Sweet Cakes Bakers Defy Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries Order to Pay $135,000 ‘Damages’ to Gay Couple
Posted: October 1, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, Religion | Tags: Aaron Klein, Appellate court, Brad Avakian, Civil Rights, Melissa Klein, Oregon, Oregon Court of Appeals, Portland, Religious Freedom, Same-sex marriage, Sweet Cakes, Wedding Cake Leave a comment
The Kleins’ refusal to pay marks another chapter in the long-running controversy pitting their claims of religious freedom against enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.
The Oregon couple who made national headlines when they refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding are now refusing to pay state-ordered damages to the lesbian couple they turned away.
In response, state officials have gone to court to establish their right to place a property lien or attach other assets belonging to Aaron and Melissa Klein, proprietors of the Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery.
The Kleins filed an appeal of the state ruling in July but also have defied a Bureau of Labor and Industries order to pay $135,000 to Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, claiming financial hardship despite crowdfunding efforts that have raised more than $500,000 on their behalf.
Most recently, one of their lawyers wrote to the labor bureau to say: “Our clients do not have a bond or irrevocable letter of credit in place and have no further plans to obtain either one.”
The Kleins’ refusal to pay marks another chapter in the long-running controversy pitting their claims of religious freedom against enforcement of anti-discrimination laws requiring Oregon businesses to serve the public equally.
Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian issued a final order July 2 directing the Kleins to pay damages for emotional and mental suffering, saying they had violated the women’s civil rights by discriminating on the basis of their sexual orientation.
The Kleins have defended their actions as consistent with their Christian beliefs against same-sex marriage, saying they shouldn’t have to provide a wedding-related service that goes against their religious principles.
Even before the final order, supporters of the Kleins set up three online accounts to help them with expenses. As of Wednesday, those efforts had raised at least $515,000, according to a calculation by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“It’s difficult to understand the Kleins’ unwillingness to pay the debt when they have, very publicly, raised nearly a half million dollars,” labor bureau spokesman Charlie Burr said in an email Wednesday. “They are entitled to a full and fair review of the case, but do not have the right to disregard a legally binding order.”
Anna Harmon, one of three lawyers representing the Kleins, said she could not comment about her clients’ actions.
“These questions delve into matters of (attorney-client) privilege that we aren’t at liberty to discuss publicly,” she said. “There’s still ongoing litigation and we can’t talk about strategy. ”
Paul Thompson, a Portland attorney representing the Bowman-Cryers, also declined comment, saying, “We don’t want to speculate on their motives as to why they do or don’t do things.”
The dispute goes back to January 2013 when Rachel Cryer and her mother came into the Sweet Cakes shop for a cake-tasting appointment, only to be told by Aaron Klein that the Gresham bakery did not do cakes for same-sex weddings.
Cryer and Bowman, as they were then known, complained to the labor bureau, prompting a state investigation, four days of hearings before an administrative law judge this year and, ultimately, Avakian’s July ruling. Read the rest of this entry »
Kim Davis Shows Off Her New Prison Tats
Posted: September 9, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: Kentucky, Kim Davis, Photography, Prison, Same-sex marriage, satire, Tattoos 1 Comment
Thomas Sowell: Have We Learned Anything?
Posted: September 5, 2015 Filed under: Economics, Health and Social Issues, Think Tank | Tags: 1964 Civil Rights Act, Al Sharpton, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Barack Obama, Boy Scouts, Civil Rights, Democratic Party (United States), Disparate impact, EEOC, Eric Holder, Ghetto, Harlem, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Lester Maddox, New York, New York City, Same-sex marriage, Slavery, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Thomas Sowell, White House 1 Comment
The conservative sage on the decline of intellectual debate, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and what the welfare state has done to black America.
Kyle Peterson interviews Thomas Sowell:
…Why do we never seem to learn these economic lessons? “I think there’s a market for foolish things,” Mr. Sowell says—and vested interests, too. Once an organization such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is created to find discrimination, no one should be startled when it finds discrimination. “There’s never going to be a time when the EEOC will file a report saying, ‘All right folks, there’s really not enough discrimination around to be spending all this money,’ ” he says. “You’re going to have ever-more-elaborate definitions of discrimination. So now, if you don’t want to hire an ax murderer who has somehow gotten paroled, then that’s discrimination.”
“One of the things I try to do in the book is to distinguish between what might be the legacy of slavery, and what’s the legacy of the welfare state. If you look at the first 100 years after slavery, black communities were a lot safer. People were a lot more decent. But then you look 30 years after the 1960s revolution, and you see this palpable retrogression—of which I think the key one is the growth of the single-parent family.”
It’s a funny line—and an instance of what sets Mr. Sowell apart: candor and independence of mind. No one can suggest that he doesn’t say what he thinks. In 1987, while testifying in favor of Judge Robert Bork’s ill-fated nomination to the Supreme Court, he told Joe Biden, a senator at the time, that he wouldn’t have a problem with literacy tests for voting or with $1.50 poll taxes, so long as they were evenly and fairly applied. When I ask whether he remembers this exchange, Mr. Sowell quips, “No, Joe Biden is forgettable.”
“If you say that Lester Maddox has to serve his chicken to blacks, you’re saying that the Boy Scouts have to have gay scout masters. You’re saying—ultimately—that the Catholic Church has to perform same-sex marriages.”
In our interview he maintains that the 1964 Civil Rights Act should have stuck to desegregating buses and government services, and let market forces take care of integrating lunch counters. Mr. Sowell says that the precedent set by imposing integration on people like Lester Maddox, a segregationist governor of Georgia who also owned a chicken restaurant, has opened a Pandora’s box.
“People want to believe what they want to believe, and the facts are not going to stop them’, he says, adding that black leaders—from President Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder down to Al Sharpton—’do all they can to feed that sense of grievance, victimhood and resentment, because that’s where the votes are.’”
“If you say that Lester Maddox has to serve his chicken to blacks, you’re saying that the Boy Scouts have to have gay scout masters. You’re saying—ultimately—that the Catholic Church has to perform same-sex marriages.”
“It’s not a question of the disproportion between blacks and whites, or Asians, but the disproportion between blacks of today and blacks of the previous generation. And that’s what’s scary.”
Mr. Sowell is unsparing toward those who purport to speak for American blacks. I ask him about the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. “People want to believe what they want to believe, and the facts are not going to stop them,” he says, adding that black leaders—from President Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder down to Al Sharpton—“do all they can to feed that sense of grievance, victimhood and resentment, because that’s where the votes are.”
“There’s never going to be a time when the EEOC will file a report saying, ‘All right folks, there’s really not enough discrimination around to be spending all this money.’”
What about Ta-Nehisi Coates, the black writer whose new book, a raw letter to his son about race relations in the U.S., is stirring public intellectuals? I read Mr. Sowell a line from Mr. Coates’s 15,000-word cover story for the Atlantic calling for reparations for slavery: “In America there is a strange and powerful belief that if you stab a black person 10 times, the bleeding stops and the healing begins the moment the assailant drops the knife.”
“Ah . . . yes,” Mr. Sowell sighs, as if recognizing a familiar tune. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: Kentucky Clerk Who Refused to Issue Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples Held in Contempt of Court
Posted: September 3, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Activism, Contempt of court, Kentucky, Marriage License, NBC News, Same-sex marriage, SCOTUS Leave a comment
Political Warriors Black Robes? Poll: Negative Views of Supreme Court at Record High
Posted: July 29, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Associated Press, Barack Obama, Democratic Party (United States), Freedom of religion, Gallup (company), GfK, Liberal Democrats, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pew Research Center, Republican Party (United States), Same-sex marriage, Supreme Court of the United States, Tim Farron, United States 1 Comment
68% of Conservatives Identifies Court as Liberal
Following major, end-of-term rulings on the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage, unfavorable opinions of the Supreme Court have reached a 30-year high. And opinions about the court and its ideology have never been more politically divided.
“Seven-in-ten Americans (70%) say that in deciding cases, the justices of the Supreme Court ‘are often influenced by their own political views.’ Just 24% say they ‘generally put their political views aside. when deciding cases.”
Currently, 48% of Americans have a favorable impression of the Supreme Court, while 43% view the court unfavorably. Unfavorable opinions of the court, while up only modestly since March (39%), are the highest recorded since 1985.
The latest national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted July 14-20 among 2,002 adults, finds that 
most of the increase in unfavorable views of the Supreme Court has come among Republicans.
“Most Americans (54%) say that the Supreme Court has the right amount of power, while 36% say it is too powerful.”
Just 33% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of the court, while 61% have an unfavorable view. Since March, the share of Republicans viewing the court favorably has fallen 17 percentage points (from 50% to 33%), while the share with an unfavorable impression has jumped 21 percentage points (from 40% to 61%). Republicans’ views of the Supreme Court are now more negative than at any point in the past three decades.
“Only about one-in-ten (7%) thinks the court has too little power”
In contrast, Democrats’ views of the Supreme Court have become more positive since March, though the change has not been as dramatic. Currently, 62% of Democrats have a favorable impression of the court, up from 54% four months ago.
There also has been a major shift in how Americans, especially those at either end of the ideological spectrum, view the Supreme Court’s ideology. The share of the public saying the current Supreme Court is liberal has doubled since March, driven by changing attitudes among Republicans, particularly conservative Republicans.
Overall, 39% of the public views the court as middle-of-the-road, 36% as liberal and 18% as conservative. The share saying the court is liberal has increased from 26% to 36% over the past few months and stands at its highest point in surveys dating to 2007. There has been a ten-point decline in the number saying the court is conservative (18% today, 28% in March), while the share saying it is middle-of-the-road is little changed (39% now, 38% then).
Opinions about the court and its ideology have never been more politically divided
Currently, 68% of conservative Republicans say the current Supreme Court is liberal – up 20 points since 
March and by far the highest percentage since 2007. About a quarter of conservative Republicans (24%) say the court has a middle-of-the-road approach and 5% see it as conservative.
Liberal Democrats now generally view the current Supreme Court as middle-of-the-road; in March, most saw the court as conservative. Currently, 49% of liberal Democrats say it is middle-of-the-road (up from 31% in March). Three-in-ten (30%) say it is conservative, down from 56% in March. And 17% say the court is liberal, about double the share who said this in March (8%).
Perceptions of the court’s ideology have changed less among those closer to the middle of the ideological spectrum. Moderate and liberal Republicans’ continue to be divided: 42% see the Supreme Court as middle-of-the-road; 40% say it is liberal and 13% say it is conservative. A plurality of conservative and moderate 
Democrats (43%) continue to say it is middle-of-the-road.
The change in independents’ views of the Supreme Court’s ideology mirrors the shift among the public: 41% say it is middle-of-the-road, little changed from 38% in March; 36% see it as liberal (up 11 points) and 18% say it is conservative (down 10 points). The share of Republican-leaning independents who say the court is liberal has risen from 38% to 54%. Just 23% of independents who lean toward the Democratic Party say the same, up a modest seven percentage points since March.
Other findings
Little Change in Views of Same-Sex Marriage, Affordable Care Act. In contrast to opinions about the Supreme Court, views on two issues that were the subject of its high-profile rulings – same-sex marriage and the 2010 health care law – have shown little change. Currently, 54% of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, while 39% are opposed. In May, before the Court’s ruling that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, 57% favored and 39% opposed same-sex marriage. The public is divided over 
the 2010 health care law: 48% approve of the law and 49% disapprove. In February, 45% approved of the health care law and 53% disapproved.
Few Think Supreme Court Justices Set Aside Their Political Views. Seven-in-ten Americans (70%) say that in deciding cases, the justices of the Supreme Court “are often influenced by their own political views.” Just 24% say they “generally put their political views aside” when deciding cases. The belief that justices are swayed by their own political views spans partisan and demographic groups. The survey also finds that a majority of the public (56%) says the court should consider the views of most Americans when deciding cases; 39% say they should not be influenced by public opinion.
Supreme Court Not Viewed as ‘Too Powerful.’ A majority (54%) says the Supreme Court has the right amount of power, while 36% think it has too much power; 7% say it has too little power. Republicans (45%) are more likely than Democrats (32%) or independents (33%) to view the court as too powerful.
Supreme Court Favorability
Partisanship, ideology and religious affiliation are all factors in views of the Supreme Court. In addition, supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage and the 2010 health care law have starkly different opinions about the Supreme Court.
By a 63% to 28% margin, those who favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally have a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court. By almost an identical margin (63% to 30%), those who oppose same-sex 
marriage have an unfavorable impression of the court. The association between views of the court and opinions on same-sex marriage is far stronger than in the past.
Opinions of the court among those who approve and disapprove of the 2010 health care law are similarly divided (61% of those who approve of the law have a favorable opinion of the court, compared with just 33% of those who disapprove). Supporters and opponents of the law were less divided last year, but were similarly split following the court’s 2012 term, in which it ruled the law was constitutional.
Since March, the plunge in the Supreme Court’s favorability among Republicans has largely come among conservatives. Just 27% of conservative Republicans have a favorable impression of the Supreme Court. Four months ago, nearly half (48%) did so. Among moderate and liberal Republicans, there has been a smaller, nine-point decline in positive views of the court (45% now, 54% then). Read the rest of this entry »
TRENDING! Licking Other People’s Stuff
Posted: July 10, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Abortion debate, Academy Award, Adoption, American's Creed, Andrew Cuomo, Ariana Grande, BEN SHAPIRO, doughnuts, Fight Club, Rihanna, Same-sex marriage, Susan Sarandon, Thelma & Louise Leave a comment
On Thursday, actress Susan Sarandon, most famous for citrusing her breasts in Atlantic City and driving off a cliff in Thelma and Louise, came out in support of pop brat doughnut-licker Ariana Grande
Grande was caught on tape badmouthing America after spreading her saliva on doughnuts on display; she justified that action the next day, claiming she had to fight childhood obesity by surreptitiously tonguing the sugary products. Now, Sarandon has tweeted:
Today, lick a doughnut in solidarity with @ArianaGrande. A sweet, talented, true American. 🍩🇺🇸
— Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) July 9, 2015
Never mind the illogic of Grande’s contention that she secretly licked doughnuts to discourage others from eating them – if she truly wanted to discourage others, she could have stomped on them publicly, or called for a nationwide boycott of doughnuts, or cut a new version of “Problem” in which Iggy Azalea raps about moving beyond doughy joy. Focus instead on the nihilism of defacing someone else’s property without their knowledge. It takes a special kind of emptiness to do something like that.
[Read the full text here, at Breitbart]
But the left is fine with that sort of behavior so long as the target is someone who hasn’t bought into leftist thought. That’s undoubtedly why Grande wrote that her doughnut-licking represented a crusade against big, bad American fatties:
As an advocate for healthy eating, food is very important to me and I sometimes get upset by how freely we as Americans eat and consume things without giving any thought to the consequences that it has on our health and society as a whole. The fact that the United States has the highest child obesity rate in the world frustrates me.
Read the rest of this entry »
Williamson in Wonderland: ‘The Supreme Court Has Firmly Established That It Does Not Matter What The Law Says Or Does Not Say’
Posted: June 29, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Affordable Care Act, Alice in Wonderland, Ayatollah Roberts and His Sharia Council, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, NRO, Obamacare, Rule of Law, Same-sex marriage, SCOTUS, SSM, Supreme Court 3 Comments
Opening paragraph of “Ayatollah Roberts and His Sharia Council” by Kevin D. Williamson
Read Kevin D. Williamson‘s article about the SCOTUS rulings here, at National Review
Does Japan’s Conservative Shinto Religion Support Gay Marriage?
Posted: June 29, 2015 Filed under: Asia, History, Japan, Religion | Tags: Alliance Defending Freedom, Hobby Lobby, Homosexuality, Kawasaki Japan, Same-sex marriage, Shinto, Shinto priest, Shinto shrine, Supreme Court of the United States Leave a comment
TOKYO — John Matthews writes: In January 1999, a Shinto priest unofficially married two men in a shrine in Kawasaki, an industrial city near Tokyo. Literally “the way of the gods,” Shinto is officially the state religion of Japan, but it does not influence modern Japanese life the way that Christianity dominates in the United States. Rather, it’s more a matter of a shared culture — of ritual practices and belief in spirits — against which some people define themselves.
The ceremony took place at Kanamara Shrine, best known for its annual Festival of the Steel Phallus, during which participants pray for easy childbirth or protection from sexually transmitted diseases. Hirohiko Nakamura, the priest who performed the rites, told local media then that this was probably the first time a wedding ceremony had been held for two men in Japan. “This may become a call to seriously think about the diversity of sex,” he said.
“In Shinto, it says make many children, expand humanity, and be prosperous. And yet, it’s not explicitly written anywhere that homosexuality is wrong or a sin.”
— Hisae Nakamura
Fast-forward 16 years. On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in all 50 states, overturning decades of often active and religiously motivated government discrimination against a minority of Americans. In Japan, gay marriage remains illegal — except for in one district, or ward, in Tokyo, which began recognizing same-sex marriages in March. A month earlier, conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been arguing for revising Japan’s Constitution to allow a more assertive military, said that 
reforming the Japanese Constitution to allow for gay marriage would be difficult.
[Check out Louis Crompton‘s 2003 book “Homosexuality and Civilization” at Amazon.com]
Across Japan, opinions about gay rights diverge. Technically, homosexuality is legal, Kazuyuki Minami, a lawyer in Osaka, reminded a journalist from the Associated Press, “but the atmosphere is such that most people feel homosexuals should not exist.” Reuters, citing a mid-2013 poll by the research firm Ipsos, reported that while 60 or 70 percent of people in most Western nations say they know someone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, only 5 percent of Japanese do. Kanae Doi, the Japan director for the advocacy organization Human Rights Watch, told Foreign Policy that while many Japanese are not opposed to homosexuality, “they don’t really see it.”
[Read the full text here, at Foreign Policy]
And while Shinto doesn’t have a clear stance on homosexuality, it “advocates that it’s not natural,” as one Shinto priest told me in Tokyo’s prominent Meiji Shrine in early June, a few weeks before the Supreme Court ruling. The Association of Shinto Shrines, the administrative body that oversees Japan’s estimated 80,000 shrines and 20,000 priests, tend to be conservative on social issues, the priest said. Read the rest of this entry »
America, Rejoice! Same Sex Ruling Sets Up National Reciprocity for Concealed Carry
Posted: June 27, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Self Defense | Tags: 14th Amendment, 2nd amendment, Bible, Civil Rights, Conceal Carry, Gun control, Gun rights, Guns, Health Insurance, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Same-sex marriage, SCOTUS, Supreme Court of the United States 1 Comment
AWR Hawkins writes: When the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that every state must recognize same sex marriages, they used a basis for judgement that will not easily stop at same sex marriage. In fact, it is a basis for judgement that should offer itself to national reciprocity of concealed carry permits and permit holders.
The SCOTUS legalized same sex marriage by finding a right which Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, and Elena Kagan ruled as beyond a state-by-state prerogative via the 14th Amendment.
Crucial in this ruling is the fact that same sex marriage–now recognized by the SCOTUS–is not the only right the 14th Amendment shields from state-by-state prerogative and/or recognition.
Consider this pertinent aspect of the court’s Majority Opinion, written by Justice Kennedy and printed by the LA Times:
Under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, no State shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The fundamental liberties protected by this Clause include most of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
Now the question–Are 2nd Amendment rights among those “protected by this Clause”? Read the rest of this entry »
Dissent Is Now The Highest Form Of Bigotry
Posted: June 27, 2015 Filed under: Censorship, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: Activism, Civil union, Dissent, Editorial, Intolerance, Letter to the editor, Marxism, media, news, Newspapers, Op-ed, Progressivism, propaganda, Same-sex marriage, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of the United States, The Patriot-News, United States 1 Comment
Read on… from Brandon McGinley at The Federalist
Also, from Daily Caller‘s Betsy Rothstein writes:
The editorial board of PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. is taking a hardcore stance against those who disagree with the Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage.
“As a result of Friday’s ruling, PennLive/The Patriot-News will no longer accept, nor will it print, op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage,” they declared.
After receiving strong pushback, the newspaper’s editorial board, which is overseen by Editorial Page Editor John Micek, quickly revised its policy. Freedom of speech will be allowed — but only for a “limited” period of time. Read the rest of this entry »
Chart of the Day: Tracking the Pace of Social Change
Posted: June 26, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Health and Social Issues, History, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Barack Obama, Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Josh Robinson, Republican Party (United States), Same-sex marriage, Supreme Court of the United States, Twitter, United States Leave a comment
Look how fast America changes its mind on gay marriage, abortion and other big issues…(read more)
via Michael R. Strain, Twitter
Source: bloomberg.com
Supreme Court Guide: Six Big Decisions Remain
Posted: June 24, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice | Tags: Arizona, Barack Obama, Capital punishment, Gay, Health law, Marriage, Same-sex marriage, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of the United States, United States 1 Comment
The Supreme Court is scheduled to issue decisions Thursday, with six major cases remaining on the docket, and is expected to release opinions again on Friday and perhaps next week. Still to be decided are the health-law subsidies and gay-marriage cases, along with closely watched rulings involving congressional redistricting and power plant emissions. Here’s a list of the remaining cases….(read more)
Tensions Build as Supreme Court Readies Blockbuster Rulings
Posted: June 21, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice | Tags: Alliance Defending Freedom, Anthony Kennedy, Barack Obama, John Roberts, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Same-sex marriage, Supreme Court of the United States, United States, United States Constitution 1 Comment
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawrence Hurley reports: Tensions are building inside and outside the white marble facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building as the nine justices prepare to issue major rulings on gay marriage and President Barack Obama’s healthcare law by the end of the month.
Of the 11 cases left to decide, the biggest are a challenge by gay couples to state laws banning same-sex marriage and a conservative challenge to subsidies provided under the Obamacare law to help low- and middle-income people buy health insurance that could lead to millions of people losing medical coverage.
Many legal experts predict the court will legalize gay marriage nationwide by finding that the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal treatment under the law and due process prohibit states from banning same-sex nuptials.
The four liberal justices are expected to support same-sex marriage, and conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, the expected swing vote, has a history of backing gay rights.
In three key decisions since 1996, Kennedy has broadened the court’s view of equality for gays. The most recent was a 2013 case in which the court struck down a federal law denying benefits to married same-sex couples.
During oral arguments in the gay marriage case on April 28, Kennedy posed tough questions to lawyers from both sides but stressed the nobility and dignity of same-sex couples.
The healthcare decision is tougher to call. Chief Justice John Roberts, the swing vote when the court upheld Obamacare in 2012, said little during the March 4 oral argument to indicate how he will vote. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Kelsey Harkness: Emails Raise Questions About Bias in Sweet Cakes Ruling
Posted: June 2, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Administrative law judge, Advocacy group, Basic Rights Oregon, Brad Avakian, Government agency, Hans von Spakovsky, LGBT rights organization, Oregon, Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Same-sex marriage 1 Comment
Kelsey Harkness writes:
…Communications between the agency, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, and the LGBT organization, Basic Rights Oregon, raise questions about potential bias in the state’s decision to charge the Kleins with discrimination for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.
In April, a judge for the agency recommended the Kleins be fined $135,000.
Communications obtained through a public records request show employees of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries—which pursued the case against the Kleins—participating in phone calls, texting, and attending meetings with Basic Rights Oregon, the largest LGBT advocacy group in the state…(read more)
Modern Sin: Holding On to Your Belief
Posted: May 1, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Religion, Think Tank | Tags: Anal sex, Andrew Napolitano, Asa Hutchinson, Christianity, Indiana, Mike Pence, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Same-sex marriage, Sexual orientation, United States Leave a comment
Trying to put florists, bakers and others out of work for unapproved ideas about marriage
Charlotte Allen
writes: On Tuesday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that asks whether the Constitution requires states to allow same-sex couples to marry. Four days before the hearing, in Oregon, an administrative-law judge proposed a $135,000 fine against Aaron and Melissa Klein, proprietors of the Sweet Cakes bakery in Gresham, for the “emotional distress” suffered by a lesbian couple for whom the Kleins, citing their Christian belief that marriage is between a man and a woman, had declined to bake a wedding cake in 2013.
“Media sympathy for the Kleins’ claim that being forced to participate in a same-sex wedding would violate their consciences ranged from nonexistent to…nonexistent. A CNN headline dubbed the Kleins’ since-closed business the ‘anti-gay bakery’; the Huffington Post prefers ‘anti-gay baker.’”
Same-sex marriage wasn’t legal in Oregon when the Kleins made their decision. But the couple was found to have violated a 2008 Oregon law forbidding discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation.
“The victors have dropped their conciliatory stance. Bubonic plague-level hysteria surged through the media, academia and mega-corporate America in March after Indiana passed a law—modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993—that would enable religious believers to opt out of universally applicable laws under some circumstances.”
Media sympathy for the Kleins’ claim that being forced to participate in a same-sex wedding would violate their consciences ranged from nonexistent to . . . nonexistent. A CNN headline dubbed the Kleins’ since-closed business the “anti-gay bakery”; the Huffington Post prefers “anti-gay baker.”
[Read the full text here, at WSJ]
[Also see Bake Me a Cake — Or Else by Mark Hemingway]
Supporters of the Kleins—who have five children and operated the bakery out of their home—quickly went on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe to try to raise money to help the family pay legal fees and the fine, which still requires approval by the state labor commissioner. The effort managed to raise more than $100,000 in a few hours. 
But then, on Saturday night, GoFundMe abruptly shut down the online appeal because the Kleins’ case involved “formal charges.”
[Check out Charlotte Allen’s book “The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus“ at Amazon.com]
The Kleins join a small number of bakers, florists and photographers around the country, most of whom say they serve and even employ gays in their over-the-counter operations but who also insist that their Christian beliefs in man-woman marriage preclude their providing services to same-sex weddings. Those numbers will probably dwindle further: Many states are treating those acts of conscience as ordinary bigotry and, by levying or threatening fines, forcing those small business owners into costly and potentially ruinous litigation. Read the rest of this entry »
Rock Paper Scissors: Christian Who Asked Gay Rights Bakery to Bake Anti-Gay Marriage Cake May Face Legal Action
Posted: April 13, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Religion | Tags: Center for Science in the Public Interest, Christian, Dana Loesch, Florida, Freedom of religion, Glenn Beck, GoFundMe, Indiana, Longwood, Same-sex marriage, United States, YouTube Leave a comment
Cake Fake Controversy Enters Twilight Zone
Donna Rachel Edmunds reports: A bakery that has refused to bake a cake with an anti-gay wedding message has found itself at the centre of controversy. But unlike mirror image cases in which Christian bakers have been taken to court for refusing to bake pro-gay marriage cakes, this time, it is the Christian to tried to place the order who may face legal action.
The latest skirmish in an ongoing battle between Christians and gay rights campaigners began when pastor Josh Feuerstein called Cut the Cake in Longwood, Florida to request a sheet cake with the slogan “We do not support gay marriage” written on it.
Sharon Haller, owner of Cut the Cake, who took the call, asked Feuerstein whether the request was a prank (it took place on April 1st), before refusing to bake the cake saying “We wouldn’t do that, sorry”. She then hung up without explaining her reasons.
The brief call was recorded by Feuerstein who then turned to the camera to give his views on the debate currently taking place.
“It obviously violates her principles, so she doesn’t feel like she should be forced to make the cake. And yet there is all of this hoopla because Christian bakeries think that they shouldn’t be forced,” he said. “We’re getting to the place in America now where Christians are not allowed any form of freedom of speech.
“Have we gotten to the point in America where the left is so ‘open minded’ that they’re close minded to anybody that doesn’t agree with them, or is America big enough for different points of view? Christian bakeries should never be forced to do something that violates their Christian principles. That’s not American.
“I love gay people. This is nothing against gay people. This is about religious freedom.”
Feuerstein posted the video to YouTube, but according to WND he removed the video when Haller started to receive harassing phone calls and messages on Facebook. However, Haller then posted the video herself to the Cut the Cake Facebook page, commenting “Yes the video has been deleted by Joshua Feuerstein but the damage is done! Our reviews have been marred and our business reviews are no longer the same. We thought this was a prank! Look for yourself.”
Haller told local media that she had received intimidating calls and even death threats from people all over the country who had seen the video. “People (are) telling us that we need to kill ourselves and all kinds of stuff, and we’re just afraid for our business and our safety,” she said. Local police stepped up patrols in her area. Read the rest of this entry »
Salon Champions Violent Hatred: Memories Pizza ‘Getting Exactly What It Deserved’
Posted: April 5, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Religion | Tags: Alternative rock, Boycott, discrimination, Indiana, LGBT, LGBT community, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Republican Party (United States), Same-sex marriage, The Daily Caller, Twitter Leave a comment
Liberal clickbait factory Salon.com wants to let you know that Memories Pizza, the pizzeria supportive of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Act that was forced to close after constant abuse and death threats, got “exactly what it deserved.”
[Also see – Owners Of Indiana Pizzeria Opposed To Gay Marriage Receive Death Threats]
In a now-deleted tweet, Salon’s Twitter account gloated over the closure of “anti-LGBT” pizza shop:
The link in the body of the tweet goes to a very brief Salon article which reports on Memories Pizza’s closure, but omits any mention of the death threats:
The owners of a small-town pizza shop who showed support for Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act have announced that they will be closing indefinitely, after facing mounting protests outside the physical establishment and online. Memories Pizza owner Kevin O’Connor told Fox News on Wednesday that due to an inability to differentiate between real and fake orders, he and his family would be taking a break. Read the rest of this entry »
Arsonists For Tolerance: Indiana Coach Suspended After Threatening to Burn Down Christian-Owned Pizzeria
Posted: April 1, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Religion | Tags: discrimination, Indiana, Jess Dooley, media, news, Pizza, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Same-sex marriage, Same-sex relationship, Twitter, Walkerton, Yelp Leave a comment
Hysterical Media Whipping Up the Next Ferguson?
The head coach of an Indiana high school girl’s golf team has been suspended after apparently threatening to burn down a Christian-owned pizzeria.
Have we strangled the last Mormon florist with the entrails of the last evangelical pizza provider yet?
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) April 1, 2015
Jess Dooley, a coach at Concord High School of Elkhart, Indiana allegedly struck out at the owner of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, IN who made news on Tuesday by saying that she would not cater a wedding if a gay couple tried to hire her for the job, after the state passed its own Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“We are a Christian establishment,” pizza shop owner told the media.
On the heels of the news from the pizza shop, coach Dooley allegedly took to Twitter to say, “Who’s going to Walkerton, IN to burn down #memoriespizza w me? Agree with #FreedomofReligion bill? “That’s a lifestyle they CHOOSE” Ignorant.” Read the rest of this entry »
Deroy Murdock: ‘Are We Prepared to Handcuff a Feminist Photographer Who Won’t Take Pictures at a Strip Club?’
Posted: April 1, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Religion, Think Tank | Tags: Baptists, Barack Obama, Family Research Council, Freedom of religion, Indiana, Ku Klux Klan, Mike Pence, Same-sex marriage, Southern Poverty Law Center, Westboro Baptist Church 2 Comments
At National Review, Deroy Murdock asks some questions.
• Do we still respect a woman’s right to choose not to bake a cake for a gay couple?
• Do we respect a woman’s right to choose not to take photographs at a Christmas party at a men’s club because she is a feminist who deeply loathes all-male establishments?
• Do we respect the rights of groups of women to choose to enjoy the sisterhood of a women’s club where they need not cope with men?
• Do we respect the Junior League’s right to choose to remain a female-only group, as it has been since 1901, or must they now accept male members?
[Read the full text here at National Review]
• Do we respect a lesbian bar owner’s right to choose to post a No Men Allowed sign in her window because her customers want to enjoy their all-female company in peace and don’t want to associate there with a bunch of hairy dudes with Adam’s apples, brawny shoulders, testosterone in their veins, and penises in their pants?
• Do we respect a gay merchant’s decision to tell a heterosexual couple to stop making out inside his club full of gay men who could live without such a spectacle while meeting other gay men?
“Bake this!” — Can a gay baker just say no?
• Do we respect a gay baker’s right to choose not to bake a cake for the Westboro Baptist Church with icing that reads God Hates Fags?
• Do we respect a fundamentalist Muslim baker’s choice not to bake a cake for a bar mitzvah because she really is not crazy about the Star of David?
[Also see – “Indiana’s Law Is Not the Return of Jim Crow,” by Jonah Goldberg]
• Do we respect a black jazz band’s choice not to perform at a Ku Klux Klan chapter’s “Negro Minstrel Show”?
• Do we respect a pro–gun control photographer’s right to choose not to snap pictures at a Sharpshooter of the Year banquet organized by the local chapter of the National Rifle Association? Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] The Conservatarian Manifesto: Should Libertarians and Conservatives Unite?
Posted: March 23, 2015 Filed under: Politics, Reading Room, Think Tank | Tags: Alexis de Tocqueville, Cato Institute, Civil society, Conservatism, Edward Snowden, Libertarian conservatism, National Constitution Center, National Review, National Security Agency, Nick Gillespie, Rand Paul, Reason.tv, Same-sex marriage 1 Comment“I think the ‘conservatarian’ term is not a linguistic trick, it is a substantive attempt to describe a certain coterie on the right,” explains Charles C. W. Cooke, a writer for National Review and author of The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right’s Future“. “These are the people who say when they are around libertarians they feel conservative, and when they are around 
conservatives they feel libertarian…(read more)
[Check out Charles C. W. Cooke‘s new book: “The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right’s Future” at Amazon.com]
Reason TV‘s Nick Gillespie sat down with Cooke to discuss his book…(read more)
Guns and Pot: Which States Are Friendly to Both?
Posted: November 10, 2014 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, Politics, Self Defense | Tags: Alaska, Cannabis (drug), Concealed carry in the United States, Legality of cannabis, Same-sex marriage, The Washington Post, Venn diagram, Washington 2 Comments
A Reddit user recently posted a graphic called “The Venn Diagram of Cultural Politics,” showing which states allow at least some citizens to use marijuana, which states recognize gay marriages, and which do both. The chart got us wondering: Which places embrace the personal freedoms beloved by the left andthe right? Where can you buy 
both a vibrator and a Big Gulp? Where can a gay couple not just marry but avoid a high sin tax on the cigarettes they smoke after sex? Where can you carry a gun while passing a joint?
The image above tackles that last question. If you include states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes only, there are now 24 states that permit pot. There are 42 states where an adult non-felon’s right to carry a concealed gun is either unrestricted or subject only to permissive “shall issue” laws. Sixteen states fall into both categories….(read more)
[VIDEO] The Hammer: ‘Culture of Left Only Satisfied in Destroying People Who Oppose Them’
Posted: April 5, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, U.S. News | Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Brendan Eich, Charles Krauthammer, Daily Caller, George Will, Kirsten Powers, Mozilla, Same-sex marriage 2 CommentsCharles Krauthammer calls for a counter-boycott of Mozilla
“This is the culture of the left not being satisfied with making an argument, or even prevailing in an argument, but in destroying personally and marginalizing people who oppose them…”
For The Daily Caller, Brendan Bordelon reports: Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer called for Americans to affect a “counter-boycott” of Mozilla after the company fired their CEO for donating to an anti-gay marriage campaign, calling the move “totalitarian discourse…”
“…This is totalitarian discourse, and it shows a level of intolerance that is absolutely — it should be unacceptable, and people ought to get what they’re giving out and field a counter-boycott.”
Krauthammer spoke on a Fox News panel with USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers and conservative 
columnist George Will, discussing Brendan Eich’s dismissal from popular web browser provider Mozilla after activists discovered he donated $1,000 to California’s Prop 8 campaign — which made gay marriage illegal in the state. Many gay activists boycotted Mozilla, leading to Eich’s eventual termination.
Will noted that Eich’s dismissal is “an illustration of a new phenomenon. No one likes sore losers, but now we have sore winners. The gay rights movement is winning — particularly with regard to same-sex marriage — with a speed and breadth that simply takes your breath away . . . Yet unsatisfied with victory, they seem to want to stamp out and punish people for their previous views.” Read the rest of this entry »
Religious Liberty After Arizona
Posted: February 28, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Think Tank | Tags: Arizona, Bill Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Freedom of religion, Jan Brewer, Kevin Williamson, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Same-sex marriage 1 Comment
For The Federalist Ben Domenech writes: Government, properly understood, is an agent of force. It can cause people to not do things they would otherwise do, and can compel them to do things they otherwise would not do. It does this in small ways and big ways, in nudges and at the end of a gun. At its best, as limited government conservatives and libertarians alike understand, government causes and compels only in those arenas it must, invading the scope of human life as little as possible. At its worst, government becomes, in Saint Augustine’s phrase, a system of “great robberies” where plunder is divided by the law agreed on, and people are subdued by force in accordance to the whims of the powerful elite.
So what are we to make of the divisions that emerged in the course of Arizona’s consideration of its version of a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the responses it inspired? I think it comes down to a matter of priorities, and to the broad-based willingness to let personal inclinations about what society ought to look like overwhelm a reasonable understanding of the ramifications of giving government the power to shape that society.
21st Century Narcissism: Woman Marries Herself, Embraces Her “Inner Groom”
Posted: October 8, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Anderson Cooper, Divorce, Huffington Post, KSAZ-TV, Marriage, North Dakota, Power Line, Same-sex marriage, Shutterstock 2 Comments
Fine. If he doesn’t come, I’ll marry myself. I can buy batteries in bulk, and watch porn by myself.
As Powerline blog notes, commenting on this same article, it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish supposedly serious news sites from the Onion.
According to the ever-entertaining and self-aggrandizing Huffington Post, Nadine Schweigert married herself and “opened up about self marriage.”
A 36-year-old North Dakota woman who married herself in a commitment ceremony last March has now spoken about her self-marriage choice in an interview with Anderson Cooper.
The marriage took place among friends and family who were encouraged to “blow kisses to the world” after she exchanged rings with her “inner groom”, My Fox Phoenix reports.
Let’s Divorce Marriage from the Government
Posted: June 29, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere, Reading Room | Tags: Anthony Kennedy, Bacardi, California, Defense of Marriage Act, Hadley Arkes, Jerry Brown, Same-sex marriage, Supreme Court of the United States Leave a comment
Same-Sex Marriage Rally (Photo credit: City of West Hollywood)
In 2013 rather than the 1950s, a technical error on a marriage certificate wouldn’t cause anyone consternation. But let’s say, for some reason or another, the government invalidated my marriage. Would it matter?
Not really. Marriage is primarily a pact between two people and, in the view of many, a sacrament of the church. The state merely recognizes this contract. If, say, a totalitarian government (think the Khmer Rouge or others like them that have meddled in such things) dissolved my marriage, my wife and I would still be married. The state could make our lives miserable, but it couldn’t end our marriage.
Yet that point seems lost these days. The public battles involve two sides who see the government as the means to legitimize their viewpoints. One side says gay marriage is wrong and the other says that it is the same as any other marriage. The two sides will never see eye to eye.
The governmental “benefits” at the heart of many of the gay-marriage battles are mostly rhetorical window-dressing. The state shouldn’t be handing out many privileges or payments and to whatever degree issues involving hospital visitation and inheritances are an issue, their terms and conditions can easily be worked out without a cultural war over the meaning of “marriage.”
Unfortunately, the court’s meddling has ensured that such a battle will keep going.
I’m not unsympathetic to the high court’s 5-4 decision to overturn most of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, designed specifically to deny governmental benefits to gay couples and to allow states to refuse recognition of gay marriages from other states. If the government gives out stuff, it’s reasonable to insist that it give it out in the most fair-minded basis.
The majority’s rhetoric reflects its desire to take a noble stand in this cultural divide. The court’s dissenters were right that the majority opinion was overheated. But at least the decision made some legal sense. “The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the state, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.
By contrast, the court’s decision (actually, a non-decision) on California’s Prop. 8 seemed lifted out of “Alice in Wonderland.” In 2008, voters approved this constitutional ban on gay marriage. Jerry Brown as attorney general and now governor opposed it, so he refused to defend it against court challenges. The Supremes refused to rule on the merits of the statute because its defenders didn’t have “standing.” Only the state government apparently had such standing — but that government refused to do its duty.
As National Review’s Hadley Arkes put it, “If the state has a Democratic governor … he may declare now that he will not enforce the constitutional amendment, for he thinks it runs counter to the federal Constitution.” The meaning is even broader and more disturbing than that. Top officials of all parties now have de facto veto power over all voter initiatives. They simply need not defend in court any initiative they don’t like and there is no one else the high court will allow to defend it. That’s an anti-democratic precedent.
There’s no doubt the courts, legislatures, and public opinion are moving in a pro-gay-marriage direction. Timemagazine was right to declare this “one of the fastest civil rights shifts in the nation’s history.” The culture has shifted. That part doesn’t bother me. I have no problem with gay people getting married. But it disturbs me when the battles are fought in the political system rather than in the cultural arena. Both sides are responsible for the over-politicization of this personal and cultural matter, by the way.
The best solution always has been the separation of marriage and state. If my priest decides to marry gay people, then my fellow parishioners would have every right to be upset about that based on their cultural traditions and understanding of Scripture. If your pastor wants to marry gay people, then it’s none of my business. The terms of marriage should be decided by religious and other private organizations, and the state shouldn’t intervene short of a compelling reason (i.e., marriage by force or with children).
Liberals were more open to this “separation” idea back when conservative pro-family types were ascendant. Now, some conservatives are understanding its merits as a more liberal view is ascendant. Conservatives should have listened when they had some bargaining power, but everyone wants to impose their values on others by using government.
Government neutrality — or the closest we can get to it — is the best way to ensure fairness and social peace on this and most other social issues. Marriage is too important of an institution to be dependent on the wiles of the state. Do we really care if the state validates our marriage licenses?
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