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ACLU suing Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana School Board (School Prayer)
ACLU of Louisiana ^ | April 5, 2005 | ACLU of Louisiana

Posted on 04/07/2005 8:33:19 AM PDT by Houmatt

NEW ORLEANS—The ACLU has filed a motion for criminal contempt today against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board for defying an agreed on court order banning official prayer at athletic events. An individual identified as Shane Tycer delivered a pre-game prayer over the PA system on March 24 at a baseball game between Loranger High School and Sumner High School. This marks the second contempt motion filed against the school board within the past two weeks for transgressions of injunctions related to the original lawsuit.

“The defendant school board and its superintendent cannot get away with a shell game that mocks the judiciary and its role of interpreting and upholding the rule of law,” remarked Joe Cook, Executive Director, ACLU of Louisiana. “The actors in this matter deserve jail and/or fines for their calculated un-American and immoral conduct to embarrass, hinder or obstruct the court in the administration of justice. Such behavior mimics segregationists who defied the federal courts rather than integrate the schools in Louisiana and elsewhere.”

After being sued in 2003 by a parent on behalf of his two children, the defendants acknowledged engaging in certain illegal conduct to advance religion by conducting invocations prior to athletic and other sponsored events. They voluntarily agreed to a consent judgment on August 27, 2004, that strictly prohibited such activity from that point forward (http://www.laaclu.org/DoevTangiConsent.pdf). Now, however, comes a prayer at a baseball game held “at a venue owned, operated, controlled and/or under the supervision of the Tangipahoa Parish School Board.” Even though the culpable individual offering up the prayer is not an employee of the school board, the defendants bear responsibility and cannot get others to do what they themselves are prohibited from doing.

After being notified of the latest incident, the defendants acknowledged that it happened and offered a lame explanation that the regular PA system announcer arrived late. As such, Mr. Tycer proceeded to use the school’s PA system and give a pre-game invocation. There was no attempt by defendants or any of their agents and/or employees to stop Mr. Tycer. Notwithstanding the fact that such actions clearly violated the consent judgment, the school board nor the superintendent have publicly repudiated them. This tracks with the actors’ same posture during and after prohibited prayers at school board meetings, which led to the first motion for contempt.

The Tangipahoa Parish School Board has established a pattern and a practice of using the public schools as a vehicle to indoctrinate young impressionable children with fundamentalist Christian ideology. Inasmuch the ACLU has sponsored three lawsuits on similar issues over a ten year period on behalf complaining plaintiffs, parents with children in that system: promotion of the biblical faith-based story of creation as opposed to scientifically based theory of evolution; “pizza preacher” proselytizing via a free lunch; and the latest case. Such defiant conduct or support for it, from whatever quarter, undermines the rule of law, dishonors and endangers the Constitution, sends a message of religious intolerance and polarizes the community.

It is time to put out the welcome mat to believers and non-believers alike at all public school functions across the state and the nation. Public schools should be kept inclusive and secular in keeping with our Founders’ ideas for religious liberty for all. Children and parents whose beliefs are different from the majority must not be made to feel like outsiders in their own schools. Because public schools are part of the government, official school-organized or school-sponsored devotional exercises are inconsistent with the principle of religious freedom. How, when, where and to whom children should pray is a decision that should be made by families in the home and chosen places of worship, not forced or coerced by government officials.

Since 1920, the ACLU has served as the nation’s foremost defender of individual freedom as embodied in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. A copy of the motion for contempt is at http://www.laaclu.org/DoeCrimContempt040505.pdf.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aclu; aclumorons; antichristian; churchandstate; education; firstamendment; hate; religiousbigotry; schoolprayer; stiflinggod
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No, you are not dreaming: The Louisiana chapter of the ACLU has called school prayer "un-American" and "immoral."

Just where do you get guts like that? Can you buy them?

1 posted on 04/07/2005 8:33:20 AM PDT by Houmatt
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To: Jay777

ping


2 posted on 04/07/2005 8:33:48 AM PDT by Houmatt (Terri Schindler Schiavo 1963-2005. Murdered by Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer.)
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To: Houmatt

Disgusting. ACLU = the most dangerous organization in America.


3 posted on 04/07/2005 8:38:10 AM PDT by yellowdoghunter (The Terri issue is legally complicated, but not the moral issue. I want to be on the side of life.)
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To: Houmatt

A C L U = All Communist Liberals United!


4 posted on 04/07/2005 8:38:42 AM PDT by Don Corleone (Leave the gun..take the cannoli)
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To: Houmatt

I don't normally talk this way, but the ACLU is a boil on the butt of humanity.


5 posted on 04/07/2005 8:38:57 AM PDT by kimmie7 (Now it's "don't get old in Florida." Soon it'll be "don't get old.")
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To: Houmatt

"It is time to put out the welcome mat to believers and non-believers alike at all public school functions across the state and the nation".

I don't care if non-believers feel welcome or not.


6 posted on 04/07/2005 8:39:03 AM PDT by One Proud Dad
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To: Houmatt
"Just where do you get guts like that? Can you buy them?"

Do you think Ebay might carry some guts so that we can purchase some for our pubs at the hill? :)
7 posted on 04/07/2005 8:41:07 AM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: Houmatt

Perhaps the school board should have those who pray at the events shot to death..that should satisfy the acluseless


8 posted on 04/07/2005 8:42:05 AM PDT by BerniesFriend
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To: Houmatt

'nuff said

9 posted on 04/07/2005 8:44:04 AM PDT by xcamel (Deep Red, stuck in a "bleu" state.)
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To: RepCath; Liz; IronJack; Grampa Dave; MeekOneGOP; Iris7; wkdaysoff; ApesForEvolution; EdReform; ...

Ping!


10 posted on 04/07/2005 8:45:16 AM PDT by Jay777 (My personal blog: www.stoptheaclu.blogspot.com)
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To: All
Stop The ACLU Protest this Weekend!
11 posted on 04/07/2005 8:46:52 AM PDT by Jay777 (My personal blog: www.stoptheaclu.blogspot.com)
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To: Houmatt
Solution go into recfievership and turn it over to the ACLU, then sue them for being anti semitic bigots and attach all local chapters.

Let them pay for what they have wrought.

12 posted on 04/07/2005 8:47:12 AM PDT by dts32041 (We have instituted our own set of Nuremberg laws.)
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To: All
You can join the fight against the ACLU and their ilk by becoming involved with and supporting the following organizations:

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) - http://www.alliancedefensefund.org

Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) - http://www.thomasmore.org

American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) - http://www.aclj.org

The Rutherford Institute - http://www.rutherford.org/

Stop the ACLU Coalition (GREATLY ORGANIZED ACTIVIST SITE..PLEASE JOIN) - http://www.stoptheaclu.org


Here are a few examples of how two of those organizations are fighting back:

ADF Contacts Over 3,600 School Districts Over Attempts To Censor Christmas

ADF: 700 lawyers ready to fight ACLU lawsuits

ADF: Pentagons' Warning About Boyscouts Is Absurd

Thomas More Law Center: Town of Palm Beach Pays $50,000 In Attorney Fees Apologizes To Women In Nativity Lawsuit


Additional information:

The ACLU must be destroyed: Joseph Farah supports Boy Scouts, urges Americans to fight back

Citizens mobilized to stop ACLU (seeks to consign group to 'ash heap of history')

ACLU fulfilling communist agenda

Revealing FACTS on the ACLU from its own writings

See how YOUR Senator or Representative ranks with the ACLU

This yahoo group just started on December 3, 2004 and is looking for new members

Anti-ACLU Page

The Center For Reclaiming America (petitions to congress)

The Becket Fund

Christian Legal Society

Pacific Justice Institute

Landmark Legal Foundation

American Family Assn. Center for Law and Policy

The Liberty Council

ACLU-Watch

ACLU (Know Thine Enemy)

My personal Anti-ACLU Blog


"I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control of those who produced the wealth: communism is the goal." - Roger Baldwin, ACLU founder, Harvard Reunion Book, 1935


"The establishment of an American Soviet government will involve the confiscation of large landed estates in town and country, and also, the whole body to forests, mineral deposits, lakes, rivers and so on." - William Z. Foster, ACLU co-founder and former chairman, Communist Party USA.


Let me know if you would like to join my ACLU ping list


13 posted on 04/07/2005 8:47:36 AM PDT by Jay777 (My personal blog: www.stoptheaclu.blogspot.com)
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To: Houmatt

"It is time to put out the welcome mat to believers and non-believers alike at all public school functions across the state and the nation. Public schools should be kept inclusive and secular in keeping with our Founders’ ideas for religious liberty for all."

Yes, the ACLU wants the welcome mat out for everyone... as long as you deny G_d when you come. You know, just leave Him at home, where He can't offend anyone. Whats next, keeping lions handy(or handcuffs and leg chains?) for when somebody dares mention Him in public?

This is their idea of religious liberty for all. The freedom FROM religion, not freedom OF religion. The communists work contunues apace.


14 posted on 04/07/2005 8:48:40 AM PDT by ex 98C MI Dude (Our legal system is in a PVS. Time to remove it from the public feeding trough.)
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To: Houmatt

That's not what was said. There are plenty of ways to attack the ACLU. You don't need to misquote them.


15 posted on 04/07/2005 8:49:11 AM PDT by Publius Valerius
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To: All
Join The Stop The ACLU Newsletter
16 posted on 04/07/2005 8:49:42 AM PDT by Jay777 (My personal blog: www.stoptheaclu.blogspot.com)
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To: Houmatt

I read that the ACLU likes to sue governmental bodies because, if it wins, the ACLU can collect all of its "claimed legal costs" from that government (i.e., the taxpayers of that government).

I wonder...

Does such recurring parasitic thuggery constitute a "RICO" crime?


17 posted on 04/07/2005 8:50:12 AM PDT by pfony1
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To: kimmie7

YOu can say that again.


18 posted on 04/07/2005 8:50:54 AM PDT by msp2004
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To: Houmatt
Uh huh. The prayers in question were not uttered by a school official. Unless the ACLU and the Federal Courts want to appoint overseers to prohibit any prayer, the fact of the matter is suppressing an American custom is as welcome as suppressing the sale of beer during Prohibition. And we all know how well THAT particular experiment worked. The ACLU liberals are fighting a losing battle.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
19 posted on 04/07/2005 8:51:32 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: kimmie7

bump!


20 posted on 04/07/2005 8:51:37 AM PDT by Jay777 (My personal blog: www.stoptheaclu.blogspot.com)
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