The ACLU and Its Allies: Standing in Need of Prayer
Mon, 26 Nov 2007
In an article, The ACLU and Its Allies: Standing in Need of Prayer, published at Townhall this past Thursday, ADF attorney Jordan Lorence gives thanks for enforcement of the constitutional requirement of “standing” in Establishment Clause suits:
The obscure doctrine of “standing” means that federal courts cannot hear a lawsuit unless the person bringing it has suffered some concrete injury by the hand of the government, and the federal courts can do something to remedy that harm . . . For decades, the ACLU has convinced federal courts to ignore these rules of standing when it brings its extreme lawsuits to eradicate the posting the Ten Commandments in city hall, to censor the singing of Christmas carols in the public schools, or to stop a school board meeting from opening in prayer . . . But finally the courts are waking up. They are imposing the standing rules across the board and rejecting these lawsuits until the ACLU finds someone who has actually been harmed by the government’s actions.
According to Lorence, several cases including two recent cases in Indiana (Hinrichs v. Speaker of the House of Representatives) and Louisiana (Doe v. Tangipahoa Parish Sch. Bd.) have highlighted the effect such enforcement will have on the ACLU’s attempt to implement its radical anti-Christian agenda.