Posted on 04/05/2005 2:54:35 PM PDT by Ellesu
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A pre-game prayer before a high-school baseball game last month violated a court order against official prayer at Tangipahoa Parish public schools' athletic events, the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday.
The ACLU asked U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan to hold the parish school board in contempt because someone said a prayer over the public address system March 24, before Loranger High played Sumner High. "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 ACLU said in a news release.
The board referred calls to attorney Chris Moody, who could not be immediately reached. The ACLU's earlier contempt contention, filed March 23, said the board let an elementary school student recite the Lord's Prayer in a program before the March 15 meeting, as part of a program led by a teacher's aide. "Children and parents whose beliefs are different from the majority must not be made to feel like outsiders in their own schools," said Joe Cook, executive director of ACLU of Louisiana.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
I HATE THE ACLU....we need a second....American Christian Liberties Assoc.
the rest of the article:
He said the board acknowledged the prayer by Shane Tycer at the baseball game "and offered a lame explanation" that he took the microphone when the regular announcer was late. No school officials tried to stop him, nor has the board or superintendent repudiated the prayer, Cook said.
He said board members should be fined or go to jail "for their calculated un-American and immoral conduct to embarrass, hinder or obstruct the court in the administration of justice." The contempt motion was the latest development in a years-long legal battle over prayer at school functions in Tangipahoa, which is on the north side of Lake Ponchartrain across from New Orleans. The lawsuit, filed by a parent identified as John Doe on behalf of his children James and Jack Doe, originally included objections to prayers at Loranger High School football games.
That portion of the lawsuit was settled last year with an agreement that prayers would be dropped at games and other school events. Unsettled until recently was a challenge to public prayer at school board meetings. Berrigan ruled in February that school boards, unlike most government bodies, cannot hold public prayers.
Berrigan noted that school-sponsored prayers in classes or at other school functions have long been prohibited by federal courts as a violation of First Amendment guarantees against government-established religion. And, she said, school boards should come under the same stricture because they are integral parts of school systems: They set policy and oversee operations and sometimes involve students in board meetings.
Berrigan's ruling was lambasted by Gov. Kathleen Blanco among others and is being appealed.
Just as in the civil rights days of the late 50's and early 60's, there comes a time when nonviolent civil disobedience is warranted. These folks should be backed by action from the executive and legislative branches, but I'm not holding my breath.
Fine, hold them in contempt, and fine them $1.00 each time they say a prayer before a game.
I think all schools should show contempt for the ACLU.
U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan
There is a conflict of interest here.
This sounds like a PRIVATE school playing games against PUBLIC schools.
If the school is private, they can do anything they want.
Counties in Louisiana are parishes. Napoleonic Code, French tradition and all that sort of thing.
Isn't an act of Free Speech by a student allowed? Or will we get the ACLU to sue the school board for infringing on the student's freedom of speech rights when they prohibit unsponsored religious expression?
I bet this BS would not be happening if it were a Muslim uttering a prayer that Allah kill all of the infidels in attendance at the game.
Try the ACLJ American Center For Law and Justice ....
And Donate to them!!!
A 'parish' is what they call a county in Louisiana as state law there is based on the Napoleonic Code as opposed to English Common Law.
take a look at the ACLJ and the ADF
Why is it they bring lawsuit after lawsuit and most get dismissed as frivilous, but then when they finally get a sypathetic judge, that one ruling is important but not the 10-20 other rulings that the case lacked any merit?
Reminds me of the federal law prohibiting posession of a weapon(firearm) within 1000' of a public school, ruled unconstitutional because it denied local residents the right to keep and bear arms (residents that lived or drove within 1000' of a school is just about anyone..) so they changed a couple words and passed new legislation that does exactly the same thing so someone has to now spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars and years to get through the system to prove the same law is still unconstitutional. In the mean time they are intentionally enforcing a law that is blatantly unconstitutional.
The term "parish" is used in Louisiana instead of county. The practice comes from Louisiana's early history when the area was by law exclusively Roman Catholic and the government unit coincided with ecclesiastical districts.
THE ACLU - fascist tyrant - IS *ASKING* A FEDERAL JUDGE TO PUNISH SCHOOL OFFICIALS !?! Just like communist Soviet Russia, ain't it? "un-American and immoral" !!??!! The ACLU is really asking for it, and it should not be nice.
"Prayer Punishment"
"The ACLU (search) has asked a federal judge to punish school officials for allowing a pre-game prayer at a high school baseball game. Louisiana's ACLU director called the brief prayer for player safety "un-American and immoral" and says that school board members should be fined or jailed for failing to stop it."
"Last month a Louisiana judge ruled against the same school board for letting an elementary school student recite the Lord's Prayer before a meeting. That ruling has been denounced by Louisiana's Democratic Governor, Kathleen Blanco (search) and is being appealed."
FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this [excerpt]
report
Someone needs to remind the ACLU of 2 things: the 1st Amendment's existence, and the fact that this is NOT a Communist country, no matter how much they wish it was.
"Someone needs to remind the ACLU of 2 things: the 1st Amendment's existence, and the fact that this is NOT a Communist country, no matter how much they wish it was."
Hey, ACLU knows about the First Amendment - they know how to invert its meaning and use it to their single purpose. The ACLU's single purpose is dedicated to DECONSTRUCT this Republic and reconstruct it into a communist dictatorship. I assure you the Biblical Commandment the ACLU would first suppress to complete obscurity is "Thou shall not bear false witness." A contemplative moral conscience is communism's worse enemy. Haven't you notice mantras, slogans and ad hominem slurs from "liberals" are eerily identical in groupthink? - so *COLLECTIVE in *SOLIDARITY*? False attribution and defamation is the main communist tool, and their defensive tactic is to lie, dismiss and deny, and accuse. I mean, aren't our "liberal" academics calling conservatives fascists. YET their behaviors and rhetoric betray that they are fanatical ideological fascists.
Americans must read, in order to defend themselves against nefarious tactics. TO understand exactly what communists teach and how their indoctrinate, read the Soviet textbook (it's online) on Psychopolitics and Mao's Red Book. Knowing your enemy's strategy is the only way to defeat your enemy.
If your enemy fights with fire, don't collect wood unless you intend to fight fire with fire.
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