| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
13 Jul 2006 05:59:03 AM |
| Object: |
Congressional Pre-election Activity |
July 11, 2006
*CONGRESSIONAL PRE-ELECTION ACTIVITY:
WHAT MAY BE COMING YOUR WAY IN JULY*
We hope that you have been having a good summer so far. We are excited
about gathering signatures on the First Freedom First petition, but we
are also busy monitoring Congress.
With an eye towards the November elections, the Religious Right and
their friends in Congress are trying to hold votes on a number of
church-state issues. *Here is an overview of the issues that our
legislative staff are following which could come up before the
Congressional recess in August:*
*1.* The Federal Marriage Amendment: This proposal would undermine
America's commitment to the protection of religious liberty and mark the
first time in history that an amendment to the Constitution would
restrict the civil rights for an entire group of Americans rather than
expand them. Though this attempt to dignify discrimination and
undermine religious liberty was defeated in the Senate, there will be a
House vote sometime this month. This year's senate vote was more
favorable to our side than the last time the amendment came up in 2004.
We would like to see this momentum continue on the House side as well.
*2.* The Pledge Protection Act: This legislation would strip all
federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from hearing First
Amendment challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance and from enforcing
longstanding constitutional rights in federal court. Though the bill
failed to pass the House Judiciary Committee, House leaders may still
pull procedural levers and send it to the House floor for a vote.
*3.* Public Expression of Religion Act: This bill would deny attorneys
who get involved in church-state cases the ability to recover any of the
legal fees and out-of-pocket expenses incurred in such litigation. In
effect, this bill would deter Americans from seeking redress in federal
courts for violations of their constitutional rights to make decisions
about religion for themselves. The sponsors of the bill oppose
church-state separation and their intent is to restrict the federal
courts from upholding this vital constitutional principle.
*4.* Workforce Investment Act: The version of this bill that passed
the House contains faith-based language that would roll back civil
rights protections in government funded programs to help people in need
of employment. The Senate version of the bill does not contain any
harmful faith-based language that would allow federally-funded programs
to discriminate in hiring based on religion. The House may respond by
passing the Senate's version of the bill with or without amendment.
Depending on what the House does, we may have to take action to prevent
implementation of the faith-based initiative in this bill.
*5.* Mt. Soledad Cross: A 17 year legal battle to remove a 43 foot
cross war memorial from a public city park in San Diego may become a
congressional issue as well. City officials had been ordered to remove
the cross or face a fine of $5,000 a day. The city asked the Supreme
Court to intervene and won a stay from Justice Kennedy which will give
cross supporters more time to explore their legal options. Meanwhile,
members of Congress may attempt to transfer ownership of the park to the
Department of Defense, which would alter jurisdiction over the case.
All of this activity means that you are likely to get many messages from
us over the next few weeks. We will do our best to send alerts that
include pre-written messages for you to click and send, but there may be
times when we need you to make a call to Congress before any alert can
be composed. We will try to provide at least a brief message, but it may
be something as quick as "urge your representative or senator to vote
no" on a pending bill. If your representative or senator is a key swing
vote on an issue, you may get additional e-mails or phone calls from us.
*Please be patient and understanding with us over the next few weeks.
Some of our requests may be very last minute. Please know that national
staff will be appreciative of any assistance you can provide.*
Thanks for all of your hard work.
The Field and Legislative Departments
Americans United
for Separation of Church and State
518 C Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002 202-466-3234 telephone
http://www.au.org/
.
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