Tag Archives: State: Connecticut

LifeNews: Liberal billionaire George Soros has apparently found a new cause to put his money behind, having already supported President Barack Obama, liberal candidates and abortion. His new venture appears to be assisted suicide.

NY Daily News: The case of a same-sex Connecticut couple accused of repeatedly raping and abusing two of their nine adopted boys is headed for trial.

Keepers, Inc. v. City of Milford, Conn., Civ. No. 3:07-CV-1231 (D. Conn. Mar. 30, 2013) Excerpts from the 98 page ruling: Plaintiff Keepers, Inc. (“Keepers”) is a Connecticut corporation operating a cabaret-style nightclub in Milford. The establishment features live clothed …

LifeNews: Lawmakers in the Connecticut legislature have introduced a bill to legalize assisted suicide, in what would make it the third to do so. Defeating this anti-life bill will be the highest legislative priority of the Family Institute of Connecticut Action in 2013.

Huffington Post: New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley plan to file a friend-of-the-court brief on Friday, their offices said. Officials in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia, will join the amicus brief.

Hartford Courant: A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut said during a public hearing before the joint committee on children Tuesday that the group opposes a bill that would restrict children’s access to certain video games.

Catherine Glenn Foster at Christian Post: Connecticut state senator Ed Meyer’s bill to create “physician-assisted suicide” is not simply an attack on human life generally, but on elder or infirm adults and otherwise-disabled individuals especially. And it is certainly a step too far for Connecticut citizens who appreciate life.

Boston Globe (AP): The Democrat on Thursday announced he has tapped Superior Court Judge Christine Keller to serve on the Connecticut Appellate Court. Keller is married to former House Speaker Thomas Ritter of Hartford.

Religion Clause Blog: In New England Prayer Center, Inc. v. Planning & Zoning Commission of the Town of Easton, 2012 Conn. Super. LEXIS 3063 (CT Super, Dec. 13, 2012), the New England Prayer Center sought a special permit so it could build a house of worship on land it leased from the town.

Hartford Courant: Gov. Dannel P. Malloy nominated state Appellate Court Judge Carmen Espinosa on Monday to become the first Hispanic justice of the state Supreme Court.

Religion Clause Blog: The Day reports that on Friday, the Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut filed suit in federal district court challenging the decision by the Norwich city planning commission not to extend a temporary permit allowing the St. Vincent de Paul Place soup kitchen to continue to operate in a former Catholic school building

Religion Clause Blog: Rejecting the husband’s contention that the prenuptial agreement was a religious document that is not enforceable by a secular court, the court held that it can adjudicate the claim using neutral principles of law. . .

WTNH.com: Police in Torrington are searching for a baby Jesus statue that was stolen from a nativity scene in Christmas Village.

Rep-Am.com: The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut has spanked the Region 15 Board of Education after some board members said they wanted to require students to say the Pledge of Allegiance at school.

JewishVoiceNY.com: Americans United for Separation of Church and State claims that the yeshiva violated this expected separation when it received undue economic gain from the city government and did not provide comparable value in return. In 2001, the Orthodox educational institution completed a lease agreement with the City of Waterbury that granted it the use of the University of Connecticut’s campus, which had been left unoccupied after the college relocated downtown. The yeshiva committed to pay a monthly rent of $5,000, with an additional three percent increase annually.

7DVT.com: Their attorney is Michael DePrimo, a First Amendment lawyer based in Hamden, Conn. He formerly worked as special assistant to the president of the American Family Association, a Christian group that rails against abortion, pornography and same-sex marriage. In a 2004 article for American Family Association Journal, DePrimo wrote that acceptance of same-sex marriage “may well signal the beginning of the end of Western civilization.” . . . DePrimo fought the Massachusetts case with financial backing from the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian legal firm dedicated to defending “family values.” He’s taken the Burlington case pro bono and wouldn’t speculate about whether the ADF, now called the Alliance Defending Freedom, might bankroll it. DePrimo says his clients are peaceful people who have the right to engage in “sidewalk counseling” with women and couples entering Planned Parenthood. “Planned Parenthood does not want pro-life speech to reach their patrons,” DePrimo says by phone from Connecticut. “That’s what this ordinance is really about. That’s not what it says, but that’s the real purpose behind it.”

Easthaven.Patch.com: Connecticut and two other states say that the federal “Defense of Marriage Act” is unconstitutional. And the three have jointly filed a friends of the court brief in a case pending in federal court of appeals.

Findlaw: It happened several weeks ago when Fraga woke up to find her Virgin Mary statue sitting headless in the front yard. A week after that a gnome was placed on the statue where the head used to be. Needlessly cruel mischief? Likely. But hate crime? The police don’t agree. Although there are no leads and no suspects, police don’t think it was a hate crime, reports NECN. They think it was vandalism rather than motivated by bigotry.

Connecticut Law Tribune: Connecticut Bar Association leaders have voted in favor of joining amicus briefs in support of federal benefits for same-sex couples, a decision that has drawn mixed reactions from CBA members.

Washington Blade: Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders is asking the Supreme Court to take up the case of Pedersen et al v. Office of Personnel Management after U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant of Connecticut last month ruled against Section 3 of DOMA as a result of the litigation. The organization had earlier called on the high court to take up its case of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, which led the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn DOMA.

William Duncan at National Review Online: In trying to distinguish a U.S. Supreme Court decision summarily dismissing a constitutional claim for same-sex marriage from the early 1970s, yesterday’s decision said: “Baker presented a state constitutional question while this case presents a United States constitutional question” (page 23). Here are the issues (see page 14) presented to the Supreme Court in Baker:

The ruling in Pedersen v. Office of Personnel Management, No. 3:10-cv-1750 (VLB) (D. Conn. July 31, 2012)

AP on Google News: Republican candidate for a Connecticut seat in the U.S. House of Representatives says he did not mean to disparage “peace-loving Muslims” by calling Islam a cult and questioning if it is a religion of peace.

Religion Clause Blog: The Enfield, Connecticut School Board voted 6-3 on Wednesday night to settle a lawsuit brought against it by the ACLU and Americans United challenging its holding graduation exercises in a Christian church.

One News Now: Matt Sharp of the Alliance for Defending Freedom does not agree. “To us, the standard ought to be if it’s in the best interest of the school, that they’ve got good, non-religious reasons of it’s most cost-effective and the best facilities available, that should end the inquiry about whether or not the school can use the church facilities without having to cover up any religious symbols or anything,” he offers

Enfield Patch: The Enfield Board of Education held a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss a proposed settlement of a lawsuit filed two years ago, pertaining to the board’s former practice of holding high school graduations at the First Cathedral Church in Bloomfield.

Religion Clause Blog: The Hour reports that Norwalk, Connecticut’s Al-Madany Islamic Center last week filed a suit in federal district court . . .

AP: Here’s a look at the 10 states with the lowest funding percentages in 2010, according a new report from the Pew Center on the States . . .

Alan Sears at the ADF Blog: One of the primary goals for the Alliance Defense Fund is to transform what tomorrow looks like in America for your children and grandchildren. Two important cases last month – involving the right of children like yours to live out their faith freely on their tax-funded high school campuses – underscore just how committed we are to that crucial goal.

One News Now: “We’re not sure if this was ignorance or hostility,” Sharp comments. “We know that there was some history with hostility towards Christian groups there at the school and pressure in the past to form interfaith clubs.” . . . “The Equal Access Act in the Constitution both protected the right of students to form uniquely Christian clubs or clubs of any faith and to maintain the religious identity of that club without interference from school officials,” the attorney explains.

Christian student club told it must unite with other faiths to receive approval

Westport.patch.com: When asked during a debate Sunday if they would support, as a concept, a federal law requiring Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, some Democratic Senate candidates indicated they would. The bishops object.

CBS: Opposing groups supporting and opposing abortion clashed this morning at the University of Connecticut.

Religion Clause Blog: In Kubala v. Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp., (CT App., March 27, 2012), a Connecticut appeals court adopted the trial court’s opinion (see prior posting) and dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a suit brought against a Catholic priest, his church and the Hartford Diocese . . .

Eugene Volokh discusses the proposed legislation at the Volokh Conspiracy.

Freedom From Religion Foundation: In a Jan. 10 letter of complaint to Mayor John DeStefano of New Haven, Conn., the Freedom From Religion Foundation cautioned the city against “taking an unconstitutional proposal to ‘put prayer back in schools’ seriously.” Newly elected City Clerk Ronald Smith proposed prayer as a technique to lower crime rates at his inauguration ceremony

Courthouse News Service: The ACLU, American Jewish Committee, American Center for Law and Justice and Alliance Defense Fund all filed amicus briefs in the case.

BabyCenter: According to the article, an increasing number of grandparents are challenging state visitation laws, which they believe are overly restrictive, yet, at the same time, inconsistent from state to state.

News from The Associated Press: The mother of a Connecticut man facing a possible death sentence for killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion testified Monday she suspected he was visiting hundreds of pornographic adult websites days before the crime.

Connecticut Post: The item, introduced by Councilman Robert Walsh, D-132, in May, would have required “sexually oriented” establishments to obtain annual licenses.

Beliefnet News: Members of the football team stomped out of a Hartford, Connecticut, high school assembly when a pro-homosexual advocacy play featured two boys kissing on stage.

The Middletown Press: Abortion providers in Connecticut may be underreporting the number of procedures to the state Department of Public Health, which could mean those providers are not complying with other laws, such as counseling pregnant women before they receive an abortion, according to the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference.

LifeSiteNews.com: Several students at a Hartford high school expressed horror and left the auditorium when two male members of a city-funded school play shared a passionate kiss onstage on Friday. School officials said they opted against informing parents about the event ahead of time, saying that the students needed exposure to homosexuality, and hailed the “chaotic” reaction as a victory for raising the gay issue.

In what experts say is the first case of its kind, a disabled Navy veteran from Connecticut is challenging the constitutionality of two federal laws that define marriage as being between opposite-sex partners, saying the government denied her veterans benefits because she is married to a woman.

Religion Clause: In Dayner v. Archdiocese of Hartford, (CT Sup. Ct., release date 8/2/2011), the Connecticut Supreme Court adopted the Second Circuit’s version of the “ministerial exception” doctrine and dismissed claims by the principal of a Catholic school that she she was wrongfully terminated from her position. In reaching this conclusion the court focused on a split among circuits . . .

Courant.com: The U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee approved U.S. District Judge Christopher Droney’s nomination to the federal appeals court by a unanimous voice vote Thursday morning, sending the appointment to almost certain approval in the full Senate.

Bay Windows (“New England’s largest publication for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered reader”): Legislation bars discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

Religion Clause: In Kubala v. Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan, 2011 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1260 (CT Super. Ct., May 20, 2011), a Connecticut state trial court dismissed a lawsuit brought against a Catholic priest, his church and the Hartford Diocese seeking damages for injuries plaintiff received when, during a Catholic Charismatic Renewal healing service she was physically injured.

LifeSiteNews.com: If minors require parental consent to use a tanning bed, shouldn’t they also require it to get an abortion? That was the seemingly commonsense thinking behind a Connecticut senator’s move to amend a bill that was before the state senate – a move that ultimately contributed to the bill’s demise.

Hartford Courant: The measure, which passed on a largely party-line vote of 20-16, seeks to bar discrimination in the workplace or while seeking housing or obtaining credit based on gender identity and expression. I

NBCConnecticut.com: Connecticut lawmakers have passed a bill providing protection from gender identity discrimination.

How Appealing links a news report and the ruling in Doninger v. Niehoff.

Hartford Courant: The General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee ran out of time Wednesday to act on the legislation. A new date for a committee vote, one of the first steps in the legislative process, has not yet been scheduled.

Hartford Courant: Judge Lubbie Harper told his life story Friday to the legislature’s judiciary committee, which later approved his nomination to the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Religion Clause Blog: “Yesterday’s Hartford Courant reports that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division is seeking approval from the Solicitor General’s office to intervene to defend the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act which is being challenged by defendants in a Connecticut federal district court lawsuit.”

Christian Science Monitor: So far, five senators have announced that they will retire at the end of of their terms rather than seek reelection. With the 2012 campaigns not far off, the departures of these incumbents are shaking things up. Here’s how.”

Blog of the Legal Times: “Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is recommending a Day Pitney partner and a former Cravath, Swaine & Moore partner for vacancies on the busy federal bench in Manhattan.”

LifeNews: “Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, one of the most prominent members of the US Senate, announced this week he would not seek reelection in 2012 . . . Connecticut is incredibly favorable to pro-abortion candidates.”

Leonard Link: “The Connecticut Supreme Court unanimously ruled on January 7 that state laws governing parental status should be construed to authorize listing a same-sex co-parent on the birth certificates of children conceived pursuant to a gestational surrogacy agreement, even though the co-parent has no genetic relationship to the children. In Raftopol v. Ramey, SC 18482, the court rejected the state’s argument that the co-parent would have to go through a second-parent adoption proceeding in order to be listed on the birth certificates . . .”

CNSNews: “The Coast Guard has named the first female superintendent of its academy in Connecticut, and says she will be the first woman to lead a U.S. military service academy.”

Catholic News Agency: “Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut has warned the faithful of his diocese that their fight for religious freedom has just begun, despite the defeat of a law that would have stripped authority from Catholic clergy.”

Edge Boston: “The Defense of Marriage Act faced a two-pronged attack on Nov. 9 as two separate organizations and sets of lawyers, representing different plaintiffs, filed lawsuits in federal court challenging the federal definition of marriage.”

Michael Foust writes at Baptist Press: “‘This is a full-court press against marriage, and it’s one to be concerned about,’ [Dale Schowengerdt], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which opposes the suits, told Baptist Press.”

OneNewsNow: “‘As it stands, there are [at least] four separate lawsuits…challenging the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court right now,’ explains [Dale Showengerdt], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). ‘They’re all basically the same. It represents kind of a full-court press by the left against the Defense of Marriage Act.’”

Christian Post: “The American Civil Liberties Union and Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders both filed lawsuits Tuesday on behalf of same-sex couples trying to receive federal benefits from their partners. In GLAD’s case, the advocate group filed a lawsuit on behalf of five same-sex couples and widowed partner across three states – Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire . . . ADF Legal Council [Dale Schowengerdt] explained that GLAD put multiple plaintiffs on the lawsuit because ‘their legal arguments are a little bit thin and they focus a lot on the stories of these couples and basically make an emotional appeal.’”

Boston.com (AP): “The lawsuits were filed in federal courts in Connecticut and New York and come just months after a federal judge in Boston struck down a key component of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.”

“Ms. Pedersen and Ms. Meitzen plan to file a lawsuit Tuesday against the government in an effort to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that prohibits the federal government from recognizing marriages of same-sex couples.”

Connecticut Law Tribune: “[In Thibodeau v. American Baptist Churches of Connecticut, 120 Conn. App. 666 (2010),] Timothy Thibodeau, an ordained Baptist minister, claimed that American Baptist Churches of Connecticut (Baptist Churches), which provides placement services to Baptist ministers, committed several torts when it declined to recommend him to congregations seeking ministers . . . [The Connecticut Appellate Court] concluded that the First Amendment prohibited civil courts from adjudicating disputes that revolve around church doctrine or church administration.”

Deseret News (LA Times): “The scenic village green of Litchfield has long symbolized the charms of Connecticut small-town life. Settled in 1721, it hosts tourists drawn by its Revolutionary War history . . . This summer, a federal judge ruled that sufficient evidence of ‘discrimination against Jewish people’ may exist, warranting a trial over the Borough of Litchfield’s denial of a Hasidic group’s application to build a synagogue on the west end of Litchfield Green.”

ADF Attorney Joel Oster writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “So let me see if I can understand the left’s agenda. Holding a secular graduation ceremony in a comfortable church auditorium is unconstitutional because of the mere fact the students have to physically be in a church building. But taking public school kids to a mosque, teaching them about Islam, telling them they have to obey Allah, and then leading the boys in a prayer service is just ‘learning about a culture?’ Talk about a double standard.”

Public News Service: “Investigative reporter Jesse Zwick found the Knights openly spent millions in support of California’s gay marriage ban. He says the group also fought marriage equality in Maine, but tried to do so below the radar.”

Associated Press: “The Hartford City Council’s decision to replace a scheduled Islamic prayer with an interfaith moment of silence before its meeting sends the wrong message to Connecticut’s Islamic community, Muslim leaders said.”

Hartford Courant / CityLine: “The Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations will hold a prayer vigil Monday on the steps of city hall to protest the city council’s decision to call off its pre-meeting prayer, which was to be an Islamic invocation.”

Associated Press: “Officials in Connecticut’s capital city say they won’t include Muslim prayers before council meetings after getting mostly negative feedback from the public.”

WTNH: “A battle over religion is heating up in Hartford after the city council invites local Muslim leaders to say prayers before its city council meetings . . . ‘I have my doubts,’ Tom Fitzpatrick of Hartford said. ‘I really don’t want to say them but I do have doubts about the whole thing.’” More from Fox News.