Tag Archives: SCOTUS
The U.S. Supreme Court Confronts California’s Abortion Craziness
On Tuesday [March 20th], the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for NIFLA vs. Becerra, the case which focuses on the “law that requires pregnancy centers to notify women that the state offers subsidies for abortion.” In other words, pro-life pregnancy centers, which exist to offer women alternatives to abortion, would be required by law to tell their clients that the state can subsidize their abortions. But that hardly tells the story of how absurd this law is.
Certainly, it’s bad enough that the state thought it had the right to require pro-life pregnancy centers to inform their clients about …
Why the Masterpiece Cake Case Matters to All Americans
Pray for Religious Liberty at the SCOTUS
This week the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will hear a case that will either preserve our First Amendment religious liberty in the United States or diminish it.
The case is about Jack Phillips, a bakery owner in Colorado who in 2012 declined to create a wedding cake to celebrate so-called same-sex “marriage.” He turned down the job because doing so would violate his deeply held Christian belief that God created the institution as the union of a man and a woman.
Phillips offered to make the same-sex couple any other type of baked good or sell …
Illinois Law Could be Impacted by California Right of Conscience Case if it is Heard by SCOTUS
In a fast-moving story, right of conscience cases are moving forward and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here are just two recent headlines from Life News:
October 30: Pregnancy Centers Ask Supreme Court to Overturn California Law Forcing Them to Promote Abortions
October 31: Judge Blocks California Law Forcing Pregnancy Centers to Promote Abortions
In a case that could impact Illinois, Life News reports, “California pregnancy centers could hear any day now if the United States Supreme Court will hear their appeal for relief from a pro-abortion state law”:
…Their cases involve a pro-abortion California law that forces pregnancy
Judge Loses Her Position for Belief in Traditional Marriage
Busy schedule? Valid reason. Don’t know the couple? Valid reason. Watching football? Still a valid reason. Violates your conscience? You’re fired. Or so goes the logic of the Wyoming Supreme Court.
In December 2014, a reporter asked Judge Ruth Neely whether her faith would allow her to perform a same-sex “wedding” in her official capacity as a local municipal judge. Citing her belief in the Biblical definition of marriage, Judge Ruth Neely said she could not. Judge Neely had not been asked to do a same-sex ceremony. In spite of the fact that many other judges in the district were …
The U.S. Supreme Court and Religious Liberty
A Question of Lawful Authority
Baseball season gets underway this week, a welcome distraction from the political battles in Washington.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is warring over the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. The Republicans say he’s a stellar nominee, a judicial umpire who calls balls and strikes as he sees them. Democrats, led by New York’s Charles Schumer, however, say the judge is a creature of “special interests” who would slide into a base with spikes up and who deserves to be filibustered.
Who are those “special interests” you might ask? Well, they would be anyone who disagrees with progressives, …
Alabama Supreme Court DID Reject U.S. Supreme Court Marriage Opinion
Probate Judge Don Davis asked to be relieved of the order because it would …
Alabama Supreme Court Rejects SCOTUS Marriage Opinion
[On Friday] in a 170-page ruling, the Alabama Supreme Court rejected the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage opinion by issuing its own Judgment in favor of Liberty Counsel’s Petition for Mandamus. In the petition, Liberty Counsel demanded on behalf of its Alabama clients – Alabama Policy Institute (“API”) and Alabama Citizens Action Program (“ALCAP”) – that the state’s probate judges obey Alabama’s Constitution and laws. On March 4, 2015, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered the probate judges to immediately cease issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
“The ruling last year by the Alabama Supreme Court was historic, and is one of the most …
Legal Scholars Rise Up Against Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Decision
I’ve been saying that 2015 is the year of pushback, and this might be the most significant act of pushing back so far: A group of legal scholars, most of them university professors, have declared that the U.S. Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage this past June 26th is not “the law of the land,” and they are calling on all office holders, together with all presidential candidates, to join them in rejecting the Court’s decision.
Make no mistake about it: This is really big news.
These scholars, who teach at schools like Princeton and Oxford and Notre Dame …
The 2016 Campaign for President and the Info War About the U.S. Constitution
Over the course of the past few months I gathered articles about the question of “judicial supremacy” — are U.S. Supreme Court decisions “the law of the land,” or are they rulings on cases?
Here is that page of excerpts, quotes, and links: Judicial Supremacy: Not in the U.S. Constitution, Not the Intention of the Founding Fathers.
Republicans and conservatives rarely even attempt to disseminate information about the U.S. Constitution to the uninformed and misinformed. Of course, that is a bit much to ask when too many on our side aren’t even clear on what it says.
For many …
Kim Davis, ‘Lawless’ in Kentucky
In Which I Paint With Some Bright Yellows
A consensus appears to be developing among otherwise reasonable people that Kim Davis, of Rowan County fame, either needs to start issuing marriage licenses or quit her job.
For those just joining us, a county clerk in Kentucky is refusing to issue marriage licenses against her conscience and is also refusing to resign. Her name, which should be on a bronze plaque on the side of the courthouse, is Kim Davis. A federal judge has ordered her to appear in his courtroom Thursday to explain why Davis should not be held in contempt of court for refusing to issue marriage …
Why the Supreme Court is not Supreme
Destroying Religious Freedom to Save It
Even before the U.S. Supreme Court announced the previously unknown constitutional “right” to impose same-sex “marriage” on all 50 states, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was readying its next volley.
For two decades, the ACLU has cited the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as a defense of religious liberty in various worthy and some not-so-worthy cases. No more.
The ACLU has decided that the unalienable right to religious freedom embodied in the First Amendment must give way to newly coined claims by newly empowered groups.
In a Washington Post column, ACLU Deputy Director Louise Melling called on …
