Baltimore mayor on the sacredness of true marriage

A couple paragraphs from an AP news story about same-sex civil marriages in Maryland show an inversion of the traditional understanding of church and state, whereby the church superintends the sacred and the state superintends the secular. Titled “Weddings abound as gay marriage becomes legal in Maryland,” the story describes wedding ceremonies between same-sex couples after explaining that Governor O’Malley pushed for legal recognition of same-sex civil marriage “against leaders of his Catholic faith” and the mayor of Baltimore opined on the relative sacredness of the resulting legal relationship:

The ceremonies follow a legislative fight that pitted Gov. Martin O’Malley against leaders of his Catholic faith. Voters in the state, founded by Catholics in the 17th century, sealed the change by approving a November ballot question.

“There is no human institution more sacred than that of the one that you are about to form,” Rawlings-Blake said during the brief ceremony. “True marriage, true marriage, is the dearest of all earthly relationships.”

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We got our Irish up

Cardinal Dolan, describing the Bishops’ reaction to some of the events surrounding the contraceptives mandate:

We got our Irish up when leaders in government seemed to be assigning an authoritative voice to Catholic groups that are not the bishops. If you want an authoritative voice, go to the bishops.

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Oh, so that makes it okay . . . the bank robbery was against a corporate entity and not an individual

Here’s an interesting tidbit from a Times-Dispatch story about a bank robber who was accidently released from the Richmond City Jail and promptly returned to rob the same SunTrust bank branch that he had robbed immediately prior to his jailing:

In his ramblings, Emile apologized profusely to witnesses, including the teller he robbed April 30 at the SunTrust branch in the 1800 block of West Broad Street. But he said he had meant her no harm and cast himself as a fool who committed a crime against a corporate entity and not against an individual. Prosecutor Elizabeth A. Hobbs argued that the robbery was a violent crime that terrified the teller.

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Gerson on Obama v. Catholic institutions

Michael Gerson has some strong words in today’s Washington Post about the Obama administration’s stance vis-a-vis Catholic institutions. Here’s a taste:

HHS has drawn conscience protections so narrowly that Catholic colleges, universities and hospitals — any Catholic institution that employs and serves non-Catholics — will be required to offer health coverage that includes contraception and drugs that cause abortion. In global health grants, new language is appearing that requires the integration of family planning and “reproductive health” services, effectively barring the participation of Catholic institutions. Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, calls these policies an “assault which now appears to grow at an ever-accelerating pace in ways that most of us could never have imagined.”

The main victims of this assault are not bishops but the poor and vulnerable. USCCB-sponsored human trafficking programs, for example, provide employment assistance, legal services, child care and medical screening. But because case managers won’t refer for abortions, HHS would rather see these programs shut down in favor of less effective alternatives. This form of anti-religious extremism counts casualties.

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ACA Litigation: Conference tomorrow in DC, and the day after tomorrow in Richmond

Brad Joondeph has a reminder at ACA Litigation Blog that tomorrow’s conference at the Supreme Court will include discussion of five of the six cert petitions addressing the constitutionality of the minimum essential coverage provision. I add to that a reminder that the University of Richmond Law School is hosting a conference about the ACA litigation on Friday November 11. This conference is about “everything but the merits” of the healthcare litigation. Details available in the conference brochure.

(Note to Virginia lawyers: The program has been approved for 6 MCLE credits; registration is free.)

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John Allen at NCR: “Vatican note on economy the first ripple of a southern wave”

Writing at National Catholic Reporter, John L. Allen, Jr. has an insightful take on the recently issued document by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority.” Allen discerns in the document the influence of Catholic thinking in the southern hemisphere. Here’s a few paragraphs (but read the whole thing):

Focusing on how much papal muscle the note can flex . . . , risks ignoring what is at least an equally revealing question: Whatever you make of it, does the note seem to reflect important currents in Catholic social and political thought anywhere in the world?

The answer is yes, and it happens to be where two-thirds of the Catholics on the planet today live: the southern hemisphere, also known as the developing world.

It’s fitting that the Vatican official responsible for the document is an African, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, because it articulates key elements of what almost might be called a “southern consensus.” One way of sizing up the note’s significance, therefore, is as an indication that the demographic transition long under way in Catholicism, with the center of gravity shifting from north to south, is being felt in Rome.

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Richmond Law Symposium on Health Care Litigation

As speculation continues to swirl about the timing and ultimate focus of Supreme Court review of the various rulings to date in the healthcare litigation, the time is ripe for consideration of the procedural aspects of that litigation. Although scholarly and popular attention has focused largely on the constitutional merits, the litigation over the healthcare legislation has raised important questions about the role of states as litigants, the distinction between facial and applied challenges, severability, the federal tax Anti-Injunction Act, and other issues. The University of Richmond Law Review’s 2011 Allen Chair Symposium will bring together experts from state government and academia to explore these important but unheralded issues and to situate the litigation in the broader political and regulatory landscape.

The symposium will take place on November 11, 2011 at the University of Richmond Law School. Details on registration and attendance are available here, with more information about the schedule in the conference brochure.

There are three panels scheduled:

9:30 A.M. The Role of States as Litigants in the Mandate Litigation
E. Duncan Getchell, Jr., Solicitor General of Virginia
William F. Brockman, Acting Solicitor General of Maryland
William P. Marshall, William Rand Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law

11:15 A.M. Defining the Scope and Legal Effect of the Challenges to the Individual Mandate
Edward A. Hartnett, Richard J. Hughes Professor, Seton Hall University School of Law
Tobias A. Dorsey, Special Counsel for the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC)
Kevin C. Walsh, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law

2:00 P.M. Situating the Mandate Litigation in the Broader Regulatory and Political Landscapes
Bradley W. Joondeph, Santa Clara University School of Law, Creator of the ACA litigation blog
A. Christopher Bryant, Professor of Law, University of Cincinnati College of Law
Elizabeth Weeks Leonard, Associate Professor of Law, University of Georgia Law

(For those attending the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers’ Convention, sorry for the conflict. Proceedings will be made available via live webcast for any unable to attend, and the papers will be published in a spring edition of the University of Richmond Law Review.)

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Breyer to speak at Richmond Law tomorrow

We look forward to welcoming Associate Justice Stephen Breyer to the University of Richmond School of Law tomorrow. Breyer will dedicate UR Law’s moot courtroom in honor of Judge Robert Merhige, whose courageous and steadfast judging are a true tribute to the federal judiciary. Details of Justice Breyer’s visit available here.

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A short segment from CBS 6 about the upcoming Supreme Court term

I joined Bill Fitzgerald on this evening’s CBS 6 news at 7 to talk about the upcoming Supreme Court term for a few minutes. I was glad Fitzgerald gave me the chance to mention my colleague at the University of Richmond School of Law, Jack Preis, who will be arguing for the respondent in Minneci v. Pollard in November.

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