Posted on 12/09/2004 5:10:09 AM PST by Jay777
Petition: Get ACLU off taxpayer dole Legal group awarded 1/2 million tax dollars for ridding courthouse of 10 Commandments
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 ...
Taxpayers pay for them to go to court?
Talk about adding INSULT to INJURY!
Signed at 8:15am.
Get the damned liberal-demokkkRAT-socialist-commie-nazi-fascist-hate-America ACLU filth out of my country! And let's begin to reverse the damage they've done for the past 45 years.
TAKE ACTION
SIGN THE PETITION!
This should be an important Priority for all Freepers!
This paying the ACLU should STOP, NOW !!!
Call and write everyone about it !!
Your TAX dollars are being used against YOU !!
There are many organizations that are fighting the ACLU. I think they need to be advertised better. They need exposure and contributions. I don't think enough people have heard of them. Some churches just might take up an offering for the cause of defending it's principles if they only knew their was a way to fight. Here are some of the organizations fighting it.
American Center for Law & Justice
Alliance Defense Fund
The Rutherford Institute
Liberty Counsel
The Becket Fund
Christian Legal Society
Thomas More Law Center
Pacific Justice Institute
Landmark Legal Foundation
American Family Assn. Center for Law & Policy
Signed. BTTT.
In 1976, Congress passed the Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act, which was designed to encourage private lawyers to take on suits to protect civil and constitutional rights. The law provides that judges can order federal and state governments to pay legal fees to private lawyers who sued the government and won. The result has been a flood of civil rights cases in federal court. From The New American Feb. 2, 1987
It's an outrage that US law, passed during the Watergate era, allows the ACLU to collect attorney's fees for makework----Christian-hatng lawsuits it itself launches.
That means "values voters" have been footing the bill for the ACLU's launching a juggernaut to remove Ten Commandments images, Christmas creches and Christmas carols, taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and because they claim they have a civil right not to see the Ten Commandments, a civil right not to hear the word “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, not to see a creche of the Baby Jesus, not to hear Christmas carols. The ACLU has collected a huge amount of our tax dollars in this left-handed fundraiser for the ACLU.
FReepers can silence the ACLU with a bit of activism. We need to insist our Congressmen repeal this abusive law that allows the ACLU to get rich on harassing Christian America. Congress must repeal laws enabling the ACLU's Christian-hating activities. Cut off the ACLU's funds and watch them disappear. Here's what we can do.
The IRS should determine whether the ACLU is properly accounting for all its tax-funded activities, whether it is inflating legal costs, and whether it is using tax dollars for the purposes stated. We need to know whether the ACLU is engaged in Enron-style accounting and spending practices.
REFERENCE SOURCE FOR ARGUING REPEAL TO CONGRESS
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.
Good question. I can't think of a reason why judges shouldn't be elected. Remember, senators used to be appointed also... I think you're right, if the judges were held in check by the people they would stop interpreting the law and start enforcing it.
This is an utter abomination. It's one thing to have to tolerate these fifth columnists. It's quite another to reward them for destroying our country. Contact your congressfolks as soon as possible and demand that this absurdity be stopped at once!
this needs to be done very urgently! Won't stop ACLU, but at least it will slow them down as they will have to start making decisions on where and how to spend limited resources. At least they will no longer have carte blanche to sue every school board and village council over creche scenes.
Why stop there?
Why not cut off the ACLU entirely?
How about getting the (shudder) IRS to review their tax status?
This was not a civil rights case so the law shouldn't even apply in the first place.
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 - 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
It's okay to say Merry Christmas:
If you attack a poor church organization (that is operating in God's way with God's power) you can't stop them. (Wonder when the ChiComs are going to figure this out.)
ACLU = Spawn of Satan.
I do support the Pacific Legal Foundation and the ACLJ.
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