Posted on 11/24/2004 10:49:12 PM PST by ETERNAL WARMING
LAW OF THE LAND Petition: Get ACLU off taxpayer dole Legal group awarded 1/2 million tax dollars for ridding courthouse of 10 Commandments
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: November 25, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Ron Strom © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A new online petition asks Congress to change a specific civil-rights statute in hopes of preventing the American Civil Liberties Union from collecting attorney fees from taxpayers of local governments the organization takes to court.
The effort – spearheaded by Craig McCarthy of CourtZero.org, a site dedicated to stemming judicial activism – seeks to change 42 U.S.C., Section 1988, of the United States Code. The statute now allows judges to award attorney fees to plaintiffs in civil-rights cases brought against local governments, thereby putting the taxpayers on the hook and oftentimes funneling public money to the ACLU. McCarthy wants the law changed so cases involving the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment would not apply.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Please ping your lists, t. Thankyou!
Petition:
WHEREAS, the American Civil Liberties Union (the ACLU) has shown itself to be hostile to religious expression by private citizens and the civil rights of people of faith; and
WHEREAS, the ACLU has declared war on the Boy Scouts of America, the military of the United States, Christmas displays, public buildings that display the Ten Commandments, and many other American traditions; and
WHEREAS, the United States Congress, roughly thirty years ago, passed a provision in United States Code section 1988 that requires taxpayers to pay attorneys in civil rights cases; and
WHEREAS, the ACLU has abused that law to make untold millions of dollars simply by suing boy scouts, school children, military academies, cities and towns, with the goal of punishing any who dare to exercise their First Amendment right to religious freedom and expression; and
WHEREAS, the vast majority of taxpayers do not want to be forced to pay the ACLU to sue their neighbors and friends in the ACLU's efforts to strip America of all signs of faith; and
WHEREAS, the Establisment Clause of the First Amendment was not contemplated when USC section 1988 was passed;
THEREFORE, the People of the United States call upon their Congress to amend USC section 1988 so that hostile special interest groups such as the ACLU can no longer be granted taxpayer money to attack Americans and their institutions.
We, The People, call upon our elected representatives to amend USC section 1988 so that fees are not awarded to the ACLU or any other plaintiff in Establisment Clause cases. We wish for the Free Expression Clause to implicate at least the same financial incentives as attacks upon faith currently have.
BTTT
Maybe the government can pay Islamofascists to slam planes into more buildings while they're at it.
Why do we have to petition for this? It should be done already by our spineless politicians.
You got that right !! What are those idiots doing, passing laws to monitor chat rooms instead of shutting down operations like the ACLU and the UN that supress our freedoms!!
God bless you
This one's a no-brainer. Read the petition and sign it online. The ACLU has proven time and again that it considers mainstream America the enemy, and they use OUR tax money to pay themselves to work against our common-sense interest !!
Let them peddle their hatefull crap to rich liberals like Soros, Speilberg, Bing, Babs, Heinz-Kerry, Kennedy.... etc etc. Let the big shots put their money where their mouth is..... haven't they all been teasing that they don't NEED Bush's tax reduction?
Hmmm?
I vote to send the ACLU Members all a one way bus ticket to Canada, done and gone!
We need to follow this up with calls to our assorted Home Boys to get them to sponsor the Repeal of the provision in United States Code section 1988!
Toll Free House and Senate: 1-800-648-3516
I think the American people need to stand up for their civil rights, but the ACLU decided to do their thinking for them. It's our own fault that we let them do it. The most important one is the second amendment, and that's no where to be found in the entire ACLU's portfolio of cases.
My pleasure EW...
Ping FYI
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McCarthy says he hopes to get some signatures on the petition and then begin "shopping it around" Capitol Hill for sponsorship.
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/ACLU/
Take the minute to do this, these people need to be stopped. We can't do nothing. Please sign this petition, that we may neuter the ACLU and their anti-Christ, anti-American terrorism.
May Christ look upon us mercifully, as we sharpen our spiritual weapons to fight prayerfully, and as we sign this petition as a show of support for the Christian faith that pleased God, that He set us above all other nations.
This is a great country, not because we are anything, but because Jesus Christ is something. Only the 1st, 2nd and 3rd century church that destroyed the Roman Empire mixed faith and deeds better than the USA.
Whereas...the ACLU actions amount to treason by aiding and abetting the enemy....
Nope, not canada, but a free trip to Iraq with a personal visit with Zarqawi(sp?) for a free shave and haircut.
You'll next have to stop the payroll deduction contributions witholding from well over a half million federal employess to the ACLU. As for as stopping of the described practice in this article would help it won't make that big of a dent in the funding going to the ACLU. They recieve funding from many sources but it would be a nice start, but don't stop there.
Apparently, when Congress contemplated the fee-shifting bill three decades ago, it never conceived that 42 U.S.C. §1988 would be used to secure fees in esoteric battles over the meaning of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
The statute gives a court "discretion" to award attorneys' fees to the prevailing party in civil rights cases.
Study of the legislative history of the statute reveals that Congress intended this statute to apply to civil rights abuses, including certain race and sex discrimination cases, but not to arguments about whether Judge Roy Moore is allowed to display the Ten Commandments in the Alabama courthouse.
During the deliberations on the bill, the Senate penned that "in many cases arising under our civil rights laws, the citizen who must sue to enforce the law has little or no money with which to hire a lawyer."[6] In the recent First Amendment lawsuits filed by the ACLU, the tables are turned.
Small school districts and municipalities can either defend lawsuits and risk paying the ACLU's attorneys' fees if they lose, or they can voluntarily submit to the ACLU's view of the Constitution.
Even if lawsuits over the establishment clause somehow fall within 42 U.S.C. §1988, the statute empowers courts with nothing more than "discretion" to award fees.
In these cases, one would expect courts to withhold awarding fees. Since this is not happening, Congress must take immediate action to clarify 42 U.S.C. §1988 to explicitly exclude lawsuits related to the acknowledgement of God.
I always wondered who had the deep pockets to bankroll the ACLUs continuous assaults on our country. I had no idea that we were the underwriters!!!! WOW!!!
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