Tag Archives: Topic: District of Columbia

WJLA.com: An Arizona congressman has reintroduced a bill that would ban abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The Hill: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) vowed Wednesday to join with abortion-rights groups and fight a forthcoming GOP bill to ban most abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Patheos: And when I say that, I’m thinking of this quote from the student leading the assault on Father Greg, who, after Father Greg told him that his homosexual behavior would prevent him from having a priestly vocation, became a priest in a schismatic sect . . .

Blog of the Legal Times: The Senate has confirmed Ketanji Jackson to become a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, filling the only open spot on the court.

The Hill: A proposed amendment to the Senate budget urges Congress to criminalize some abortions in the District of Columbia based on the disputed premise that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks of development.

More information here.

Blog of the Legal Times: Over the next month, lawyers and judges interested in serving on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia can apply for a judicial vacancy that’s expected to open up this summer.

WUSA9.com: District of Columbia officials are announcing a partnership between prosecutors, the mayor’s office and the gay, lesbian and transgender community.

LifeSiteNews reports.

LifeNews: More than 500,000 people are attending today’s March for Life in a massive attendance that could be well higher than that estimate and set records for the annual pro-life event challenging the mantra of unlimited abortion.

WTOP.com: A California man has been banned from D.C. after climbing a 40-foot tree on Inauguration Day and yelling his way through the ceremony.

AP: President Barack Obama and his family are beginning inauguration day by attending services at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House.

Washington Times: The decision by leaders of the Washington National Cathedral to perform same-sex weddings is getting a mixed reception, with supporters calling it consistent with the church’s path for more than a decade and critics warning of further division on an issue that has roiled religious denominations across the country.

American Lawyer: It’s a good thing that Paul Clement and Viet Dinh are such close friends. Not many lawyers would do well sharing an office divided down the middle by a sheet of glass. Not only can they watch each other work, but others can look in, too, observing the pair side by side through a hallway wall that is also clear glass. The overall effect is like an exhibit at a museum, or perhaps a zoo.

Washington Post: Daniel F. Attridge in July will become dean of Columbus School of Law at Catholic University, recruited from his position as managing partner of the Washington law office of Kirkland & Ellis.

Education News: Last week, Nathan Saunders, president of the Washington Teachers Union, announced his intention to push for legislation that would force charter school teachers in the nation’s capital to become unionized.

Washington Post: Washington Teachers’ Union President Nathan Saunders said Wednesday that he wants to unionize the city’s charter schools and will push for legislative changes to make it easier to organize their teachers, who educate a growing number of D.C. students.

The Hill: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ordered a Washington, D.C., television station to air the ads of Randall Terry, an anti-abortion-rights activist running for president.

SCOTUS Blog reports.

AP: Supreme Court In Session With Rest Of Town Shut

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.

UPI: A judge is considering a motion filed by the Pentagon to have a lawsuit over gender discrimination thrown out. | UVA Law School report that links to the complaint

Religion Clause Blog: A former employee of the Library of Congress’ inspector general’s office has filed a Title VII lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C. alleging that his supervisor harassed him with religious-based condemnation of homosexuality.

Blog of the Legal Times: Three local senior judges – one on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and two on the District of Columbia Superior Court – are up for review and reappointment.

LifeNews: House Democrats objected to a bill that would stop the policy of unlimited abortions for any reason throughout the entirety of pregnancy in the nation’s capital. The bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in D.C. needed a two-thirds vote but enough Democrats voted against the measure to prevent it from going to the Senate. The bill received a supportive vote of 220 to 154 with Republicans voting 203 to 6 for the bill and Democrats voting 148 to 17 against it

FoxNews: Despite Republicans’ majority in the chamber, the bill could easily be defeated. It’s being considered under rules that require a two-thirds majority to pass.

Washington Post (AP): District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray says he won’t support an expanded presence for Chick-fil-A in the district because the president of the fast-food chain is opposed to gay marriage.

John McCormack at the Weekly Standard: The Washington Surgi-Clinic, located just five blocks west of the White House, advertises on its website that it performs abortions 26 weeks (6 months) into pregnancy. The website of another clinic advertises second- and third-trimester abortions involving the “intercardiac injection of medication into the fetal heart” at a “private facility in the Washington, D.C. area.” All of this is perfectly legal. Abortions may be performed in the nation’s capital for any reason during all nine months of pregnancy. But a bill passed by the House Judiciary Committee last week would curb D.C.’s abortion-until-birth policy by putting a limit on abortions at 20 weeks after fertilization, when science suggests an unborn child can feel pain. And national grassroots pro-life groups are making a strong push to bring the bill to the House floor.

LifeNews: Leading pro-life groups are urging pro-life advocates today to do everything possible to secure a House vote for a bill, that passed in committee this week, to stop unlimited abortions in the nation’s capital.

NPR: It’s not just states where abortion is heating up as an issue this election year. Congress is getting back into the fray, too. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee approved, on a party-line vote of 18-14, a bill that would ban abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Wall Street Journal: Judge James E. Boasberg said that Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, the first plaintiff to challenge the rule, had “no basis to proceed now.” The judge wrote that it was too soon to say that the Obama administration’s compromise wouldn’t address their concerns and that he favored “deferring review until the agency’s position on exemptions to the contraceptive-coverage requirement is settled.“

LifeNews: A U.S. House committee approved a bill today that would stop the policy of unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason in the nation’s capital. The Judiciary Committee backed the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803) . . .

The Daily Caller: Attorney General Eric Holder could lose his license to practice law in the District of Columbia, or face some other penalty from the D.C. Bar, now that he has been found in criminal and civil contempt of Congress.

The Blog of the Legal Times: A Republican senator is blocking a confirmation vote for a District of Columbia Superior Court judicial candidate, a nomination that has been stalled almost a year.

Washington Post: Add Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) to the list of Republicans eager to change the District’s laws on guns, abortion and labor unions.

Religion Clause Blog: The New York Times reported earlier this week that the school voucher program for Washington, D.C. school children will be renewed for another year under an agreement that House Speaker John Boehner and Senator Joseph Lieberman have reached with the Department of Education.

Washington Post: House panel approved new federal funding for the District on Wednesday, including additional money for city courts, the extension of a D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, and the continuation of a controversial ban on city money being used to pay for abortions.

Washington Post: The White House has reversed course and agreed to continue funding private school vouchers for a select number of children in the District of Columbia.

Blog of the Legal Times: Magistrate and administrative law judges made up the bulk of applicants vying to fill retiring District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Linda Davis’ seat on the bench.

The Hill: House Republicans are continuing their efforts to restrict abortions in the District of Columbia, announcing plans to introduce a new anti-abortion-rights bill in Congress.

The Hill: Voting-rights group DC Vote is leading the event, which has been dubbed “Franks DC Constituent Service Day.” An estimated 30 to 70 people are slated to protest at Franks’s office in the Rayburn House office building beginning at noon, according to DC Vote communications director James Jones.

Washington Times: Mitt Romney said Wednesday he will expand Washington’s endangered voucher program as part of a broad push for more school choice nationwide, setting up a dramatic contrast with President Obama, who has called for the D.C. program to be phased out, and with teachers unions, which have fought against expanded choice.

Washington Times: A House subcommittee heard diverging opinions on a bill that would ban abortions in the nation’s capital once a fetus is 20 weeks past fertilization, a Republican-backed effort that city officials decried as a “cheap and cynical” way to promote an agenda on the backs of women in the District without any input from the city’s sole voice in Congress.

The Hill: The head of a leading abortion rights groups promised to “flood” the offices of some House members with messages of opposition to a bill that would criminalize abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia.

LifeSiteNews: The Archdiocese of Washington has weighed in on Georgetown University’s invitation of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as a commencement speaker in clear terms, saying that the school has unmoored itself from Catholic identity and chosen a stance against the country’s Catholic bishops.

LifeNews: A Congressional committee will hold a hearing on Thursday on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in the District of Columbia based on scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain.

Christian Post: A bill that would add a display of the prayer that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued for the D-Day invasion of World War II was introduced in the Senate Thursday.

Blog of the Legal Times: The District of Columbia Superior Court is accepting applications to fill a magistrate judge vacancy. Superior Court Magistrate Judge J. Dennis Doyle is expected to retire June 30 . . .

S2S: What’s worse is that police believe Jasmine’s boyfriend and the father of the unborn child, Nathan Rogers, is behind the murder.

Religion Clause Blog: He stresses that the school’s curriculum will be secular, but points out that the Hebrew foundation will be important for Jewish students who decide to pursue after-school religious studies.

Education News: “Budgets are about choices,” stated President Obama in recent remarks to governors about his massive fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request. Nothing more clearly demonstrates the Administration’s priorities than Obama’s decision to once again place the successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) on the chopping block while simultaneously growing the Department of Education’s (DOE) budget more than any other federal agency. In so doing, President Obama is showing low-income D.C. families that his priority is maintaining the unacceptable status quo . . .

Breitbart (video): In a new video provided to Breitbart.com, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas demonstrates why Holder should stop attacking voter ID laws–by walking into Holder’s voting precinct and showing the world that anyone can obtain Eric Holder’s primary ballot. Literally.

Boston Globe: He was sued under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The U.S. Department of Justice, which brought the case against Retta in federal court in Washington, declined to comment on the case as is standard practice in ongoing cases.

Blog of the Legal Times: The Senate confirmed Rudolph Contreras today as a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia, becoming the second Latino to serve on D.C.’s federal district court.

The Hill: The proposed legislation prohibits abortions past the 20-week gestation period solely in the District.

Washington Post: The D.C. Council approved a bill Tuesday that will make it easier for same-sex couples who married in Washington to get divorced.

Blog of the Legal Times: The number of attorneys applying for judgeships on the city’s local courts is up, as is the number of complaints filed against sitting judges, according to testimony this morning before the District of Columbia Council.

Federation for Children: Despite reauthorization agreement, Obama aims to halt highly-successful Opportunity Scholarship Program.

LifeNews.com: A pro-life member of Congress has introduced new legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in the District of Columbia based on scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain.

The Blog of Legal Times: A report released today by the Council for Court Excellence shows that the bulk of judges confirmed to the District of Columbia Superior Court come from government service, and also that the nominating process can be “unpredictable” once lawyers are recommended to the White House.

The Washington Post: Ward 5 council candidate Delano Hunter, who was backed by national same-sex marriage opponents in his 2010 campaign, is now touting his belief that the District should not overturn its new same-sex marriage law.

The Washington Post: You’ll recall that last year a D.C. rabbi, Shmuel Herzfeld, sued the city after it scheduled a special election for April 26 — the final day of Passover, a high Jewish holy day.

CBS Washington: The D.C. Council is considering legislation that would make it easier for gay and lesbian couples who marry in the nation’s capital to get divorced.

Washington Blade – “America’s Leading Gay News Source”: Delano Hunter, a Ward 5 civic activist who unsuccessfully challenged Thomas in the September 2010 Democratic primary, told the Washington City paper this week that he plans to run for the seat in a special election expected to take place in May.

News from The Associated Press: Washington, D.C., is growing faster than any state in the nation.

ADF Attorney Greg Baylor Speak Up Movement University Blog: The District of Columbia Office of Human Rights has held that John Garvey, president of Catholic University of America did not violate a District law banning sex discrimination by returning the institution he leads to single-sex dormitories

The Blog of Legal Times: Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Senate Judiciary Committee Republican, said in a written statement released before the vote that he had concerns about her time as New York solicitor general, noting a suit in which she argued that gun manufacturers were public nuisances.

AlgeMeiner.com: “By definition, a union that is not sanctioned by Torah law is not an Orthodox wedding, and by definition a person who conducts such a ceremony is not an Orthodox rabbi.” They also dispelled any doubt over possible flexibility on the matter in the future, writing, “We strongly object to this desecration of Torah values and to the subsequent misleading reportage…the public should not be misled into thinking that Orthodox Jewish values on this issue can change, are changing, or might someday change…any claims to the contrary are inaccurate and false.”

OneNewsNow.com: But Greg Baylor of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says the DC Office of Human Rights was right to dismiss the complaint. “They acknowledge that this is a reasonable practice,” he notes. “It’s not discriminatory against women or men. It’s just something that universities do and that federal law itself says is a perfectly permissible act by a college or university.”

LifeSiteNews: Following the filing of the complaint, the Cardinal Newman Society commissioned and released a legal memo in July from Alliance Defense Fund attorney Dale Schowengerdt which demonstrated that CUA’s dorm decision was not a form of discrimination. The memo argued, “As long as a college does not subject either men or women to particular disadvantages or unequal burdens, there is no sex discrimination. Moreover, a religious school’s right to maintain separate living quarters for men and women is protected by the Constitution and federal law.”

The Washington Post: n an order issued Tuesday (Nov. 29), the city’s Office of Human Rights said offering only single-sex dormitories is not unlawful discrimination under the District’s Human Rights Act.

The Blog of Legal Times: The D.C. Bar Judicial Evaluation Committee recently kicked off its annual evaluation program and is looking for feedback from attorneys on the performance of 34 judges in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and Superior Court.

Religion Clause: Yesterday, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a new report titled Lobbying for the Faithful: Religious Advocacy Groups in Washington D.C.

The Hill: Local Washington lawmakers are praising House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for his efforts to give the District more control over its local budget, but they are rejecting his proposed legislation limiting local funding for abortions.

Pat Buchanan at Townhall : Second, if the Office of Human Rights has nothing better to do than spending six months investigating these nonsensical charges, it ought to be abolished. Give the taxpayers back the money these bureaucrats are wasting, and let them go and, as Ronald Reagan used to say, “test the magic of the marketplace.”

Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy: The proposed law would mandate that public and charter schools, city parks, city libraries, and the University of District Columbia ban any gesture or written, verbal or physical act, including electronic communication, that is …