American Atheists Press Release:

Acknowledge ‘Almighty God’ or Go Directly to Jail

Cranford, NJ—Everyday in Kentucky, due to a 2008 homeland security law, atheists and agnostics are potentially forced to assert that the public safety of their state is dependent on “Almighty God” or face criminal charges, including up to 12 months in jail.

On November 13, 2012, American Atheists’ National Legal Director Edwin Kagin submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS). American Atheists is asking SCOTUS to review the Kentucky Homeland Security law. American Atheists won at the Circuit Court level a ruling that the law violated the First Amendment, but the decision was reversed by the Kentucky state Court of Appeals. The Kentucky state Supreme Court declined to review the Court of Appeals’ decision. Filing the petition does not guarantee SCOTUS will hear the case; only one in 1,000 cases are heard. Four of the nine justices must vote to hear the case.

On August 17, 2012, the Kentucky Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge, brought by American Atheists and local plaintiffs, to a state law that makes it mandatory that the Commonwealth and its citizens give credit to Almighty God for its safety and security. The law states, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God as set forth in the public speeches and proclamations of American Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln’s historic March 30, 1863, presidential proclamation urging Americans to pray and fast during one of the most dangerous hours in American history, and the text of President John F. Kennedy’s November 22, 1963, national security speech which concluded: “For as was written long ago: ‘Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’”

This case was first introduced December 2, 2008, when ten Kentucky residents joined with American Atheists to launch a lawsuit against the state. Mr. Kagin said, “This is one of the most egregiously and breathtakingly unconstitutional actions by a state legislature that I’ve ever seen.” The case went to trial in Franklin County, Kentucky, in August 2009. Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the law violated the First Amendment’s protection again the establishment of a state religion.

Judge Wingate’s ruling stated: “Even assuming that most of this nation’s citizens have historically depended upon God by choice for their protection, this does not give the General Assembly the right to force citizens to do so now. This is the very reason the Establishment Clause was created: to protect the minority from the oppression of the majority. The commonwealth’s history does not exclude God from the statutes, but it had never permitted the General Assembly to demand that its citizens depend on Almighty God.”

American Atheists and the local plaintiffs won the case in the Franklin County Circuit Court; however, the Kentucky Court of Appeals quickly reversed this ruling.

In a dissenting opinion supporting the lower court’s ruling, Special Judge Ann
O‘Malley Shake said Kentucky’s law crossed a constitutional line. Among other things, she said the law has criminal penalties, including up to 12 months in jail, for anyone who fails to comply.

“Unlike the Ohio state motto, which is passive,” Judge Shake wrote, “Kentucky’s law is a legislative finding, avowed as factual, that the Commonwealth is not safe absent reliance on Almighty God. Further, (the law) places a duty upon the executive director to publicize the assertion while stressing to the publicthat dependence upon Almighty God is vital, or necessary, in assuring the safety of the commonwealth.”

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For additional information, including the Petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, see:

http://kysecurity.wordpress.com/

 

For anyone who thinks that churches are not trying to influence American politics, please see www.MissouriFamilyNetwork.net. One of our spies in Missouri, who thinks that church and state should be separate, as the First Amendment mandates, emailed to advise that this Family Network voter’s guide was passed out in at least some of the churches in Missouri.

This, of course, is in violation of the law. In exchange for their tax free status, non-profit outfits like churches are permitted to not pay taxes on their real estate if they agree not to take a part in partisan politics. The voter’s guide referenced takes part in partisan politics by clearly telling American voters who and what to vote for or against.

Readers are invited to share other proofs of this lawlessness of the godly.

If churches paid property taxes, literally billions of dollars in revenue would be generated. We could wipe out the national debt, and maybe fix some roads and bridges and once again teach music and have gym, and do and teach other most worthwhile things in our schools, that have all been cut so wealthy folks can have the money formerly used for the public good.

So, we should let them politic all they want, so long as they pay their taxes. Sounds fair to

Edwin.

Learning moment. In Kentucky, and in many other states, it is perfectly legal to record a conversation, or a meeting, where the one doing the recording is, without the knowledge of other parties to the conversation or meeting, a participant in the conversation or present at the meeting. This is not necessarily the law in all states. Further, while a lawyer is not permitted to advise someone to record a conversation or meeting without letting all involved know they are being recorded, it is okay for a lawyer to tell you that such a recording is usually perfectly admissible as evidence in court. In that there has, of late, been a great increase in the number of tiny little recorders available all over the place, and in that many cell phones have a feature called “voice memo,” or something like that, and can even make videos with sound, it seemed a good idea to tell this to readers.

Everyone who thinks the Enlightenment was a good idea, and who values separation of church and state, should go to church tomorrow—two days before we elect a President of the United States. The reason for this is to get people to serve as witnesses to the fact that many Catholic churches, and many right wing fundangelical churches, are telling those attending that church who to vote for. Yes, they really are. This practice is completely unlawful and a blatant violation of the requirement that churches not get into the business of politics unless they want to lose their tax exempt status and pay taxes on their property and thus wipe out our national debt.

Remember to set your clocks back an hour tonight. And remember, for your own safety’s sake, to help preventing the clocks from being set back some ten centuries or so.

Edwin
© 2012 by Edwin Kagin

Learning moment. In Kentucky, and in many other states, it is perfectly legal to record a conversation, or a meeting, where the one doing the recording is, without the knowledge of other parties to the conversation or meeting, a participant in the conversation or present at the meeting. This is not necessarily the law in all states. Further, while a lawyer is not permitted to advise someone to record a conversation or meeting without letting all involved know they are being recorded, it is okay for a lawyer to tell you that such a recording is usually perfectly admissible as evidence in court. In that there has, of late, been a great increase in the number of tiny little recorders available all over the place, and in that many cell phones have a feature called “voice memo,” or something like that, and can even make videos with sound, it seemed a good idea to tell this to readers.

Everyone who thinks the Enlightenment was a good idea, and who values separation of church and state, should go to church tomorrow—two days before we elect a President of the United States. The reason for this is to get people to serve as witnesses to the fact that many Catholic churches, and many right wing fundangelical churches, are telling those attending that church who to vote for. Yes, they really are. This practice is completely unlawful and a blatant violation of the requirement that churches not get into the business of politics unless they want to lose their tax exempt status and pay taxes on their property and thus wipe out our national debt.

Remember to set your clocks back an hour tonight. And remember to help, for your own safety’s sake, to help preventing the clocks from being set back ten centuries or so.

Edwin
© 2012 by Edwin Kagin

Our nation’s Presidential Election happens this coming Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Get out and vote! Some say they will not vote because they don’t like either candidate. This sounds like the old farmer who said, “You can’t blame the mess this country is in because of me, cause I ain’t voted in 50 years.”

Vote for the least unqualified candidate who can win. Please do not try to make statements about one thing or another by voting for a candidate who has no chance of winning. This way of thinking gets the worst of the two evils in office. Yes, the best qualified candidate might also be an evil, but we usually build and correct things in little steps. It is because so many people voted for Ralph Nader, who might well have made a better President, but had no chance of winning, that we got the Bushes.

We could have elected candidates who, while weak and evil, would have made far better Presidents than what we got because so many voted for Nader. And this worst option gets to appoint Supreme Court Justices who serve for life. And the Justices who are appointed by them are busy tearing down the wall of separation between church and state.

After the last election, there was great hope. Here is a poem I wrote then. I hope it still holds true on November 7, 2012.

 

Inauguration

We had seen sights, but this mocked our imaginations
We had used words, but this defied our metaphors
We had once been, our heritage proclaimed,
“One Nation Indivisible,” and “Out of Many, One”
Until smallness of soul began to smother dreams.
Then, suddenly, sorely profaned, and wounded, soon to die
Our nation did an unimagined thing
We rolled away the stone
We shook the heels of history upon retreating wrongs
We watched as hope, long dormant, bloomed
And, through eyes blurred with tears,
We went outside and raised the flag.

Edwin Kagin
January 20, 2009