A Christian student in the Los Angeles Community College District is carrying his free-speech case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jonathan Lopez had an assignment in a public speaking class and was required to give an informative speech on any topic. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney David Hacker tells OneNewsNow that Lopez chose to speak about his Christian beliefs. "And during that speech, when he mentioned that marriage is between a man and a woman according to his Christian beliefs, the professor called him this horrible name, refused to let him finish the assignment, and told other students in the class, If you re offended, you can leave, " Hacker explains. When no students left, the professor dismissed the class. Hacker adds that Lopez is an "A" student -- "but the problem is he never got a grade on that informative speech, and in fact, the professor wrote on his evaluation form, Ask God what your grade is. " The ADF attorney argues that demonstrates the hostility towards religion on many college campuses. The lower court in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction against the school, saying its speech code -- allowing administrators to punish Lopez s "hateful propaganda" -- is unconstitutional. That has been appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
VA considers healthcare mandate unconstitutional
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 3/9/2010
Virginia is poised to pass a law that says residents cannot be compelled to purchase health insurance they don t want. A bill that has been passed by Virginia s Senate and House of Delegates is designed to challenge President Obama s national healthcare reform plan. It states that mandates should not be imposed on people for health insurance. The chief sponsor of the measure, Delegate Bob Marshall, notes that Congress has never required individuals or businesses to directly purchase any good or service, and he believes it is unconstitutional to force every legal resident of the U.S. to purchase health insurance. "They re not doing this after they examine the Constitution and history. They re reaching this conclusion because they need that to happen to fund their program," Marshall contends. "So this is a way of proceeding completely backwards. The idea here is you re doing nothing, but they re going to have to hold that that constitutes economic activity that substantially affects interstate commerce. That s like saying, Because I m not giving my kidney to someone who needs a kidney, I am personally causing them to have ill health or maybe even die. This is bizarre reasoning." According to the state lawmaker, President Obama is trying to "shift from a government by social compact to a government where the leaders tell the subjects what to do." Marshall adds that "it s no wonder Obama has so many czars running around DC because he s acting like a Russian czar before the Russian revolution."
4 euthanasia group members face charges
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 3/10/2010
A Georgia grand jury has indicted four members of an assisted suicide group on charges of helping a 58-year-old cancer patient kill himself. Former Final Exit Network president Thomas E. Goodwin and three others are named in the indictment in the death of John Celmer at his Georgia home. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), tells OneNewsNow that Celmer s problem was not cancer. "The fact is that he was going through deep depression, and his wife was just shocked when she found out about this," Schadenberg reports. "She had no idea he was going to do this, and she said he was just cleared of cancer. He was just getting better but he was still very much upset." Noting that depression is treatable, the EPC executive director believes it is fair to say the suspects were more concerned with promoting an agenda than helping a human being. "So it shows you that this is a group that s really oriented towards helping people kill themselves," he contends. "They weren t really concerned about whether or not someone needed help or not. They were just interested in getting the death done. “The four are also accused of tampering with evidence, which Schadenberg says is typical of the Final Exit Network, which he says takes the proof with them afterwards. Furthermore, he remarkds, that group views suicide as a human right.
Church bells will chime amid legal clatter
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 3/10/2010
Church bells will toll in Phoenix now that a court order has been secured and the city s noise ordinance has been silenced. "What had happened is the city of Phoenix had sentenced Bishop Rick Painter to jail for simply playing church bells at his church, Christ the King Cathedral," explains Erik Stanley, attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). "[Our firm] and other churches in Phoenix, including St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the noise ordinance." (See earlier article) Painter was convicted and sentenced to jail even after his church compromised with the local residents who previously filed complaints. Stanley argues that an ice cream truck plays music along the streets louder than the church bells, as the chimes registered at 67 decibels in comparison to the truck s 70 decibels. "Bishop Painter could go out and hire an ice cream truck to go up and down the street in front of his church and play music as loud as the church bells coming from the sanctuary, and he would be okay under the noise ordinance," the ADF attorney suggests. "And that just illustrates how objective [sic] and arbitrary this really is." The court s ruling means that Painter is likely to prevail if the case goes to trial. The next move is up to the city of Phoenix.
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