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MANGER WARS --ACLU lawsuits helped create the Christian Right
New York Post ^ | December 23, 2004 | COLLIN LEVEY

Posted on 12/23/2004 6:33:50 AM PST by OESY

Suing the jingle bells off everyone this side of the North Pole has tradition ally been the ACLU's favorite form of seasonal joy....

The civil-liberties group hasn't lost its passion for secularism, but this year's litigation news is being made by a different group of plaintiffs....

An ACLU legal bulletin claims that Supreme Court doctrine on the Establishment Clause forbids not only state practices that "aid one religion . . . or prefer one religion over another," but also those practices that "aid all religions" and thus endorse or prefer religion over nonreligion."

That dubious reading has found some support in the wilder reaches of the federal court system. The left coast's Ninth Circuit, for instance, famously tried to ban the words "under God"....

The problem isn't just the ACLU's oddball principles: Its enforcement regime is selective and agenda-oriented....

Now the Supreme Court is getting ready to hear two cases on public posting of the Ten Commandments. Last year, it let stand an appeals court ruling barring Alabama judge Roy Moore from displaying the Ten Commandments....

Here, as elsewhere, the issue is context. Since the '70s, jurisprudence has focused on what Justice O'Conner called the "objective observer" test. Would a reasonable human being consider a display tantamount to a government endorsement of religion?....

This silliness, unreason and growing religious distrust is the natural product of the ACLU's extremist view of religious expression (however good the polarizing cases may be for the group's fund-raising).

Presumably there's a serious rethinking going on in Democratic and Hollywood circles after last month's presidential election. Let's hope the ACLU's donors and underwriters ask themselves if sticking a thumb in the eye of mainstream Americans over religious symbolism is really the way to advance the more serious civil-liberties causes that the group still occasionally represents.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: New York; US: North Carolina; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: aclu; christian; christianright; christmas; democratic; establishmentclause; hollywood; johnothonmorgan; jonathanmorgan; jonathonmorgan; jonothonmorgan; koran; lawsuits; ninthcircuit; origins; religion; tencommandments; values; vanorden

1 posted on 12/23/2004 6:33:51 AM PST by OESY
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To: OESY
Presumably there's a serious rethinking going on in Democratic and Hollywood circles after last month's presidential election

LOL! I don' thin' so, Lucy.

2 posted on 12/23/2004 6:35:49 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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To: OESY

bump


3 posted on 12/23/2004 6:37:09 AM PST by Teacher317
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To: OESY

If I were an ACLU legal subversive, I'd be remembering (nervously) some incidents that occurred wrt abortion clinics and abortionists.


4 posted on 12/23/2004 6:39:16 AM PST by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: ClearCase_guy

Anti-Christian loathing is their core belief and fund-raising tool. You don't think the Anti-Christian License Union would ever give up without a fight, did you now? The reassuring thing about the Left is it won't change. I'd have the beejesus scared out of me if ever did. 'Nuff said.


5 posted on 12/23/2004 6:47:32 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: OESY

That transmission belt for the Soviet Communists has NEVER
been a patriotic American organization concerned with
rights for anybody but the godless communists, or their dupes. The Anti-Christian Liars Union ( ACLU) did not
create the Christian right.This godawful group of America
Haters merely gave the Christians an opportunity to expose
the unAmerican activities and intents of the ACLU.We will
Prevail either in the corrupted Courts--or in the Court of
public opinion -but we will prevail-if we stand firm.


6 posted on 12/23/2004 7:33:20 AM PST by StonyBurk
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To: OESY

On Dec.22 a dupe named Howard B.Walitt wrote to the
Grand Jct. (Deadly Senile) Daily Sentinal ". . . Based on our Constitution ,we are a secular nation--a State without a State religion--compose dof citzens with many religious beliefs or non-beliefs,and varying degrees of religous zeal.
Government and its' representatives hav eno role in
religion or its promulgation." Bulk of his letter was a
protest of those who want to see Christmas displays on Govt. property. Have written the Sentinal--but they have not
published any letter by me for over a year. (we have a different philosophy.I mentioned Joseph Story, and I mentioned the 1995 US supreme Court decision Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Piretti,1995 ; county Alleghenny v. ACLU,1989 ; and Lynch v. Donelly ,1984--plus the 10th Circuit Wells v. City and County of Denver,2001
But doubt I will be published. Perhaps some Freepr could
send a note to the Sentinal.


7 posted on 12/23/2004 1:35:34 PM PST by StonyBurk
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