ACLU’s Disinformation On Public Expression Of Religion Act Exposed

Posted on September 22, 2006

Rees Lloyd, former ACLU attorney and the commander of American Legion District 21, has written an excellent article at WND exposing the ACLU’s disinformation about the Public Expression of Religion Act. After showing how deceptive the ACLU has been in its battle against the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial, Reese breaks down the ACLU’s lies and explains the truth about the Public Expression of Religion Act.

Neither Ripston nor the ACLU have retracted their disinformation. Rather, Ripston, and the ACLU nationally, accuse supporters of PERA of spreading a “myth” that veterans cemeteries are at risk of lawsuit attack. Ripston wrote:

“PERA’s supporters spread the myth that religious symbols on gravestones at military cemeteries will be threatened unless the bill passes. In fact, religious symbols on grave markers in military cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery, are entirely constitutional. They reflect the religious conviction of the soldier and his or her family, and they are vastly different from government-sponsored religious symbols.”

The ACLU has claimed nationally that gravestones have been “deemed” constitutional because families, not the government, choose the religious symbols. However, the truth is no court of precedent has ever “deemed” that it is constitutional for the government to allow and pay for gravestones bearing religious symbols at veteran cemeteries, on the basis that families, rather than the government, chose the symbol. The ACLU has cited no such decision; and none has been found to exist.

Second, the ACLU has never taken that position in litigation; rather, it insists that religious symbols are unconstitutional if on public property.

Third, the ACLU has not stated it will not sue the freestanding memorials bearing religious symbols or expressions that exist at veterans cemeteries.

Fourth, there are thousands of grave markers, including 9,000 at the American Cemetery at Normandy Beach, which the government decided upon, not families.

Fifth, the ACLU is hardly the only entity representing a threat of such lawsuits. Nothing in the law currently prevents others, including Islamist fanatics, from filing Establishment Clause lawsuits against veterans cemeteries, and then demanding court-awarded, taxpayer-paid attorney fees.

Thus, all of our veterans cemeteries and memorials on public property are at risk – unless PERA passes.

Finally, the ACLU alleges that passage of PERA will prevent Establishment Clause cases from being filed. Nothing in PERA prevents the filing of Establishment Clause cases. PERA merely re-establishes the American rule that each side pays its own attorneys. If the ACLU has filed these cases pro bono on principle, and not for profit and political purpose, then PERA should have no effect on filing them.

Although ACLU has no actual attorney fees (all cases are handled by staff or volunteer attorneys), it has profited greatly from such cases, including: $950,000 to drive the Boy Scouts out of San Diego’s Balboa Park; $500,00 in the Judge Roy Moore Ten Commandments case; and, most recently, $2,000,000 against the Dover School Board in the Intelligent Design case – even though the law firm representing the ACLU waived all attorney fees.

Further, in hearings on PERA, by the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Marc Stern, the general counsel of the American Jewish Congress, ACLU’s strongest defender, admitted, under questioning, that the ACLU and others are using the threat of attorney fees as “a club” against local elected bodies.

No Americans should be “clubbed” into submission by the ACLU. Period. PERA needs to be passed now, in the 109th Congress, to reform the law and prevent such abuse.

The House will be voting on this bill soon. Make sure to contact your Congress Critter and let them know that you support it and want them to as well. Please contact your Congress critter, and representative, and tell them to support PERA. Find your Representative here. Find your Senator here.
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Comments

2 Responses to “ACLU’s Disinformation On Public Expression Of Religion Act Exposed”

Skul on September 22nd, 2006 5:37 pm

On-line petitions just iritate the dickens out of me. I just made my first exception and signed it.
Jay on September 22nd, 2006 5:39 pm

Thank you.