House of Representatives passes bill dealing blow to Estblishment Clause

defending the First Amendment against the Christian right ...

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House of Representatives passes bill dealing blow to Establishment Clause

"Public Expression of Religion Act" denying attorney fees a pre-election gift to religious right "base"

Earlier reports on the PERA, H.R. 2679, are in the section on "Court-stripping and Legislating Against the First Amendment" (Click here) The earliest reports are below on this page. (Click here)

Background. (October 1, 2006) On September 26, 2006 House Republicans passed a measure that would deny attorney fees to plaintiffs who successfully sued a government for violations of church-state separation. While the legislation, H.R. 2679, is unlikely to survive the Senate or the end of the current session, its passage dismayed Jewish organizations and supporters of the First Amendment.

In an email sent September 28th, religious right leader Gary Bauer wrote about the bill. It is chilling that he made no reference to the First Amendment's "establishment clause," the violation of which would generate the cases he cites as examples. It is also false that the legal fees in such cases serve as "incentives."

When the ACLU sues a county or school district over prayers at football games or displays of the Ten Commandments or nativity scenes, your tax dollars are used to pay for the state’s defense against the ACLU. To add insult to injury, if the government loses, the ACLU is allowed to collect large legal fees from the losing government entity. So taxpayers get hit twice – once for the cost of defending against the suit, and again to pay the ACLU lawyers who filed the suit! These lawsuits against religious expression have turned into a form of legal liberal extortion, as many local officials simply cave at the mere threat of a lawsuit, knowing that the courts are increasingly hostile to public expressions of faith and that tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars are on the line.
Tuesday, the House of Representatives took action to remove the chilling effect of litigation by passing the Public Expression of Religion Act, which eliminates the “loser pays” rule in religious expression cases that has become such a financial incentive for liberal lawsuits. The ACLU can still sue all it wants, but it would have to pay its own costs. Twenty-six Democrats joined 218 Republicans in supporting this bill to stop taxpayer funding of the ACLU.

Bill To Limit Church-State Cases Passes House

‘Very damaging impact’ on Establishment Clause litigation, say Jewish groups.

James D. Besser, The Jewish Week (New York), September 29, 2006

To church-state separation groups, including several top Jewish organizations, it may be the worst piece of legislation to emerge from the House in decades.

On Tuesday, the House passed legislation that would bar the awarding of attorneys’ fees and expenses to plaintiffs who win lawsuits under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Continue.

House OKs Bill on Religious Expression

By Jim Abrams, The Washington Post, September 26, 2006

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans, carrying out their election-year values agenda, on Tuesday pushed through legislation cutting off financial awards for lawsuits successfully filed against expressions of religion such as Christmas displays on government grounds. Continue.

House Votes to Limit Church-State Awards

by Chansin Bird, Religion News Service via Beliefnet.com, September 27, 2006

This report has comment from bill supporter Concerned Women of America and a number of opponents, including Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, who expressed concern that this measure could prompt a "full-scale assault on fundamental freedoms." Click here.

Legislating Violations of the Constitution

Opinion Article by Erwin Chemerinsky, The Washington Post, September 30, 2006

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. Continue.

House Action to Limit First Amendment Protections "Hostile to Religious Freedom"

News release, Anti-Defamation League, September 27, 2006

The Anti-Defamation criticized the House's passage of H.R. 2679. "Religious expression is not threatened by the enforcement of the Establishment Clause – it is protected by it. But the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment are not self-executing. Congress has no business making it more difficult and more costly for average citizens to challenge violations of religious freedom. The Senate should reject this disturbing legislation." Continue.

H. R. 2679

AN ACT

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. Click here for the full text of the measure.

House OKs bill to deny ACLU legal fees in religion cases

By Tom Strode, Baptist Press, September 28, 2006

WASHINGTON (BP)--The House of Representatives has approved a bill to prevent the American Civil Liberties Union from collecting government funds when it succeeds at legal challenges to public expressions of religion.

Representatives voted 244-173 Sept. 26 for the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), with 26 Democrats joining 218 Republicans in the majority. Continue.

Earlier reports on the "Public Expression of Religion Act"

Continued from main page, "Court-stripping and Legislating Against the First Amendment" (Go back)

Hostettler pushes court rule change

Maria Lee, Courier and Press (Evansville, Indiana), June 25, 2006

WASHINGTON - Indiana 8th District Congressman John Hostettler can count the American Legion and the law schools of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and the University of South Dakota as enthusiastic supporters of his plan to cut off a source of funds for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Representatives of those institutions testified last week before the House Judiciary Committee in support of Hostettler's Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA). Continue

Cleaning Up by Christian Cleansing

Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council, June 23, 2006

Every American is a donor to the ACLU. How can that be? Well, the American Legion's Rees Lloyd testified under oath as a former staff attorney for the ACLU how that outfit gains windfall profits from its anti-Christian litigation. Lloyd spoke of an obscure provision of the Civil Rights Act that allows that inveterately hostile organization to reap millions of dollars in attorney fees by going after local governments that recognize America's religious heritage in any way. Continue

Bill Would Protect Religious Speech

Focus on the Family, June 23, 2006

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. Continue

Bill Would Drop Lawyer Fee Damages in Religious Battles

Alison Espach, CNSNews.com, June 26, 2006

The "Christmas tree wars," fought each year over public religious displays often end up in court, but congressional legislation taken up recently by a House Judiciary subcommittee would prohibit damages and attorney fees from being awarded to plaintiffs in such First Amendment cases.

Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of the conservative Liberty Counsel, testified in favor of the Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005 (PERA). He later told Cybercast News Service that he does not "believe the opposition presented any reasonable arguments to not move forward with this bill. I think it's a bill that should be passed and is long overdue." Continue

House sponsor hopeful about bill that would bar ACLU’s rewards in religion lawsuits

By Tom Strode, Baptist Press, March 24, 2006

"Indiana’s John Hostettler is trying for the fifth consecutive Congress to prevent the American Civil Liberties Union from receiving government funds when it succeeds at legal challenges to public expressions of religion." Click here for the article.