Friday, December 30, 2005

ACLU Takes One in the Jimmy

On December 20, a three-judge panel from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a public display of the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse.
6th Circuit Judge Richard Suhrheinrich wrote in the unanimous decision: “The ACLU makes repeated reference to the ’separation of church and state.’ This extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state. Our nation’s history is replete with governmental acknowledgment and in some cases, accommodation of religion.”
To recap for liberals, this is how the First Amendment reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Note no mention of the words “church”, “separation” or “state”.

The opinion explained that the "reasonable person" remark is particularly important because the legal standard requires the court to determine whether a "reasonable person" would believe a display endorses religion, not whether it offends someone in the community.

So to recap: the Court deems the ACLU to be unreasonable, tiresome and constitutionally ignorant. That about sums it up.