Tuesday, March 20, 2007

State religion


A bill floating around congress (it has passed the house and is waiting in the Senate) would change the way that attorney's fees are granted involving the Establishment clause of the first amendement. So in cases where a city chooses to flaunt the First Amendment by, say, putting a cross on a public park, this bill will make it harder for organizations to bring a lawsuit against them and it would make it possible only for deep pockets to access the courts. The hypocrisy of all this is WE DON'T TAX CHURCHES and they are the deep pockets that would benefit from this bill.
Supporters of the bill say that it removes financial incentives as motivation for filing First Amendment lawsuits. But currently it is the case that if an attorney wins an Establishment Clause case asking a city government to remove a religious idol, the city may be required to pay for the removal and the legal fees for both sides of the case.

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