Bill undermines separation of church and state

[IDemo]

Legislating Violations of the Constitution

By Erwin Chemerinsky
Special to washingtonpost.com
Saturday, September 30, 2006; 12:00 AM

With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion.

A federal statute, 42 United States Code section 1988, provides that attorneys are entitled to recover compensation for their fees if they successfully represent a plaintiff asserting a violation of his or her constitutional or civil rights. For example, a lawyer who successfully sues on behalf of a victim of racial discrimination or police abuse is entitled to recover attorney's fees from the defendant who acted wrongfully. Any plaintiff who successfully sues to remedy a violation of the Constitution or a federal civil rights statute is entitled to have his or her attorney's fees paid.

Congress adopted this statute for a simple reason: to encourage attorneys to bring cases on behalf of those whose rights have been violated. Congress was concerned that such individuals often cannot afford an attorney and vindicating constitutional rights rarely generates enough in damages to pay a lawyer on a contingency fee basis.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901055.html

[salvorhardin]

1. When I wrote about this on the 12th

I had people tell me they weren't going to contact their Reps. on this because it would never pass. Arggh!
http://www.neuralgourmet.com/2006/09/12/help_defeat_the_public_expression_of_religion_act

It's time to start writing and calling your Senators now.

Here's the Democrats who voted FOR it (all 26 of them).
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll480.xml

Barrow
Berry
Boren
Boyd
Cardoza
Costa
Cramer
Cuellar
Davis (TN)
Gordon
Herseth
Hinojosa
Lipinski
Marshall
Matheson
McIntyre
Melancon
Ortiz
Peterson (MN)
Rahall
Ross
Salazar
Scott (GA)
Skelton
Spratt
Taylor (MS)

[neebob]

2. Damn, there's Salazar again.

I got a rock!

[CrispyQ]

9. Yep. The ole' Salazar Bros end up on the most undesireable lists!

:grr:

[and-justice-for-all]

17. I asked Evan Bayh to Oppose it..

[Pushed To The Left]

3. I really hope we take back the House

The House seems to be the hardcore right wing half of Congress these days.

[NMMNG]

Theocracy marches on

Beautiful. :sarcasm:

[salvorhardin]

7. I'm slightly more hopeful

That it'll be thrown out or voted down in the Senate. But it never hurts to call and write.

[NMMNG]

8. I already wrote my Rep and Senators

I noticed that my Rep didn't vote on it, and I honestly don't see my Senators doing so (they have a good record of not voting on theocratic BS). However I'll write them again to be safe.

[lonestarnot]

4. Direct, ready aim fire at the ACLU.

[enlightenment]

18. "Pour. Spit. Tap."

(to borrow from Richard Cornwell)

If they can fire two shots a minute, we need to be able to fire three -- just remember to keep the barrel tilted up a bit, so the ball doesn't roll out before you fire . . .

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Time to donate to the ACLU and Americans United for Sep. of Church & State

Again.

http://au.org
http://aclu.org

[salvorhardin]

6. Yes, Americans United are great people

As are Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker over at the Freedom From Religion Foundation
http://ffrf.org

And Paul Kurtz and the gang over at the Council For Secular Humanism
http://www.secularhumanism.org

[Dem2theMax]

10. Keep this thread kicked for the day crew.

:kick:

[indepat]

11. The assault on the Constitution continues full-bore: these rascals hate

our Republic and tens of millions of Americans apparently support this assault, i.e., unbefu*kingly unbelievable.

[newyawker99]

12. xx

[salvorhardin]

13. Kick

They can't actively mess with the Bill of Rights, so they're trying to do an end-run around it. Call and write your Senators, as well as your local op-ed. Separation of church and state protects everybody's rights.

[progressoid]

14. Yep - just making it difficult to actually fight for those goofy rights

I too am hopeful this will die in the Senate but I have a bit of uneasiness about it too.

[salvorhardin]

15. Here's the Senate version of the Public Expression of Religion Act

S.3696
Title: A bill to amend the Revised Statutes of the United States to prevent the use of the legal system in a manner that extorts money from State and local governments, and the Federal Government, and inhibits such governments' constitutional actions under the first, tenth, and fourteenth amendments.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.03696:

[AzDar]

16. Kick... n/t

:kick: