Judge Rules Kentucky Law Violates Separation Of Church And State
A Democratic Kentucky state representative, who is also a Southern Baptist minister, inserted some language into a 2006 homeland security bill:
The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.
A judge has ruled that this language is unconstitutional:
Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the law violated the First Amendment’s protection against the establishment of a state religion. Homeland Security officials have been required for three years to credit “Almighty God” in their official reports and post a plaque with similar language at the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort.
“Even assuming that most of this nation’s citizens have historically depended upon God by choice for their protection, this does not give the General Assembly the right to force citizens to do so now,” Wingate wrote.
“This is the very reason the Establishment Clause was created: to protect the minority from the oppression of the majority,” he wrote. “The commonwealth’s history does not exclude God from the statutes, but it had never permitted the General Assembly to demand that its citizens depend on Almighty God.”
Yep, that’s my native state. The lawsuit was initiated by a group called the American Atheists, on behalf of some non-religious Kentuckians. The law was defended in court by the state’s Democratic AG Jack Conway.
So, if some natural disaster happens in Kentucky we’ll know why. Of course, this law did not protect Kentucky from the horrible ice storm earlier this year, which my hometown area is still recovering from. I wonder what the reports on that disaster said?
Chalk one up for the good guys!
This is a victory for common sense and the law. I only regret that it was left to the atheists to take action, rather than some rational religious groups who understand that their religious freedom depends on the Establishment Clause.