Tag Archives: State: Missouri

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.

LifeNews.com: The Show-Me state has something to show the nation. According to newly-released State Department of Health figures, Missouri women had 1,019 fewer abortions in 2010 than in the previous year – a 9.4 percent decline!

Religion Clause: The National Center for Science Education reported last week that so far this year, six separate anti-evolution bills have been introduced . . .

LifeNews.com: Missouri lawmakers have introduced legislation which would protect the conscience rights of health care workers and religiously-based health care institutions. The proposals would ensure that physicians and nurses would not face employment discrimination for refusing to participate in medical procedures which violate their religious beliefs.

Religion Clause: Yesterday the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals en banc heard oral arguments in Phelps-Roper v. City of Manchester, Missouri.

Religion Clause: A former Lee’s Corner, Missouri police officer, Caleb Horner, last week filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the police department’s refusal to allow him to return to work amounted to religious discrimination.

One News New: The ACLU has written the St. Joseph School District complaining that speakers, arranged through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, are inviting students to religious events at the end of their presentations. But Jeremy Tedesco of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says the speakers are within their constitutional rights. [Jeremy quoted]

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri today filed a lawsuit charging the Salem Public Library and its board of trustees with unconstitutionally blocking access to websites discussing minority religions by improperly classifying them as “occult” or “criminal.”

CBS St. Louis: A Missouri city is fighting back against an adult sex-shop by not turning on the store’s water as the owner takes his case against the town to federal court.

JournalStar.com: federal appeals court on Wednesday agreed to review its decision in a Missouri case that could decide the constitutionality of Nebraska’s funeral picketing law.

KTVI: The court case pitting the long time, same sex partner of a dead state trooper against the state of Missouri will go on at least a few months longer. A Jefferson City judge wants to hear arguments from both sides in the case some time in February.

Passport Magazine: The ACLU and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri will appear in court today to argue on behalf of Kelly Glossip, whose partner, Dennis Engelhard, was a state trooper killed in the line of duty. Missouri offers survivor benefits to spouses of troopers killed in the line of duty, but not to committed same-sex partners.

The Washington Post: A businessman has apologized for briefly posting a sign in the window of his Springfield gelato shop informing those in town for a convention of religious skeptics that they were not welcome at his Christian business.

Missouri families won a major victory today in our state courts. The Missouri Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, upheld the state’s new law regulating sexually oriented businesses

LifeNews: The Missouri affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business has decided to close an abortion-referral clinic it operated in Jefferson City, the state capital, and it will merge the facility with its Columbia office.

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: Springfield, Missouri attorney is spearheading a statewide campaign to restore respect for “In God We Trust” as our national motto. Dee Wampler is leading an effort to convince county commissions and municipal governments to post copies of the national motto on county courthouse walls and in city halls.

CBS News: A federal judge heard arguments Thursday on whether a central Missouri school district should be barred from using Internet filtering software that has prevented automatic access to some websites with information on gay, lesbian and transgender issues.

StLToday.com: About 130 Muslim workers, many of whom are Somali refugees, walked off the job at the plant in Friday because of the dispute.

The Washington Post: Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation Friday repealing a contentious law that had limited online discussions between teachers and students and caused a judge to raise concerns that it infringed on free-speech rights.

St. Louis American: Gov. Jay Nixon made history today by appointing Judge George W. Draper III to the Missouri Supreme Court. Draper will be the second African American in Missouri to serve on the state’s highest court.

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: Six of Missouri’s nine U.S. Congressmen have voted to eliminate abortion funding from President Obama’s federal health care law. The Protect Life Act, sponsored by Congressmen Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Dan Lipinski of Illinois, has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 248-173.

KSDK.com: Two women say they were the victims of discrimination after they were asked to leave St. Louis’ Four Seasons Hotel for kissing.

Shirley and Megan Phelps-Roper brought this First Amendment challenge to a Manchester, Missouri ordinance that regulates protests near funerals.

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: Missouri’s Catholic bishops are calling on the Obama Administration to abandon plans to mandate health care coverage of abortion-inducing drugs . . .

Freedom From Religion Foundation: The Freedom from Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog, is sounding the alarm on unlawful, exploitative activities in public schools by The Gideons International. “It takes constant vigilance to keep the Gideons out of public schools,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

KMBC Kansas City: The complaint specifically alleges that Ratigan, while an employee of the diocese, created child porn involving the plaintiff in the case and many others. When the diocese became aware of Ratigan’s photographs, the diocese and Finn failed to report Ratigan to the police. Instead, they “aided and abetted” Ratigan over a six-month period by covering up his conduct, duplicating and distributing the images he created and collaborating to destroy evidence, the suit alleges.

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: The Missouri Senate has taken action to extend tax credits available to Missouri citizens who donate to pro-life pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes.

Breitbart Big Government: In 2010, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved Prop C, which negated key parts of ObamaCare. Ordinarily, only a legislature can appropriate funds, even if the funds are from the federal government. Stay tuned.

LifeNews.com: Yesterday, the Missouri Senate disappointed pro-life advocates when it passed the Missouri Science Innovation & Reinvestment Act (MOSIRA) without adequate pro-life protections.

OneNewsNow.com: “It’s simply reprehensible that the ACLU and Yale Law School are more concerned about faring their own agenda that exposes children to harm than they are about protecting those children,” Cortman laments. “Certainly, removing porn filters does nothing to end bullying.”

The Monitor – Kansas City Metro Edition: “The ACLU’s ‘Don’t Filter Me Initiative’ would be better named the ‘Public School Porn Initiative,’ says David Cortman, Senior Counsel for ADF. “The ACLU is pushing its radical sexual agenda for children by intimidating school districts with a long string of scare tactics disguised as a concern over censorship. School districts shouldn’t be bullied into exposing students to sexually explicit materials. Our children come first.”

Houston Chronicle (AP): ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman said in a statement that no district should be bullied into exposing children to sexually graphic material. “It’s reprehensible that the ACLU and Yale Law School are more concerned about forwarding an agenda that exposes children to harm than they are about protecting those children,” Cortman said in a news release.

Springfield News-Leader (AP): The Alliance Defense Fund announced Monday that it and the Missouri Family Policy Council filed a brief Friday in defense of the Camdenton R-III School District.

ACLU sued district over filter that screens out sexually explicit Web content

LifeNews.com: On Wednesday night, the Missouri Senate Jobs, Economic Development and Local Government Committee voted “do pass” on two bills that pro-life advocates are concerned will lead to taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: “The ACLU cannot mask its attempts to turn school computers into porn portals for children by expressing a supposed concern for censorship,” says Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. “Parents expect schools to be places where their children learn–not places where they access pornography.”

OneNewsNow.com: Kate Casas says the state is ignoring the provision of the 1993 Outstanding Schools Act, which requires that each district’s board of education provides tuition and transportation for students who want to transfer from schools that lose their accreditation.

ADF Attorney Jeremy Tedesco on the Georgene Rice Show to discuss this: ADF responds to additional ACLU demands that schoolchildren be exposed to porn. | MP3 audio 11 mins | The ACLU press release announcing the initiative in partnership with Yale law school | Yale Daily Herald: Yale Law goes online for LGBT rights

ADF Attorney Dave Cortman on the Drew Mariani Show to discuss this: ADF responds to additional ACLU demands that schoolchildren be exposed to porn. | MP3 audio 7:39 mins | The ACLU press release announcing the initiative in partnership with Yale law school | Yale Daily Herald: Yale Law goes online for LGBT rights

ADF Attorney Jeremy Tedesco on the Don Kroah Show at WAVY to discuss this: ADF responds to additional ACLU demands that schoolchildren be exposed to porn. | MP3 audio 14 mins

ADF Attorney David Cortman on the Bob Dutko Show to discuss the situation. | MP3 audio 7:10 mins

St. Louis Today: A sparse crowd turned out Wednesday to watch candidates for an open seat on the Missouri Supreme Court face questions from the judicial nominating commission, the first time the interview process has been conducted in public

CBN.com: David Cortman, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, told The Christian Post, “School districts shouldn’t be bullied into exposing students to sexually explicit materials.” The ADF has mailed letters to at least eight school districts, urging the schools to reject ACLU’s demands. “We want to make sure that schools don’t unnecessarily cave to the ACLU’s demands,” Mr. Cortman said.

Instinct Magazine: Camdenton blocks LGBT-affirming websites such as the aforementioned by labeling them as “porn.” With the help of notoriously anti-gay “Christian” legal group the Alliance Defense Fund, it has beguiled local parents into agreeing with the faulty connection.

Missouri Family Policy Council: The State Senate sponsor of new student protection legislation is defending the bill against criticism from members of the Missouri educational community. Senator Jane Cunningham says that attacks on the new statute, which regulates online student-teacher communication, are the result of misinformation and misinterpretation. The section in controversy is one paragraph in a 35-page bill designed to combat sexual misconduct between school district employees and students.

Lake View News: The Alliance Defense Fund, an organization who represents victims of the ACLU’s abuses sent our superintendent a letter dated August 8, offering to assist the Camdenton R-III School District in this matter. The administration thanked ADF for its offer and is working with its attorney at this time, declining ADF’s offer.

A new Missouri law prohibiting teachers from having private online conversations with students suffered a double setback Friday.

Lake View News: The Alliance Defense Fund, an organization who represents victims of the ACLU’s abuses sent our superintendent a letter dated August 8, offering to assist the Camdenton R-III School District in this matter. The administration thanked ADF for its offer and is working with its attorney at this time, declining ADF’s offer.

Christian Post: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit filed against a Missouri school district for filtering what it calls “educational lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender content” has no legal grounds or traction and will likely be thrown out, speculated Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) Senior Counsel David Cortman. “There is no basis in law for the claims that the ACLU are making in that case,” he said.

The Hill: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Monday against a Missouri school district for using Internet-filtering software that blocks websites aimed at gays and lesbians.

CBS St. Louis: A group of opponents is preparing to circulate a petition to amend the city’s ordinance on adult-oriented businesses. Their proposal would create a tighter definition of pornography and change the law’s definition of an adult business.

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: Missouri legislative leaders are calling on Attorney General Chris Koster to provide a strong legal defense for the proposed religious liberty amendment to the Missouri Constitution.

Baptist Press: “The Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission, with Krueger as chairman, plans to tackle the problem head-on through two upcoming workshops.”

Missouri Gov, Jay Nixon, who supports legalized abortion, let a ban on late-term abortions become law today without either signing the bill or issuing a veto of it — likely because the legislature approved it on a wide margin.

KansasCity.com: Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union are challenging the ballot wording for a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution on public prayer. | ACLU press release and link to the complaint

Religion Clause: In Doe v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, (MO App. July 5, 2011), a Missouri appellate court rejected plaintiff’s claim against the Archdiocese of St. Louis for intentional failure to supervise one of its priests who sexually abused plaintiff as a teenager.

Religion Clause: According to The Layman Online, a Missouri state trial court has ruled in favor of the break-away Colonial Presbyterian Church, one of Kansas City’s largest Presbyterian congregations, in its land ownership dispute with the Presbyterian Church USA.

MO Family Policy Council: Viable preborn children in Missouri would be protected from the brutality of late-term abortion under bills now on the desk of Governor Jay Nixon.

MO Family Policy Council: . If approved by Missouri voters, the amendment would strengthen the language in Missouri’s Constitution protecting the religious free exercise rights of Missouri citizens and schoolchildren.

The bill — which had passed the Senate weeks ago by a veto-proof margin — would make it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, unless the woman’s life is endangered, the woman risks permanent damage to a major bodily function because of the pregnancy, or the fetus is non-viable.

Religion Clause Blog: November 2012, Missouri voters will vote on a proposed state constitutional amendment (full text) that, if passed, will expand the language of the religious freedom protections in the current Art. I, Sec. 5 of the Missouri Constitution. HJR 2, approved by the House in March was approved by the state Senate yesterday . . .

STL Today: A proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to privately pray in public places, including schools, unanimously cleared the Missouri Senate Tuesday and will appear on the ballot in November 2012.

LifeNews: A Missouri pro-life group is concerned taxpayers may be on the hook for funding human cloning or embryonic stem cell research and its wants state legislators to do something about it.

Chuck Colson at Christian Post: According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in March, the Missouri PTA advised all of its 420 member units to stop hosting charters with the Boy Scouts because the agreements put them in legal jeopardy. An official with the state PTA said the advice to local associations is not a criticism of the Scouts but rather flows from the liability issue. The official said, “We’re not telling them, you absolutely can’t. “We’re saying, it’s not in your best interest to do that.” A Scouting spokesman, however, says insurance provided by the Boy Scouts would preclude any financial or legal jeopardy to PTA sponsors.

Breitbart’s Big Goverment: This afternoon, Big Government will break additional exclusive video clearly demonstrating the anti-American, anti-Capitalist nature of a University of Missouri (UM) course on Labor and Politics . . . On page 394 of this pdf file, note the Governor of Missouri is requesting $400 million for UM this budget year . . .

AP: epublicans have moved quickly to convert November election gains to legislative advances in the states. A look at some GOP successes, and setbacks, in the first months of the new order . . .

AP: Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster says Congress overstepped its constitutional powers when it mandated that most Americans should have health insurance or pay a penalty.

St. Louis Beacon: Both chambers of the Missouri General Assembly focused on abortion and contraception this morning, with the Senate passing a bill to restrict abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy while the state House approved a measure to put more restrictions on the abortion drug RU-486. The House bill also allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for the emergency contraception pill known as “Plan B.”

Kansas City Star: Senators passed the bill 27-5 Thursday, sending it to the House. Representative already have passed their own bill, which is pending in the Senate. Both chambers must agree on the same version for the bill to go to the governor.

LifeNews: The Missouri state House gave initial approval today to a bill that would allow pharmacists to refuse to sell the morning after pill, which can sometimes cause an abortion.

Religion Clause Blog: In Harrell v. Donahue, (8th Cir., March 31, 2011), the 8th Circuit held that the U.S. Postal Service was not required to accommodate a Seventh Day Adventist letter carrier’s request to have every Saturday off.

LifeNews: Following the lead of the state House, which approved a similar measure two weeks ago, the state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would ban abortions after the point of viability.

News-Leader: “Senate Democrats stalled legislation Tuesday that would add to Missouri’s restrictions on late-term abortions by allowing them only when a woman’s life is endangered or the pregnancy poses a serious risk of permanent physical injury.”

LifeNews: “Today, the chamber approved HB 213, the Late-Term Abortions sponsored by Rep. Tim Jones — a measure that prohibits abortions on unborn children after viability.”

MSNBC: “The Missouri House has passed legislation imposing restrictions on late-term abortions and criminal penalties for doctors who do not abide by new standards.”