9-10-2007
States Chip Away at Abortion
Incremental steps have tangible results.
State lawmakers will begin pre-filing bills in the next couple of weeks for legislative sessions that open in January, and in most states, pro-life lawmakers will file parental-notification, clinic-regulation and informed-consent legislation.
In South Carolina, senators soon will consider a bill requiring that women seeking an abortion be given and allowed to see ultrasounds of their preborn babies. Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, said the bill has bipartisan support.
"We have a Legislature that's relatively conservative," he told Family News in Focus, "The vote that was taken by the South Carolina House on the measure back in the spring was overwhelmingly in favor of the bill."
Because of South Carolina's efforts to restrict and regulate abortion, the state now has only three abortion clinics. The news is even better in Mississippi, where Forest Thigpen of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy said the state's last abortion clinic is hanging by a thread.
"We've required minors to get permission from their parents; we've required the clinics to have strong regulations, strong protections for the women who come in," he said. "All of that together has, I think, had a tremendous impact on the number of clinics and the number of abortions."
Denise Burke, an attorney with Americans United for Life, said there's a virtual avalanche of incremental abortion restrictions descending on state houses.
"With the United States Supreme Court saying that incremental laws are important and are constitutional," she said, "you're going to see a flurry of activity in about 45 states next year."
Recently in Law Category
A city courthouse in Louisiana recently mounted portraits of 15 of history's preeminent lawgivers alongside its painting of Jesus Christ in an attempt to appease a legal group trying to force the removal of the portrait.
The American Civil Liberties Union, however, has not been persuaded to drop the lawsuit against the city of Slidell and maintains that the display violates the separation of church and state.
"The question of whether Jesus needs to come down is the same question," Marjorie Esman, ACLU's new executive director, said Wednesday, according to The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans. "You can't cure a problem by dressing it up."
Slidell City Court in Louisiana added the framed portraits of famous legislators to its print gallery including those of Confucius, Hammurabi, Moses, Charlemagne, Sir William Blackstone, and others last Friday, one week before a scheduled court hearing at which the Louisiana ACLU will ask a federal judge to remove the Jesus portrait.
"The purpose of the display has always been to use art to emphasize the importance of following the law in order to have a peaceful society. Slidell officials believe this expansion should reassure courthouse users or visitors that this is and always has been the legitimate purpose of the display," said Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) senior legal council Mike Johnson in a statement.
ADF is a legal alliance which defends and advocates for religious liberties. Attorneys at ADF are representing Slidell City Court Judge James Lamz, the city of Slidell, and the parish of St. Tammany.
9-4-2007
Texas Seminaries Win Freedom From State Regulation
State had fined one seminary $173,000.
In
an important ruling for religious freedom, the Supreme Court of Texas
has ruled in favor of three theological seminaries in an eight-year
tug-of-war over state regulation.
The 8-0 ruling overturns two lower-court opinions and a Texas law that gave the state power over seminaries and their training of pastors and religious leaders for the ministry. The state had fined Tyndale Theological Seminary $173,000 for issuing degrees and calling itself a seminary without state approval of its curriculum, professors and board.
The Texas law was designed to crack down on diploma mills that require little or no course work. The Supreme Court, however, said the state's interference "impermissibly intrudes upon religious freedom protected by the United States and Texas Constitutions."
Tyndale will get its $173,000 back, according to Liberty Legal Institute (LLI), which brought the case. The other seminaries were Hispanic Bible Institute in San Antonio and Southern Bible Institute in Dallas.
"This decision is a huge victory for all seminaries, not only in Texas but nationwide," said Kelly Shackelford, LLI chief counsel. "This ruling now gives freedom to many small seminaries that had been quashed by an attempted government takeover of religious teaching and training."
Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for LLI, told Family News in Focus that the Texas law would have precluded Billy Graham from teaching a seminary class, because he didn't have an earned master's degree. Only two other governments have taken seminary regulation that far, he said -- Vietnam and China.
Sasser said the case illustrates the original meaning of the "separation of church and state" that Thomas Jefferson wrote about in a letter to a Connecticut religious group.
"He was trying to assure the Danbury Baptists that the government wasn't going to come in and tell them how to run their church," Sasser said. "That's the separation that he was referring to, and that's the separation that our Founding Fathers understood, a separation protecting the church from the government, not the other way around."
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the Texas high court got the decision just right.
"Although the purpose of the law was admirable in a secular school context, its application to seminaries and other religious schools crossed a First Amendment boundary and entangled the state of Texas with defining and approving proper theological training," Hausknecht said.
"We can't have the government defining 'what is religion' or 'what is proper religious training,' and forcing religious institutions to comply with those standards. That's what the 'establishment of religion' prohibition in the First Amendment is all about."
Illinois Governor OKs Destructive Embryonic Stem-Cell Research
Illinois tax dollars now will fund life-destroying embryonic stem-cell research as well as human-cloning research, thanks to a bill signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday.
The bill's sponsors said they would seek to secure millions in funding over the next few months, the Chicago Tribune reports. The governor has used his executive authority to provide $15 million in grants during the last two years without legislative approval. The measure makes those grants a part of state law.
"Taxpayers should pay close attention to this bill since it allows
their money to be used for unsafe and clinically unpromising
experiments," said Dawn Vargo, associate bioethics analyst for Focus on
the Family Action.
"This bill uses word games to mislead the public into thinking that it will ban human cloning, when in fact it allows it."
From CitizenLink.org:
2-19-2007
FCC Says Congress Can Regulate TV Violence
Report also supports cable choice. A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report released last week suggests Congress has the power to control violent programming on TV, especially during hours when kids are watching. ..."The Congress could constitutionally pass some sort of regulation on violent content on the public airwaves during certain times of the day, much like they do with televised indecency," Isett explained. "The other very critical recommendation is cable channels being made available individually." ... "But a la carte standing alone is not going to protect kids from media violence," he said. "It's part of the answer, but it's not the whole answer."
4-19-2007
Oklahoma Governor Vetoes Pro-Life Bill
Gov. Brad Henry has vetoed legislation that would have prohibited the state funding of abortion. Rep. Lance Cargill, speaker of the House, said the governor’s action on Wednesday is not in line with the beliefs of Oklahomans who value the sanctity of life. “It’s especially sad that on a day when the U.S. Supreme Court is advancing the cause of life, Oklahoma is moving backwards -- thanks to the governor,†he said. “The idea that taxpayer dollars could be used to perform abortions is terrible.â€
Abstinence-only education programs meant to teach children to avoid sex until marriage failed to control their sexual behavior, according to a U.S. government report.Teenagers who took part in the programs as elementary and middle school students were just as likely to have sex as those who did not take part in them, the survey found. The report, ordered by Congress, was not released by the Health and Human Services Department, but by activists and by California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman's office. An HHS spokeswoman did not answer a request for a comment.more at alertnet.org
Idaho Law Gives Abortion-Minded Women More Information
from staff reports Women would be offered chance to view ultrasound images. Idaho recently became the ninth state to order doctors to provide abortion-minded women ultrasound images of their preborn child before having the procedure. The state law, signed by Gov. Butch Otter on March 27, ensures that women have access to as much information about their preborn baby as possible. Experts say providing women with an ultrasound image of their child makes following through with an abortion much less likely. Bryan Fischer, executive director of the Idaho Values Alliance, explained that the mandate is an amendment to the state’s parental-consent law. “We think that’s very important medical information for every woman to have in that situation," he said. "Fortunately, our Legislature agreed, and the governor signed it into law.â€
4-4-2007
Oklahoma Lawmakers Vote to Cut Medicaid-Funded Abortion
The Oklahoma House voted to discontinue the use of taxpayer money to pay for killing preborn babies. The state Senate already approved the measure, LifeNews reported. Rep. John Wright, the bill's sponsor, said taxpayers don't want to be forced to pay for abortion through Medicaid. The measure now returns to the upper chamber for a final vote.
4-4-2007
New Hampshire House Approves Civil Unions
The New Hampshire House passed legislation today that would allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions – with all the rights of married couples, WCSH-TV reported. The bill, which passed 243-129, had bi-partisan support. Republican Rep. Nancy Elliott told colleagues the bill was a gay-marriage bill in disguise. "(If it becomes law,) marriage will lose its meaning, and the need for marriage will decrease as it becomes irrelevant," she said. The bill now goes to the Senate.
4-4-2007
Florida Charges Gideons with Being Too Close to a School
Two men have been charged after handing out Bibles near a school in Key Largo, Fla., WorldNetDaily reported. Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson, members of The Gideons International, were first charged with trespassing, even though they were apparently not on school property when they were arrested Jan. 19. Those charges did not hold after attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a motion for dismissal. Monroe County officials then charged the men under a state law that bans anyone from being within 500 feet of school property without authorization or legitimate business. David Cortman, senior legal counsel for ADF, said he'll fight this one as well. "This obviously is unconstitutional for several reasons," he said. "The First Amendment gives you a right to be out there and engage in speech. Is anyone who uses the sidewalk or highway now in violation?" Monroe County seems intent on punishing the men for communicating a religious message in public, Cortman said. "Officials cannot use fear of arrest as a means of bullying law-abiding Christians into silence," he added.
4-4-2007
Alaskans Want Chance to Vote on Marriage Amendment
In a nonbinding advisory vote, 57 percent of Alaskans said they want a chance to whether the state constitution should be amended to protect the benefits of marriage. In 1998, voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In spite of that, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in October 2005 that the state must extend benefits to same-sex partners of its employees. Tuesday's advisory vote was intended to help the governor and state lawmakers decide if another amendment should be placed on the ballot – one that would clearly indicate that the state is not obligated to extend any of the benefits of marriage to others. Jim Minnery, executive director of the Alaska Family Council, said the people sent a strong message to the Legislature, the governor and the state's high court. "Alaskans don't want homosexual relationships treated as if they were the same as marriage between a man and a woman," he told CitizenLink. "Voters want to make the marriage amendment stronger in response to efforts by unelected judges who want to weaken it." It is now up to Gov. Sarah Palin and state lawmakers to place a constitutional amendment on the 2008 ballot. "Will they honor the will of the public?" Minnery asked. "Any legislator who said 'Yes' to the advisory vote and votes 'No' on the constitutional amendment is snubbing his nose at the voters." Republican Rep. John Coghill said he heard the message loud and clear. The people said " 'Get us a constitutional amendment that we can consider,' " he told The Associated Press. "So I am going to use that as forcefully as I can in the Legislature."
4-4-2007
Indiana Voters Denied Chance to Protect Marriage
Democrat-dominated committee kills proposed amendment.
On Tuesday, the Indiana House Rules Committee voted 5-5 on a resolution supporting an amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman, effectively killing it and dealing a blow to family advocates and Hoosier values. Ryan McCann, director of operations and public policy for the Indiana Family Institute, said he was surprised by the vote, but understands what happened. "(The Democrats) knew this was the only way they could really reward those folks who have supported them, and the gay-rights groups," McCann said. "The goal has always been to bring about gay marriage through the courts." Without an amendment to protect marriage, McCann fears gay-activist groups will pour into the courts to try to overturn the Indiana law that protects traditional marriage. Mona Passignano, state issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the committee members who voted against the amendment need to listen to the people. "The fact that they felt the need to sacrifice the rights of voters in this instance certainly doesn't speak very highly for the five members," she said, "who apparently felt like the people of Indiana did not deserve the right to vote on this critical issue." According to The Associated Press, several lawmakers who voted against the proposal said they were concerned about the potential consequences of the second section, which includes a phrase that says state law "may not be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." "I think the voters of the state of Indiana should have a right to express their views on the issue," resolution sponsor Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield, told The AP. McCann said that could happen soon. Democratic representatives, who are up for re-election next year, could decide to listen to their conservative constituents and pass the amendment in 2008.
California High Court Considers Marriage Challenge The Supreme Court of California began receiving briefs Monday in a case that challenges a state law that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Gay activists charge it “segregates them and their families from the rest of society,†the Contra Costa Times reported. “This separation sends a powerful message,†read a brief filed by the city of San Francisco, “one that reinforces in the public mind the already entrenched inferior status of lesbians and gay men. The message is easily understood: the state will recognize, but it will not honor, lesbian and gay family relationships." Former Assemblyman Larry Bowler, a family advocate, said the court should defer to voters. "At least four justices on that San Francisco bench are against the broad majority of California voters, who want marriage preserved and protected,†he said. “The high court could deal a low blow to the voters by creating so-called 'same-sex marriages' in late 2007 or early 2008." Liberty Counsel filed a brief representing Campaign for California Families. It challenged the assertion that protecting marriage is discriminatory. “They aren't arguing for a minor change in marriage, but for a deconstruction of the entire institution of marriage," read a news release from the non-profit legal group. "The essence of marriage has always been the union of one man and one woman. We have never allowed any other human relationships to be united under the banner of marriage.â€
Delaware Lawmakers Vote to Fund Embryonic Stem-Cell Research Delaware senators approved legislation last week that would commit taxpayer money to destructive research on early human life, The News Journal reported. Under Senate Bill 5, in vitro fertilization clinics would donate embryos said to be slated for destruction. Scientists would harvest their stem cells for research, destroying them in the process. Democratic Sen. Robert Vernables, sponsor of SB 5, said his motive is simple. "It's only to try to alleviate the pain and suffering from some of those diseases that all of us have seen take lives," he said. Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics for Focus on the Family Action, said Delaware lawmakers would do better to put tax dollars into alternatives that do not destroy human life. "That's a solid scientific and moral investment," she said. "Stem cells derived from non-embryonic sources continue to treat patients today, plus offer hope for more treatments tomorrow. The same cannot be said of destructive embryonic stem-cell research." Everyone agrees that the goals are cures for disease and treatment for injury, Earll said. "The question is, what kind of people will we become in the process?" she asked. "As a civilized society, we don't have to sacrifice some human life in order to help others."
Mass. Governor Stands Against Traditional Marriage Reversing Romney's decision, he orders out-of-state unions to be recorded.Read the full article>>As the new sheriff in town, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick isn't wasting any time in taking a stand against traditional marriage. On Friday, he ordered the state to officially record the marriages of 26 out-of-state homosexual couples, reversing a decision by his predecessor, Mitt Romney. Patrick also is seeking to reverse stem-cell research restrictions implemented by Romney, which ban the creation of embryos for the sole purpose of research. In March 2006, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Romney could rely on a 1913 state law to prohibit out-of-state homosexual couples from marrying. "Governor Patrick is placing his personal preference above the law, and that can never be justified, especially as the state's highest constitutional officer," Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute and spokesman for VoteOnMarriage.org, said in a statement.
3-30-2007
Delaware Senate Votes in Favor of Life-Destroying Research
After a debate on the nature of life, the Delaware Senate voted 13-7 Thursday on guidelines for controversial stem-cell research. The News Journal reported that supporters said the bill was intended to "alleviate the pain and suffering of disease." But stem-cell research has so far produced no cures. The guidelines ban "reproductive" cloning, but that leaves the door open for the cloning of human embryos and for in vitro fertilization clinics to donate embryos -- all to be destroyed for research. The Rev. Bowen Matthews Sr., pastor of Brandywine Valley Baptist Church, spoke out for life. "It's human life in the Petri dish," he said. "And it's human life in the womb."
From CitizenLink.org (read the full article →)
3-30-2007
NOW Challenges Federal Grant Devoted to Fatherhood
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is making a play for part of the $50 million Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Initiative. NOW says the program illegal because women aren't included. According to The Washington Post, NOW and Legal Momentum filed complaints with the Department of Health and Human Services that alleged discrimination. "What we're asking them to do is to make sure that the grantees provide equal services to women and men," said Kathy Rodgers, president of Legal Momentum. "It should be a parenthood initiative." Bush administration officials and those who received grants say helping men be better fathers most certainly benefits women as well as children. Beyond that, HHS officials say the programs are already open to women who apply. Tara Walker, an HHS official, said if women are being turned away, she wants to know about it. "Yes, fathers are the target group," she said, "but at the same time allowing equal access is required."
3-30-2007
Federal Human-Cloning Ban Reintroduced
Supporters say it would protect innocent life. Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., reintroduced a bill Thursday to ban all human cloning. Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, says cloning supporters often hide behind euphemisms. “Scientists and advocates recognize that most people don’t want human cloning so they simply come up with new names for it like ‘somatic cell nuclear transfer,’ " she told Family News in Focus. "The intent of that is to confuse people.â€
3-30-2007
Death Used to Bolster Hate-Crimes Bill Proves Accidental
Autopsy discredits family's account of what happened. A suspicious death that was used to as a call to support a hate-crimes bill has turned out to be accidental. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., leveraged the death of 72-year-old Andrew Anthos, a gay-identified Detroit man, in calling for action on the legislation. On March 2, he told his colleagues in the Senate how someone "struck Anthos in the back with a metal pipe, leaving him critically injured, lying in the snow." Anthos' family, the news media and many other politicians claimed he had been beaten by someone who yelled gay slurs. But an autopsy revealed this week that his death was caused by arthritis that led to a fall -- not an attack. Despite the evidence, Sean Kosofsky with the Triangle Foundation, a gay-activist group in Michigan, said he remains steadfast in his belief that Anthos was beaten. "We stick by the family wholeheartedly in still qualifying this crime as a hate crime," he told Family News in Focus.
From CitizenLink.org (read the full article →)
3-30-2007
U.S. House OKs Largest Tax Increase in History
Dems’ budget plan allows tax relief to expire.One analyst calls it a “fantasy†plan, but it’s more like a nightmare for America’s families. The U.S. House passed a $2.9 trillion budget Thursday that Republicans say will result in the largest tax increase in history because it does not extend the president’s tax cuts, which are expected to expire in 2010. Pete Sepp, vice president for communications at the National Taxpayers Union, said each taxpaying family would fork out $1,900 more annually under the Democrats’ plan. In addition, the child tax credit would be reduced from $1,000 per child to $500, and the marriage penalty would be brought back into the tax code. “There’s not much for taxpayers to like in this budget,†Sepp said. “The budget plan itself rests on totally unrealistic assumptions, and is an even bigger fantasy than what (the Democrats) accuse Bush†of doing with his budget. “The numbers are crystal clear, and they tell the truth,†Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, told The Washington Post. The Senate approved a similar proposal last week. Democrats say they hope to work out the differences between the two by early May.
3-29-2007
New Hampshire voters will not get the chance to decide on a state amendment to protect marriage after the state House voted down the proposal, 233-124, today.
Auburn Republican Dudley Dumaine warned amendment opponents they would be held accountable in the 2008 election. "I want you on record telling the people they don't have a right to vote on this constitutional amendment," he told The Associated Press. Twenty-seven states have passed marriage amendments. In a separate vote, the House failed to overturn a 2004 law to only recognize out-of-state marriages that would be legal in New Hampshire.
From CitizenLink.com (read the full article):
3-29-2007
Will 'Hoosier Values' Drive People Away?
Eli Lilly says marriage amendment would brand Indiana as "intolerant.""Hoosier values" are under fire in Indiana, and Eli Lilly is the latest combatant. On Wednesday, the pharmaceutical giant became the state's fourth major company to oppose the proposed marriage amendment, which would define marriage as between one man and one woman. In a letter to Gov. Mitch Daniels, Lilly claimed the amendment would brand the state as intolerant and could jeopardize domestic-partner benefits. "I can't believe a company with the stature of Lilly and their enormous legal resources would take a corporate position like this without any specific legal reasoning to back it up," Republican Sen. Brandt Hershman, the amendment's author, told The Indianapolis Star. Carla Cox, a spokeswoman for Eli Lilly and Co., said the amendment would have a negative impact on the firm. "It would mainly be around recruiting and retention of employees," she said. "We have employees who are telling us they would leave the company." Ryan McCann, director of operations and public policy at the Indiana Family Institute (IFI), said he doesn't share Lilly's concerns. "Their reasoning was a little lacking," he said.
Congress suffered yet another setback Thursday in its ongoing efforts to shield children from sexually explicit content on the Internet when a federal judge struck down the Child Online Protection Act, a 1998 federal law that makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to allow children access to "harmful" material.Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. said he was forced to conclude that the law violates the First Amendment -- but also said he wasn't happy to do so. Reed said that "despite my personal regret at having to set aside yet another attempt to protect our children from harmful material," he also recognized, as Justice Anthony Kennedy did in striking down a flag-burning statute, that judges have a duty at times to make decisions they do not like. But Reed said he also concluded that allowing the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) to take effect would actually do more harm to children in the long run. "Perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection," Reed wrote in his 84-page opinion in ACLU v. Gonzales. The crux of Reed's reasoning in striking down the law was that there are less-restrictive means available for protecting children than a criminal statute that will have a chilling effect. Parents, Reed said, can protect their children through software filters and other means that do not limit the rights of others to free speech.more at law.com
Six weeks after Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order making Texas the first state to require that sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, the State House of Representatives voted 119 to 21 yesterday to approve a bill that would nullify the order.If the Senate also approves the bill, the measure will go to Mr. Perry, a Republican, whose office declined to say whether he would veto it. But Mr. Perry’s spokeswoman said the efforts to overturn the order would create a dangerous situation in which far fewer women might receive the vaccine.more at nytimes.com
51 year old Charles Russ Tierney, an attorney and former head of the ACLU in Virginia was arrested and charged in federal court with possessing child pornography. Agents found videos in his home of little girls being violently raped by adults. We said we'd report back to you today on which news organizations covered this story, and which did not. The two biggest "left wing" news outfits in the country, the New York Times and NBC news ignored the story entirely. CBS news CNN and most of the big-city liberal newspapers also failed to cover the Russ Tierney arrest. ABCNews.com and the Associated Press did cover, and because it happened in their backyard, the Washington post ran a brief story in it's SECOND SECTION, essentially burying the entire thing. Now, the failure of most media outlets to cover this colossal embarrassment to the ACLU contrasts vividly with the coverage of preacher Ted Haggard, which embarrassed conservative Christians. You remember when Haggard was accused of immorality by a male prostitute, the story was all over the place. This is yet more proof that the American press is corrupt... and it pains me to say it.Pray for everyone involved in this; especially the little girls.
CitizenLink.org is reporting:
Read the full article >>2-19-2007
Congressman Targets Mandatory HPV Vaccination
... Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., introduced legislation last week that would deny federal funding for mandatory human-papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. The Parental Right to Decide Protection Act would not include voluntary programs. ... "States should require vaccinations for communicable diseases, like measles and the mumps. But you can't catch HPV if an infected schoolmate coughs on you or shares your juice box at lunch."
CitizenLink.org is reporting:
Read the full article >>2-19-2007
Utah High Court Denies Child Custody to Former Lesbian's Partner
The Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday a lesbian has no parental rights over her former partner's biological child. Keri Jones and Cheryl Barlow ended their civil union in 2003, but have been in a custody battle ever since over Barlow's 5-year-old daughter. Barlow is now a Christian and has left homosexuality. The high court reversed lower court decisions in favor of Jones. "We recognize that mutual bonds of affection can be formed between a child and an adult who does not fit within the traditional definition of a parent," the majority opinion stated. "However, in carving out a permanent role in the child's life for a surrogate parent, this court would necessarily subtract from the legal parent's right to direct the upbringing of her child."
From CitizenLink.org:
2-19-2007
FCC Says Congress Can Regulate TV Violence
Report also supports cable choice. A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report released last week suggests Congress has the power to control violent programming on TV, especially during hours when kids are watching. ..."The Congress could constitutionally pass some sort of regulation on violent content on the public airwaves during certain times of the day, much like they do with televised indecency," Isett explained. "The other very critical recommendation is cable channels being made available individually." ... "But a la carte standing alone is not going to protect kids from media violence," he said. "It's part of the answer, but it's not the whole answer."