Vermont

As we noted yesterday, Bryan Fischer has seized upon a story out of Vermont regarding a couple that is suing an inn for refusing to host their wedding reception because they were lesbians and is using it as the latest example in his crusade to convince everyone that gays are the leading perpetrators of hates crimes.

On his radio program today, Fischer revealed that this topic was the issue of his latest column which he kicked off by declaring that "homosexual bigots continue the 'Night of the Long Knives' purge against anyone and everyone who believes in natural marriage."

Now Fischer has a long history of claiming that the Nazi Party was started by gays and that the majority of Hitler's Stormtroopers were also gay ... but took it a step further today when he alleged that the Night of the Long Knives was carried out in order to prevent all these gay Stormtroopers from revealing to the German public that Hitler himself as gay or, as Fischer put it, "an active, practicing sexual pervert":

Homosexual bigots continue the Night of the Long Knives purge against anyone and everyone who believes in natural marriage. Now the Night of the Long Knives, that was the night in which Hitler sent out his thugs to kill everybody who was a threat to his regime. A lot of them were homosexuals and the reason he purged them is that Ernst Rohm, who was the head of the Stormtroopers, was about ready to reveal to the German public that Hitler himself as a homosexual. This is what Lothar Machtan, a noted German historian, said in the book in 2001 "The Hidden Hitler." This was the reason for the Night of the Long Knives. It wasn't about their sexual orientation; it wasn't a persecution of homosexuals. He was killing homosexuals because they knew that Hitler was a homosexual and were about to reveal that truth to the German public. And Hitler knew that the German public was not ready to hear that the Fuhrer was an active, practicing sexual pervert.

Back in May Sarah Posner reported that, at the height of the Lisa Miller saga, her attorneys at Liberty Counsel were teaching Liberty University law students that anyone in Miller's situation had an obligation to ignore the law and engage in "civil disobedience" in order to uphold God's law.

So when Miller subsequently kidnapped her daughter and fled the country, it seemed rather suspicious, to say the least, especially since Miller was reportedly living in a vacation home owned by the father of a Liberty Law School employee ... but Mat Staver and Liberty Counsel continue to insist that they had no involvement and have no idea where she is:  

The lawyer for Miller's ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, told the FBI she got a call in June 2010 from someone — she won't say who — who told her that Lisa Miller and the girl had stayed in a beach house in coastal San Juan del Sur, about 68 miles south of Managua.

The house is owned by Philip Zodhiates, the father of Liberty University law school administrative assistant Victoria Hyden, according to the FBI. Jenkins' attorney, Sarah Star, told the FBI that the caller told her Zodhiates had asked his daughter to put out a request for supplies for Lisa Miller.

Located in Lynchburg, Va., Liberty University was founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. An affiliate of the university, conservative Christian law firm Liberty Counsel, formerly represented Miller in her court case in Vermont over custody of the girl.

Law school dean Mathew Staver — who leads Liberty Counsel — has said Zodhiates isn't affiliated with either.

"From our perspective, she just dropped off the face of the Earth. We haven't heard from her or from anyone who said they've heard from her," Staver said of Lisa Miller.

The AP reports that Miller has become a Mennonite and is being sheltered and protected by Mennonite missionaries Nicaragua who see it as their duty to help "Lisa not only free herself from the so called civil marriage and lesbian lifestyle, but especially to protect her nine year old daughter from being abducted and handed over to an active lesbian and a whole-hearted activist."

Via Evan Hurst, we see that there has been an update in the Lisa Miller saga in that the Vermont Supreme Court has granted sole custody of Isabella to Janet Jenkins:

The Vermont supreme court has unanimously granted custody to a lesbian who has been battling to become the guardian of the young girl she and her former partner raised together.

The ruling is in favor of Vermont resident Janet Jenkins, affirming a 2009 court order giving her sole physical and legal custody of Isabella Miller-Jenkins. Lisa Miller, Jenkins' former partner, is still missing with their 8-year-old daughter, according to Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which argued on Jenkins' behalf before the supreme court.

Vermont "has determined that same-sex couples have the same rights and responsibilities as opposite-sex couples--thus, the sexual orientation of the parents is irrelevant in a custody determination," the court wrote Monday. "We affirm the family court's finding that Lisa had no justification for denying visitation to Janet."

The court also added that because Miller fled with Isabella to "apparently defeat a court order," her behavior is destructive for the 8-year-old's best interests.

Of course, it was nearly a year ago that Miller was been ordered to hand over Isabella to Jenkins on the grounds that Miller had repeatedly defied court ordered custody arrangements, prompting her to kidnap her daughter and flee. 

So I am sure that this ruling will just provide further evidence to Miller's Religious Right supporters of the righteousness of Miller's disappearance in response to these sorts of "unjust" court decisions.

It has now been more than six months since Lisa Miller disappeared with her daughter in order to avoid complying with court-ordered custody agreements ... and she is still nowhere to be found. 

But that doesn't mean that her attorney's at Liberty Counsel have given up defending her, as they are headed back to court at the end of the month to argue Miller's case: 

A bitter child custody battle between former lesbian partners is headed back to court in Vermont, even though the 8-year-old girl at the heart of it remains missing.

Isabella Miller-Jenkins and birth mother Lisa Miller, of Forest, Va., failed to appear for a court-ordered Jan. 1 custody swap in which Miller's former partner — Janet Jenkins — was to get the girl.

The girl is now listed as missing, but the fight over her goes on.

On June 23, the Vermont Supreme Court will hear arguments from Miller's attorneys who say a Family Court judge erred last November in awarding custody to Jenkins, of Fair Haven, Vt., who's not the biological mother.

Liberty Counsel has been almost completely unwilling to comment on Miller's disappearance except to say that it doesn't know where she is and that it had hired a service to try and locate her. 

That was more than three months ago.

But just because Miller kidnapped her daughter and disappeared so as to avoid court orders, that is not going to stop Liberty Counsel from going back to court to argue that it was the judge who got it wrong.

Earlier this year, Lisa Miller kidnapped her daughter Isabella and disappeared in order to avoid complying with a court ruling granting custody of the child to her former partner, Janet Jenkins; a ruling that came about due precisely to the fact that Miller had repeatedly refused to abide by court-ordered custody arrangements. Miller was recently held in contempt of court and now faces arrest. 

Shortly after Miller disappeared, Liberty Counsel, which had represented her for years and turned her into a right-wing celebrity, tried to wash its hands of her, at least as it pertained to her legal representation in Vermont but the effort was rejected by the judge.

For the most part, Liberty Counsel has steadfastly refused to comment on the case, which is a notable change considering that they used to release public statements regularly every time they were in court or filed a brief on Miller's behalf, saying only that they don't know where Miller has gone.

But now, via Lez Get Real, we find out that LC has filed an appeal on Miler's behalf in the Vermont Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the Vermont trial judge's custody ruling.

Signed by LC's Mat Staver, Stephen Crampton, and Rena Lindevaldsen, the brief [PDF] claims that the trial judge violated Miller's constitutional rights in granting custody to Jenkins and claims that several of the trial courts' factual findings should be reversed, blaming the tension between the two women entirely on Jenkins.

LC states that Jenkins position that "Miller's beliefs concerning homosexuality [are] bigoted and hateful" has created a hostile environment between the two women, as has the fact that Jenkins "would not permit [Isabella] to attend a conservative, Bible-believing church such as [Isabella] attended in Virginia" and "wouldn't allow [Isabella] to attend a church that taught that homosexuality is a sin" even though Isabella "has already made the personal decision to accept Christ as her Savior, reads the Bible daily and knows from reading the Bible what is right and wrong."

So basically, LC's position is that it was Jenkins' refusal to support Miller's new-found ex-gay Christian beliefs that homosexuality is an abomination and take Isabella to a Jerry Falwell-like church in Vermont during her visitations where she could be taught that sort of lesson from the pulpit that created a hostile environment between the two women and forced Miller to cut off all contact between Jenkins and Isabella. 

I have to say that I think Miller might have been better off had Liberty Counsel been able to pull out of representing her in Vermont as the organization tried to do last month, because this is just pathetic.

If you need any more proof that Senate Republicans' sole mission at the moment is to prevent anything from happening in their chamber of Congress, look no further than the fact that today the Senate had to seek cloture on the nomination Barbara Milano Keenan to fill a vacancy on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, resulting in a vote of 99-0.

That's right - not one Republican senator spoke against her qualifications, record, or views or voted to prevent her nomination from receiving an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor ... and yet still they filibustered, forcing Democrats to seek a cloture vote in order to move ahead, simply because they are committed to obstructing the governing process in every way possible.

Earlier today, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy took to the Senate floor to blast the Republicans' refusal to allow the Senate to move on even noncontroversial judicial nominations:

Last year’s total was the fewest judicial nominees confirmed in the first year of a Presidency in more than 50 years. Those 12 Federal circuit and district court confirmations were even below the 17 the Senate Republican majority allowed to be confirmed in the 1996 session. After that presidential election year, Chief Justice Rehnquist began criticizing the pace of judicial confirmations and the partisan Republican tactics.

Among the frustrations is that Senate Republicans have delayed and obstructed nominees chosen after consultation with Republican home state Senators. Despite President Obama’s efforts, Senate Republicans have treated his nominees much, much worse.

I noted when the Senate considered the nominations of Judge Christina Reiss of Vermont and Mr. Abdul Kallon of Alabama relatively promptly that they should serve as the model for Senate action. Sadly, they are the exception rather than the model. They show what the Senate could do, but does not. Time and again, noncontroversial nominees are delayed. When the Senate does finally consider them, they are confirmed overwhelmingly. Of the 15 Federal circuit and district court judges confirmed, twelve have been confirmed unanimously.

That is right. Republicans have only voted against three of President Obama's nominees to the Federal circuit and district courts. One of those, Judge Gerry Lynch of the Second Circuit, garnered only three negative votes and 94 votes in favor. Judge Andre Davis of Maryland was stalled for months and then confirmed with 72 votes in favor and only 16 against. Judge David Hamilton was filibustered in a failed effort to prevent an up-or-down vote.

The obstruction and delay is part of a partisan pattern. Even when they cannot say “no,” Republicans nonetheless demand that the Senate go slow. The practice is continuing. This is the 17th filibuster of President Obama's nominees. That does not count the many other nominees who were delayed or are being denied up-or-down votes by Senate Republicans refusing to agree to time agreements to consider even noncontroversial nominees.

Update: Keenan was confirmed by the same margin: 99-0. So why was the cloture vote even necessary when not one Republican voted against it or her confirmation?

Is it too much to ask that right-wing groups who are going to be supporting Lisa Miller's criminal actions to at least have some understanding of what is actually going on?

Apparently it is, judging by this Christian Anti-Defamation Commission statement:

Lisa Miller was living in Vermont in a lesbian civil union with Janet Jenkins. During this time Lisa became pregnant with a little girl through artificial insemination. But before little Isabella was born, Lisa left her partner and moved to Virginia where civil unions are not recognized.

Soon thereafter Lisa became a Christian and renounced homosexuality. But her former partner Jenkins is now fighting for custody of Isabella, even though she has no biological relationship.

A Vermont court has ordered Lisa to turn over her daughter to Jenkins, but Lisa did not comply. Now there is a warrant out for her arrest in the state of Vermont and Lisa and Isabella are in hiding.

This is what happens when mankind corrupts and confuses the laws of nature and nature’s God. Society suffers, particularly the children.

First of all, Lisa and Isabella aren't "in hiding" because there is a warrant out for her; there is a warrant out for her because Lisa kidnapped her daughter and disappeared rather than abide by court orders and custody arrangements. That is an important distinction.

Secondly, the claim that Miller left Jenkins before Isabella was born is fundamentally false, as Isabella was nearly a year and a half old when the women split.  In fact, Jenkins continued to pay child support and see her regularly until Miller declared herself a born-again Christian and sought to completely cut off Jenkins' contact with Isabella.

If Religious Right activists are going to defend Miller's actions, it would be nice if they could be bothered to actually know the facts before doing so.

It sure took long enough:

A Vermont judge has ordered the arrest of a woman who has refused to turn over her 7-year-old daughter to her former lesbian partner.

Family Court Judge William Cohen found Lisa Miller of Forest, Va., in contempt of court during a hearing Tuesday and issued the arrest warrant.

Miller was ordered to surrender custody of her daughter on Jan. 1 but failed to do so and has since disappeared. Their daughter is now considered a missing person.

Will her lawyers at Liberty Counsel now find the time to finally make a statement acknowledging their star client's kidnapping and disappearance? 

Yesterday, I wrote a post noting it was a little odd that a Virginia judge had ruled that he could not hold Lisa Miller in contempt of court because nobody knew where she was.  Now the article has been updated with more details which explains the reasoning a bit more:

She's accused of running away with her seven-year-old daughter to avoid sharing custody with her former lesbian partner, but a Bedford County judge has decided not to press charges against Lisa Miller.

The judge could have held her in contempt of court, a charge she's already facing in Vermont, where this legal battle began. But a judge says he can't do the same here, because Miller was never notified of the pending charges, and she's nowhere to be found.

...

Because officials couldn't locate Miller to notify her of her court appearance, the judge said he couldn't hold her in contempt.

But the most interesting piece of news contained in the update is that it contains the first statement on the case from Mat Staver since Miller disappeared.  Staver, who is apparently still her lawyer, used the court appearance to attack Janet Jenkins: 

While Miller may be the missing party now, her lawyer says it was her former partner who was missing most of Isabella's life.

"[She] never came to watch her at church functions or school activities- in fact refused to come to Lynchburg," Miller’s attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel said.

...

Staver says he doesn't know his client's whereabouts or knows anyone who does.