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ACLU finds pot of gold at the foot of the cross
TownHall.com ^ | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 | by Phyllis Schlafly

Posted on 06/21/2004 9:34:12 PM PDT by JohnHuang2

Los Angeles County Supervisors decided to turn tail and run rather than fight a lawsuit threatened by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Why such weak-kneed response? Because lawyers for the county ominously warned that the county might lose the case and have to pay the ACLU's attorney's fees.

The ACLU is demanding that the county remove a tiny cross from its seal, one of nearly a dozen symbols it portrays. One need only look at the seal to see just how ridiculous is the ACLU's demand.

A third of the seal and the centerpiece is the Greek goddess Pomona standing on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. The ACLU doesn't object to her; portrayals of pagan goddesses are OK.

Six side sections of the seal depict historical motifs: the Spanish galleon San Salvador, a tuna fish, a cow, the Hollywood Bowl, two stars representing the movie and television industries, oil derricks and a couple of engineering instruments that signify industrial construction and space exploration. The cross is so tiny that it doesn't even have its own section and consumes maybe 2 percent of the seal's space.

Removing the cross is a blatant attempt to erase history, to drop it down the "memory hole" as George Orwell would say. It is just as reasonable to recognize the historical fact that California was settled by Christians who built missions all over the state as it is to honor the Spanish ship, the San Salvador, which sailed into San Pedro Harbor on Oct. 8, 1542.

The reason that the Los Angeles County seal is such a big deal is not because it is a violation of the First Amendment. It is because there is a pot of gold hidden under it attracting the ACLU like honey attracts bees. A little-known 1976 federal law called the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act enables the ACLU to collect attorneys' fees for its suits against crosses, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Ten Commandments. This law was designed to help plaintiffs in civil rights cases. But the ACLU is using it for First Amendment cases, asserting that it is a civil right NOT to see a cross or the Ten Commandments.

The financial lure created by this law is the engine that drives dozens of similar cases nationwide. Every state, county, city, public park or school that has a cross, a Ten Commandments monument, or recites the Pledge of Allegiance, has become a target for ACLU fundraising.

There are thousands of Ten Commandments plaques or monuments all over the country, and lawsuits to remove them have popped up in more than a dozen states. In Utah, the ACLU even announced a scavenger hunt with a prize for anyone who could find another Ten Commandments monument that the ACLU could persuade an activist judge to remove.

The most famous Ten Commandments monument case is the one in the State Judicial Building in Montgomery, Ala., installed by former Chief Justice Roy Moore and ordered removed by a Carter-appointed federal judge. As their reward for winning its removal, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Southern Poverty Law Center collected $540,000 in attorney's fees and expenses from Alabama taxpayers.

Kentucky taxpayers have handed over $121,500 to pay the ACLU for its action against the Ten Commandments display outside its state capitol. Taxpayers in one Tennessee county had to pay $50,000 to the ACLU for the same "offense."

The ACLU profited enormously, collecting $790,000 in legal fees, plus $160,000 in court costs, as a result of its suit to deny the Boy Scouts of America the use of San Diego's Balboa Park for a summer camp, a city facility the Scouts had used since 1915. The ACLU argued that the Boy Scouts must be designated a "religious organization" because it refuses to accept homosexual scoutmasters, and because the Scouts use an oath "to do my duty to God and my country."

In northern Minnesota, the Duluth city council voted 5-4 to acquiesce to the ACLU's demand to remove a Ten Commandments monument from public property because the city couldn't afford to pay the legal costs of defending the monument, plus the ACLU's legal fees. Redlands, Calif., likewise backed down after the ACLU threatened a lawsuit to force removal of a cross from part of the city logo.

Similar lawsuits could challenge "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, since the U.S. Supreme Court ducked deciding the issue June 14 in the Michael Newdow case. There are 16,000 public school districts that could become targets of lawsuits to ban the pledge.

Rep. John N. Hostettler, R-Ind., has introduced H.R. 3609 to end this racket by amending the federal law that makes it possible. Most lawsuits do not award attorney's fees to the winner, and the law should not give a financial incentive to those suing to stop our acknowledgment of God, or to continue a practice or a symbol that the U.S. people have approved for decades.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aclu; churchandstate; cross; la; phyllisschlafly
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1 posted on 06/21/2004 9:34:12 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: JohnHuang2

This is great information to have. I think I'll ask my senator if he'll introduce a similar bill in the senate. Daschle IS running for election. You never know.


2 posted on 06/21/2004 9:38:56 PM PDT by jwalburg (Strongbad for Dem VP)
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To: JohnHuang2

Pot of gold? More like 30 pieces of silver...


3 posted on 06/21/2004 9:40:57 PM PDT by null and void (He's a happy boy, happy boy, ain't it good when things are going your way. Hey, hey...)
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To: JohnHuang2

L.A. Board of Supervisors - craven milquetoasts.


4 posted on 06/21/2004 9:54:55 PM PDT by janetgreen
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To: janetgreen

who is the plantiff?


5 posted on 06/21/2004 9:56:32 PM PDT by Jasper Willowtree
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To: JohnHuang2

He is at work here.


6 posted on 06/21/2004 10:00:08 PM PDT by wardaddy (It will take at least 100,000 deaths on US soil to bring America to a true war footing....sadly.)
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To: null and void

WELL SAID, null and void.


7 posted on 06/21/2004 10:02:28 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: All
"ARE THEY FOR US OR AGAINST US?" (Updated Daily - Click Here.)

8 posted on 06/21/2004 10:03:11 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: JohnHuang2

BTTT


9 posted on 06/21/2004 10:08:28 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: Cindy

aclu usually uses a local stooge known as a "john doe plantiff"...on some occassions the suit is served to the county clerks office or to a person known as the deputy or guardian of the seal...usually any citizen of california can request the name of the "john doe plantiff" under a state public information request...


10 posted on 06/21/2004 10:10:56 PM PDT by Jasper Willowtree
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To: Cindy

That is some cite, Cindy!


11 posted on 06/21/2004 10:11:12 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation

Oops!
That is some site, Cindy!


12 posted on 06/21/2004 10:11:55 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Cindy

Thanks. I try...


13 posted on 06/21/2004 10:15:25 PM PDT by null and void (He's a happy boy, happy boy, ain't it good when things are going your way. Hey, hey...)
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To: Salvation

The site is inspired by the daily news and commentaries, Salvation.


14 posted on 06/21/2004 10:26:31 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: Jasper Willowtree

Not sure who they would name as plaintiff. The majority of the "supervisors" caved in immediately, stating that the suit would be too expensive. Idiots.


15 posted on 06/21/2004 10:45:00 PM PDT by janetgreen
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To: janetgreen

probably strapped on their "Depends" when the suit was served...


16 posted on 06/21/2004 10:53:33 PM PDT by Jasper Willowtree
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To: janetgreen

some media outlet would love to have the identity of the "john doe plantiff", whomever he or she may be...


17 posted on 06/21/2004 10:56:02 PM PDT by Jasper Willowtree
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To: Cindy

Thank you for this link. I feel like these ACLU lawyers are like those machines drilling down to the center of the earth in the second Matrix movie. But I have faith. We defeated the Nazis, the Japanese, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, the Soviet Union, and we will defeat these evil people, and you deserve some thanks for that for your efforts. God bless.


18 posted on 06/21/2004 11:05:14 PM PDT by microgood
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To: microgood

Thank you microgood for sharing your thoughts.
I understand how you feel.


19 posted on 06/21/2004 11:54:12 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: Jasper Willowtree
I would like to know too. I e-mailed Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, who is probably the only one who might be interested. The other news outlets hardly mentioned it, even though most Californians were outraged.

Phone calls and e-mails to the supervisors who caved in weren't even answered. Typical of most California legislators, who only follow their own agenda, not the agenda of the voters.

20 posted on 06/22/2004 10:07:25 AM PDT by janetgreen
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