Legislators fight to secure role of God in state's security
http://www.courier-journal.com/arti...ght+to+secure+role+of+God+in+state+s+security
A legal battle over once-obscure Kentucky laws that proclaim the commonwealth's “reliance upon Almighty God” for its safety and security is drawing in many of Kentucky's top political figures, as well as a controversial former Alabama chief justice.
Almost all the state’s legislators, including Republican Senate President David Williams, Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo and the entire leadership of both houses of the General Assembly, have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in favor of the laws, which require the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge dependence on God for the state's safety.
A 2009 Franklin Circuit Court ruled that the laws violate bans on government-established religion in the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions.
The case is now pending before the Kentucky Court of Appeals after the office of Attorney General Jack Conway, a Democrat, appealed that ruling.
In one brief filed in the case, 96 of the state's 100 state representatives assert, among other arguments, that the laws are in keeping with historic U.S. Supreme Court cases declaring America to be a "Christian nation."
A second brief was filed by 35 of the 38 state senators, whose lawyers include former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore — who was removed from office in 2003 for defying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from his state's judicial building.
That brief argues for ignoring decades' of U.S. Supreme Court case law setting up criteria for weighing church-state relations. Instead, it urges the appeals court to interpret the First Amendment's ban on congressional "establishment of religion" narrowly — as prohibiting only an official national church.
"Not everything that may be termed ‘religious’ meets the definition of 'religion,' " says the senators' brief, co-authored by Moore and Crestwood attorney Ronald Ray. "A distinction must be made between the existence of a religion as an institution and a belief in the sovereignty of God."
But Edwin Kagin, the lawyer representing nine Kentucky residents who sued to have the laws overturned, said these briefs serve to prove the lawmakers "wish to unconstitutionally … create an establishment of religion in Kentucky."
"Just what part … of 'no' don't they … understand when the First Amendment to that Constitution states, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,’ " added Kagin, the national legal director of American Atheists Inc.. He called the laws part of an attempt to create a "theocracy."
The case centers on laws passed in 2002 and 2006, in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
* A 2002 "legislative finding" — added to emergency-management laws — says the "safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."
In 2006, lawmakers created an Office of Homeland Security to respond to terrorist threats and national disasters. It requires its executive director to publicize "dependence on Almighty God" in agency training and educational materials and through a permanent plaque at the entrance to its emergency operations center. That measure was sponsored by Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville.
While the office has complied in some annual reports and other publications, the laws initially drew no widespread attention. But after a story about it in The Lexington Herald-Leader in 2008, 10 Kentucky residents (one of whom has since died) and sued.
Conway's office argued that America's founders never intended an absolute bar to government religious expression and that the Homeland Security laws echoed such things as the national motto, "In God We Trust."
But Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate ruled in 2009 that the Homeland Security provisions went far beyond such references. "Effectively, the General Assembly has created an official government position on God," he wrote.
In its appeal, Conway's office reasserted its original arguments and added that nobody "is forcing the appellees to believe that God is responsible for the protection of the commonwealth."
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear supports the appeal, his office said in a statement. The plaque remains on display at the emergency operations center during the appeal, it added.
In their brief, 96 state representatives, represented by attorney Jack Richardson IV of Louisville, argued that the 2002 proclamation of dependence on God amounted to a resolution, not a statute, and isn't subject to court review.
"Nor should the court … have jumped to the conclusion that the Kentucky General Assembly's aim … was to embrace the religious message of the plaque," their brief said.
The brief also cited four U.S. Supreme Court cases filed between 1844 and 1931. It said these cases affirm "the United States is in law, fact, and history … a 'Christian Nation' since the foundation of our laws (is) upon principles of the Ten Commandments and the Old and New Testaments."
Kagin argued, however, that the Supreme Court itself has never let such cases stop it from curtailing state-sponsored religious expression.
Rep. Jim Wayne, a Louisville Democrat and one of only seven legislators who refused to join in briefs defending the laws, said he found them offensive both on governmental and religious grounds.
"We really do not depend on God for our physical security," said Wayne, a Catholic. "We really continue to believe we can master that on our own with arms and spending about 50 cents of every tax dollar to the federal government to build up the American military-industrial complex. That to me is a bit of idolatry right there."
Stumbo's office declined to comment. Williams did not return a call seeking comment.
Riner said he initiated legislators' efforts to file the briefs because he believed the attorney general's office lacked the time to provide as thorough a defense of the laws as Moore and other attorneys involved.
Riner said funds for the senators' and representatives' lawyers are being raised privately, and the Legislative Research Commission confirmed that none of the assembly's funds are going toward them. Conway's staff is representing the state.
The fact that so many legislators signed on shows "consensus” that “we do trust in God in good times as well as in perilous times," said Riner, pastor of Christ is King Baptist Church in Louisville.
In addition to Wayne, the only legislators whose names do not appear on the briefs are Sens. Perry Clark and Gerald Neal of Louisville and Kathy Stein of Lexington and Reps. Joni Jenkins and Mary Lou Marzian of Louisville and Kelly Flood of Lexington. All are Democrats.
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America was founded by white european and british christians but not as an official christian nation.
However in light of the clash of civilizations displayed by Islam on 9/11 a little religious pride on our side here as to our principles and who we are is not nessesarily a bad thing.
http://www.courier-journal.com/arti...ght+to+secure+role+of+God+in+state+s+security
A legal battle over once-obscure Kentucky laws that proclaim the commonwealth's “reliance upon Almighty God” for its safety and security is drawing in many of Kentucky's top political figures, as well as a controversial former Alabama chief justice.
Almost all the state’s legislators, including Republican Senate President David Williams, Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo and the entire leadership of both houses of the General Assembly, have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in favor of the laws, which require the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge dependence on God for the state's safety.
A 2009 Franklin Circuit Court ruled that the laws violate bans on government-established religion in the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions.
The case is now pending before the Kentucky Court of Appeals after the office of Attorney General Jack Conway, a Democrat, appealed that ruling.
In one brief filed in the case, 96 of the state's 100 state representatives assert, among other arguments, that the laws are in keeping with historic U.S. Supreme Court cases declaring America to be a "Christian nation."
A second brief was filed by 35 of the 38 state senators, whose lawyers include former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore — who was removed from office in 2003 for defying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from his state's judicial building.
That brief argues for ignoring decades' of U.S. Supreme Court case law setting up criteria for weighing church-state relations. Instead, it urges the appeals court to interpret the First Amendment's ban on congressional "establishment of religion" narrowly — as prohibiting only an official national church.
"Not everything that may be termed ‘religious’ meets the definition of 'religion,' " says the senators' brief, co-authored by Moore and Crestwood attorney Ronald Ray. "A distinction must be made between the existence of a religion as an institution and a belief in the sovereignty of God."
But Edwin Kagin, the lawyer representing nine Kentucky residents who sued to have the laws overturned, said these briefs serve to prove the lawmakers "wish to unconstitutionally … create an establishment of religion in Kentucky."
"Just what part … of 'no' don't they … understand when the First Amendment to that Constitution states, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,’ " added Kagin, the national legal director of American Atheists Inc.. He called the laws part of an attempt to create a "theocracy."
The case centers on laws passed in 2002 and 2006, in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
* A 2002 "legislative finding" — added to emergency-management laws — says the "safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."
In 2006, lawmakers created an Office of Homeland Security to respond to terrorist threats and national disasters. It requires its executive director to publicize "dependence on Almighty God" in agency training and educational materials and through a permanent plaque at the entrance to its emergency operations center. That measure was sponsored by Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville.
While the office has complied in some annual reports and other publications, the laws initially drew no widespread attention. But after a story about it in The Lexington Herald-Leader in 2008, 10 Kentucky residents (one of whom has since died) and sued.
Conway's office argued that America's founders never intended an absolute bar to government religious expression and that the Homeland Security laws echoed such things as the national motto, "In God We Trust."
But Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate ruled in 2009 that the Homeland Security provisions went far beyond such references. "Effectively, the General Assembly has created an official government position on God," he wrote.
In its appeal, Conway's office reasserted its original arguments and added that nobody "is forcing the appellees to believe that God is responsible for the protection of the commonwealth."
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear supports the appeal, his office said in a statement. The plaque remains on display at the emergency operations center during the appeal, it added.
In their brief, 96 state representatives, represented by attorney Jack Richardson IV of Louisville, argued that the 2002 proclamation of dependence on God amounted to a resolution, not a statute, and isn't subject to court review.
"Nor should the court … have jumped to the conclusion that the Kentucky General Assembly's aim … was to embrace the religious message of the plaque," their brief said.
The brief also cited four U.S. Supreme Court cases filed between 1844 and 1931. It said these cases affirm "the United States is in law, fact, and history … a 'Christian Nation' since the foundation of our laws (is) upon principles of the Ten Commandments and the Old and New Testaments."
Kagin argued, however, that the Supreme Court itself has never let such cases stop it from curtailing state-sponsored religious expression.
Rep. Jim Wayne, a Louisville Democrat and one of only seven legislators who refused to join in briefs defending the laws, said he found them offensive both on governmental and religious grounds.
"We really do not depend on God for our physical security," said Wayne, a Catholic. "We really continue to believe we can master that on our own with arms and spending about 50 cents of every tax dollar to the federal government to build up the American military-industrial complex. That to me is a bit of idolatry right there."
Stumbo's office declined to comment. Williams did not return a call seeking comment.
Riner said he initiated legislators' efforts to file the briefs because he believed the attorney general's office lacked the time to provide as thorough a defense of the laws as Moore and other attorneys involved.
Riner said funds for the senators' and representatives' lawyers are being raised privately, and the Legislative Research Commission confirmed that none of the assembly's funds are going toward them. Conway's staff is representing the state.
The fact that so many legislators signed on shows "consensus” that “we do trust in God in good times as well as in perilous times," said Riner, pastor of Christ is King Baptist Church in Louisville.
In addition to Wayne, the only legislators whose names do not appear on the briefs are Sens. Perry Clark and Gerald Neal of Louisville and Kathy Stein of Lexington and Reps. Joni Jenkins and Mary Lou Marzian of Louisville and Kelly Flood of Lexington. All are Democrats.
________________________________________________________________
America was founded by white european and british christians but not as an official christian nation.
However in light of the clash of civilizations displayed by Islam on 9/11 a little religious pride on our side here as to our principles and who we are is not nessesarily a bad thing.
