Al Kresta's Blog, page 327

Pro-Choice Legislation We Can Get Behind

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, is expected to soon sign legislation that would create the nation's broadest school choice program. The GOP-led House voted 55-43 Wednesday to allow lower- and middle-class families to use their public school funding to send their children to private schools.

The program would be limited to 7,500 students for the first year and increase to 15,000 in the third year. After three years, there would be no enrollment limit. The scholarships would cost the state less than to send the same students to attend public schools.

Lindsey Burke, a policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, said Indiana is leading the way in education reform. "The Hoosier State is empowering parents through school choice and ensuring it responds to the needs of children," she said. "These are reforms that should be — and are likely to be — mimicked by reform-minded state leaders throughout the country this year, to the benefit of parents, children, taxpayers and teachers."

The Oklahoma House has approved the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act, which would provide scholarships to students who come from low-income families or who attend failing schools. Businesses and individuals would receive a tax credit for contributing to the scholarships.

Republican Sen. Dan Newberry, who introduced the bill, said he's pleased the bill will now return to the Senate for final approval. "This is very important to Oklahoma kids," he said, "and it gives underprivileged children opportunity to succeed and receive the education they deserve."[image error]

The Defense Rests

Law firm drops case defending the Defense of Marriage Act, but one of its partners resigns to continue as counsel
The law firm the U.S. House of Representatives hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court dropped the case Monday after coming under pressure from gay rights groups.

Robert Hays Jr., chairman of King & Spalding, said in a statement that the law firm withdrew from the case because it had not done enough "vetting" before taking the case, and he apologized "for the challenges this may have created."

Immediately, a prominent partner at the firm and the lawyer assigned to the case, Paul Clement, solicitor general under President George W. Bush, resigned from the firm. Clement plans to continue as counsel to the House on the case, now with a new, smaller firm—Bancroft PLLC, founded by a former member of the Bush Justice Department, Viet Dinh.

"To be clear, I take this step not because of strongly held views about this statute," Clement wrote in his resignation letter. "Instead, I resign out of the firmly held belief that a representation should not be abandoned because the client's legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters. Defending unpopular positions is what lawyers do. . . . Much has been said about being on the wrong side of history. But being on the right or wrong side of history on the merits is a question for the clients. When it comes to the lawyers, the surest way to be on the wrong side of history is to abandon a client in the face of hostile criticism."

Theodore Olson, also a Bush solicitor general, agreed to take a case on the opposite side of the issue, challenging California's Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. But he commended Clement's decision and told The Washingtonian, "It's important for lawyers to be willing to represent unpopular and controversial clients and causes." The Los Angeles Times editorial board, which calls DOMA a "discriminatory law," penned an editorial criticizing the Human Rights Campaign's attack on the firm, echoing Olson: "The tradition of lawyers defending unpopular or controversial clients is an honorable one."

DOMA, which Congress passed in 1996 and President Bill Clinton signed into law, defines marriage as between one man and one woman and bars federal benefits for same-sex couples. The law faces a number of court challenges. Previously the U.S. Justice Department had defended it as established law, despite President Barack Obama's personal opposition, but in February Attorney General Eric Holder and the president announced that they no longer deemed the law constitutional and the Justice Department would no longer defend it in court. A number of lawyers said the administration's defense of the law was half-hearted to begin with.

Congress, which passed the law, is likely the only other entity that has standing in court to defend the law, so the House convened a rare legal advisory group in March that contracted with a law firm to defend the statute. House Democratic leaders objected to the decision. Once the firm agreed to take the case in April, gay rights groups began to exert pressure. Human Rights Campaign and Georgia Equality had planned a protest Tuesday morning outside the firm's Atlanta offices, and the two groups planned to buy ads attacking the firm. Several gay rights legal groups publicly condemned the firm before it withdrew from the case.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said the speaker was disappointed in the firm's "careless disregard for its responsibilities to the House," but praised Clement's "legal integrity." Buck said in a statement, "This move will ensure the constitutionality of this law is appropriately determined by the courts, rather than by the president unilaterally."[image error]

US commission names 14 worst violators of religious freedom

For the first time, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has listed Egypt among the world's worst violators of religious freedom.

In its 2011 annual report, the commission recommended that the State Department designate 14 nations--Burma, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam--as "countries of particular concern" (CPCs).

"CPCs are nations whose conduct marks them as the world's worst religious freedom violators and human rights abusers," said Leonard Leo, the chairman of the commission. "In the case of Egypt, instances of severe religious freedom violations engaged in or tolerated by the government have increased dramatically since the release of last year's report, with violence, including murder, escalating against Coptic Christians and other religious minorities. Since President Mubarak's resignation from office in February, such violence continues unabated without the government's bringing the perpetrators to justice."

The commission also named several nations--Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Venezuela-- to its watch list.

Court of Appeals Ruling Allows Federal Funding of Embryo-Killing Stem Cell Research

This from the National Right to Life Committe this afternoon

Today, overturning an earlier preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 to allow continued federal funding of embryo-killing stem cell research. Last year, Judge Lamberth enjoined using federal money for research that requires the killing of human embryos, but the decision today will allow embryo-killing research to continue being funded with federal dollars while the lawsuit proceeds.


"Given the tremendous advances in medical research using stem cells derived from ethical sources, it is tragic that a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled to allow the Obama Administration to continue federal funding of the kind of stem cell research that requires killing human embryos," said David O'Steen, Ph.D, Executive Director of National Right to Life. "Study after study continues to show that treatments developed using stem cell research that does not require killing a living human embryo has shown far more progress than research that destroys the tiniest members of the human family.

"National Right to Life will continue working for the day when all unborn children, regardless of their stage of development, are protected by our laws and not subject to destruction or experimentation."

John Paul II and his Press Secretary

Outrageous Statement of the Day

Have we reached a point where you cannot question the President or criticize him without it being racist?

Cartoon of the Day - How do you cope

Today on Kresta - April 29, 2011

Talking about the "things that matter most" on April 29

4:00 – The Royal Wedding: Why You Should Care
They wore Kate and William face masks in Hong Kong, donned plastic tiaras and wedding dresses in Sydney and knocked back jugs of Pimm's and roast beef served on red, white and blue plates in Paris. As thousands packed the streets of London to celebrate the wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday, millions more around the world joined in the fun. Fr. Pat Egan , our chaplain and a Priest of the Diocese of Westminster, is here to tell us why Americans and Catholics should be paying attention.

4:20 – Direct to My Desk

5:00 – Rome Abuzz for John Paul II Beatification
Pope John Paul II's coffin was exhumed Friday ahead of his beatification ceremony in Rome which is expected to draw more than one million people. Sunday's ceremony marks the biggest event in Vatican City since John Paul's death six years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful are expected to gather in St. Peter's Square to witness the event, the penultimate step towards John Paul II's sainthood. One of those is Teresa Tomeo who joins us to report on the scene in Rome.

5:20 – Kresta Comments – The Royal Wedding Meets the Beatification of Pope John Paul the Great

5:40 – What's hot in the Catholic blogosphere?
We begin our new weekly segment on "What's hot in the Catholic blogosphere" today. Each week we will bring together 2 popular Catholic bloggers to discuss the topics that have generated the most interest over the past week. Today we have Matt Smith of Catholic Advocate and Jeff Miller of the Curt Jester.

Today on Kresta - April 28, 2011

Talking about the "things that matter most" on April 28

4:00 – The 2011 Budget and the Looming Battle Over the Debt Ceiling
Yesterday President Obama laid out his vision for deficit reduction, albeit very light on specifics. The GOP also has a framework to go on – the Ryan plan, which is heavy on specifics – some quite unpopular. We talk to economist Jerry Mueller , author of Redeeming Economics about the 2011 budget battle, the upcoming battle over the debt ceiling, and what issues will drive the debate.

4:40 – Christian Charity and the Welfare State
There is near universal agreement among Christians of all political stripes that one of our great privileges and duties is to do charitable deeds. Where we disagree is on the question of whether the secular authority of the state should be an agent of Christian charity. To some, such an alliance seems logical; to others, it is a non sequitur to conclude that, because we are expected to perform acts of charity, we should enlist the state to help us. We discuss the issue of Christian charity and the welfare state with Dr. Mark Hendrickson .

5:00 – April 12: 150th Anniversary of Start of Civil War / The Civil War As A Theological Crisis
On April 12, we commemorated the 150th Anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Today Mark Noll argues that the War was a major turning point in American religious thought. Although Christian believers agreed with one another that the Bible was authoritative and that it should be interpreted through commonsense principles, there was rampant disagreement about what Scripture taught about slavery. Furthermore, most Americans continued to believe that God ruled over the affairs of people and nations, but they were radically divided in their interpretations of what God was doing in and through the war. Catholics in Europe and Canada saw clearly that no matter how much the voluntary reliance on scriptural authority had contributed to the construction of national civilization, if there were no higher religious authority than personal interpretation regarding an issue as contentious as slavery, the resulting public deadlock would amount to a full-blown theological crisis. Mark is here to talk about the Civil War as a theological crisis.

5:40 – Abuse allegations: true, false and truthy
It was one of the more searing allegations in the recent Philadelphia grand jury report on clergy sex abuse: A Bristol Township man killed himself after the Archdiocese of Philadelphia refused to believe that a priest had molested him when he was an altar boy. Reeling from criminal and civil allegations of sexual misconduct by priests and church officials, the Archdiocese said a month ago that it would reopen 37 cases of possible child sexual abuse cited by a local grand jury. But Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons says a number of important questions need to be addressed in regard to the allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviors against minors by 21 priests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who were placed on administrative leave on Ash Wednesday. This would include the process of further evaluation of priests previously evaluated and found to be innocent. Fitzgibbons is here to make his case.

Today on Kresta - April 27, 2011

Today on Kresta in the Afternoon - April 27

4:00-6:00 - Direct to My Desk
Today we have a special two hours of Direct to My Desk. You set the agenda and call in to ask questions or raise issues that matter most to you. Some topics we will raise for discussion include Terry Jones and his Koran-burning escapade in Dearborn, corporal punishment at a Catholic boys' school in New Orleans, "Christian terrorism," and more.