Thursday, May 13, 2004

Try to figure this one out.

In 2001, a high school girl in Michigan wanted to include a Bible verse in a short piece she was invited to write for the school yearbook. The school administration deleted the verse from the yearbook because they were afraid they would be sued by the ACLU, which has in the past sued to disallow voluntary prayer at football games and graduations, to disband extracurricular Good News Bible Clubs, and the like.

So the ACLU sued the school anyway--for censoring the student. They won the case yesterday, and according to CNN:
The ACLU said that under the terms of the settlement, the school district agreed to place a sticker with Moler's original entry in copies of the yearbook on file at the high school; ordered current yearbook staff to not censor other religious or political speech; to train its staff on free speech and religious freedom issues; and to write Moler a letter of regret.
I wonder how the ACLU figures out which side they're going to take on a case like this? Is it a coin-toss? Do they draw straws?

The irony is, the ACLU created the very atmosphere in which school administrators feel they have to stifle religious speech. And while it tries to absolve itself of responsibility by poking its nose into an isolated case in one state, millions of public school children will continue to have their religious freedoms violated daily by the very system the ACLU engineered legislated through the courts. I suppose if it sat back and simply enjoyed the fruit of its success, there would be no further litigation money to be made.

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