A 2018 college Jocelyn Bishop student essay Williamson’s Refuted contest winners secular invocations PAGE 3 PAGE 12-16 PAGE 23 Vol. 35 No. 8 Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. October 2018 Appeals court upholds cross victory FFRF, AHA sued to have (from 1983), with virtually identical facts that had found a governmental 34-foot-tall cross taken cross unconstitutional. The panel can- down in Florida park not disregard that precedent without it being overturned by the U.S. Supreme A federal appeals court has ruled that Court, or without the full court of the a 34-foot-tall cross in a Florida park is 11th Circuit overruling itself. unconstitutional and must come down. In June of last year, Senior U.S. Dis- The decision is a resounding victory trict Judge Roger Vinson ruled that “the for the Freedom From Religion Foun- Bayview Cross can no longer stand as a dation and the American Humanist permanent fixture on city-owned prop- Association. erty.” The white Latin cross owned, dis- In a pivotal federal decision released played and funded by the city of Pen- Sept. 7, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of sacola towers over Bayview Park. The Appeals upheld a lower court judgment cross is also the site of numerous Easter that ruled against the promotion of Sunrise services, frequently co-hosted Christianity — and exclusively Christi- by Christian churches. anity — by local government agencies. Vinson ordered the cross removed A federal appeals court ruled that this 34-foot concrete cross in Bayview Park in However, the Becket Fund for Reli- within a month. Lamentably, the city de- Pensacola, Fla., must come down. gious Liberty, which is representing the cided to waste more taxpayer funds by city of Pensacola in the case, announced against the city of Pensacola, Fla., on be- ficials, represents a troubling elevation appealing the case to the 11th Circuit. Sept. 18 it had filed a petition with the half of residents of the city troubled by of Christian faith above other beliefs. The appeals court, in its wisdom, has af- Supreme Court asking the court to hear a large, freestanding cross on city park The three-judge panel begrudgingly firmed the lower court’s ruling. the case. property. The massive cross, located in affirmed a district court decision be- However, the appeals court decision In 2016, FFRF and AHA filed suit Bayview Park and maintained by city of- cause of a previous case, ACLU v. Rabun See Victory on page 2 FFRF slams Supreme Court Citizens United, asked to reverse Huckabee for FFRF victory Morris County, N.J., is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn FFRF’s resounding victory this smear letter spring against taxpayer subsidy of churches. The county, defended by the Catholic Becket It includes numerous falsehoods, Fund, wants the court to overrule the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision against funding reli- often repeated several times gious worship. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is taking ty and fear-mongering, Huckabee and Citizens Unit- FFRF will be represented by renowned legal Mike Huckabee and the Citizens United Foundation ed are striving to build up a $44 million theocratic scholar Erwin Chemerinsky in opposing the Sept. to task for scurrilously using its name as a fundraising war chest. 19 request. Chemerinsky is the dean of the Uni- gimmick. In one sense, FFRF is flattered, FFRF Co-Presi- versity of California-Berkeley School of Law. FFRF has obtained a recent letter that Huckabee dents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor write in a The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously wrote for the Citizens United Foundation. The un- letter to Huckabee and Citizens United. Huckabee’s held in April that state taxpayers cannot be forced dated letter entirely devoted to attacking FFRF runs letter recognizes that FFRF and its legal team have to pay to repair active houses of worship, several to 10 pages and includes a request for a minimum “done more than just about any other group” to but- of which explicitly sought taxpayer funds in order donation of $22 and a petition that recipients are to tress the constitutional wall of separation between to further their worship services. sign and return to Citizens United. The letter states church and state. Huckabee also admits that he “is This decision will save New Jersey taxpayers that it will be mailed to 2 million Americans. (For afraid” of FFRF. many millions of dollars and protects the religious a fun point-by-point refutation, read the letter with However, Huckabee’s letter overflows with lies, dis- liberty of all New Jersey residents. FFRF’s annotations online at ffrf.org/attack.) information and misstatements. The biggest lie ap- Morris County churches are arguing that they Huckabee is a former governor of Arkansas and pears on page two and is repeated 13 times in various are entitled to taxpayer funds, even though the Fox News host. He also lost twice in Republican pres- iterations: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation New Jersey Constitution specifically forbids this idential primaries. Citizens United is an organization has launched a Campaign for an Atheist America religious use of taxpayer funds. One of these that, in 2010, won a U.S. Supreme Court case which that has one goal — to erase any trace of America’s churches sought and received a grant to allow the struck down a federal law prohibiting corporations Christian heritage from the public square.” church’s “continued use by our congregation for and unions from making expenditures in connec- FFRF has launched no such campaign. Never- worship services.” Another received funds “to en- tion with federal elections. In other words, the con- theless, the letter even indicates that Huckabee sure continued safe public access to the church troversial outcome of the case equated corporations and the Citizens United Foundation are familiar for worship.” with people when it comes to political donations. with various stages of the nonexistent campaign: At the heart of the lawsuit, argued in New Jer- The letter from Huckabee and Citizens United is “Urgent action is needed to stop the Freedom sey state court, is the New Jersey Constitution’s not simply dishonest, it contains patently false state- From Religion Foundation’s newest and most guarantee: “nor shall any person be obliged to ments that damage, and are intended to damage, the reputation of FFRF. Worse yet, through this dishones- See Huckabee on page 2 See Supreme on page 2 Page 2 FFRF | FREETHOUGHT TODAY | Madison, Wisconsin | October 2018 Victory Continued from page 1 is unprecedented not only because the affirmed that individuals of minority of Pensacola complies with the court’s FFRF believes that the court will deny judges indicated they did not want to faiths or no faith at all are full citizens of direction, it is our hope that this park review or agree that the cross is uncon- rule in the Constitution’s favor, but also this country and may not be excluded becomes an inclusive space for all.” stitutional and must be removed. because two of the judges on the pan- or proselytized by their government.” The Becket law firm offered to ap- The plaintiffs in the case are Amanda el wrote separately to urge the court to The American Humanist Association peal the ruling for the city for free and Kondrat’yev; Andreiy Kondrat’yev; Da- rehear the case en banc. concurs. Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward ac- vid Suhor and Andre Ryland. The case FFRF welcomes the judgment, “It’s reassuring that the court recog- cepted the offer. was brought by both FFRF and AHA, though, regardless of the undercurrents. nized the illegality of an overtly Chris- “The city looks forward to being vin- and handled by FFRF staff attorneys “Reason and the Constitution have tian cross conspicuously displayed in dicated on appeal — as the majority of Rebecca Markert and Madeline Ziegler prevailed,” says FFRF Co-President Bayview Park,” says Roy Speckhardt, the court said it should be,” Hayward and AHA’s senior counsel Monica Mill- Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The court has executive director of AHA. “As the city said in the release. er and legal director David Niose. Huckabee Continued from page 1 frightening plan — the next phase a letter suggesting that a secular me- and crosses in urine are “art,” they firmly be- as art. of their Campaign for an Atheist morial on Capitol grounds was more lieve that they must sue the Heartland into The Huckabee attack letter makes America.” appropriate and inclusive than a sec- accepting these things. many statements that purport to be fac- This appears to be a deliberate lie tarian memorial. Painting an artistic “The clear implication here is that tual but are actually lies. Those state- meant to scare people into donating to suggestion as an anti-Semitic lawsuit FFRF has sued to force people to ac- ments injure FFRF’s reputation — and Citizens United. deliberately and dishonestly casts cept pornography and crosses in urine are intended to injure that reputation. In another lie, the letter states: FFRF in a negative light. as art, an indefensible claim devoid of FFRF is formally requesting that “In Ohio, the Freedom From Reli- Then there is this absurd and harm- any basis in reality,” Barker and Gaylor Mike Huckabee and the Citizens Unit- gion Foundation sued to prohibit the ful paragraph: To the Freedom From Re- write. ed Foundation cease disseminating Star of David from being displayed ligion Foundation, you and I are “narrow The state/church watchdog has nev- what it calls their smear letter or other at a new Holocaust Memorial.” FFRF minded” because we still believe in “old er brought a lawsuit about pornogra- lies about FFRF.