American Legion Takes On The ACLU

Reprinted from American Legion Website

HONOLULU, August 24, 2005 - Delegates to the nation’s largest wartime veterans organization meeting here during their 87th annual national convention forged their solidarity against legal abuse and secular cleansing of American family values and religious symbols by the ACLU and other organizations.

Four thousand delegates representing 2.7 million members unanimously passed Resolution 139 that calls upon Congress to amend the practice of using taxpayer-funded attorney fees by claims under the Equal Access to Justice.

“The 1976 Civil Rights Attorney’s Fee Awards Act was much needed legislation, but in recent years, certain groups have abused the congressional intent of this public law in ‘Establishment Clause’ lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America, the Ten Commandments, and now veterans’ memorials, ” said Thomas P. Cadmus, National Commander of The American Legion. “And it’s time to fix it!”

“Exorbitant attorney fees awarded by Courts to be paid by American taxpayers has become the newest ‘Sword of Damocles’ strategically employed by organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to coerce settlements by cities, counties, states, and large organizations like the Boy Scouts of America and the Department of Defense by suits and threats of lawsuits against any public expression of America’s religious history, heritage, and values,” Cadmus said. “When out-of-court settlements are more cost effective than the judicial process, then the system is clearly broken.”

Cadmus lauded the introduction of HR 2679, the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), by Rep. John Hostettler and urged all Americans to strongly support this long overdue legislation.

Long time civil rights attorney Rees Lloyd spoke to the delegation earlier in the day on what he calls the ACLU’s aggressive “secular cleansing of our America heritage through the elimination of our religious symbols and our core values of decency, citizenship and Americanism.”

Lloyd, a past commander of American Legion San Gorgonio Post 448 in Banning, Calif., worked for the ACLU at one time and is very familiar with how the ACLU’s mind-set and litigation strategies work.

“Using taxpayers’ dollars to pay these court-ordered attorney fees, especially when attacking established, traditional American values is absurd,” Lloyd said. “The list of victims continues to grow - Los Angeles County, the cities of San Diego and Redlands in California, the school boards in Chicago, Ill., and Portland, Or. the Village of Castleton, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Defense, Ten Commandments cases in Kentucky, Texas, and Alabama, and even a Veterans’ Memorial in the Mojave Desert. Who will be the next victim?

“When the mere threat of attorney’s fee is so severe that large organizations fear the consequences, then imagine the power and chilling effect it has on local elected officials faced with the threat of court-ordered, taxpayer-paid attorney fees if they do not surrender to ACLU demands to cease sponsorship of Boy Scouts, or to destroy religious symbols like the Ten Commandments,” Lloyd said.

This is great news in the fight against the ACLU. 2.7 million voices have just spoke to our Government. Add your voice too.

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND TELL THEM TO SUPPORT THIS LEGISLATION TODAY!