North Carolina’s ‘choose life’ license plates unconstitutional: Appeals court

The following excerpts are from LifeSiteNews.com:

• North Carolina's “Choose Life” license plates have been ruled unconstitutional by a U.S. Appeals Court today.
• A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that such license plates violate the First Amendment, because the state does not also give residents the chance to purchase a license plate with a pro-abortion message.
• The bill authorizing the pro-life plates, H.R. 854, became law in September 2011 after legislators voted down six amendments to offer competing plates bearing messages like “Respect Choice.”
• State drivers could see $15 of their $25 specialty plate fee fund the Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship, a coalition of 76 crisis pregnancy centers that serve more than 3,000 women each year.
• But the law never went into effect, because the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit.

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North Carolina’s ‘choose life’ license plates unconstitutional: Appeals court

Obama administration grants ‘full and equal recognition’ to same-sex marriage : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from CWN:

• Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the Obama administration will grant “full and equal recognition” to same-sex marriages.
• “On Monday, I will issue a new policy memorandum that will – for the first time in history – formally instruct all Justice Department employees to give lawful same-sex marriages full and equal recognition, to the greatest extent possible under the law,” he said in remarks delivered at a gay and lesbian organization’s gala on February 8.

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Obama administration grants ‘full and equal recognition’ to same-sex marriage : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Prominent Catholic leader flees Pakistan after death threats : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from CWN:

• Paul Bhatti, the Pakistani political leader whose brother, Shabbaz Bhatti, was assassinated in March 2011, has left the country after receiving a series of death threats.
• Paul Bhatti said that he was moving to Italy after being warned that he was targeted for death because of his work to bring his brother’s killers to justice. He said that the government had not provided him with adequate security.

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Prominent Catholic leader flees Pakistan after death threats : News Headlines - Catholic Culture