ROY MOORE AND FOUNDATION FOR MORAL LAW FILE BRIEF IN SUPREME COURT DEFENDING UTAH HIGHWAY MEMORIAL CROSSES AGAINST ATHEIST ATTACK
May 19, 2011
Roy Moore, the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and the Foundation for Moral Law, a national religious liberties organization, filed an amicus curiae brief today urging the United States Supreme Court to hear a case in which atheists challenged the placing of memorial crosses along Utah highways to honor fallen Highway Patrolmen.
Read the Foundation's brief in Utah Highway Patrol Association v. American Atheists, Inc.
The Utah Highway Patrol Association regularly places crosses beside Utah highways at places where highway patrolmen were killed in the line of duty. American Atheists, Inc. and other plaintiffs have challenged the constitutionality of these cross memorials, alleging that they constitute an establishment of religion in violation of the First Amendment. The federal district court ruled that the crosses could remain, but the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that a reasonable observer would perceive the crosses as a state endorsement of the Christian religion.
Roy Moore, president of the Foundation for Moral Law, said of the lawsuit,
"As Memorial Day approaches, we think of American cemeteries overseas and the rows upon rows of white crosses that mark the graves of American soldiers who have died for our country. It is unthinkable that Utah highway patrolmen who died in the line of duty cannot be memorialized in the same way. The Framers of the First Amendment never envisioned such a result."
The Foundation's brief argues that the Utah crosses do not violate the Establishment Clause, particularly as the Constitution was understood by the Framers. The brief encourages the Supreme Court to return to the original understanding of the Constitution, the "supreme law of the land."
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.
