American Legion Continues Push For Anti-ACLU Bill

Posted on March 27, 2006

Indiana’s John Hostettler is trying for the fifth consecutive Congress to prevent the American Civil Liberties Union from receiving government funds when it succeeds at legal challenges to public expressions of religion.

This year, the Republican representative has more hope than before thanks to the American Legion. The country’s largest veterans organization, with about three million members, has aggressively thrown its influence behind Hostettler’s bill, and the persistent congressman is encouraged at his proposal’s prospects.

Hostettler’s measure, the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), H.R. 2679, is designed to close what he considers a loophole in federal law that has allowed organizations such as the ACLU to collect attorneys’ fees when they win lawsuits challenging religious symbols on public land or religious groups’ use of government property.

The American Legion released a 40-page document Feb. 28 urging its members to work for passage of Hostettler’s bill. The publication, “In the Footsteps of the Founders,” provides a blueprint for building local support for the legislation in an effort to urge members of Congress to approve it. The document has been sent to all of the nearly 15,000 American Legion posts, and the organization’s national commander, Tom Bock, has urged members in a written release to “educate and activate” their communities.

The American Legion “has really, really gotten behind PERA,” Matthew Faraci, the communications director for Hostettler, told Baptist Press. “They have been going around to other members of Congress and trying to make them aware how important this legislation is. We are really confident that there’s going to be action on this bill.”

PERA would change a federal law that allows attorneys’ fees to be paid by the government when a court finds a person’s civil rights have been violated. The bill would bar the awarding of attorneys’ fees when the deprivation of rights involves the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.

The ACLU and other organizations have gained attorneys’ fees in numerous cases in which they have won legal challenges to religious expression and symbols. These include:

– The ACLU was awarded nearly $800,000 in attorneys’ fees from the city of San Diego, Calif., in its successful effort to prevent the Boy Scouts of America, which acknowledges God in its oath, from continuing to use Balboa Park, according to the pro-family organization Eagle Forum.

– The ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Southern Poverty Law Center gained about $540,000 from the state of Alabama in a successful challenge of the Ten Commandments monument displayed in the State Judicial Building by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, according to Eagle Forum.

– The ACLU received about $63,000 in a successful attempt to remove a cross from the Mojave Desert World War I Memorial in California, according to the American Legion.

That case prompted a unanimously approved resolution by the American Legion in 2004 urging Congress to pass legislation to bar attorneys’ fees in successful suits calling for the removal or destruction of such symbols. It also pointed to a special concern of the American Legion — the consequences for crosses, Stars of David and other religious symbols on veterans’ graves.

Bock called the removal of the Mojave cross a “very dangerous precedent. There are 22 national cemeteries with veterans at rest beneath religious symbols. There is nothing in the law to prevent groups like the ACLU from filing establishment-clause lawsuits against those sacred grounds and then receiving taxpayer-paid attorney fees.

PERA “will restore legal balance in this country, and it will protect us from being the victims of this assault on our religious liberties,” Hostettler said in a Feb. 28 speech at the American Legion’s national conference in Washington, according to his written text.

Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State described Hostettler’s bill as “deeply misguided and mean spirited.” He went on to tell BP that, “It is an attempt to deny Americans access to the federal courts to ensure their religious liberty rights.” However this statement is either deceptive or very uninformed. Hostettler’s bill only applies towards the “Establishment Clause” and does not affect religious liberty cases. What the bill does is put the financial burden upon the ACLU and other organization that diliberately threaten small local governments, and school boards with expensive lawsuits in which most do not have the money to defend. Most of these cases are settled outside of court. If the case goes to court and the ACLU win, they ask for huge amounts of money in legal fees. If the ACLU lose, they don’t have to pay a dime to the schools and local governments they challenged. They foot their own attorney’s fees defending themselves.

Many Americans are tired of the ACLU being paid millions a year in legal fees for cases in which they don’t agree with. If the ACLU’s cases have merit, let them stand on their own. These small schools and governments have a hard time affording the legal fees to defend themselves. The ACLU collect plenty in donations to fund their own attacks on America’s Christian heritage. Americans are tired of paying for it.

Support is picking up as local American Legion branches are joining in with the National.

The Oswego County American Legion is joining the national legion to take on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

At issue, the legion said in a press release, is a legal loophole that allows the ACLU to collect tax money for attorney’s fees after it files suit against the use of religious symbols.

Millions of dollars in taxes are collected in court-ordered attorney’s fees, the legion said.

The American Legion’s Oswego County commander, David Potter, said a bill now in Congress will prevent the ACLU from collecting such fees.

The awarding of attorney’s fees was mandated by the 1976 Civil Rights Attorney’s Fee Awards Act.

Thomas L. Bock, national commander of the American legion, said in the press release the act was “needed” but eventually abused.

“When out-of-court settlements are more cost-effective than the judicial process, then the system is clearly broken,” he said.

“Each time the threat of outrageous attorney fee awards by courts drives an out-of-court decision, lady Justice receives another black eye and justice is defiled,” Potter added.

Let your voice be heard. Write Your Representatives and Senators and tell them to support the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), H.R. 2679.