Faith Under Fire
Posted on October 30, 2006
Alan Sears, of the Alliance Defense Fund, has written an excellent column at the Legal Times on the battle over public religion.
The House of Representatives has voted to end a perverse subsidy that encourages attacks on religious freedom. Now the Senate should do the same, despite self-serving opposition from groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, that profit from the status quo.
The Veterans’ Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expressions of Religions Protection Act, passed by the House on Sept. 26 (a similar bill is before the Senate), would prohibit an award of attorney fees to plaintiffs who sue governments for “violations” of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. For just a hint of how off-base courts have misconstrued this provision, how does the Constitution’s words that “Congress shall make no law” apply to a monument sitting quietly under the stars on a courthouse lawn? Only lawyers could make a piece of granite a law.
Such attorney fee awards — in essence, a litigation subsidy from American taxpayers to advocacy groups looking for a pot of gold — have perverse consequences for religious freedom. The possibility of being forced to pay six-figure sums in attorney fees deters state and local government authorities from defending themselves against legally weak attempts to drive religion from the public sphere. Faced with limited resources, local officials have too often decided that their only sensible choice is to yield to legal bullying.
As Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has said, “If a group like the ACLU wants to sue a city for displaying a religious image, it should pay the bill itself, not take advantage of a provision that was designed to reimburse poor individuals pursuing civil rights cases. . . . It is wrong for these well-heeled activist groups to abuse civil rights laws so that their legal costs are paid for by taxpayers.”
The result of such bullying is to silence religious speech that is fully protected under the First Amendment. Unfortunately, this chilling effect is largely the goal: The censorship groups, such as the ACLU, that bring these suits are trying to drive religion — Christianity, in particular — out of public life. And under current law, they are exploiting fee awards to force the American taxpayer to subsidize their crusade against the public expression of Christianity and Orthodox Judaism.
The law at issue is the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fee Awards Act of 1976. Originally intended to assist plaintiffs bringing civil rights claims arising from federal statutes, the act has been used by the ACLU to wage a campaign of fear, intimidation, and disinformation. It has been used to pressure public officials — even officials seeking to follow the law carefully — to bow down before the ACLU and its demand for obedience and religious cleansing or face financial ruin.
And if the officials don’t cower? Then it’s a big payday for the ACLU when an activist court agrees to advance the group’s secular agenda. For example, the ACLU has been awarded in attorney fees:
Glib Fortuna adds:
“I’ve seen comments to the effect that conservative groups benefit from attorney’s fees allowed for under 42 USC 1988 just like the ACLU does. If it enriches other religious liberties groups like ADF, why would they not be opposed to it as well if the trough was as kind to them as it has been to the ACLU? Answer — because groups like ADF, ACLJ, Liberty Counsel, etc. defend individuals whose religious liberties have been violated by the force of the state, while the ACLU will bring idiotic lawsuits against the state on behalf of the thin-skinned, perpetually-outraged scowling citizen who just can’t take the mere sight of a passively-displayed “Latin cross.” The cases in which an individual’s religious liberty are actually compromised are not impacted by the revision of the statute, that’s why ADF and others support PERA.
I’ve also seen the argument that this has something to do with the “independent judiciary” (you know since the Left says they are sick hearing “activist judges,” I have to log a similar complaint about the phrase “independent judiciary.” Entered into the record). I need these prima donnas to explain exactly how this revision of statute would prevent a judge from ruling in favor of the ACLU is, say the Mt. Soledad case? I already have the answer — it doesn’t.
Another sobbing refrain is that PERA will mean the “death of the constitution” (or similar hyperbolic pap). This attorneys fees provision was adopted in 1976 — the republic survived for 200 years just fine without it, so anyone who claims that this is vital for anything other than injecting the ACLU with some extra coin on top of their already enormous treasure chest, is lying out of his…”
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, Church And State, News
Trackback URL
Comments
2 Responses to “Faith Under Fire”
Affiliations
The Giants
-
It will not happen unless God takes a hand as the Democrats will filibuster. The pro choice to commit murder Democrats will have to loose some seats and I have nothing to indicate that will happen. I hope God takes a hand.
George Soros was only following orders
Sweetness & Light and Thomas Lifson documented the chilling 60 Minutes interview with financier George Soros. Soros — who donated around $25 million to various efforts to defeat President Bush in 2004 — survived the Holocaust as a 14-year old…