First Amendment

For Jan. to May 2013 — 8,790 marriages; 186 civil unions....

...the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act would prohibit discrimination through the federal tax code against individuals or institutions that exercise religious conscience regarding marriage as the union of one man and one woman....

This week, yet another district court halted the Obama Administration from forcing its anti-conscience mandate to provide coverage for abortifacients....

Gay marriage on the line in the October 28 special legislative session, but apparently Governor Neil Abercrombie is willing to risk losing the vote for a crack at imposing government dogma on Hawaii's religious believers....

...the bill will have to go through three readings in each house that will include public hearings and public testimony, but there will be no amendments accepted....

"...we rode a considerable distance over ground so thickly strewn with human bones that the horses' feet crushed them, not occasionally, but at every step...."

"As tempting as it was to bring in extra funds to our schools, I told the Governor that such a dichotomy is simply not in our way of thinking...."

Members of Congress should be urged to co-sponsor the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (H.R. 940, S. 1204)....

...this is the only recorded comment by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr on homosexuality....

Here are some short key points regarding the impact of the decisions....

Fourteen months ago, President Barack Obama was a bigot. Now he is simply wrong. That's what you have to believe to agree with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's majority opinion ....

“It is a terrible time to be a journalist,” ...  Portnoy was referring to the Obama administration’s secret subpoenas for journalists’ phone and Internet records, as well as the US DoJ secret investigation into Associated Press and Fox News reporters....

Justice Anthony Kennedy argued last week that the only reason Congress had for passing the Defense of Marriage Act was to “disparage,” “injure,” “degrade,” “demean,” and “humiliate” others....

How religious institutions define and consecrate marriage has always been up to those institutions. Nothing about this decision – which applies only to civil marriages – changes that....

a federal court has ordered the government not to enforce the HHS abortion-drug mandate....

...the suit, against the County of Maui seeks immediate changes to County laws that prohibit people from displaying signs on sidewalks and along roadways....

Here are the Complaint and the Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and Preliminary Injunction, filed yesterday....

to ensure Democrats are elected at the primary stage by ONLY their fellow Democrats....

Nearly 1,100 pastors nationwide registered to speak out on marriage as part of annual Alliance Defending Freedom event....

Aloha Council, Boy Scouts of America (BSA), released a statement following the national vote ...

...they are scheduled Wednesday in the Senate Committee and Thursday in the House Committee....

...Thursday, June 13th 6PM at Kalama Heights Senior Center, 101 Kanani Rd, in Kihei....

...the IRS leaked National Organization for Marriage's confidential financial documents to the rival Human Rights Campaign. Those NOM documents were published on the Huffington Post on March 30, 2012....

Heritage sounded the alarm on the Obama Administration’s hit list nearly a year ago....

Senator Sam Slom talks about the Journalism Shield Law and bill in the latest edition of “A Better Day”. Guests include Gerald Kato of the University of Hawaii School of Communication and Stirling Morita, President of the Society of Professional Journalists ....

It will die a victim of Hee’s visceral disdain for the media and the failure of political will in the state Senate....

...a floor amendment to House Bill 622 extending Hawaii’s existing shield law for two years....

The “Shield Law” bill passed out of Conference Committee yesterday (HB 622)....

...provisions that require any hospital in Hawaii to provide information about, offer and, if accepted or requested, dispense emergency contraception....

... civil litigation involving Enron’s collapse, the Catholic Church’s priest abuse scandals, Bridgestone/Firestone’s allegedly defective tires, tobacco company liability and almost any product liability lawsuit ....

...A wonderful opportunity to build private-public partnerships is quickly becoming a veiled blow to religious freedom in Hawaii.  Very shortly, it seems, some of our preschools and kindergartens may have to choose between funding and the practice of faith.... 

...10 issues, large and small, in which government is intruding more into our lives and our businesses....

Both bills state in the preamble that the emergency contraceptive "is not an abortion pill" and "is not an abortifacient." That seemingly simple, and untrue statement, nullifies any protection that a federal conscience exemption might have provided....

The hearing was full of people who are against religious freedom.  One individual even stated that if Christians have a problem with it, they shouldn’t work in an emergency room....