Prepared remarks for the Judiciary Committee of the Minnesota State Senate, hearings on same sex marriage Dr Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage April 29, 2011 St. Paul Minnesota www.ruthinstitute.org We are here to consider giving the citizens of the State of […]
Charges Dropped Against Anti-Abortion Protesters At Notre Dame’s Commencement with President Obama Thomas More Society’s Relentless Legal Defense Wins Justice for Pro-Live Activists Today, Michael Dvorak, St. Joseph County, Indiana prosecutor, dismissed the criminal trespass charges that he has pressed over the last two years against almost all of the pro-life protesters, known as the […]
Law enforcement scrutiny, detainment by police, and a court date to answer trumped-up charges: these are the consequences of preaching Christianity to Muslims not only throughout much of the Islamic world, but sometimes even in America as well. The most infamous example occurred last June, when four missionaries from Acts 17 Apologetics were arrested and […]
Aaron Proctor, a Philadelphia-based libertarian writer, can count himself the latest victim of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that ironically claims to work for civil rights. Proctor, a colorful commentator for the Philadelphia version of Examiner.com, had the temerity to investigate CAIR’s dubious background in connection with its Philadelphia branch’s planned fundraising […]
The Muslim Brotherhood’s mask is slipping in Egypt. Small “d” democrats there and elsewhere are alarmed by top Brotherhood officials who now aver openly what has been utterly predictable: Once in power they will impose shariah – the totalitarian, supremacist politico-military-legal program practiced in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and increasingly elsewhere. The prospect that […]
Proposition 8 is an amendment to California’s State Constitution. It was passed by a comfortable margin via ballot initiative in 2008. Prop 8 maintained the age-old definition of marriage in the Golden State as requiring binary male-female compatibility. It remains tied-up in Federal Court today. Back in February of 2010 it became rumored that retired […]
In his engaging new biography, Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story, journalist Howard Means scrubs away nearly two centuries of rumor and myth to uncover the truth about 19th-century pioneer nurseryman John Chapman, a national folk hero whom most of us know only from Disney cartoons and children’s books. Means’ meticulous research […]
The Thomas More Law Center announced [Wednesday] that it has filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan against the City of Coldwater on behalf of the Common Sense Patriots of Branch County and two of its members, Barbara Brady and Martin Lepper, alleging that the City’s recent […]
When Pastor Terry Jones, 59, announced an intent to burn a Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 in 2010, the U.S. government, fearing attacks on American troops abroad, put intense pressure on him to desist and eventually he called off his plans. Jones, however, did not cancel the ceremonial judgment of the Islamic scripture – […]
Today a federal judge ruled that Spartanburg County School District No. 7 did not violate the Constitution by allowing students to earn elective credit for released time courses. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Herlong issued an emphatically worded order in Freedom of Religion Foundation v. Spartanburg County School District No. 7, holding that the District’s […]
A Michigan Federal Judge yesterday ordered a Detroit-area transportation authority to display an anti-Jihad advertisement on its buses. Judge Denise Page Hood granted an injunction request filed by the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) to reverse the bus authority’s refusal to display the ads, which state, “Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community […]
“As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” On election day, November 2009, the Pine Tree State harkened back to its old bellwether status — at least on the issue of same sex marriage. Defying the governor, the legislature, and the other powers-that-be (except the churches), stalwart citizens upheld the historical definition of marriage. By a […]
[Yesterday] the Supreme Court said it would decide a groundbreaking First Amendment case concerning the right of churches and other religious employers to freely choose the people who will lead their congregations, instruct their faithful, and speak for the church. The lower courts agree that these employees cannot sue their employers when that would put […]
In a 1972 decision widely hailed by the political classes, the Supreme Court opined in Eisenstadt v. Baird, “If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right to be free from unwarranted government intrusions into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.”1 Imagining that […]
On March 2, the Supreme Court issued a decision in the case Snyder v. Phelps that illustrates the difficulty of balancing competing claims to rights and justice in our judicial system. The court overturned a lower court’s $5 million tort judgment against Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, for invasion […]
Irony is defined as “the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.” The term doublespeak means “evasive, ambiguous language that is intended to deceive or confuse.” There is perhaps no greater example of ironic doublespeak than inclusion of the phrase “civil liberties” within the inapt designation: “American Civil Liberties […]
Atheist activist Dr. Michael Newdow announced on his website that after 6 years of litigation in federal courts, his constitutional challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance in California public schools is “over.” Newdow indicated for “reasons that are best not divulged” that he would not appeal the case to the Supreme Court. That leaves intact […]
[Friday] the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ruled that Italy has not violated human rights by requiring crucifixes to be displayed in Italian state-school classrooms. Voting 15-2, the Grand Chamber reversed the earlier decision of a lower chamber of the Court finding the crucifix displays to violate European […]
From Congressman Keith Ellison’s emotional breakdown to Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s accusations of “racism,” last week’s hearings on Muslim radicalization have made it clear that those who oppose the hearings have little of substance to offer. Still, the tactics used by such apologists—namely, appeals to emotionalism and accusations of racism—are influential enough that they need to […]
In America, it’s easy to take freedom speech for granted. After all, for citizens of the United States, free speech is a birthright, an ideal deeply woven into the fabric of society and culture. Sometimes, however, our ideals come into conflict with reality, and our convictions are put to the test. When a cherished liberty […]
Following the murder of Pakistan Minister of Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti on March 2nd, Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Congressman Heath Shuler (D-NC), co-chairs of the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus, introduced a resolution calling for the U.S. to take a definitive stance in protecting religious freedom and condemning the intolerance that sanctioned these murders […]
Attorney General Eric Holder explained the Obama administration’s decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) against court challenges by claiming that “a growing consensus accepts that sexual orientation is a characteristic that is immutable.” Gay activists have for years forwarded the notion that same sex attraction (SSA) is immutable — people are […]
“You can sit here and talk about jihad from here to doomsday, what will it do? Suppose you prove beyond any shadow of doubt that Islam is constitutionally violent, where do you go from there?” Such was Columbia professor Hamid Dabashi’s response to my assertion that Islamists seek to resurrect the caliphate and wage offensive […]
Free speech has always been one of our most cherished rights. It has come under attack repeatedly by those who find it to be an inconvenient and unwanted obstacle to the attainment of their political goals. Sometimes, those in positions of power ignore the First Amendment and issue laws and regulations to silence their opponents. […]
