Posted on 04/30/2007 12:10:50 PM PDT by NYer
Was the San Francisco Board of Supervisors constitutionally justified in passing an explicitly anti-Catholic resolution, adopted March 21, 2006, which labeled the Vatican a “foreign country” whose moral teachings are “hateful,” “insulting and callous,” and “insulting to all San Franciscans”?
In December, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said it was. Last week, the Thomas More Law Center filed a brief with the U. S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two Catholic residents of San Francisco appealing Patel’s ruling.
The 2006 resolution, which called on the archbishop to “defy” the Church’s teachings and described Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as “unqualified” to lead, was a reaction to the Church’s opposition to adoptions by homosexual couples.
Judge Patel, appointed to the federal bench in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter and former counsel for the National Organization for Women, ruled that the Board of Supervisors’ resolution urging the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco to ignore his Church’s teachings, did not violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Establishment Clause, found in the First Amendment, prohibits the government from interfering with the free practice of religion – or favoring one religion over another. The Thomas More Law Center says the Supervisors’ resolution sends a clear message that Catholics are not welcome as members of the San Francisco political community.
“Judge Patel clearly exhibited hostility toward the Catholic Church,” said Richard Thompson, chief counsel for the Thomas More Law Center. In her ruling, the judge claimed that the Church “provoked” the Board of Supervisors by voicing its moral teaching, and that the Board reacted “responsibly” by adopting its resolution, which called Catholic beliefs “defamatory,” “absolutely unacceptable,” “insensitive,” and “ignorant.”
The week after the anti-Catholic resolution, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted, again unanimously, to condemn some 25,000 Evangelical teens who had gathered in the city to express their opposition to homosexual conduct. Openly gay San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno said the Christian teenagers were “obnoxious” and “disgusting” and “should not be tolerated.” He told the Christian group to “get out of San Francisco!”
“My concern is that, if the judge’s ruling is allowed to stand, it will further embolden the San Francisco Board in its anti-Christian attacks,” said Thompson.
“Our constitution plainly forbids government hostility toward any religion, including the Catholic faith,” said Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise, who is handling the Ninth Circuit appeal. “In total disregard for the Constitution, homosexual activists have misused the instruments of government to attack the Catholic Church. Their egregious abuse of power now has the backing of a federal judge."
The Catholic Church teaches that allowing homosexuals to adopt children does violence to the children by placing them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development. The Church finds such policies gravely immoral, and forbids Catholic organizations from placing children for adoption in homosexual households.
The 11-member San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative branch for both the city and county of San Francisco.
San Francisco: 49 square miles surrounded by reality. -Paul Kantner
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Tolerance for the immoral, out with the moral? :/
Saint Francis must be rolling in his grave..........
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
San Fag Freakshow needs to fall into the ocean!
Hard to understand how the resolution is not a violation of the Establishment Clause.
There came a time when Lot had to leave Sodom.
How soon will they be changing the name of the city to Sodom?
If the Christians leave will there be ten righteous men in the city?
I’m not Catholic, but they have my full support on this one. A total breach of the First Amendment.
I wonder what the Archbishop has done. Has he made a public statement of the Archdiocese’s commitment to proclaiming the Catholic Faith and observing Christian moral teaching without compromise?
I suppose they can flap their diseased lips all they please about how “hateful” the church is. What weight does a “resolution” really have? The question is, will they get up enough courage to actually ban Catholicism from the city? Now THAT would violate the Establishment Clause!
Evil calling good evil. The world’s going upside down. Sometime’s it seem as though {some of} the people of San Francisco are determined to provoke the wrath of God!
Our Federal Government should take over San Franfreeco. These people will keep doing this because nobody is doing anything about it.
Nothing angers the gaystapo more than the truth.
I agree; they could just have well been condemning Mormons, Russian Orthodox or Orthodox Jewish persons.
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