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Liberty Counsel files closing arguments in religious liberty case
‘God bless America’ illegal in Santa Rosa County schools, lawyers say
Dec 18, 2009
By JONI B. HANNIGAN
Florida Baptist Witness
PENSACOLA (FBW) — Is “God Bless America” — the unofficial anthem of the United States — illegal in the Santa Rosa County School District?
That’s the argument of lawyers seeking to intervene in a potential landmark religious liberty case concerning an ACLU-written “Consent Decree” sharply curtailing religious speech in the Pensacola-area school district.
God Bless America, Land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her; Thru the night with a light from above.
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| FEDERAL COURT Liberty Counsel was back in court this month asking that Christian Educator’s Association International be allowed to intervene in a case they say limits the Free Speech rights of employees of the Santa Rosa County School District. In September, Liberty Counsel successfully defended two administrators of Pace High School who were charged with criminal contempt of a judge’s order for saying grace before a booster lunch. Joni B. Hannigan |
“This ‘prayer’ or ‘blessing’ is now illegal in the schools of Santa Rosa County, under the Consent Decree drafted by the American Civil Liberties Union, entered by this Court, and reasonably interpreted and actually applied by the School District,” according to the written closing argument submitted to the court Dec. 18 by Orlando-based Liberty Counsel.
Liberty Counsel was back in federal court in early December on behalf of some employees of the Santa Rosa County School District who testified they are afraid to pray at work and have felt compelled to hide when doing so because of an agreement between the ACLU and the school district.
Lawyers for the Christian Educator’s Association International, representing the employees, say they should be able to intervene in the ongoing case between the district and the ACLU.
“[T]he Consent Decree is flatly unconstitutional, both on its face and as applied to CEAI’s members,” lawyers wrote in the closing argument. “CEAI therefore has standing to bring both challenges in this Court, and has done so in a timely manner. Accordingly, CEAI’s motion to intervene should be granted.”
Horatio Mihet, senior litigant for Liberty Counsel, told Florida Baptist Witness his closing arguments were never presented after two days of testimony by witnesses when U.S. District Judge Margaret C. “Casey” Rodgers was called out of Federal Court in Pensacola for an emergency Dec. 4.
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