AMERICAN LEGION , GROWING CITIZENS MOVEMENT, …



Guest Editorial

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American Legion, Growing Citizens Movement Supports Bill to Close ACLU Loophole

By _______________________

All across the nation, more and more Americans are rising up in a grass roots movement in support of the Veterans’ Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expressions of Religion Protection Act of 2007 (PERA), H.R. 725 in the House of Representatives and S. 415 in the U.S. Senate.

This includes many American Legion members and other citizens here in ___________________________________.

PERA would amend the Civil Rights Attorney Fees Act, 42 U.S. Code Section 1988, to withdraw the authority of judges to award attorney fees or damages, to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), or anyone else, in lawsuits brought under the Establishment of Religion Clause of the First Amendment.

The ACLU, generally unknown to the public, seeks and receives millions of dollars annually in taxpayer-paid attorney fee awards ordered by judges in ACLU Establishment Clause lawsuits to ban the Boy Scouts, ban the public display of the Ten Commandments or other symbols of America’s religious heritage, ban religious symbols at veterans memorials as in the precedent-setting Mojave Desert WWI Veterans Memorial Case in California, ban the Pledge of Allegiance, ban even Christmas Holidays in schools.

PERA would apply only to Establishment Clause lawsuits, and no other civil rights claims.

The American Legion at its National Conventions 2004 and 2006 adopted Resolution 326,“Eliminate Damages and Attorney Fees in Establishment Clause Lawsuits.” It calls on Congress to amend the Civil Rights Act to eliminate the authority of judges to award attorney fees to the ACLU, or any one following its precedents, including Islamist terrorists in our midst, in Establishment Clause lawsuits. PERA does exactly that.

__________________________, Commander [or other title] of American Legion Post ____, here in ______________________, said, “We veterans in the American Legion are for this legislation and 100% against our tax money being given to the ACLU by judges to attack the Boy Scouts, veterans memorials, and American values generally. If the ACLU feels it has to bring these lawsuits that most Americans abhor, it should at least have the decency not to stick it to the taxpayers to make a profit. We are calling on our representatives in House and Senate to sponsor or support H.R. 725 and S. 415, or to explain why they will not.”

Court-ordered attorney fees to the ACLU at taxpayer-expense have had a “chilling effect” on cities, counties, schools, and other local elected bodies, many of which have surrendered to ACLU’s demands rather than risk court-ordered attorney fees to the ACLU in litigation.

There is good reason to fear those awards. Judges routinely grant ACLU attorney fees at the rate of $350 an hour, even though the ACLU has no actual attorney fees, as staff or volunteer attorneys handle its lawsuits. The awards are staggering for local government bodies. For but a few examples:

*The ACLU received some $940,000 in attorney fees when San Diego settled ACLU’s lawsuit to drive the Boy Scouts out of Balboa Park.

*ACLU received some $500,000 in the famous Judge Roy Moore Ten Commandments Case in Alabama.

*ACLU received some $108,000 to stop Boy Scouts from recruiting in Portland schools (the plaintiff atheist was offended; the schools surrendered for fear of more fees.)

*ACLU received some $90,000 from Chicago Schools in a suit banning the Boy Scouts from the schools. (Boy Scouts are banned.)

*ACLU is seeking more thousands from the Department of Defense in the Chicago case, where it has sued to drive the Boy Scouts from military bases and to stop Department of Defense assistance to the Boy Scout Jamboree. (A judge has held that the Jamboree violates the Establishment of Religion Clause. It is under appeal.)

*ACLU has received some $63,000, so far, in its unprecedented lawsuit to destroy the religious symbol at the remote Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial, a solitary Christian Cross originally erected by veterans in 1934 on what was then private land, incorporated in the Mojave Desert Preserve in 1999 by former President Clinton, leading to an ACLU Establishment Clause lawsuit.

The American Legion considers that case an example of ACLU’s fanatical litigation, and a very dangerous precedent.

There is nothing in the law to prevent the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial precedent from being used by the ACLU, to sue to destroy the religious symbols on the graves of veterans at our twenty-two National Cemeteries, or the 9,000 Crosses and Stars of David at Normandy Beach, or other veterans memorials, and then to seek and receive taxpayer-paid attorney fees for that desecration from like-minded judges.

This is a very real threat that will be prevented only if this legislation passes. PERA would eliminate the authority of judges to give, and the ACLU or anyone else to receive, taxpayer-paid attorney fees.

“We must prevent this ongoing abuse,” said Post ___ Commander ________ . “The American Legion is committed to fight for PERA and against the exploitation of the law by the ACLU or anyone else, for as long as it takes, in order to protect the Boy Scouts, our veterans memorials, the taxpayers, and our American values. I invite all citizens to join us in fixing this travesty.”

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