Marriage Bill Killed in Maryland

BALTIMORE — Following a week of political maneuvering, a bill that would have amended the Maryland Constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman was killed in the state’s House of Delegates.

After learning that supporters of the marriage amendment had collected 47 delegate signatures that would have sent the measure directly to the House floor, Democratic Speaker of the House Michael Busch ordered an unusual recess Feb. 2 to prevent lawmakers from voting on the measure. The House Judiciary Committee then killed the measure on a unanimous vote after members changed the bill to allow same-sex civil unions — a move Republican Minority Whip Anthony O’Donnell of Calvert and St. Mary’s counties called a “poison pill” designed to guarantee the bill’s defeat by altering its original purpose.

Richard Dowling, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, said he was not surprised the bill was defeated. He said leaders of the Democratic Party fear that if the amendment passes both houses and goes before Maryland voters in November, the issue will increase support for Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr.’s re-election bid.

 (CNS)

Terrorism Laws Cited as an Impediment to Refugees

WASHINGTON — A spokeswoman for the Catholic Church’s refugee resettlement programs called on the U.S. government to change how some anti-terrorism laws are applied because they are keeping refugees from Myanmar from being admitted.

Myanmar was called Burma until the ruling military came to power and officially renamed it in 1989. Many people outside Myanmar, including some officials in the U.S. government, persist in calling the country Burma.

At a Feb. 7 hearing of the House International Relations Committee’s subcommittees on human rights and on Asia, Anastasia Brown, director of refugee programs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said after 20 years of civil war and instability in the Southeast Asian country, the international community must find a permanent resettlement solution for the 1.5 million Burmese who remain uprooted from their homes.

That number includes about 800,000 people who are displaced from their homes but remain in the country. About 700,000 people are in surrounding countries, with more than 450,000 of them in Thailand.

One obstacle to the resettlement of Burmese refugees in the United States is a policy which prohibits the admission of people who are considered to have provided “material support” to organizations that fit under broad U.S. definitions of “terrorist organizations” set by the Patriot Act and the Real ID Act. Brown said “the language relating to ‘material support’ is so broad in construction that it could be interpreted to include any individual who provides as little as a glass of water to a person defending them against a repressive regime.”

(CNS)

Missouri Conference Welcomes Stay of Execution

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri Catholic Conference official welcomed a last-minute Supreme Court action to avert the execution of Michael Taylor, who was being held in the state prison in Bonne Terre.

In a 6-3 ruling Feb. 1, the court rejected the state of Missouri’s request to allow a midnight execution. The state had asked the court to lift the stay from an appeals court and allow the execution to proceed.

The high court ruling also marked the first case to come before new Justice Samuel Alito Jr. Alito, who joined the majority, was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in just the day before.

Taylor and his lawyers have argued that Missouri’s method of execution — by lethal injection — is cruel and unusual punishment. Rita Linhardt, death penalty liaison for the Missouri conference, said Feb. 6 that, while the Catholic conference opposes all executions, the “roller-coaster” ride Taylor and his family went through over an execution that was on and off several times in the course of a few days illustrates that reaching the time of an execution is in itself cruel and unusual punishment.

(CNS)