Tag Archives: State: Pennsylvania

A Pittsburgh suburb will allow a pole dancing studio to open, ending a federal lawsuit that accused the town of violating the First Amendment rights of the owner.

The Republican Herald reports: “Plans to open an adult bookstore in North Manheim Township have one local church leader ‘praying that somehow God (will) stop it.’ . . . Orf and more than 20 others attended a recent North Manheim …

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports: “Prosecutors contended Zvara and Collingwood barged into the Beehive on July 24, 2007, just before 10:30 p.m., putting a gun to the bouncer’s head and demanding two bags of money. They later stole a car …

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports: “A California couple accused of violating the nation’s obscenity laws for running a company that made and distributed pornographic films depicting rape and murder will finally stand trial in Pittsburgh — more than five years …

OneNewsNow.com reports: “Clergy and lay members of the theologically conservative Pittsburgh diocese voted overwhelmingly Saturday to break from the liberal Episcopal Church, with which it differs on issues ranging from homosexuality to biblical teachings on salvation.”

LifeNews.com reports: “Officials at the Franciscan University of Steubenville are responding to criticism over Catholic law professor Nicholas Cafardi endorsing pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama. The endorsement has caused waves within pro-life Catholic circles, party because Cafardi is a Steubenville trustee.”

Deal W. Hudson reports on the InsideCatholic.com Blog: Last evening at Carlow University in Pittsburg, the Sisters of Mercy hosted a Catholics for Obama event. I received a call from someone who attended the event who told me the “high …

“A Presbyterian minister did not violate church law when she officiated at the wedding of two women because in the eyes of the state and the church, no marriage occurred, a church panel ruled Thursday.”

Leonard Link reports: “U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter has rejected the City of Philadelphia’s motion to dismiss federal and state constitutional claims by the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which is fighting the city’s …

Gaypolitics.com reports: The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund today announced it has endorsed 100 openly LGBT political candidates in 2008, making this endorsement slate the group’s largest ever. “I think reaching this milestone is a testament to a new attitude in …

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports: The Rev. Jack L. Wisor said the Bible supports his ministry of providing the homeless with shelter and other assistance in his First Apostles Doctrine Church in Brookville . . . But Brookville borough solicitor …

[Warning: vulgar language] Shannon P. Duffy reports on the Legal Intelligencer:  An eighth-grade student who was suspended for 10 days after she created a fake page on MySpace.com that depicted her principal as a pedophile and a sex addict has …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: A three-judge appellate panel heard arguments today on whether to reopen a case concerning an Islamic Philadelphia police officer who wants to wear a religious head scarf while on duty. Last year, a U.S. District Court …

OneNewsNow.com reports: “Six Pennsylvania families are battling the state over the strict regulations placed on home schoolers. The families are being represented by the Home School Legal Defense Association.”

The ABA Journal reports: “The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has filed a First Amendment lawsuit on behalf of a suburban Pittsburgh pole dancing instructor who was denied an occupancy permit for her new studio.” The NY Times carries …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: According to a National Alliance for Public Charter Schools study of districts with over 10,000 students, in the 2006-2007 school year Camden with 13 percent of its students in charter schools joined Philadelphia as one of …

The Religion Clause Blog reports on this case: “Church of Universal Love and Music v. Fayette County, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65564 (WD PA, Aug. 26, 2008), involves a zoning dispute in which William Pritts and the church he founded …

The AP reports: A woman has sued a town that refused to allow her to open a dance studio that featured pole-dancing exercise classes on the grounds it was a sexually oriented business. Adams Township officials violated Stephanie Babines’ right …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: A surging number of Philadelphia schools have been labeled “persistently dangerous” – so unsafe that parents have a right to send their children elsewhere. The new list, released yesterday by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, shows …

But in the five years since, the case has languished. There had been no entries in the case docket since Aug. 17, 2007, until a reporter called the judge’s chambers last week to inquire about the case. Early yesterday morning, the docket was updated to show that a telephone status conference will be held Sept. 17.

The Alliance Defense Fund recently announced that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had affirmed the district court victory by Christian DeJohn, who is a sergeant in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

“The case law in this area establishes that parents simply do not have a constitutional right to control each and every aspect of their children’s education and oust the state’s authority over that subject.”

Not only is the Third Circuit’s ruling in DeJohn not “activist,” it is not political, as some have charged. DeJohn is squarely in line with 50 years of Supreme Court decisions placing special emphasis on the importance of free speech in higher education

“This woman was responsible for the crime,” he points out. “It took a lot of effort to develop a website, to write these stories, [and] to seek money for these stories.

The Daily Local News reports: City Councilman Marty Eggleston is trying to bring prayer back to City Council meetings. He made a motion Monday night to reverse a ban on prayer that has been in place since February 2007. “I’m …

Cherry said Asbury’s problems began when she went to Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia in February 2003 to have the contraceptive implant rods removed from her arm. The rods released hormones into her blood stream to prevent pregnancy.

Higher-education lawyers who have spent the week parsing Monday’s appeals-court ruling in a Temple University free-speech case say the decision may make it harder for colleges to prohibit discrimination and harassment while promoting the open exchange of ideas.

Attorney David Hacker is with the Alliance Defense Fund. He says DeJohn knew about Temple’s ‘Speech Code,’ which, he says, “is a harassment policy that is so vaguely worded and so broad in its language that, really, university administrators were able to punish any sort of speech that they deemed offensive.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit Monday upheld a federal judge’s ruling against Temple University’s former “speech code.”

The Intelligencer reports: A controversial strip club in Milford has officials in nearby Quakertown considering limiting the location and scope of adult-entertainment within its borders. Although no strip clubs have been proposed for the borough, officials there are taking a …

LifeSiteNews.com reports: The Eastern District of Pennsylvania federal bench will soon be welcoming four new judges and bidding farewell to one judge who will be elevated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals if the Senate confirms a package …

The Foundation for Moral Law has issued this press release on the Christian Newswire.  It begins: Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and attorneys with the Foundation for Moral Law applauded the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for its ruling yesterday in …

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has upheld restrictions placed on the movements of members of Repent America in their protest of a Philadelphia PrideFest event.

The Religion Clause Blog reports on developments in the effort by Pittsburgh’s Episcopal Bishop to withdraw his diocese from the Episcopal Church.

EdNews.org reports: School test scores recently released by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reveal that schools partnering with private education management organizations (EMO’s) – including EdisonLearning – showed greater gains in student achievement than the schools operated by the …

The AP reports: “Citing their rights to free speech, three tour guides sued the city of Philadelphia on Wednesday challenging an ordinance that will require them to pass a history test and get a license before speaking about the history …

Corbett said the new criminal charges filed today in Lawrence County allege that Maloni used Internet chat rooms to contact and sexually proposition an undercover agent from the New York State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Thepittsburghchannel.com reports: “Mayor Luke Ravenstahl signed Legislation creating a new domestic partner registry in the city of Pittsburgh. The mayor signed the measure Saturday during the city’s Gay Pride Parade downtown.”

Religion Clause Blog reports: “In Pennsylvania last week, state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski introduced HB 2626 to extend coverage of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act to lay teachers and other lay employees in religious schools.”

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports: Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday approved creating a registry for domestic partners, both gay and straight. The bill, which Mayor Luke Ravenstahl plans to sign, allows unmarried couples older than 18 who aren’t blood relatives …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: A man is not being allowed to see his three children because he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old , a relationship that he says was legal, but a county agency called sexual abuse, according …

WorldNetDaily reports: “A man arrested for preaching on a public sidewalk too close to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia has been declared guilty of violating federal law.”

The Religion Clause Blog reports that two Amish farmers in Pennsylvania who have refused to comply with state waste disposal codes have been sentenced to 90 days in jail after refusing to pay fines for the violations.

. . . regardless of the wisdom of constitutionalizing our legal norms about marriage, political and legal conditions are such that these norms are almost certainly going to be constitutionalized in Pennsylvania whether we like it or not.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Philadelphia’s new police commissioner is pushing a more open attitude toward brotherly love in the city. Within his own ranks, Charles H. Ramsey wants to make it safe for gay and lesbian officers to be out …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports: Pittsburgh Councilman Bruce Kraus proposed rules for domestic registry of unmarried couples today, in a move that would tweak the way city benefits are governed, and would allow any two unrelated city residents to make a …

The Pittsburgh City Paper reports: . . . The legislation, which was to be introduced as this issue goes to press, notes that Pittsburgh “is made up of a diversity of households” that include “committed, unmarried couples in either same …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: The prom-dress-pink store, with strips of ribbon dangling in the windows and a breast-cancer-awareness sign out front, looks like any girly gift shop in West Chester’s bustling business district. But the Feminique Boutique, a new adult …

Robert Knight has this commentary on Townhall. He writes: This just in: The Boy Scouts of America have filed a lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia for threatening to evict the Cradle of Liberty Council from their headquarters in a …

ADF attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief . . . arguing that a state board wrongly interpreted statutes so as to outlaw the practice of lay midwifery, a practice relied upon by many religious communities in the commonwealth . . .

“The Boy Scouts of America’s Philadelphia chapter has sued . . . to block the city’s May 31 deadline for the scouts to open membership to gays and atheists, or vacate their historic 1928 headquarters off Logan Square.”

The Religion Clause Blog reports: In Goslin v. State Board of Medicine, (PA Commn. Ct., May 23, 2008), a Pennsylvania appellate court has reversed an order issued by the State Board of Medicine that had barred midwife Diane Goslin from …

The Mansfield News Journal reports: “Members of a small, isolated Amish community are refusing to follow state code in their handling of waste from a school’s two outhouses, citing their religious convictions.” The Amish want to put the waste on …

Demography is not destiny, but that claim is not, humanly speaking, far off the mark . . Thus, Americans should take a close look at the fact that in a handful of major metropolitan areas, deaths now outnumber births . . . ”

The How Appealing blog links to reports and the complaint in this lawsuit. “The League of Women Voters sued Pennsylvania’s former chief justice yesterday, alleging that the Supreme Court upheld the state’s slot machine gambling law in exchange for approval …

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court justices considered whether a person looking at a book in a library is analogous to a person downloading files from the Internet and whether, in either circumstance, the person is in “control” of the material.

The PR Newswire carries this press release by Pennsylvania Governor Rendell criticizing the Republican Senate’s actions blocking his judicial nominations. Related post: Pennsylvania: Rendell’s judicial nominees rejected in partisan showdown

Four vacancies on Pennsylvania’s appellate courts, including one on the Supreme Court, will remain unfilled for now.

Attorneys and allied attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom filed suit against Shippensburg University Wednesday for its continued violations of student free speech rights.

A bill that would amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage is in a deep coma and is probably dead, at least for the rest of this session . . .

“For school officials in Haverford Township, the challenge was daunting: What do you do when a 9-year-old student, with the full support of his parents, decides that he is no longer a boy and instead is a girl? Parents of a third-grade student at Chatham Park Elementary School approached the administration on April 16 to ask for help in making a “social transition” for their child.”

The stage is set for the full Pennsylvania Senate to vote on a constitutional amendment that would outlaw same-sex marriage and civil unions in Pennsylvania.

The DailyLocal.com reports: A new adult novelty store coming to North Church Street sparked a debate at Tuesday’s planning commission meeting about whether the borough should expand its zoning code to include more types of adult entertainment. Jill McDevitt, a …

WFMZ.com reports: After months of discussion that at times got quite heated … tonight … supervisors in Milford Township approved a list of conditions that would allow the club to remain open. But the club says it can’t commit to …

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille has toughened his criticism of Senate Republicans for not acting on four interim appointments to state appellate courts, and dismissed their arguments about diversity as “misplaced.”

Pennsylvania is a so-called swing state because it can go with either major party and margins of victory there are usually slim. Religious affiliation is often the hinge for these shifts.

Westmoreland County borough will let a church use a public park for a National Day of Prayer observance after a Christian legal group [ie. ACLJ] threatened to sue if the church was denied equal access.

OneNewsNow reports: Pro-family attorney Pat Trueman says it’s outrageous that a Pennsylvania college professor will spend only 30 days in jail after being sentenced on three counts of possessing child pornography . . . He argues that the college professor’s …

State lawmakers heard testimony Thursday on a proposed state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman exclusively.

. . . in a letter sent today to the Pittsford Community Library in Pittsford, NY, that the Library cease its religious discrimination against a Christian ballet studio that has been denied access to the Library’s public bulletin board . . .

Prompted by a legal battle between a strip club and Upper Bucks residents, Warrington is considering a preemptive strike to avoid a similar problem within its borders.

The Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College is advertising a conference to be held on April 10 & 11 titled: Church and State 2008: A History of Church-State Relations and a Look at Where Value Voters will …

Even though the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that as a private organization the Boy Scouts have the constitutional right to determine their own membership policy, the city has told the Cradle of Liberty Council that on May 31 it must vacate the downtown office which the city has let it use since 1929.

But the Referee determined that domestic partners do not qualify for the “following the spouse” doctrine that the Pennsylvania courts have developed for such situations . . .

Mark Scolforo of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Advocates for replacing Pennsylvania’s system of electing appellate judges with an appointive system launched an effort yesterday to convince the legislature that change was needed. The nearly $8 million in campaign donations generated …