Angry Atheists Misrepresent The Law (And Its Success): The ACLJ Responds
As we’ve reported, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) continues its attack on Bibles in hotel rooms. And as promised, the ACLJ has responded, meeting fiction with the force of law. Now, over 173,000 Americans have joined the cause.
Remember the cause of FFRF’s outrage? After searching through four drawers, a FFRF co-president staying in a hotel room owned by Northern Illinois University, was “shocked” to discover, gulp, a Bible! FFRF took action to have the Book removed because that’s what “freethinkers” do.
The ACLJ mobilized, responding to FFRF’s claim that it sent letters to the University of Iowa, the University of Wisconsin, and Northern Illinois University – demanding removal of Gideon Bibles from university hotel rooms. In a press release, FFRF had boasted that all three universities capitulated.
First, we sent open records requests to each university. The universities responded to our requests and, as it turns out, FFRF’s boasts (much like its fanciful legal analysis) were a little less than forthright.
Northern Illinois University did receive a threatening letter from FFRF, and unfortunately, it caved. Accordingly, the ACLJ has now sent a legal letter to the university explaining the error of FFRF’s obnoxious misstatements of the law, and urging the university to reconsider its hasty decision.
But the other two universities’ official responses submitted to the ACLJ, however, tell a different story. These two universities received no such letter from FFRF! The University of Iowa, in particular, advised us it would continue making Bibles available to its patrons consistent with a policy in place – and unchanged – for twenty years. We just sent legal letters to these two universities putting them each on notice of FFRF’s false claims and exposing the misstatements of law for which FFRF has become famous.
As we explained in our letters:
The Supreme Court of the United States has been clear that allowing religious speech on government-owned property does not always equate to a governmental endorsement of religion. This is especially true when the speech originates from a private party. Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677, 692 (2005) (upholding constitutionality of Ten Commandments monument donated by local civic group to public park).
We explained how, in Town of Greece v. Galloway, 134 S. Ct. 1811 (2014), “the Court specifically repudiated FFRF’s reasoning,” when it observed:
[A]dults should be able to withstand “speech they find disagreeable,” without imagining that the Establishment Clause is violated every time they “experience a sense of affront from the expression of contrary religious views.”
In Galloway, the Court further rejected the assertion that a reasonable person would find a governmental endorsement of religion in the prayers being offered before the town board meetings. Rather, the Court recognized the valid purpose of the prayer: “to acknowledge the place religion holds in the lives of many private citizens, not to afford government an opportunity to proselytize or force truant constituents into the pews
We also explained Justice O’Connor’s concurring opinion in Elk Grove Unified Sch. Dist. v. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1 (2004), where she said:
[T]he Constitution does not guarantee citizens a right entirely to avoid ideas with which they disagree. It would betray its own principles if it did; no robust democracy insulates its citizens from views that they might find novel or even inflammatory.
As we have now explained to each university, making Bibles available on state-funded property is perfectly constitutional. Why would a reasonable person who finds the Bible offensive, open four drawers looking for it? And if the Book has no power, what harm can it possibly cause sitting quietly in a closed drawer? FFRF complains of coercion. But the only coercion happening here is at the hands of the FFRF (which has now expanded its campaign to privately run hotels).
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