Christian Examiner: "Who will appeal? The appeal was filed by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Protect Marriage, which sponsored Proposition 8. Also appealing will be Advocates for Faith and Freedom on behalf of Imperial County, a rural farming community that borders San Diego County, Arizona and Mexico."

"Seventeen years later, the advocates of same-sex marriage are making 'people’s personal sexual preferences' everybody’s business, and are counting on the Seinfeld Effect to suppress what most Americans really think about same-sex marriage"

Christian Post: "In a 4-2 vote by the Redwood Presbytery Judicial Commission, the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr was found guilty of representing the ceremonies as marriages, persistently disobeying church law, and violating her ordination vows."

CitizenLink: "Liberals who rely on courts to achieve what democratic majorities would never stand for, however, see such campaigns to oust judges as a threat to their 'judicial independence' – a polite euphemism that many times means 'you can’t stop us.' They are worried about the 'chilling effect' it will have on judges nationwide. Erick Erickson of Redstate.com has an answer for that: A chilling effect on judges is 'exactly what this country needs.'"

US v Di Pietro, No. 09-13726 (11th Cir. Aug. 27, 2010) | Google Viewer "This case requires us to address de novo two constitutional challenges to § 1325(c) U.S.C. § 1325(c), ['which imposes criminal liability on any individual who knowingly enters into a marriage for the purpose of evading federal immigration laws'] in evaluating whether the district court properly denied Ms. Di Pietro’s motion to dismiss her indictment. Specifically, Ms. Di Pietro argues that § 1325(c) is so vague that it violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. She also contends that the statute unconstitutionally preempts Florida’s marriage laws, which purportedly recognize the validity of marriages entered into for any purpose. After thorough review and oral argument, we agree with the district court that Ms. Di Pietro’s constitutional challenges do not pass muster. We therefore affirm the district court’s ruling and sustain her conviction under the statute."

Wyoming Tribune Eagle: "Last week, a Cheyenne couple challenged Wyoming's law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. But many of the key supporters on gay rights aren't backing the action [and were] surprised by the lawsuit . . . 'We don't support this argument at this time,' said Tim Reid, a board member for Wyoming Equality, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy group."

Reihan Salam writing at The Daily Beast: "However much Republicans like former RNC chair Ken Mehlman want to embrace gay rights, the party's rank-and-file won't for years to come . . . Republicans are far less likely to accept gay relationships than Democrats or Independents. According to Gallup, 61 percent of Democrats accept gay relationships, as do 61 percent of Independents. Though virtually all groups in the U.S. are growing more accepting of lesbians and gays, the gap between Republicans and Democrats is vast. It is all the more striking that elite Republicans tend to be far more favorably disposed towards embracing gay rights including the right to marry than grassroots Republicans."

The Blog of LegalTimes: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just upheld lower court findings that reject a causal connection between childhood vaccines and the onset of autism. The ruling came in Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services."

The Christian Institute: "Faith schools shouldn’t be allowed to teach religious education (RE) lessons in line with their beliefs, according to atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins . . . During an interview with the Times newspaper Professor Dawkins said that RE should be taught in a 'comparative way according to a national curriculum', and accused faith schools of 'indoctrinating' pupils."

Associated Press: "Critics of the country's largest Lutheran denomination and its more open stance toward gay clergy formed a new Lutheran church Friday at a meeting of a conservative activist group. The overwhelming voice vote by members of the Lutheran Coalition of Renewal created the North American Lutheran Church, a tiny denomination of churches formerly affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, headquartered in Chicago."

FrumForum: "Gay marriage is ruled a federal right for the first time and the response from the GOP is . . . tepid. Not one nationally prominent elected official thought the issue was important enough to get worked up over. The only cries of outrage were from politically active religious groups. Recently when both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the U.S. House voted to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', hardly a critical peep was heard regarding the votes of leading GOP figures (with the exception of John McCain who was facing a conservative primary challenger)."

Reuters: "U.S. birth rates in 2009 declined for the second straight year, a sign the economy may be causing some women to think twice about having children, health officials said Friday."

Washington Post: "Conservative activists are trying to oust three judges on the state Supreme Court whose unanimous ruling last year legalized same-sex unions. Their decision stunned opponents nationwide and delighted advocates who were eager for a victory in the heartland." For more information see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/state-iowa+category-bench-and-bar/

David W. Kirkpatrick writing at Education News: "Perhaps the epitome of [a] union attitude came in Colorado when a package of education reform legislation was introduced in the state legislature and the Colorado Education Association promptly announced it would oppose each and every one. A very lengthy book could be written with such examples, and not exhaust them. In brief, despite claims that any critic of union procedures is anti-union and out to destroy them, the problem, for many of us, is not the existence of unions but the absence of union democracy, a lack that is virtually universal throughout the labor movement."

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence writing at Inside the Issues: "The Washington Post today flung a new slander at the supporters of marriage – that millions of American voters who overwhelmingly approved 21 state constitutional amendments defining marriage as one man and one woman in the 2004 and 2006 elections were callously duped by Karl Rove and the Bush White House to manipulate them to go to the polls and vote for Republican candidates. This is totally inaccurate, and I say that as one who was there . . . "

Catholic Culture: "The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is facing a critical test of support among the US bishops this week, CWN has learned . . . The CCHD was established by the US bishops in 1970 to attack the root causes of poverty in America . . . Last year . . . criticism reached a crescendo, as lay Catholic groups exposed CCHD funding for organizations that promote causes inimical to Catholic teaching, such as legal abortion and same-sex marriage. While the CCHD leadership said that such grants accounted for only a small percentage of the organization’s funding for self-help groups, several American bishops announced that they were withdrawing their dioceses from the nationwide campaign to support the CCHD."

Family Research Council: "This unfortunate confirmation [regarding former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman] helps explain the scandalous failure of many in the Republican establishment to vigorously uphold the values and policy positions expressed in the party's platform in 2004 and 2008, particularly the need to protect the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman nationwide. While grassroots activists succeeded in passing marriage amendments in dozens of states across the country, they received little support and even outright resistance from Party officials at the national level, which contributed to the GOP's electoral failures in 2006 and 2008. Now we know one of the major reasons why."

New York Times: "Economists may assert that we’re in the early stages of a recovery, but surveys continue to show that the impact of the Great Recession on American families is deep, widespread and grim . . . The poor are getting poorer, and the rich, despite stock-market setbacks, are still comparatively rich. The most devastating losses in household wealth over the past two years have been suffered by the middle class. And families are fraying at the seams."

Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski writing at Fox News: "The Republican Party has an official position on same-sex marriage. It’s found in the 2008 GOP platform, which is the clear and uncontestable Republican position until the 2012 convention . . . The GOP platform could not be more explicit: Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. The fundamental institution of human civilization should be preserved as it has been known through the entirety of American history and Western civilization . . . You cannot have it both ways. Do you want to see Obamacare struck down as unconstitutional? Then you can’t have a constitutional right to same-sex marriage."

Las Vegas Sun: "Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto finds herself potentially stuck between the governing documents on the issue of gay marriage. And those on both sides of the volatile debate say she should wade into the legal fight in their favor."