Legislation now in the House would ban legal fees being awarded to groups that sue Christians for publicly acknowledging God.
Congress is considering banning the legal fees awarded to groups that sue Christians who express their faith in public.
American Legion Commander Rees Lloyd told a congressional hearing this week that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has taken religious-establishment litigation to a new and absurd level. He was involved in a suit against a 72-year-old veteran's memorial in the Mojave Desert.
"It's eleven miles off the highway. It's in the middle of the desert," he said. "You have to drive to it to be offended by it. A judge says, 'Tear it down,' and gave the ACLU sixty-three thousand dollars."
The Public Expression of Religion Act, currently being discussed in the House, would ban such awards, and could stop much of the litigation. The bill still needs a sponsor in the Senate.
"We're told that the ACLU and others," Lloyd said, "will not fight battles for what they believe to be the civil rights under the Establishment Clause unless they are enriched at taxpayer expense."
Liberal groups not only see religious-expression suits as cash cows, they use them as a bludgeon to discourage challenges, according to Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.
"They say, 'We're going to sue you individually, your kids won't go to college, you won't have any money for retirement,' and the people cave in," he said.
Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, told Family News in Focus that adding to the lure for anti-Christian groups is that religious-freedom cases have a much lower standard to meet before a suit can be brought.
"In most lower federal courts," he noted, "a plaintiff can bring a challenge to the Establishment Clause simply because the litigant claims he or she is offended by the imagery, the words or the alleged action."
TAKE ACTION
Please urge your congressman to support the Public Expression of Religious Act, and ask your U.S. senators to consider sponsoring the legislation. You'll find contact information, including an easy-to-use e-mail form, in the CitizenLink Action Center. (NOTE: When promoted to suggest a subject for your e-mail, please select "Other.")
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