Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Miss USA Rima Fakih: Mosque "Shouldn’t Be So Close To The World Trade Center"
The New York Post reports that the "24-year-old Rima Fakih, is the first Muslim winner of the Miss USA contest and is preparing for the Miss Universe Pageant, scheduled for Monday in Las Vegas. 'I totally agree with President Obama with the statement on Constitutional rights of freedom of religion,' Fakih told 'Inside Edition' in an interview that will air tonight. 'I also agree that it shouldn’t be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.'" Tweet
Tenth Circuit Rules That Cross On Side Of Highway Memorializing Fallen Trooper Is Unconstitutional
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports that that "question was at the heart of the latest case on the always thorny issue of church and state. At issue: Whether commemorating fallen Utah highway troopers by erecting crosses on state roads violated First Amendment strictures about government treatment of religion. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court panel said yes, holding that a 'reasonable observer' could conclude that the presence of the crosses amounted to a state-endorsement of Christianity. The decision reversed a 2007 district court ruling, in which the judge wrote that crosses merely sent a secular message about death.
“This may lead the reasonable observer to fear that Christians are likely to receive preferential treatment from the [Utah Highway Patrol],” the judges wrote, adding elsewhere in the opinion that “unlike Christmas, which has been widely embraced as a secular holiday. . . . there is no evidence in this case that the cross has been widely embraced by non-Christians as a secular symbol of death.”
Christmas is a "secular holiday" as a product of twisted Supreme Court precedent that would not allow it to be a federal holiday otherwise. Merely changing the label from religious to secular suffices to remove the "imprimatur or religion" in the eyes of the Court that has to play such ridiculous games to not come out with the most absurd outcome of banning Christmas. Putting aside those of other faiths that do not observe the holiday precisely because normal people realize it has always been the holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ (interesting how that same word appears in "CHRISTmas," must be some secular coincidence), I am sure many religious Christians would find it offensive and patently absurd that the only way the Courts allow Christmas to continue is to pretend the holiday is completely "secular."
The Tenth Circuit states that "the reasonable observer to fear that Christians are likely to receive preferential treatment." Seriously? The reasonable observer will begin shivering in his seat, shaking in his boots, as he drives on a highway because a cross was put up on the side of the road to memorialize a fallen trooper? The reaction of any reasonable person will really be fear of any sort? Reasonable to the Tenth Circuit, an idiotic notion to normal people.
I have come to be not surprised by the judiciary issuing very nonsensical rulings like this, especially in the very muddled and twisted area of Establishment Clause jurisprudence. None of this judicial lunacy has even a slight resemblance to the reason the Establishment Clause was put into the Constitution, it all does nothing more than make a mockery of the judiciary and abuse the Constitution itself.
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Great George Will Article About Israel: Skip The Lecture On Israel's 'Risks For Peace'"
To take a look at this eloquent must-read article visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081804691.html Tweet
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Catholic Adoption Charity Told By UK Government They Must Consider Gay Couples Or Get Out Of Adoption Business
The AP reports that "a Catholic adoption advisory service that refuses to help gay couples cannot win an exemption from anti-discrimination laws, Britain's charity regulator said Thursday. Catholic Care, a charity in Leeds, northern England, had argued that as a religious group it should be allowed to offer adoption-support services only to heterosexuals. It said its funding from the Roman Catholic church was dependent on its policy of helping only married heterosexual couples to adopt. In March, it won a High Court appeal of the original decision in the case, but in a final ruling Britain's Charity Commission said the group's policy was discriminatory and breached European human rights laws. The commission ordered the group to either cease its work to place children with adoptive parents or to abide by equality laws — meaning it would need to consider gay couples as prospective parents... Other Catholic agencies have either withdrawn from placing children or have cut their ties with the church since the British government imposed anti-discrimination rules in 2007."
"The charity is very disappointed with the outcome, Catholic Care will now consider whether there is any other way in which the charity can continue to support families seeking to adopt children in need," the group said in a statement.
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
9th Circuit Court Of Appeals: Law Against Faking Receipt Of Military Medals Is Unconstitutional
The AP reports a "three-year-old federal law that makes it a crime to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military is unconstitutional, an appeals court panel in California ruled Tuesday. The decision involves the case of Xavier Alvarez of Pomona, Calif., a water district board member who said at a public meeting in 2007 that he was a retired Marine who received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration. Alvarez was indicted in 2007. He pleaded guilty on condition that he be allowed to appeal on First Amendment grounds. He was sentenced under the Stolen Valor Act to more than 400 hours of community service at a veterans hospital and fined $5,000. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with him in a 2-1 decision Tuesday, agreeing that the law was a violation of his free-speech rights. The majority said there's no evidence that such lies harm anybody, and there's no compelling reason for the government to ban such lies. The dissenting justice insisted that the majority refused to follow clear Supreme Court precedent that false statements of fact are not entitled to First Amendment protection." Tweet
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Ninth Circuit Reverses San Francisco Federal Judge, Places Stay On Gay Marriages
Federal Judge Walker in San Francisco had ordered that the State of California begin to marry gay couples starting this Wednesday. The Ninth Circuit rightly reversed that order, though that is no indication at all that they will rule correctly when the issue appears before that court on the legal merits. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled:
Appellants’ motion for a stay of the district court’s order of August 4, 2010 pending appeal is GRANTED. The court sua sponte orders that this appeal be expedited pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 2. The provisions of Ninth Circuit Rule 31-2.2(a) (pertaining to grants of time extensions) shall not apply to this appeal. This appeal shall be calendared during the week of December 6, 2010, at The James R. Browning Courthouse in San Francisco, California.
The previously established briefing schedule is vacated. The opening brief is now due September 17, 2010. The answering brief is due October 18, 2010. The reply brief is due November 1, 2010. In addition to any issues appellants wish to raise on appeal, appellants are directed to include in their opening brief a discussion of why this appeal should not be dismissed for lack of Article III standing. See Arizonans For Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 66 (1997).
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Monday, August 16, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
NY Times: "Obama Strongly Backs Islam Center Near 9/11 Site"
The New York Times reports that "President Obama delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan to proclaim that 'as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.'"
“I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” the president said in remarks prepared for the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day’s fast.
But, he continued: “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”
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