An Interesting Govt School Censorship Case
Ira (Chip) Lupu
iclupu at law.gwu.edu
Wed Mar 4 08:29:11 PST 2009
I appreciate Rick's calling our attention to this case, and I deeply appreciate Allen's amplification of the historical record. I forwarded Rick's post yesterday to several students who are writing papers for me on issues related to this case, but I warned them not to take the ADF release at face value. I of course forwarded Allen's post to those students this morning.
Chip
---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 10:46:42 EST
>From: AAsch at aol.com
>Subject: Re: An Interesting Govt School Censorship Case
>To: religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
>
> Although I'm not claiming the school was correct in
> this instance, there is a context to the case that
> the ADF press release completely leaves out. I used
> to be surprised at the dishonesty of these ADF press
> releases, but now I see them as puzzles where the
> challenge is to find the actual facts. From this
> press release, for example, you'd never know that
> the ACLU successfully challenged several practices
> in this school district that violated the
> Establishment Clause. The closest the press release
> comes to revealing that information is the two
> sentence paragraph:
>
> "The American Civil Liberties Union previously sued
> the school to stop it from recognizing such events,
> including “See You at the Pole” and the National
> Day of Prayer. In May 2008, a federal judge refused
> to grant the ACLU’s request."
>
> Now, if you follow that link, it leads to an ADF
> page that, again, never mentions the school's
> Establishment Clause violations and describes the
> May 2008 result like this: "“This is a win for
> religious freedom and, if not a total loss for the
> ACLU, certainly a hollow, shallow victory." Even
> worse, that ADF page provides a link to the ACLU
> complaint that starts on page 19, again cutting out
> the most pertinent facts. Similarly, the link to the
> judge's decision on that page leads to another ADF
> page that includes only the order, cutting out the
> memorandum describing in detail the school's
> Establishment Clause violations.
>
> The full judge's decision is included in the May 30,
> 2008, ACLU press release on the Wilson County case
> at:
>
> http://www.aclu.org/religion/schools/35742prs20080530.html
>
> Here are five pertinent paragraphs:
>
> ****************
> The lawsuit, Doe v. Wilson County School System,
> filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of
> Tennessee (ACLU-TN) charged that a variety of
> religious activities occurring at Lakeview
> Elementary School in Mt. Juliet, including praying
> during school hours by a group of parents who then
> distributed fliers in classrooms informing
> individual students they had been prayed for, were
> unconstitutional.
>
> "In a strongly worded 59-page decision, the Judge
> ruled that school officials were engaged in a
> systematic pattern of religious violations and that
> the school supported and tolerated religious
> activities taking place on its campus," said Hedy
> Weinberg, ACLU-TN Executive Director.
>
> After nearly two years of litigation, the Court
> ruled that Lakeview Elementary School administrators
> can not continue to give preferential treatment to a
> religious group called the Praying Parents. In the
> past, this religious group was given nearly
> unfettered access to students and faculty to promote
> Christianity and prayer. In finding that these
> activities violated the First Amendment, the Court
> found that the effect of the group's predominant
> religious purpose was to advance Christianity at
> Lakeview.
>
> The school administration apparently agreed with the
> group's purpose and activities and did not properly
> monitor and supervise their activities on school
> property, and, by allowing these activities, the
> school tacitly or overtly endorsed the group's
> activities. By doing so the school became
> excessively entangled with the group's religious
> activities, and abandoned the school's
> constitutional obligation to maintain strict
> neutrality toward religion.
>
> The Court issued an injunction preventing any group
> from being given preferential treatment and ordering
> that all individuals and groups requesting access to
> the school request permission and be treated
> equally. The Court also admonished the school for
> allowing teachers and administrators to be active
> participants in religious activities at the school,
> for displaying the Ten Commandments in the school
> hallway and for allowing the distribution of
> Gideon's Bibles to students.
>
>
> ****************
> One reason I've been such a loyal member of the ACLU
> for so long is because I've always been impressed
> with the way the ACLU sticks to its principles and
> sticks to the truth. I've seen occasional errors
> in ACLU press releases, but never the dishonesty
> with the facts that I habitually find in these ADF
> ones. Ironically, this press release includes an
> accusation about "the ACLU’s long-term record of
> fear, intimidation, and disinformation." What a big
> lie!
>
> Allen Asch
> (full disclosure: although I am speaking only for
> myself, I currently serve on the board of the ACLU
> of Northern California)
>
> In a message dated 3/3/2009 4:39:06 P.M. Pacific
> Standard Time, nebraskalawprof at yahoo.com writes:
>
>This is a very interesting recent case. A good one for
>class discussion. Here is the ADF press release (including
>before censorship and after censorship pictures:
>
> "Tenn. school censors ‘God Bless the USA,’ ‘In God
> We Trust,’ ADF sues
>
>http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4847
>
>ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND NEWS RELEASE
>March 3, 2009 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS: (480) 444-0020 or
>www.telladf.org/pressroom
>
>** PHOTOS LINKED BELOW **
>
>Tenn. school censors ‘God Bless the USA,’ ‘In God We
>Trust’
>
>School orders references to God and prayer covered up on
>posters
>
>NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense
>Fund filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of parents and
>students at Lakeview Elementary School in Wilson County
>after school officials ordered “God Bless the USA,”
>“In God We Trust,” and other phrases referencing God
>and prayer to be covered up on posters before they could be
>displayed in the school’s hallways. The posters were
>hand-drawn by students and their families to announce
>“See You at the Pole,” a voluntary, student-led prayer
>event held outside of class time.
>
>“Christian students shouldn’t be censored for
>expressing their beliefs,” said ADF Senior Counsel Nate
>Kellum. “It’s ridiculous as well as unconstitutional to
>cover up these references to God and prayer–one of which
>is the National Motto itself–on posters announcing a
>student-led activity. School officials appear to be having
>an allergic reaction to the ACLU’s long-term record of
>fear, intimidation, and disinformation, despite a previous
>court ruling at this very school that said students can
>observe these types of events on school property.”
>
>The American Civil Liberties Union previously sued the
>school to stop it from recognizing such events, including
>“See You at the Pole” and the National Day of Prayer.
>In May 2008, a federal judge refused to grant the ACLU’s
>request.
>
>Each year, students and parents affiliated with Lakeview
>Elementary School in Mt. Juliet have placed posters in the
>hallways of the school informing students of the “See You
>at the Pole” event. This year, each poster, made on
>personal time without the use of any school funds or
>supplies, included the disclaimer: “See You at the Pole
>is a student-initiated and student-led event and is not
>endorsed by Lakeview Elementary or Wilson County
>schools.” Nevertheless, the students and their parents
>were ordered to cover up references to God and prayer and
>any Scripture passages on the posters or else they could
>not be posted.
>
>After a school employee told the parent of one student,
>“You can’t hang up those posters. They have the word
>‘God’ on them,” the school’s vice principal and
>director reinforced the policy, explaining that posters
>containing religious references, like “In God We
>Trust,” “God Bless America,” and “come and pray,”
>are precluded by school board policy and prohibited in the
>hallways as inappropriate.
>
>“The Constitution prohibits government officials from
>singling out religious speech for censorship, but this is
>exactly what Lakeview school officials did when they
>ordered these words to be covered,” Kellum said.
>
>ADF-allied attorney David L. Maddox is serving as local
>counsel in the case.
>
>• Before and after photos of one “God Bless the USA”
>poster
>• Before and after photos of one “In God We Trust”
>poster
>• Before and after posters of one “Come Pray With Us”
>poster
>• Complaint and motion for preliminary injunction with
>supporting brief filed in Gold v. Wilson County School
>Board of Education with the U.S. District Court for the
>Middle District of Tennessee"
>
>Rick Duncan
>Welpton Professor of Law
>University of Nebraska College of Law
>Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
>
>"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have
>for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting
>the vote."--Ben Franklin (perhaps misattributed, but still
>worthy of Franklin)
>"It's a funny thing about us human beings: not many of us
>doubt God's existence and then start sinning. Most of us
>sin and then start doubting His existence." --J.
>Budziszewski (The Revenge of Conscience)
>
>"Once again the ancient maxim is vindicated, that the
>perversion of the best is the worst." -- Id.
>
> _______________________________________________
> To post, send message to
> Religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get
> password, see
> http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
>
> Please note that messages sent to this large list
> cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe
> to the list and read messages that are posted;
> people can read the Web archives; and list members
> can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to
> others.
>
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> Need a job? Find employment help in your area.
>________________
>_______________________________________________
>To post, send message to Religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
>
>Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
Ira C. Lupu
F. Elwood & Eleanor Davis Professor of Law
George Washington University Law School
2000 H St., NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202)994-7053
More information about the Religionlaw
mailing list