Washington Report
Last week I spent most of my time in Washington, DC on a variety of projects. This week is no different. On Wednesday I will be back in our Washington, DC office helping move these projects forward. In less than two weeks, we are filing our petitions for certiorari requesting that the Supreme Court of the United States hear the Summum cases out of Utah. These cases involve an important area of constitutional law. Summum is an organization based in Utah that is demanding that its Seven Aphorisms be placed next to a Ten Commandments monument in two parks in Utah. Their argument is that if a city accepts, owns and displays a donated monument involving the Ten Commandments or a September 11th memorial, they must accept a display of Summums Seven Aphorisms. This turns the First Amendment upside down. Under Summums logic, at Statue of Liberty Park in New York, the government would be required to display an equal-sized Statue of Tyranny if a private group chooses to donate one. As mentioned, our briefs are due in less than two weeks, and we are all working on the drafts for both of these Supreme Court cases.
We are also doing considerable work this week on the infamous issue of military chaplains. That will be the focus of our radio broadcasts this week, especially as we just celebrated Veterans Day yesterday. I believe that we could see positive movement on the chaplains issue over the next several months as long as we continue to keep it at the forefront. We saw the Veterans Administration change its policy which prohibited the flag-folding ceremony because of its religious references to God. Fortunately, Vice President Cheney came out and said the policy was flawed and wrong. It is no longer being enforced.
We also have lawyers at the ACLJ who have been busy last week and this week assisting in a very large case involving Planned Parenthood in the Midwest. This is an important case and weve assigned several senior lawyers to it. At the same time, we are preparing for litigation in Maine against a school district that is distributing contraceptives to 11-year-olds without parental consent or parental notice. The school district refused to change its policy, and we are preparing to go to court to protect the rights of parents. I will be on CNN at 8 oclock this evening discussing this case.
Obviously, we have a very busy week ahead, and we will keep you posted as these matters progress.
