By Jeremy Fejfar, July 4, 2007
The great James Madison once wrote that a government in a free society may not force a citizen to contribute even “three pence” in support of any establishment of religion. Yet we as taxpayers have been forced to shell out millions, approaching billions, to just such a thing through the faith-based offices and cabinets of the White House.
The recent decision by the Supreme Court in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation should be of concern to all people in this country who value the freedom of religion afforded to them by the first amendment.
In its decision, the court ruled that taxpayers do not have standing to sue the executive branch over violations of the Establishment Clause, even though we have had standing to sue the legislature since 1968 for such violations.
So we could sue Congress for doing this, but the president can now violate the Establishment Clause all he wants without you or me being able to do a thing! This should concern everyone.
Those in the majority today may be in the minority tomorrow. You may not like it if another president starts spending your tax dollars for tree worship to end global warming (or other such nonsense), but thanks to the Supreme Court, now you can do nothing about it.
Once you start funding some religions, you have to fund all of them. This is why our nation was founded secular. We need groups like the FFRF fighting to keep it that way for all of us.
