Tag Archives: State: Virginia

Washington Post: A clear majority of Virginia voters now support legal same-sex marriage, a sharp reversal from a 2006 vote to amend the state constitution to define marriage as for a man and woman only.

LifeNews: The state of Virginia has adopted new pro-life laws ranging from a measure allowing women to see ultrasounds to one that cracks down on health and safety violations at abortion clinics to a law allowing Choose Life license plates.

Denise Burke of AUL at Washington Times: Sadly, Big Abortion continues to equate women’s health and safety with mere access to abortion. Access to sanitary and appropriately regulated and inspected abortion facilities is simply not part of their political and self-interested calculus.

Baptist Press at Townhall: Casey Mattox, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a written statement, “Virginia should be congratulated for holding abortionists to the same health and safety standards as everyone else. Their resistance to such standards exposes their real attitude toward women….”

Newsmax: Gay marriage will be highlighted in Virginia this year during the state’s gubernatorial campaign, which features candidates in decidedly opposite camps on the issue. In fact, the race will feature the first Democratic candidate for governor in southern political history who endorses same-sex marriage, according to Politico.

Richmond Times Dispatch: A Norfolk abortion clinic is closing after 40 years in business. Hillcrest Clinic director Suzette Caton says Virginia’s new abortion clinic regulations, rising costs and decreased demand prompted the decision to close. The Virginian-Pilot reports that Saturday is the clinic’s last day.

Washington Post: The Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for the Episcopal Church in a bitter, multimillion-dollar property dispute with a conservative congregation that had left the denomination over the Bible’s view of homosexuality and other issues.

Religion Clause Blog: In Doe v. Virginia Department of State Police, (4th Cir., April 12, 2013), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed . . .  One of plaintiff’s claims was that her free exercise rights were violated because all the churches of her faith in the area have Sunday Schools.

Washington Post: The Virginia Board of Health voted Friday to require abortion clinics to meet strict, hospital-style building codes that operators say could put many of them out of business.

Virginia should be congratulated for holding abortionists to the same health and safety standards as everyone else. Their resistance to such standards exposes their real attitude toward women, especially in light of the revelations from the Kermit Gosnell trial and the unsanitary conditions found in investigations of Virginia abortion facilities.

News Leader: The ACLU filed a petition Friday asking the judge to order the board to pay Hudson’s legal fees in the case, almost $60,000.

ACLU: Representatives of religions that do not have ordained ministers must be permitted to perform marriages on the same basis as ministers, priests, rabbis, and other ordained clergy, Chief Judge Dennis J. Smith of the Circuit Court of Fairfax County ruled on Friday.

Ilya Somin at Volokh Conspiracy: Co-blogger Eugene Volokh recently linked to a Virginia state court decision striking down as unconstitutional a state law that allowed religious societies without official clergy to designate only one member as having the power to perform wedding ceremonies, while religious groups that do have clergy can designate more. The court concluded that the First and Fourteenth Amendments bar this law because “The General Assembly [Virginia's state legislature] cannot favor one type of religion over another without a compelling government interest and a narrowly tailored method.”

LifeNews: After a terse debate in the Virginia House, members of the Assembly voted today to stop taxpayer funding of abortions in the Obamacare exchange.

BuzzFeed: Although most people think sodomy laws have been unconstitutional since the Supreme Court’s 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli would like to explain why — in his view — that’s not so.

Charisma News: “Abortionists should be held to the same health and safety standards as everyone else,” said senior counsel Casey Mattox. “Their resistance to such standards exposes their real attitude toward women. Planned Parenthood, for example, is a billion-dollar corporation that performs an abortion every 95 seconds. It is not too much to expect that abortionists, including the nation’s largest abortion seller, meet basic standards to protect women’s health.”

Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Thursday to the Virginia Board of Health urging it to formally adopt proposed abortion facility regulations that will protect the health and safety of women in Virginia.

Newsleader: Members of Staunton’s City Council have opened their regular meetings with prayers with a few recent exceptions in which they observed a moment of silence instead. The solemnization is an informal agreement, not a rule, and a surprise opening at a recent meeting made some think the council should make a decision on the matter with a formal vote.

News and Advance: Following a legal battle that began in September 2011, a federal judge Tuesday permanently barred the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors from holding sectarian Christian prayers during its meetings.

CBS: A new statewide poll in Virginia shows a sharp societal divide over the question of whether to expand Medicaid — something that won’t happen for a while in the state because of reform hurdles Gov. Bob McDonnell has set for it.

Houston Chronicle: A federal judge says the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors’ practice of opening meetings with sectarian prayer is unconstitutional.

USA Today: Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat up for re-election next year, publicly announced his support Monday for gay marriage in a post on Facebook.

Greg Baylor at Speak Up Movement: The freedom of religious student groups at America’s public universities is under constant attack. However, the Virginia legislature is the latest to fight bac

Daily Press: The survey commissioned by the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health showed that once the regulations were explained to them respondents opposed them 58 percent to 35 percent.

Washington Post: Democrats are calling on Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II to condemn the comments of a major financial backer who recently compared abortion to slavery. “There’s a point when you become culpable in the killing of other people, because of what the government is making you do,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List, which last month pledged at least $1.5 million to the Republican Cuccinelli’s campaign for governor.

NewsLeader: Prayer or silence? Members of the Staunton City Council are expected to vote later this month whether to keep the invocation that has typically opened its business meetings.

Kevin C. Walsh at WalshLaw: The panel opinion is right that “the Commonwealth cannot simply wave a magic wand and decree by fiat conduct as criminal . . .” But the Commonwealth did no such thing. It declared conduct criminal through ordinary legislation, and the Fourth Circuit has now erroneously set aside a conviction for violation of that ordinary state legislation through an extraordinary exercise of the federal judicial power.

We herein use the term “anti-sodomy provision” to refer to the foregoing portion of section 18.2-361(A).2 As explained below, we are constrained to vacate the district court’s judgment and remand for an award of habeas corpus relief on the ground that the anti-sodomy provision facially violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

TriCities.com: The debate over abortion in Virginia played out at a Henrico County office building Thursday, where the representatives of the Department of Health heard public comment on proposed regulations that would require the commonwealth’s 20 clinics to comply with building standards for new hospitals.

WPCVA.com: In 18-month battle over prayer at Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors’ meetings is headed back to federal court after the two sides failed to reach an agreement during mediation.

Bloomberg: The Feb. 28 Virginia ruling is the first appellate decision addressing the application of the First Amendment to lawyer blogging, according to Bloomberg BNA Law Reports. The question of when and how attorneys may market themselves via blogs and websites has become a hot topic in legal circles. | Hunter v. Va. State Bar

AP: A Mennonite pastor who helped a still-missing woman and her daughter flee the country – and a custody fight with the woman’s former lesbian partner – joined his supporters in song Monday after being told his 27-month prison sentenced could be put on hold while he appeals his conviction.

Christian News Network: The Commonwealth of Virginia has sworn in its first openly homosexual judge, according to reports.

AP: “If it is true that my actions flow out of my faith in Jesus, and from my deeply held moral believes – and I sincerely think they do – then it must follow that whatever judgment is being brought against me by the United States of America, is judgment on my faith and conscience and deeply help moral beliefs,” he wrote.

Baptist Press: Virginia lawmakers have voted to give college campus groups the right to restrict membership to students who agree with their mission.

World Net Daily: They’re targeting 12 key states: Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Alaska, Arkansas, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia. The strategy was profiled Monday by David Brody of CBN News. Brody said the groups – led by the American Renewal Project – are planning briefings for evangelical pastors, voter-registration drives and other events in an attempt “to restore American to its Judeo-Christian heritage.”

Religion Clause Blog: Last week the Virginia state legislature gave final approval to HB 1617 which provides . . . In an editorial yesterday, the Virginia Pilot called for the governor to veto the bill, saying: “The real reason for the bill is to allow certain religious or political groups to reject gay or lesbian students with the commonwealth’s blessing.”

LifeNews: The political arm of the Planned Parenthood abortion business has launched an attack on pro-life Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.

One News Now: Stanley tells OneNewsNow the Fredericksburg City Council claims the children are dangerous. “What it really boils down to is just that the city council is exhibiting a really prejudicial attitude and stereotypes about disabled kids,” he states. “These children are not dangerous. There’s no evidence that they’ve ever been dangerous, but yet the city council denied zoning because of their fear.”

One News Now: Legislators in Virginia are considering a bill that would allow students to object to secular teachings that violate their religious beliefs; and a school board in South Carolina is trying to decide how it can pray before meetings.

Washington Post: A Senate committee in the Virginia General Assembly on Tuesday narrowly endorsed a measure to amend the state’s Bill of Rights to require all public places and schools to accommodate prayer or other religious activity and allow students to be dismissed from assignments or presentations that conflict with their religious beliefs.

Rev. Robert A. Crutchfield at Faith That Inspires Action (includes Erik Stanley Audio Soundbite): Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley will be available for media interviews Tuesday following his oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit seeking reinstatement of a church school’s lawsuit against the city of Fredericksburg. In 2011, the city council refused to allow a church to begin a school program for mentally and emotionally challenged children even though city planning officials recommended approval.

Daily Press: The contentious — the state’s Health Commissioner Karen Remley, a Norfolk pediatrician, resigned her post over them — new regulations, approved by the Virginia Board of Health in 2012, which apply new-hospital architectural requirements to clinics providing abortion services, enter a new public comment period Monday, Jan. 28. The regulations were posted in the Virginia Register of Regulations on Monday and the public comment period will continue through March 29.

Disabled children a threat? Fredericksburg thinks so

AP: A Virginia Senate Committee killed a bid to prevent Medicaid patients from having abortions when doctors determine the fetus has profound deformities that make survival unlikely.

Washington Post: Virginia’s General Assembly appears poised to put an openly gay judge on the bench Tuesday, reversing itself on one of the most contentious issues of last year’s session.

PilotOnline.com: A lawsuit filed by a former employee of the Chesapeake City Treasurer who claimed he was wrongly fired in 2011 for refusing to take his Bible off his desk has been dismissed

Washington Post: Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has approved health regulations that impose strict, hospital-style building codes on Virginia abortion clinics.

The College Fix (includes video): A parade of University of Virginia students filmed a YouTube video recently that praised a row of twinkling Christmas trees and other holiday fare adorning a row of front porches along the school’s famed Lawn dorms and pitched administrators to let the decorations stay -but alas- campus officials told students to pack it up

Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Each year, many liberals and secularists deny that there is any effort by anyone to censor Christmas. They claim that “Religious Right” leaders diabolically promote a phoney “War on Christmas” in order to bamboozle ignorant and gullible Christians into donating money for their efforts to thwart this allegedly nonexistent threat.

WDBJ7.com: Roanoke County lawyer Paul Mahoney said he put in a lot of work to draft a policy that didn’t discriminate or set out to cause any religious divides. Mahoney got help drafting the 12-page resolution from the Liberty Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Religion Clause Blog: Americans United reports that last month Arlington County, Virginia officials relented on an earlier refusal and have issued an order permitting a Wiccan high priestess to officiate at wedding ceremonies.

The Examiner: New polls released over the last 72 hours from Senate races in Massachusetts, Missouri Virginia, and Wisconsin all give Democrats a good chance to keep control of the Senate. Nate Silver’s probability analysis for all ten races, which was updated just today, favors the Democrats in seven out of the ten races listed below.

Ken Klukowski at Breitbart: Floyd Corkins, the volunteer at a gay-rights organization who attempted to commit mass murder at the Christian conservative Family Research Council (FRC) because of FRC’s stance on social and religious issues, has been indicted on charges of domestic terrorism. It is the first such indictment ever handed down by a grand jury in the nation’s capital.

AP: But days after Austin-Knight’s children were put in foster care, she met foster mother Krista King at a park as part of an effort in Florida to encourage more foster parents to communicate with birth parents, let them talk to their children and honor their child-rearing wishes. Similar programs are in California, Virginia and New Mexico. Several other states – including Oregon, New Hampshire and Washington – provide legal representation or mentorship for birth parents.

The Church Report: Virginia man accused of shooting a security guard inside the headquarters of a conservative Christian lobbying group was indicted on a local terrorism charge, marking the first time in a decade that a person has been prosecuted under the statute, prosecutors said Wednesday.

AP: Virginia’s health commissioner says she is resigning because of the state’s strict new regulations for abortion clinics.

Boston Globe: A Virginia pastor asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to quash a subpoena requiring him to testify as part of an investigation into the flight from the United States of a woman who didn’t want to share custody of her daughter with her former partner in a Vermont civil union.

WSLS.com: A Virginia pastor is scheduled to testify next month before a grand jury investigating the kidnapping of a now-10-year-old girl by her mother, who fled the country rather than share custody of the child with the Vermont woman who was once her civil union partner, the pastor’s attorney said Monday.

Washington Post: A bare majority of voters in Florida and Ohio, and nearly half in Virginia, support the right of same-sex couples to wed, according to September Washington Post polls showing that the national trend toward accepting such unions has taken hold in these swing states.

LifeSiteNews: As Bradford Wilcox, a leading sociologist at the University of Virginia and Director of the National Marriage Project found in 2007, active, conservative members of both Protestant and Catholic churches are significantly less likely to divorce—by 35 and 31 percent, respectively—than Americans who are religiously unaffiliated. The numbers often get skewed, says Stanton, because most studies fail to take into account the level of religious commitment and practice among those who identify themselves as Christians.

Politico: Republican George Allen is well aware he needs to close the gender gap with women in order to win the Virginia Senate race.

Daily Caller: Unhappy with President Barack Obama‘s support of same-sex marriage, a group of African-American faith leaders have announced a campaign aimed at stripping 25 percent of the black vote that went to Obama in 2008 (95 percent).

LifeNews: The Virginia Coalition for Life, in partnership with The Radiance Foundation, has launched a bold ad campaign to challenge the abortion industry and the culture of fatherlessness that it has fostered. Throughout October in the Hampton Roads area, 21 billboards and over 100 bus and light rail posters will declare the message: “Fatherhood Begins in the Womb: TooManyAborted.com/VA.”

LifeSiteNews: The Radiance Foundation, in partnership with the Virginia Coalition for Life, has launched a wide-scale TooManyAborted.com billboard campaign in Hampton Roads, Virginia, with the messaging: “Fatherhood Begins in the Womb.”

Washington Post (AP): Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Wednesday certified abortion clinic regulations that were altered earlier this month at his urging to include strict building standards that abortion-rights supporters say are aimed at closing down the centers.

GoDanRiver.com: Gov. Bob McDonnell said he expects the state’s abortion clinic regulations to reach his desk for review in the next couple of months and that his goal is to “simply see… do they follow the law or not?”

HSLDA: “Once children are exempted from public school attendance, they might get no education at all.” It is always easy to stir up anxiety about “what ifs.” But let’s look at the reality. In 1994, Dr. Brian D. Ray analyzed the standardized test scores of students educated under the religious exemption. He concluded: “Based on this sample of students, Virginia’s home educated students operating under the state of Virginia’s religious exemption statute are doing quite well in terms of academic achievement. In fact, on average, they score 33 to 40 percentile points higher than the national average of students tested.”

Abortion clinics should be held to the same health and safety standards as all other medical facilities. Their resistance to such standards exposes their real attitude toward women.

LifeNews: The Virginia Board of Health voted 13-2 to approve broad, new regulations on abortion clinics that holds them accountable for abuses and makes them abide by the same kinds of standards that cover legitimate medical centers.

Washington Post: The Virginia Board of Health has approved abortion clinic regulations that include the strict building standards that abortion-rights supporters opposed. The board voted 13-2 Friday to enact the regulations, including a hotly contested provision that requires Virginia’s 20 existing abortion clinics to meet the same architectural standards as new hospitals.

Washington Post: Virginia’s Board of Health will meet Friday for what promises to be a showdown over abortion-clinic regulations between some board members and the office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II.

Pilot Online: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has threatened Board of Health members that they could be denied state legal counsel and have to pay for their own defense if they again disregard his advice about relaxing controversial abortion clinic rules and litigation ensues.

LifeNews: Two days before Virginia state health department officials consider rules related to the inspection of abortion clinics, the results of documents from the health department about prior inspects show some ghastly results.

Wall Street Journal: The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is making one of the largest ad buys in its history, buying $3.2 million TV time in the battleground states of Virginia and Ohio, saying Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is bad for women’s health.