messages targeted to particular faith communities with messengers from those communities
But perhaps the most important factor we found is the need to build strong partnerships among faith communities and advocacy groups—ones that can create effective faith-based messaging. Such efforts should be undertaken not for their strategic value but because it is the right thing to do.” (Full Report)

ADF attorney Byron Babione appeared on the Jody Hice Show to provide an update on the Arkansas Act 1 Adoption Initiative litigation. | MP3 5:43 mins | ADF Media information: Cole v. Arkansas Department of Human Services resource page

Recognition of Non-Biological, Non-Adoptive Parents in Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, and Utah: A De Facto Doctrine to Protect the Best Interests of the Child
D’Arcy L. Reinhard, 13 J. Gender Race & Just. 441 (2010)

“It is in the best interests of a child to continue a relationship with a NBNA [non-biological, non-adoptive] parent if the homosexual couple breaks up. In the four states examined in this Note–Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, and Utah–the only way to secure that relationship is through the state courts. NBNA parents need standing to bring child visitation cases in those courts. Plaintiffs can find a basis for standing in the unique statutes and case law of each of these four states. The courts in these four states should adopt a standard test to determine if an individual NBNA parent qualifies for standing.”

OneNewsNow: “An appeal is planned to the highest court in Arkansas after a judge there decided to strike down a state law passed by voters to protect children who are adopted or placed into foster care . . . ‘They’re looking to strike down a law that does nothing but protect children,’ [Byron Babione] contends. ‘[It] is a law that’s been passed by an overwhelming number of the people in a direct vote through the ballot initiative.’”

North Little Rock Times: “The Arkansas Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is still considering a lawsuit against North Little Rock for its practice of opening City Council meetings with prayer . . . ”

OneNewsNow: “An Arkansas school district is prohibiting a mother and her daughter from participating in a school literature distribution program because their flyers were ‘church-related’ . . . ‘Groups like the 4-H Club, the Boy Scouts, youth sports, summer camps — all those groups are allowed to pass out flyers,’ notes ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman.”

Attorneys and allied attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund will appeal an Arkansas judge’s decision to strike down a state law passed by voters to protect children who are adopted or placed into foster care

Arkansas’s Unmarried Couple Adoption Ban: Depriving Children of Families
Catherine L. Hartz, 63 Ark. L. Rev. 113 (2010)

“The purpose of this article is to explore the history of the Initiative in limiting the foster and adoptive rights of cohabitating couples in Arkansas and the arguments for and against the ban. In doing so, this article will explain why Initiated Act 1 is unconstitutional, and how it will have a detrimental effect on the best interests of children in foster care in Arkansas.”