JUDGE ROY MOORE AND FOUNDATION FOR MORAL FILE BRIEF ON BEHALF OF THIRTY-FIVE KENTUCKY SENATORS DEFENDING LAW RECOGNIZING KENTUCKY'S DEPENDENCE ON GOD FOR SAFETY
May 11, 2010
Alabama Judge Roy Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law, together with Col. Ron Ray and First Principles Press, filed an amicus curiae brief in the Kentucky Court of Appeals on behalf of 35 Kentucky Senators defending a Homeland Security Act that declared that “[t]he safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.” After the radical American Atheists group filed suit against the law, Judge Thomas Wingate of the Franklin Circuit Court ruled the law to be a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and a violation of the Kentucky Constitution. The case is now on appeal to the state appeals court.
Click here to read the Kentucky Senators' Brief.
Judge Roy Moore noted:
“From George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to Ronald Reagan and Kentucky today, America has turned to Almighty God for her strength and security. Our National Motto expresses that concept in the singular phrase, ‘In God We Trust.' The Kentucky circuit court was simply wrong to deny Kentucky the right to acknowledge God as its ultimate source of security.”
The amicus brief explains that the Establishment Clause only forbids laws “respecting an establishment of religion,” not laws that simply recognize our need for God's protection. The Founding Fathers wanted to prevent an official, national denomination, but even they acknowledged God and His Divine Providence in many official acts and laws. Neither the words of the First Amendment nor their meaning have changed, and all judges ought to apply the original meaning of those words when interpreting the Constitution. In this case, the Kentucky Homeland Security law does not establish a religion, but acknowledges God in a perfectly constitutional manner. The Kentucky trial court is using the First Amendment to infringe, rather than protect, religious liberty in Kentucky.
Col. Ron Ray of First Principles Press stated:
“The Kentucky General Assembly acted responsibly and constitutionally in KRS 39G.010 stressing the dependence on 'Almighty God' as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth. This action of the legislature is entirely consistent with more than 500 years of America's official and permanent history in the creation and preservation of the Republic. These 'organic utterances' of the official branches of civil government have always recognized the Creator and this law is a specific application of America 's Official National Motto, 'In God We Trust,' which no court has ever overturned, until now, despite multiple efforts of those hostile to these self evident truths.”
The Foundation for Moral Law, a national non-profit legal organization, is located in Montgomery, Alabama, and is dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through litigation and education relating to moral issues and religious liberty cases.
First Principles, Inc., is a 501(c)3 tax exempt educational organization, which promotes real American history as a key source for understanding the foundations of American law, civil government, and our public institutions.
