Pace: the final frontier, chapter 7 — School district employee cleared of contempt charges

I've been mulling over an extensive post covering the ongoing school prayer saga in Santa Rosa County for some time now, but there's just so much material, it's hard for me to wrap my brain around it all. In short, this isn't that post. But it is the next installment in the series "Pace: The Final Frontier," as school district clerk Michelle Winkler (right, with her attorney Horatio Mihet) managed to avoid a contempt rap for her actions in having her husband deliver a prayer at a school-related banquet.

As noted here a couple of weeks ago in the last series installment, Winkler faced civil contempt charges brought by the ACLU, which must be distinguished from the criminal contempt charges faced by Pace High School principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman. Basically, Lay and Freeman are accused by the court of willfully violating a temporary injunction that preceded (and essentially was the preliminary version of) the consent decree by which the school district promised not to permit organized, public prayer by its employees, whereas the ACLU --not the court -- accused Winkler of violating that temporary injunction.

The court's ruling apparently rests on the fact that the prayer offered by Winkler's husband at her behest did not occur at a "school function."

[U.S. District Judge Casey] Rodgers said that while Winkler clearly defied a superior's directive, she did not willfully violate a temporary injunction Rodgers implemented on Jan. 19, as the School District and ACLU hashed out a long-term written agreement.

[...]

Winkler was given notice from a superior that she could not offer a prayer at a Feb. 20 Employee of the Year banquet, but instead had her husband give the invocation.

The banquet required paid admission and was funded not by the School District, but a nonprofit organization called the Santa Rosa Education Foundation paid all of the expenses.

School districts are not allowed to use public money to fund entertainment events, Mihet said, so the foundation, which makes its money through private donations, paid for the event.

ACLU attorneys Benjamin Stevenson and Glenn Katon both argued that funding was a moot issue as without the School District, the foundation wouldn't exist and the employee banquet wouldn't have taken place.

Obviously, the court disagreed with the argument Stevenson and Katon made, and in my opinion as a lawyer, it appears to be the correct decision. The banquet, while it certainly was related to school activities, appears to have been a private affair and not a "school event" as clearly defined in paragraph 3(g) of the consent decree (PDF). It was paid for by private funds and held outside of school times and facilities. In that sense, it was like a private baccalaureate service held at a nearby church, which was conducted in response to the school-led baccalaureate that started this whole mess in the first place. Such private events are perfectly permissible.

This is a critical distinction, because the actions of Lay and Freeman unquestionably took place during school hours on school grounds, and so the luncheon at which their prayer occurred most likely was a "school event" within the meaning of the consent decree. So even though I have no doubt the Christianist whackjobs will proclaim the ruling in Winkler's case as divine intervention and they'll prattle on incessantly about how this shows that students ought to have the privilege of hearing God's word in public schools --oh, wait, they're already saying that -- the basic fact is that this ruling has absolutely no precedential effect on the Lay/Freeman case. The situations are completely different ... and Mihet properly understands this, saying in the article that he "is not going to speculate as to what today's decision means for Mr. Lay and Mr. Freeman."

I don't know whether I'll ever get to that Big Post I keep promising about this case ... but I think it's going to be the main topic on Monday's Blast Off! Radio show, so please make plans to join me then if you're interested ....

Pace: the final frontier, chapter 2 — Where prayer in school just won't go away

A month ago, I told you about the Florida Panhandle community of Pace and its peculiar breed of batshit crazy fundamentalist Christians -- you know, the ones who seem never to have heard of the U.S. Constitution? Well, those folks are back in the news again, and I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to discover that they still don't understand the concept of separation of church and state!

Instead, they're holding a big ol' "Rally for Education," conveniently ignoring the fact that public education and religion ought to have nothing to do with each other, and they're claiming that they have the First Amendment on their side, not those heathens led by the ACLU:

"We will educate people on their rights according to the First Amendment and express the heritage of our country in regard to freedom of religion," said [the Rev. Matt] Cotten, minister of education and outreach at Pine Terrace Baptist Church in Milton. "I believe you can peacefully express your religion any place, any time."

The rally is in response to a federal lawsuit filed in August by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two unnamed Pace High students who objected to Santa Rosa School District personnel promoting religious activity in the classroom and at school events.

The School District admitted the allegations, and a consent decree spelling out the steps the district will take to end the violations was signed this month. It still must be reviewed by a federal judge.

Tallahassee attorney J. David Marsey, who represented the district in the suit, noted at the time that the agreement stops only School District-sanctioned prayer.

"Nothing prevents our kids from praying," Marsey said.

But Cotten, a father of two, one of whom is a Pace High sophomore, still objects to the limits imposed by the consent degree.

"I had to do something," he said.

A former computer engineer, he set up a Web site, www.ok2pray.org.

"Groups such as the ACLU are working overtime to destroy our rights and civil liberties as Christians in America," he writes on the site. "We believe it is time for Christians to stand up and take a stand peacefully but with strength and perseverance."

Okay, Rev. Cotten, let's go over this nice and slowly so you can understand: Which part of "pray anytime and anywhere you want, just not in an organized fashion in a public school" do you not like? If you have to "do something," why is it demonstrate against the Constitution and use some perverted reading of the First Amendment to claim that you have free speech rights to organized school prayer?

Maybe you didn't pick this up in law school, but since I did, I'll try to explain briefly. The First Amendment does provide for freedom of speech, but like all freedoms we as Americans enjoy, there are certain limits to them. As I like to say by way of example, my right to swing my fist ends at your face; at that point, I'm violating your rights. Similarly, your right to say anything you like -- to preach the Gospel, for example -- ends on public school property, because American jurisprudence has determined that people who are not Christians (and yes, Rev. Cotten, believe it or not, they do exist -- even in Pace) shouldn't have to be subjected to your prayers.

The bottom line, as Mr. Marsey, the Tallahassee attorney quoted above, already explained, is that you can "peacefully express your religion any place, any time." Indeed, no one is stopping anyone from praying! But the part that you apparently can't get through your skull is that you just can't organize prayer in public schools! Pray in your churches ... pray in your homes ... pray in the park ... hell (oops, sorry!), even tell your kids to pray in school! But remember that the school can't sponsor or organize the prayers -- that's pretty much the only restriction. And for those students or staff members who may be Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist or agnostic or atheist or whatever, that's the fair and appropriate way to do things.

And this might surprise you, Rev. Cotten -- even the ACLU believes you have the right to pray!

The ACLU supports everyone's right to pray, said Benjamin Stevenson, staff attorney for Florida.

"We continue to fight for the liberty to worship without undue impediments from the government," he said. "Inherent in religious liberty is the freedom from government actors using their official position to harness the government's resources and advantages to promote their own personal religious beliefs."

[...]

ACLU officials are pleased the participants will exercise their First Amendment rights, Stevenson said.

"More, not less, dialogue preserves our democracy," he said.

So, please, Rev. Cotten, understand that no one is trying to proscribe religion, and the reasonable restrictions adopted by the Santa Rosa County School Board do nothing -- NOTHING -- to restrict your rights to prayer. It just doesn't belong in our public schools.

(See -- I'll bet you thought I was going to tell Rev. Cotten to shut the fuck up. I really can be civil after all!)

Gay-Straight Alliance wins lawsuit and can meet at Yulee High

Following up on a story Blast Off! brought you the other day, yesterday U.S. District Judge Henry Adams ruled in favor of the two Yulee High School students whose efforts to launch a Gay-Straight Alliance club at the school were squelched by the Nassau County School Board. And the judge didn't mince words, either, in holding that the Board's argument -- the group's name was the problem because it violated the county's abstinence-only sex education policy -- was specious:

In a strongly worded order, U.S. District Judge Henry Adams said the students have a “substantial likelihood of success” in court, a standard for granting the preliminary injunction. He said the school district’s argument against allowing the club to meet “strains logic.”

[...]

But Adams wrote that existing cases, including one decided last year involving a Gay-Straight Alliance in Okechobee County schools, didn’t support the district’s position.

“There is no evidence that the alliance counters the relevant abstinence policy in any way,” Adams wrote.

Great news for the students, and great news for tolerance in general ...

For those interested, here's the complaint (.pdf) filed by the ACLU on behalf of the students -- note especially the letter, marked Exhibit B, from the Nassau County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. John L. Ruis, stating that a "club name highlighting specific sexual orientations will not be permitted [to meet] as it would violate school board [abstinence-only] policy." The actual opinion by Judge Adams apparently is not available yet online.

I don't feel socialist

You know, I remain shocked and surprised that, going on two months into the failed Obama administration, I have yet to be forced to gay-marry anyone or join a collective.

Of course, to listen to those afflicted with Obama Derangement Syndrome, you'd think we were well on our way to a socialist, if not outright Communist, future. But, as usual, those on the Right can't see the forest for their own batshit crazy trees. Turns out (as most of us already knew) the president is no crazed liberal DFH after all:

On the war in Iraq, Obama has, wisely, stepped back from his brigade-a-month withdrawal plan and stretched his 16-month departure timetable to 19 months. It turns out that the residual force Obama discussed, sketchily, during the campaign will total 50,000 troops.

A "broken promise … more like occupation-lite," charged the antiwar group Code Pink.

On the legal issues entwined in the war on terror, Obama is, again wisely, proceeding more slowly than many civil libertarians demand. Guantanamo will be closed — eventually. Military commissions have been halted, torture policies renounced, and secret memorandums released.

Yet the Obama Justice Department backstopped the Bush Justice Department's assertion of the state secrets privilege to block lawsuits challenging wiretapping and extraordinary rendition. The administration argued that prisoners in Afghanistan cannot challenge their detention in court. It leaned on the British government to keep evidence of alleged torture secret.

"Hope is flickering," lamented ACLU executive director Anthony Romero.

On social issues, Obama has proceeded largely as promised during the campaign — again, with caution. He reversed Bush administration policies on family planning funds and stem cell research. In his education speech Tuesday, Obama not only reiterated his campaign endorsement of merit pay for teachers "for improved student achievement," he called on states to lift caps on the number of charter schools. Obama has said he backs a controversial measure to make union organizing easier, but shown no zeal for having the legislation brought up.

Likewise, in continuing the Bush office of faith-based initiatives, Obama retrenched from his stance that groups receiving federal funds cannot discriminate in hiring. Instead, such issues will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

"I am very disappointed," proclaimed Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Okay, we get it. Anytime Code Pink, the ACLU, and the leading separation-of-church-and-state group are chagrined, it can't be good news for liberals, right? Indeed, I share the consternation that the withdrawal from Iraq will take longer, that some of the ignorance of the Constitution is being continued, and that religion -- Christian religion, specifically -- still has a strong (if unconstitutional) foothold in our federal government.

But we knew all that was likely during the campaign! At least, anyone who was paying attention did. Barack Obama never pretended to be another Dennis Kucinich, and the fact is, if he had, he probably wouldn't have won the presidency. We still have a lot of favorable activity taking place, from the lifting of the stem cell research ban to an economic stimulus plan designed to help real Americans, not the bigwig CEOs. Point is, we're a damn sight better off than we would have been with Huggy Bear as president, and that's pretty damn good.

Look, I'll still hammer the administration from the Left, no doubt. But I wish the rightards would shut the hell up already about Obama being so "liberal." If you'd open your eyes and quit listening to Limbaugh for a few minutes, you might see that the president is a lot more centrist -- even conservative -- than you think.

Pace: the final frontier

Just when I think northwest Florida can't possibly get wingnuttier, I encounter something else that proves me wrong.

The small community of Pace sits in Santa Rosa County about 10 miles north of Pensacola, right beside the county seat of Milton. Actually, drivers heading east along US 90 would be hard-pressed to tell where Pace ends and where Milton begins, so seamless is the succession of big-box stores, fast food eateries, strip malls, and, of course, churches. Yes, Pace is smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt of America's Taint™, and some of its residents apparently feel that religion somehow trumps federal law ... despite, oh, a freaking Constitution to the contrary.

The biggest news in Pace recently, other than the Pace High boys' basketball district title and the start of high school baseball season, has been the ruling by U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers, in a lawsuit by the ACLU, that a Christian baccalaureate service for Pace High School graduating seniors could not be organized by school officials, as it has been in the past. (The service traditionally was organized by the school but conducted "at a variety of local churches" over the years, according to the linked article.) Naturally, this has sent the heavily Christian community there into a tizzy, since they clearly can't imagine how anyone could be offended by such a practice ... or they don't care.

Pace-area pastors, led by Rev. Joey Rogers of Pace Assembly of God Church, have banded together to plan and provide the baccalaureate service this year, but despite the nearly unnoticeable transition from a school-organized to a church-organized activity, some Paceans (Paceites? Pacers? Pace cars?) aren't satisfied. Exhibit A in the wingnut whinefest is local resident Russell Tafuri, whose letter to the editor appeared in yesterday's Pensacola News Journal. And the cognitive dissonance is jarring:

Thank you, Rev. Rogers, for standing up and doing what's right for our Pace High School seniors! ("ACLU suit spurs change," Feb. 3.)

The question of Pace High School administrators blurring the separation of church and state is ludicrous. Pace has come to be known as a small-town, family-values oriented and religious community. According to Wikipedia, a baccalaureate "is a celebration which honors a graduating senior class from a college or high school. The event is often, but not necessarily, of a religious nature."

"Often, but not necessarily!" The ACLU suit, albeit absurd, has created much ado, brought many emotions to life, and bound the community stronger. The result? An increase in support for the baccalaureate and other community functions for what they are — exhibits of good moral character and fundamental decency in a God-worshipping community, all of which have been either lost or diluted in today's society.

Preservation of these as a way of life in the Pace community is being threatened by the "big city" ideals and numerous litigious parties. This New York City native settled in Pace to get back to what this country was based on — small-town values, one nation, under God. So sue me!

Well, Mr. Tafuri, your ignorance must truly be bliss. Never mind the fact that you cite Wikipedia -- fuckin' Wikipedia* -- to back up your point. (I can go on there right now and change the definition of "baccalaureate" to read "a celebration which honors Satan and his minions" if I want, and it would be just about as reliable.) If you want to live in a "small-town, family-values oriented and religious community" (syntax error!), of course that's fine. But you see, Russ (may I call you Russ?), under federal law, state entities -- like the public schools -- are forbidden from establishing a religion. And having a school-sponsored religious service is about as "establishing" as you can get, pal. Oh, and read your American history, please: this country was not founded on "one nation, under God" -- a phrase that didn't appear in the Pledge of Allegiance until the 1950s, I might add ...

Anyway, your screed against "often, but not necessarily" fails miserably as well (and I don't mean just because it's from fuckin' Wikipedia). First of all, if a service is "often" religious, it still can't be organized by the school. Secondly, this particular service for Pace High School isn't just "often" religious -- it's completely religious, and completely Christian to boot.

Look, Russ, I've no complaints if you want to worship your God or sacrifice goats or have the laying on of tongues or whatever it is that you do. But you need to keep that in your churches and homes, not in the public schools. As the ACLU's Florida staff attorney said, "Parents and religious leaders properly teach our children religion and faith. Religion is too precious to be left in the hands of school officials."

Similarly, Russ, education is too precious to be left in the hands of ignorant tools like you. But please enjoy the baccalaureate service this May ... handled by the churches, not the schools, as the Constitution requires.

---

* I just thought I'd throw a few F-bombs in here for you, Russ ... since you're from NYC, it should make you feel right at home.

Health care professionals: vote NO on Amendment 2

I received an email today from Tom Maher, Ballot Campaign Director for the ACLU in Miami. Having read my post about the Florida constitutional amendments, he's asked me to post a pledge for health care professionals to oppose the noxious Amendment 2, which would prohibit any kind of union, whether for love or benefits (health care, I mean) or whatever, outside of marriage. Remember, it's not just an anti-gay marriage measure -- it seeks to destroy any rights even heterosexual unmarried couples might have, and it would prevent employers in Florida from offering benefits to unmarried partners of employees, whether same-sex or not.

Anyway, I'm happy to comply with Tom's request. Below you should see the pledge, which (if the embed works properly) you can zoom, save, and even print for submission to Tom at the ACLU (per the instructions at the bottom of the page).

If no document appears below, please click this link to read the document online.

Health Care Professionals FINAL - Upload a Document to Scribd

Now Falwell finds out whether he was right

Wow -- see what happens when I'm in a meeting for the afternoon and away from the news?

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. He was 73.

Atrios makes some great points about Falwell's opinions during his life. Who can forget Falwell's immortal words, "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals"?

And what about his commentary on 9/11?

Television evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, two of the most prominent voices of the religious right, said liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility for Tuesday's terrorist attacks because their actions have turned God's anger against America.

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club," hosted by Robertson.

"Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson responded. "I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."

Falwell said the American Civil Liberties Union has "got to take a lot of blame for this," again winning Robertson's agreement: "Well, yes."

Then Falwell broadened his blast to include the federal courts and others who he said were "throwing God out of the public square." He added: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.' "

And now, of course, he presumably knows (or knew) ... the rest of the story.

I always learned that if you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all. So I'll stop there, and let Falwell's own words speak volumes.

UPDATE (4:34 pm 5/15/07): And didja see who was first out of the gate in making statements of condolence?

Sen. John McCain, [Liberty University's] commencement speaker last year, said Tuesday that his prayers were with Falwell's family.

"Dr. Falwell was a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country," McCain said.

STFU, Saint John.