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.
Ping to self for later pingout.
“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,”
“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."
These same words could be used for what "Judge" Greer and the other federal "judges" did in Terri's case.
Unbelievable!
And the ACLU (Anti-Christian Litigation Union) has standing in this case because..........?
Considering the only thing happening is this parish's school board is allowing children to pray in school, I'd say for you to suggest I am misquoting them indicates you have no idea what you are talking about.
And the ACLU believes this so much, that they went and got a court order (i.e. government official) to tell these children how, when, where and to whom they should (or should not) pray.
There's no technically to it--he's misquoting someone--period.
And if that's the message--fine, attack the message. If it's so bad, one doesn't need to resort to strawmen to win the argument.
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?
We're not talking about students praying in school. We're talking about government employees using government resources to promote their religion.
As is your right. However, believers do not have the right to use government resources to advance their religion.
...for reading.
Looks to me like they just keep on winning. What I don't understand is why everyone bows down to them. They just bulldoze everyone, especially school boards. Until someone stands up to them, they'll just keep on. We certainly can't count on the courts to allow the free exercise of religion. Seems we can't count on the courts for much of anything lately.
Where is that in the Constitution? All I see is "...Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
Congress itself has a benediction at the opening of each session. The SCOTUS opens with "God save this court, and the United Sates of America!"
Praying in public is not 'advancing their religion'. Those who believe will continue to believe, those that don't, won't.
There is NO 'separation of Church and State" in the Constitution.
Where does this organization of moral criminals receive its financial support? What individuals and corporations contribute their money to this madness??
Wonder if the ACLJ knows about this latest invasion by the ACLU?
Well... there is only one answer, and that is to separate school and state. That way, all education will be privately-run. Then parents who want prayer in school can do so at their own facilities; parents who want a pro-gay marriage agenda can do so at theirs.
And the rest of us can just have our kids focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic. :-)
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