I hates the ACLU!
Posted on 06/10/2005 4:51:52 PM PDT by CHARLITE
"Anything short of actual imprisonment would be ineffective..." -- ACLU of Louisiana
“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew5:10
In their latest attack on Christianity, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a motion to hold Tangipahoa school board officials in Louisiana in contempt of court, asking they be jailed for praying in schools.
The Tangipahoa school board and the ACLU of Louisiana entered into an agreement, made public in an August 27, 2004, District Court Consent Judgment, which required school officials to prohibit “invocations given prior to athletic events,” “participation and/or encouragement by school officials in pre-game and post-game prayers involving student athletes,” and “invocations by students to the student body over the school’s public address system during assemblies or at any school sponsored event.” The ACLU claims school officials have violated the agreement on multiple occasions. This motion is the fourth complaint they’ve filed against the school board.
Even though this is considered a civil matter, the ACLU has asked the court to hold school officials in criminal contempt, asking for jail time. “Their refusal to comply with the Consent Decree should and must result in their removal from society—removal for a period of time sufficient to impress upon them, and like imitators, the seriousness of the Court’s order,” reads the complaint. “Anything short of actual imprisonment would be ineffective to sending that message to these individuals.”
What? This “must result in their removal from society”? Are we talking about child molesters here? Sorry, that can’t be it; those are the kind of people the ACLU would be defending instead of trying to put in jail. The ACLU defends the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) and tries to get school officials in jail for praying --you know the real criminals.
Tragically, although I fully expect the court to reject this ridiculous request, the ACLU still moves its agenda forward with every lawsuit they bring. You see, it doesn’t really matter if they win or loose, by their own admission, what they want is to impress “like imitators” of the price to be paid for showing their faith in public. And unfortunately the courts have allowed and often helped them in this endeavor.
With their highly capricious interpretation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause as erecting a “wall of separation between church and state,” U.S. courts find themselves more involved in matters of religion than the framers ever intended them to be. Is there anything more intrusive than the government sending you to jail for praying, no matter where it is?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” That’s all the First Amendment says. Nowhere can you find the “wall of separation” between church and state. Yet, in the name of freedom and liberty, groups like the ACLU would like to prohibit the free exercise of religion beyond a person’s private thoughts. “That’s okay, you can be a Christian, just don’t say it out loud.”
“This is another example of how the so-called ‘wall of separation’ continues to distort the meaning of the Establishment Clause, said Jan LaRue, CWA’s chief counsel. “Chief Justice Rehnquist has said: ‘It is impossible to build sound constitutional doctrine upon a mistaken understanding of constitutional history, but unfortunately the Establishment Clause has been expressly freighted with Jefferson’s misleading metaphor for nearly 40 years.’”
This is why the appointment of judges is so important to our country. For too long we’ve been silent, and now we are paying the price of our indifference. We need wisdom and character and self-control back in our courts. Freedom and democracy depend on it.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6
Concerned Women for America
1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 488-7000
Fax: (202) 488-0806
LOL!! Now we know what is wrong with the ACLU: wrong Constitution!!
Names and addresses of these ACLU attorneys.
Ping!
Take religion or prayer or invocation or whatever out of the picture. No one has ever explained to me why "prayer" isn't included in that vast domain called free speech.
if we don't get it now, we never will.
we have a republican president and a republican congress.
"ACLU would like to prohibit the free exercise of religion beyond a person’s private thoughts"
OK..so it's the ACLU vs. the God they deny. Time to choose whose side you are on?
hint..hint... all my $$$'s on God. Go with the WINNER!
Down ya go A-C-Losers.
Can you believe this crap? In New York City the Muslims were trying to force the schools education board to allow the Muslim students to pray during school hours. We heared nothing from the American Communist liberation Unit about that.
Sorry. There's a lot of posts here. Context?
Are liberals really against a state religion? I ask that because on the one hand, the liberal's jihad against Bush and everything he stands for, including the War on Terror, Judaism, and Christianity, is displayed with every move they make, expecially the ACLU.
OTOH, their apparent support for the Muslim side of the WOT tells me that it hasn't occurred to these twits that if the radical Muslims were to actually WIN the WOT, the first thing they would do is declare any religion but Islam illegal, and of course all people would worship Allah and Muhammad or face prosecution.
It just seems like they haven't really thought this thing through; but then again, they are liberals.
Prove to me that this is not an ANTI-CHRISTIAN thing....
I'll wait here for the first Muslim to be jailed for praying....
Waiting.....
Waiting....
Still waiting...
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thanks.
is this toyota thread the correct thread?
To: Erik Latranyi
Guantanamo would be acceptable for Christians, not terrorists.
by Erik Latranyi (9-11 is your Peace Dividend)
What the hell?
Wait a minute. What am I doing? You're a troll and will never come back, right?
29 posted on 06/10/2005 8:17:04 PM EDT by AshfieldK
I said, don't you get what he's saying?
treatment of Christian vs Muslims(at Guantanamo)= double standard.
The ACLU ought to be held in contempt of court for filing such a frivolous motion.
Ping4later
...Take religion or prayer or invocation or whatever out of the picture. No one has ever explained to me why "prayer" isn't included in that vast domain called free speech....
That is a very good point. Besides free speech, there is on top of that freedom of religion. A second guarantee of the right to pray.
What Constitutional ground can the ACLU be standing on here? Seems like Quicksand to me.
What's really bad is the district judge, Ginger Berrigan is a member of the ACLU.
http://www.texasisd.com/artman/exec/view.cgi/26/29011
Louisiana: ACLU asks jail for Tangipahoa school officials
By ADAM NOSSITER - AP NOLA.com
May 19, 2005, 07:45
Teachers and administrators in Tangipahoa Parish continue to violate a court-imposed school prayer ban, according to the ACLU, which Wednesday asked a federal judge to send them to jail.
For the fourth time in less than two months, the ACLU has formally notified the judge that school officials are flouting the prayer ban, imposed to settle a lawsuit the civil liberties group filed for a parent in 2003.
This time, the group says, an elementary school teacher in Tangipahoa Parish repeatedly held prayers in her fourth grade class, encouraged students to bring their Bibles to school, held Bible study classes in the cafeteria of D.C. Reeves Elementary School, and admonished students who didn't show up for the class.
In addition, the ACLU cites a prayer it says was recently given at Amite High School, over a loudspeaker, at an awards banquet. The prayer ended with the words "In Jesus' name we pray," violating the ban; the principal of the school sat silently by.
Wednesday's filing is the latest skirmish in a decade-long battle between the ACLU here and school authorities in the rural parish north of Lake Pontchartrain over the place of religion in the classroom. The group contends parish school officials systematically flout the Constitution's Establishment Clause forbidding the mixing of government and religion.
Court decisions have repeatedly favored the civil liberties group, including the two latest ones — a 2004 prayer ban in the schools and a February decision by U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan banning prayer before school board meetings. The school board Tuesday night pressed on with its appeal of that decision, announcing the addition of a national Christian-oriented legal group to its team, the Alliance Defense Fund.
At the same time it warned school employees against flouting the court prayer ban. That warning preceded by hours, however, the ACLU's latest contention that some in Tangipahoa continue to ignore the court's orders.
"The consent judgment is repeatedly violated by these individuals because they do not believe anything will happen to them," the ACLU said in its Wednesday court filing. "Their refusal to comply with the consent decree should and must result in their removal from society."
Under the agreement, no "invocations by students to the student body over the school's public address system, during assemblies or at any school sponsored event" are allowed.
A lawyer for the school board said the latest allegations would be "thoroughly investigated" and "disciplinary actions" would be taken if they hold up. "It's a personnel matter," said A. Kirk Gasperecz. "It's an employee not doing what they are supposed to be doing."
The ACLU, however, suggested that teachers and administrators are willfully defying the prayer ban. It compared the fourth grade teacher to George Wallace, standing in the schoolhouse door to hold off integration in the 1960s.
"I have been teaching for 12 years, and I can do what I want in my own classroom or at school," the teacher, Pam Sullivan, told a student teacher who protested about her predilection for prayer and Bible study in class, according to the ACLU. Repeatedly, she "compelled" a student to recite a prayer in class before lunch, the group said.
In addition, Sullivan expressed her disapproval of mixed-race marriages to the student teacher, who was "confronted" for challenging the frequent classroom praying, and told to "voluntarily withdraw." Once, she "entered the classroom and abruptly ordered the student to cease teaching and the ordered the students to stand and recite a prayer," according to the court filing.
Unsuccessful in the 1990s in imposing an "evolution disclaimer" in classrooms, then on lunch-time prayer sessions, the Tangipahoa board in 2004 agreed to end prayer at school sporting events.
Tuesday the board said in its statement that "anyone acting in violation of the consent judgment is doing so without the Board's authority or consent." But it again suggested students could lawfully hold "private prayers" at schools.
It promised that teachers and administrators would receive "training" so violations due to "misunderstandings" could be avoided.
A hearing on the contempt motions is set for June 1 in U.S. District Court in New Orleans.
Wednesday, the ACLU said the violations it was citing were among the most egregious yet.
"The federal court must rein in religious extremists who have taken over the Tangipahoa Parish school system by hijacking Christianity and using it to carry out their agenda of indoctrinating and proselytizing captive students under their control," said Joe Cook, the ACLU head in Louisiana.
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