What does the ACLU do with payments it receives?
Posted 04-18-2008 at 12:34 PM by Rooster
Generally unknown to the public, the ACLU has received enormous attorney fee awards from judges in Establishment Clause cases.
The American Legion argues that not a single judge, as far as is known, has exercised the court’s discretion to deny the ACLU’s motions for attorney fees – usually at $350 an hour – to be paid by taxpayers.
This has been done in spite of the fact that the ACLU has incurred no actual attorney expenses, because its lawsuits are handled by staff or volunteer lawyers.
The Legion says the ACLU has used the threat of attorney fees to intimidate cities, counties, school boards and other locally elected bodies into surrendering to its demands to remove religion from the public square.
Lawsuits
Posted on July 5, 2006
Via Agape Press
Recently, Rees Lloyd of the American Legion and a former staff attorney with the ACLU testified under oath before Congress about how the organization profits from its lawsuits attacking Christianity. Testifying in favor of Indiana Congressman John Hostettler’s Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), H.R. 2679, Lloyd noted that the ACLU’s attacks have been launched primarily against the Christian cross but the liberal litigation group has attacked Judaism’s Star of David as well, and has reaped millions of dollars in attorney fees by going after local governments that recognize America’s religious heritage in any way.
The ACLU received half a million dollars from the Alabama Ten Commandments case, and $950,000 in attorneys fees in a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the AFA Law Center and a constitutional law specialist, says the ACLU is able to collect these fees because of an obscure provision of the Civil Rights Act, which PERA is designed to amend.
“It was really just the ACLU and its like organizations on the left that ever benefited from this provision,” Crampton contends. He says the clause the ACLU is exploiting to attack religious expressions “was actually first placed into the law before any Christian groups ever existed.”
Whenever the ACLU succeeds in one of its attacks on religious expression, the AFA Law Center spokesman notes, its attorneys often recover substantial attorneys fees. He says the threat of these enormous legal expenses has a chilling effect on the exercise of many groups’ First Amendment rights. “It results in a situation where a lot of governmental entities refuse even to go to court,” he says, “for fear they will then have to pay fees that they don’t have the money to cover.”
Crampton and other faith and family advocates believe Congressman Hostettler’s legislation, if passed, could put an end to ACLU profits from anti-Christian litigation. PERA would do this by amending 42 U.S.C. sections 1983 and 1988 to prevent the use of the legal system in a way that extorts money from state and local governments and inhibits their constitutional actions.
The ACLU supports many radical causes, and while they may have every right to do so, it should not be at the expense of taxpayers that do not support such causes. Please contact your Congress critter, and representative, and tell them to support PERA. Find your Representative here. Find your Senator here.
Sign Our Petition To Stop Taxpayer Funding of the ACLU
» Filed Under ACLU, News, PETITIONS
If we all dislike the ACLU so much, why can't we stop them from using our tax money to fund themselves?
The American Legion argues that not a single judge, as far as is known, has exercised the court’s discretion to deny the ACLU’s motions for attorney fees – usually at $350 an hour – to be paid by taxpayers.
This has been done in spite of the fact that the ACLU has incurred no actual attorney expenses, because its lawsuits are handled by staff or volunteer lawyers.
The Legion says the ACLU has used the threat of attorney fees to intimidate cities, counties, school boards and other locally elected bodies into surrendering to its demands to remove religion from the public square.
Lawsuits
Posted on July 5, 2006
Via Agape Press
Recently, Rees Lloyd of the American Legion and a former staff attorney with the ACLU testified under oath before Congress about how the organization profits from its lawsuits attacking Christianity. Testifying in favor of Indiana Congressman John Hostettler’s Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), H.R. 2679, Lloyd noted that the ACLU’s attacks have been launched primarily against the Christian cross but the liberal litigation group has attacked Judaism’s Star of David as well, and has reaped millions of dollars in attorney fees by going after local governments that recognize America’s religious heritage in any way.
The ACLU received half a million dollars from the Alabama Ten Commandments case, and $950,000 in attorneys fees in a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the AFA Law Center and a constitutional law specialist, says the ACLU is able to collect these fees because of an obscure provision of the Civil Rights Act, which PERA is designed to amend.
“It was really just the ACLU and its like organizations on the left that ever benefited from this provision,” Crampton contends. He says the clause the ACLU is exploiting to attack religious expressions “was actually first placed into the law before any Christian groups ever existed.”
Whenever the ACLU succeeds in one of its attacks on religious expression, the AFA Law Center spokesman notes, its attorneys often recover substantial attorneys fees. He says the threat of these enormous legal expenses has a chilling effect on the exercise of many groups’ First Amendment rights. “It results in a situation where a lot of governmental entities refuse even to go to court,” he says, “for fear they will then have to pay fees that they don’t have the money to cover.”
Crampton and other faith and family advocates believe Congressman Hostettler’s legislation, if passed, could put an end to ACLU profits from anti-Christian litigation. PERA would do this by amending 42 U.S.C. sections 1983 and 1988 to prevent the use of the legal system in a way that extorts money from state and local governments and inhibits their constitutional actions.
The ACLU supports many radical causes, and while they may have every right to do so, it should not be at the expense of taxpayers that do not support such causes. Please contact your Congress critter, and representative, and tell them to support PERA. Find your Representative here. Find your Senator here.
Sign Our Petition To Stop Taxpayer Funding of the ACLU
» Filed Under ACLU, News, PETITIONS
If we all dislike the ACLU so much, why can't we stop them from using our tax money to fund themselves?
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