Tag Archives: State: Minnesota

KEYC: The Mankato City Council votes to oppose an amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota.

Byron York at Townhall: Still, that’s a total of 243 people either convicted of voter fraud or awaiting trial in an election that was decided by 312 votes.

Mary Thom at DL-Online: Calling this homophobic, bigoted hate speech is a smoke screen since we do not hate or have a fear of the homosexual. However, we cannot afford to be tolerant of something which will adversely affect our society. Vote “yes” to preserve one woman/one man marriage and promote the good health of Minnesota’s society for future generations.

LifeSiteNews: Although the Boy Scouts of America recently reaffirmed a policy against having open homosexuals as members, at least some local councils say they don’t consider the policy actually binding on their own operations.

The Atlantic: The pro-gay-marriage side currently leads in the latest polls of the ballot measures in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. Here’s a breakdown of where things stand on the question of whether gay marriage should be legalized in each state . . .

NECN.com: A referee in Hennepin County District Court has found that Minnesota’s Defense of Marriage Act does not deny same-sex partners the “benefits of marriage,” including the right to inherit each other’s assets.

LifeSiteNews: Despite the much-publicized claims that Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie is disinvited from speaking at the Roman Catholic St. Joan of Arc Church, a spokesman for the church says the speaking engagement is only postponed until an unspecified date.

Catholic Culture: Ritchie angered supporters of the referendum by unilaterally changing the title of the measure that will appear on the state ballot in November. He is currently being sued by proponents of the referendum for taking that step. The Secretary of State’s speech at St. Joan of Arc parish was canceled . . .

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will be available for media interviews following his oral argument before the Minnesota Supreme Court Tuesday disputing the ballot title Secretary of State Mark Ritchie assigned to the Minnesota marriage amendment.

MinnPost.com: The Fargo Forum — flagship paper of a chain that owns several Minnesota papers — is under fire for rejecting a same-sex couple’s announcement of their legal marriage in New York.

TwinCities.com: A new poll of likely Minnesota voters showed a 15 percent lead in favor of the constitutional amendment

Minnesota Lawyer: With less fanfare, a group of attorneys working to get the amendment passed has been adding members and rolling out a campaign of its own. Lawyers for Marriage, a group affiliated with larger Minnesotans for Marriage, formed last month. About 40 attorneys have joined, and organizers expect more to step forward.

Duluth Tribune: Minnesotans United for All Families, the largest group opposing the amendment, held a 6-to-1 fundraising advantage over the main group backing the amendment from Jan. 1 to July 10, according to financial reports filed this week

(AP) KGWN.tv: Part Karl Rove and part Pat Robertson, Schubert is managing four statewide campaigns where the issue is on the ballot in the fall – in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. He’s trying to preserve a winning streak in which conservatives have put anti-gay marriage laws on the books in 32 states in the last decade.

Jamaica-Gleaner.com: The legal, business information and media company Thomson Reuters said Friday that an amendment to ban gay marriage in Minnesota would be bad for business.

MN Daily: John Capistrant, president of the anti-abortion student group Students for Human Life, said the decrease in abortion rates is related to the anti-abortion resources made available through pregnancy crisis centers and life care centers. “By making it known that there are other options out there, it is making women seek those options first before terminating their pregnancies,” Capistrant said.

MPR: Supporters of the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota are crying foul over Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s proposal to rename the measure on the ballot.

HomeTownSource.com: Supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage have long argued that passage would stave off legal challenges to the state law that already outlaws same-sex marriage. And some attorneys say to a degree that idea is correct. “Well, yes and no,” said Teresa Nelson, legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota.

Star Tribune: Setting up a possible legal showdown, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has scrapped the title of an amendment to ban same-sex marriage, drafted by supporters, and replaced it with one that echoes the campaign to defeat it.

MPR: he issue of who should be able to marry divides families, churches, towns and political parties. That’s evident on the Range, a socially conservative DFL stronghold where both sides hope to win — and where feelings about the amendment run deep.

Pioneer Press: It fueled cheers and jeers, but the chief executive of General Mills said he’s seen no sales impact from the company’s opposition to the Minnesota marriage amendment.

MPR: “The purpose of the rally is to send a message to General Mills and all Minnesota companies that marriage matters to a majority of Minnesotans,” Darrell said.

MN Post: The Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi law firm has become the latest Minnesota business — and one of the largest — to formally declare its opposition to a proposed amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage.

Star Tribune: The Minnesota group aiming to defeat the proposed same-sex marriage ban was loud and proud at the Twin Cities Pride festival.

Laura Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute at the Star Tribune: It’s clear that the Rev. John Piper directed his church members to vote to approve the amendment.

Rev. John Piper at the Desiring God Blog: is almost impossible to express a compassionate disapproval of homosexual practice without being demonized. But this is not an entirely new situation for the church. On the one hand the state of our culture seems to have changed with lightening speed. On the other hand it may not be as new as it seems. Consider what it must have been like for Christianity to take root in a totally pagan and debauched culture in the first century.

Minnesota for Marriage: “Lawyers for Marriage,” an organization of Minnesota attorneys in support of the proposed Marriage Protection Amendment on the November ballot, has been formed to campaign in support of the amendment. The organization was formed to be a resource for understanding the legal and social importance of Minnesota’s existing legal definition of marriage.

Business Week: “They don’t want to be the first ones in the pool. Well, guess what? I jumped in the pool first. The water’s just fine,” Taft said in an interview at his downtown Minneapolis office. “My goal is to have several hundred high-profile business executives declare themselves in opposition to the marriage amendment sometime between now and the election,” Taft added. “And I am very confident we are going to be able to do that.”

TwinCities.com: “We do not believe the proposed constitutional amendment is in the best interests of our employees or our state economy — and as a Minnesota-based company we oppose it,” the foodmaker said in a statement.

Minneapolis Star Tribune: A lawsuit could follow after St. Anthony City Council voted 4-1 against proposal, citing land use and zoning.

AP on Google: States that could see renewed efforts to pass anti-union measures in the wake of Wisconsin’s recall election . . .

TPM: The poll, conducted by the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling (PPP), shows 49 percent of Minnesota voters do not believe the state constitution should be amended to ensure legal recognition for only unions between a man and a woman.

Religion Clause Blog: In United States v. Ali, (8th Cir., June 4, 2012), the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated 19 criminal contempt citations issued by a Minnesota federal district court against a Muslim defendant who, for religious reasons, refused to stand when the court convened and recessed.

Jordan Lorence on the Hugh Hewitt Show a couple of weeks ago to survey the landscape. | MP3 audio 5:26 mins

CBS: The reverend of a St. Paul church says he needs to raise $200,000 to pay off a church loan after most of his followers left because of his support for gay marriage. The Rev. Oliver White runs Grace Community United Church of Christ in St. Paul

One News Now: Minneapolis Special School District No. 1 has revoked Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) of Minnesota’s after-school program, as the district claims the group was proselytizing. Steve Crampton of Liberty Counsel, the non-profit litigation organization representing the club, says participants in after-school programs are engaged in private, not public, speech.

Religion Clause Blog reports.

AP: Minnesota grand jury has indicted a national right-to-die group and several members for their actions in the 2007 suicide of a suburban Minneapolis woman.

Jordan Lorence appeared on 3WIRadio, Eye Opener with Lon Schmidt. | MP3 audio 22:45 mins (recorded last week)

Judge Steve Leben and Judge Kevin S. Burke at MinnPost: In election years, judges frequently come under attack for a specific decision. And since judges generally can’t comment publicly about pending cases beyond what was said in the decision itself, judges can be an easy target.

MN Star Tribune: The governor issued an expected veto Monday of a bill that would have required physicians to be physically present every time an abortion pill like RU-486 is prescribed, and again every time such a pill is swallowed

Duluth News Tribune: Northland-area Lutherans are opposed to amending the Minnesota Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

Star Tribune: The bill, sponsored by Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan,would have required the state to license any clinic that provides 10 or more abortions a month

LifeNews: The Minnesota Senate approved the ban on a 39-25 vote yesterday. H.F. 2341, authored by Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-Brainerd, would stop dangerous webcam abortions by requiring that a physician be physically present when administering the drugs for an abortion using the dangerous mifepristone drug.

KAALtv.com: The Minnesota House has sent Gov. Mark Dayton a bill to require abortion facilities to pay license fees and undergo inspections.

Jonathan Scruggs on the Hugh Hewitt Show | MP3 audio 5:43 mins

Minnesota Post: On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court declined to review a case brought by three same-sex couples who claiming the Minnesota Defense of Marriage Act discriminates against them and against the son of one of the pairs.

Star Tribune: If a woman is going to take an abortion pill like RU-486, she should do it in the presence of a doctor, the House voted Wednesday.

Jonathan Scruggs on the Word of Truth Radio Program to discuss this: Minneapolis board sued for relegating free speech to empty park space. | MP3 audio 11:09 mins

Politico: President Obama’s reelection campaign announces his opposition to an anti-same-sex marriage ballot initiative in Minnesota, Metro Weekly reports . . .

Citizen Link: “The government should not be exiling free speech, it should be protecting it,” said lead counsel Nate Kellum. “It’s ridiculous to say that the only place where people can hand out Bibles is an area where there’s no one to hand Bibles to. The Constitution simply does not permit the board to relegate free speech to isolated regions where no one can receive the message.

Opposing Views: The conservative Alliance Defense Fund, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Johnson, claims that park board rules “banning literature distribution in Loring Park… violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, made applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment.”

WorldNetDaily: “The government should not be exiling free speech, it should be protecting it,” said Nate Kellum, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is assisting Johnson. “It’s ridiculous to say that the only place where people can hand out Bibles is an area where there’s no one to hand Bibles to. The Constitution simply does not permit the board to relegate free speech to isolated regions where no one can receive the message. That’s not free speech at all. It’s pure censorship.” . . . ADF-allied attorney Stan Zahorsky is serving as local counsel in the case, Johnson v. Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

City park board agrees with Pride Festival that people handing out Bibles must be exiled to ‘no pride zone’

Sacramento Bee (AP): It’s an election subplot sure to stir up heated emotions – even beyond the confines of North Carolina, Minnesota, Maryland, Maine and Washington.

Webpronews.com: The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by the ACLU of Minnesota, and claimed the Minneapolis area school in question disciplined a 12-year-old after she’d posted on Facebook that she ‘hated’ a hall monitor that had been ‘mean’ to her. School principal Pat Falk deemed the comments to be bullying, and gave the girl detention and forced her to apologize.

AP: Minnesota’s largest school district on Monday voted to settle a pair of lawsuits over a policy that was criticized for failing to protect gay students from bullying.

Minneapolis Star Tribune: The bills passed by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee would:
– Require a new license and inspections for any “clinic, health center or other facility” that performs ten or more abortions per month.
– Require a doctor’s presence when an abortion-inducing drug such as RU-486 is administered, and would prohibit the physician from participating via video conference. Anyone violating the law would be guilty of a felony.

MPRNews: “A lawsuit brought by three same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses in Hennepin County may be headed to the Minnesota Supreme Court on a technical matter.”

Politics in Minnesota: The Board of Directors for the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is preparing a 2012 push to defeat the constitutional amendments backed by Republican majorities at the Capitol — all of them.

The Austin Daily Herald: A Hollandale man has been charged with marrying a woman even though he is already married to another. Wayne Allen DeMay, 41, faces one felony count of bigamy in Freeborn County District Court.

CBS News: The former Pennsylvania senator came out on top in the voting in all three contests Tuesday night, including an unexpected five-point victory in Colorado’s caucuses. Santorum also won the Minnesota caucuses, by an 18-point margin, and he won by 30 points in the Missouri primary.

Minnesota Public Radio News: he largest group working to defeat a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage said it has raised more than $1.2 million in cash and in-kind contributions.

OneNewsNow.com: “No provision of the Minnesota Constitution gives individuals the right to redefine marriage and force that definition on everyone else,” says Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Jim Campbell. “The union between husband and wife benefits society, especially children, in unique and special ways that could not be duplicated by any other relationship.”

Washington Times: “Voters can make sure that this courts ruling is not the final word. The final word belongs to the people of Minnesota, not judges,” said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented the Minnesota Family Council in a friend-of-the-court brief in support of traditional marriage.

Eagan, MN Patch: On Tuesday night, the council is expected to hold a discussion on a proposed domestic partner registry ordinance, among other items. The Eagan City Council is holding a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday night in the Eagan City Hall.

Crosswalk Religion Today News (12/28): The city backed up the event organizers, but the federal court ruled in favor of the men’s First Amendment rights. Alliance Defense Fund litigation staff counsel Jonathan Scruggs applauded the ruling: “The court made the right decision in suspending the ban so that people can share their faith in a nondisruptive manner.”

Norman Transcript (AP) (12/25): The preachers’ attorney, Jonathan Scruggs, of Memphis, Tenn., had argued that the public retains its rights to free speech and freedom of religion while attending a public event on public property. But he acknowledged that the city and the Bentleyville group could alter the contract to try to get around Davis’ ruling. “We would then evaluate that,” said Scruggs, who works with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. “We take them as they come.”

StarTribune.com: In a church-state dispute with echoes across the country, a Wayzata congregation has won its battle to build a new church in a residential neighborhood.

MPR News: Attorney Jonathan Scruggs with the Christian group Alliance Defense Fund says the judge upheld the plaintiffs’ main complaint. “And that is, the city cannot ban the First Amendment in a public park just because event officials don’t like the message that a person is sharing.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Jankowski v. City of Duluth, (D MN, Dec. 20, 2011), a Minnesota federal district court granted a preliminary injunction to prevent city of Duluth police officers from interfering with activities of two street preachers at the Bentleyville Tour of Lights . . . An Alliance Defense Fund press release reports on the court’s decision.

Duluth News Tribune: Attorney Jonathan Scruggs of the Alliance Defense Fund represented Jankowski and Scott. “We’re thrilled with the ruling,” Scruggs said in a phone interview from Memphis, Tenn., on Tuesday. “We believe that the decision correctly applied First Amendment principles and returned free speech to Bayfront Festival Park.”

Bellingham Herald: The preachers’ attorney, Jonathan Scruggs, of Memphis, Tenn., had argued that the public retains its rights to free speech and freedom of religion while attending a public event on public property. But he acknowledged that the city and the Bentleyville group could alter the contract to try to get around Davis’ ruling. “We would then evaluate that,” said Scruggs, who works with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. “We take them as they come.”

A federal court issued an order Tuesday that prevents the city of Duluth from enforcing a First Amendment ban on people desiring to share their faith at a city park during the “Bentleyville Tour of Lights” event.