Saturday, September 16, 2006
H.R. 2679, The "Christian Supremacy Act", To Hit House Floor
Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice
regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our
neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our
sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific
endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society. -
D. James Kennedy
[ UPDATE, and a cautionary note --
First: is this bill just about religious displays in literal
"public squares" ? No, it is vastly farther reaching. H.R. 2679
is sponsored by John Hostettler (Rep Indiana 8th District) currently in a
tight race with Dem challenger Brad Ellsworth (see this
dKos story re Ellsworth vs. Hostettler**) and is designed to gut the
Establishment Clause, to render it largely meaningless. See text of bill,
below.]
- Troutfishing's diary ::
::
Second: a word of caution: It is very important to recognize
that H.R. 2679 is only one of a number of bills, proposed by by the Christian
right and somewhere in the legislative process or which - if not succesfully
passed in any given year - will simply be resubmitted the following year, and
which have been crafted to advance Christian nationalist, theocratic, theonomic,
or reconstructionist agendas ( or any combination of those .
In other words, please don't come away from this post with the impression
that if H.R. 2679 is not turned into law that all will be hunky-dory. Far from
it. Freedom takes constant vigilance.]
H.R. 2679 has
emerged from the House Judiciary Committee and is ready to hit the floor.
What is H.R. 2679 designed to do ? Well, it's designed to defund plaintiffs in
Establishment Clause cases by eliminating awards for attorney's fees. What will
that mean ? Well, let's take a case that's not hypothetical at all, a real
incident.
So - to take a real example [ link directly below to "Jews On
First" who have the best coverage of the case in question ] - if you're a
Jewish family living in Southern Delaware and you complain about the rather
blatant and exclusionary promotion of Christianity in the local public school
and you and your family are
subsequently harassed and your children called "Christ killers",
subject to death threats, and eventually hounded out of town ( and along the
way you have to sell your house of 18 years under duress ), the point of the law
is to make it harder for you to seek some sort of legal redress.
So, if H.R. 2679 ( ironically titled "the Public Expression of Religion
Act" ) passes the US House and Senate, that family hounded out of its home
in Southern Delaware would be hard pressed to scratch up the money to take the
school board - that was defending (and even condoning) the
"Christianizing" of local schools - to court. It would be financially
prohibitive. Now, somebody might start a petition "Regarding Religious
Intolerance In Public Schools" ( in
fact, someone did and you can even sign it - please do* and if your org.
wants to join the coalition let me know ) but that would be unlikely to help
your family out directly.
Or - to bring up another recent and notorious case ( see below, "the 2%
Solution" ) you might be told by the speaker of the Indiana House, Brian
Bosma, to buzz off because you only represent about 2% of the Indiana
population.
So, in the words of one excited
rightwing blogger :
Hostettler's proposal would amend the Civil Rights Attorney's
Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from
being awarded attorney's fee in religious establishment cases, but not in
other civil rights filings. This would prevent local governments from having
to use taxpayer funds to pay the ACLU or similar organization when a case is
lost, and also would protect elected officials from having to pay fees from
their own pockets.
So, in other words, local officials could stomp on minority religious beliefs
and get away with it. Charming.
It sounds like dhimmitude to me : religious second class citizenship, with
vague guarantees of protection as long as the dhimmi class keeps quiet and out
of the way.
Not that Hostettler and his fellows seem to care. This bill is - purely and
simply - about the advancement of Christian
Nationalism and Christian supremacy.
It's about tearing down the wall between church and state, it's about Jews-
the 2% Solution, and it's about disregard for the rights of minorties in
American society. Let's see what it looks like : Dhonig, Daily Kos member (
click on picture for more of dhonig's cartoons ), summed it up brilliantly in
this cartoon - concerning the behavior of the speaker of the Indiana House,
Brian Bosma. This is what H.R. 2679 is really about :
Text
of H.R. 2679
A BILL To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States to eliminate the
chilling effect on the constitutionally pro- tected expression of religion by
State and local officials that results from the threat that potential litigants
may seek damages and attorney's fees. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representa- 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 4 This Act may be cited as the ``Public Expression of 5
Religion Act of 2005''. 2 1 SEC. 2. LIMITATIONS ON CERTAIN LAWSUITS AGAINST 2
STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS. 3 (a) CIVIL ACTION DEPRIVATION RIGHTS.-- FOR OF 4
Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes of the United States 5 (42 U.S.C. 1983) is
amended-- 6 (1) by inserting ``(a)'' before the first sentence; 7 and 8 (2) by
adding at the end the following: 9 ``(b) The remedies with respect to a claim
under this 10 section where the deprivation consists of a violation of a 11
prohibition in the Constitution against the establishment 12 of religion shall
be limited to injunctive relief.''. 13 (b) ATTORNEYS FEES.--Section 722(b) of
the Re- 14 vised Statutes of the United States (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) 15 is amended
by adding at the end the following: ``However, 16 no fees shall be awarded under
this subsection with re- 17 spect to a claim described in subsection (b) of
section nine- 18 teen hundred and seventy nine.''.
Here's the
ACLU's take. Needless to say, the House Judiciary Committee didn't much care
about the ACLU's opinion. :
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today urged the House
Judiciary Committee to reject H.R. 2679, the "Public Expression of
Religion Act of 2005" (PERA). The panel is expected to vote on the
legislation today. The bill would bar the recovery of attorneys' fees to
citizens who win lawsuits asserting their fundamental constitutional and civil
rights in cases brought under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
"If this bill were to become law, Congress would, for the first time,
single out one area protected by the Bill of Rights and prevent its full
enforcement," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington
Legislative Office. "Proponents of the measure claim that the bill is
needed to protect religious freedom, when in fact, the bill would undermine
it. We hope that the committee will stand for the Constitution and reject this
unwise proposal." The ability to recover attorneys' fees in civil rights
and constitutional cases, including Establishment Clause cases, is necessary
to help protect the religious freedom of all Americans and to keep religion
government-free. People who successfully prove the government has violated
their constitutional rights would, under the bill, be required to pay their
own legal fees -- often totaling tens, if not hundreds of thousands of
dollars.
