Something to prove that the Constitution still has some force - even if it's something local.
Like this in New Kensington:
The Ten Commandments monument will be removed from Valley Junior-Senior High School, after district officials reached a settlement in a lawsuit claiming the district violated the constitutionally required separation of church and state.They agreed that the unconstitutional monument within 30 days of February 15th - so by the Ides of March it'll be gone.
We've been talking about this for about five years. This is the letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) that started the lawsuit. Had the New Kensington School District followed the advice of the FFRF five years ago they would've saved themselves a whole mess of money:
Under the agreement to remove the monument, the school district's insurance company will pay $163,500 in legal fees, including more than $40,000 to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.Along with being, of course, the right thing to do.
As we wrote five years ago that the Supreme Court decision Stone v Graham states outright:
The pre-eminent purpose of posting the Ten Commandments, which do not confine themselves to arguably secular matters, is plainly religious in nature, and the posting serves no constitutional educational function.We also pointed out five years ago in another blog post that quoted Stone v. Graham:
A Kentucky statute requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public school classroom in the State has no secular legislative purpose, and therefore is unconstitutional as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.It's simply unconstitutional to post it at a public school and it should have come down five years ago.
Heck, it should never have been propped up in the first place.
1 comment:
DEUS VULT!
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