For Immediate Release
Contact: Lori Lipman Brown, (202) 299-1091
Nontheists Condemn Supreme Court Decision in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation
Statement by Lori Lipman Brown, Director, Secular Coalition for America
Washington, DC - June 25, 2007 - The Secular Coalition for America, representing the views of nontheist Americans, today expressed its deep disappointment in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation, condemning the ruling as curtailing enforcement of the Establishment Clause.
Monday's 5-4 decision ruled that taxpayers cannot challenge a White House initiative that plaintiffs claim favors certain religious groups seeking federal funds.
The Secular Coalition for America educates elected and appointed leaders to the viewpoints held by tens of millions of nontheist Americans and strives to preserve the secular character of our government. In response to Monday's Supreme Court decision, Lori Lipman Brown, director of the Secular Coalition for America, issued the following statement:
The Hein decision is a dangerous shift in Establishment Clause jurisprudence and furthers the notion of a unitary executive -- a President whose behavior is not answerable to the other branches of government and who may engage in unfettered unconstitutional behavior. By blocking the lawsuit on these grounds, the Supreme Court allows the executive branch to provide assistance to favored religious organizations. This preference to certain religious groups is precisely what our Founders sought to prevent in creating the Establishment Clause. Through this decision the Court is sending a frightening message -- that we, as taxpayers, cannot challenge a president's decision to channel federal funds to his preferred religious group.
Justice Scalia minimizes this type of infringement of the Establishment Clause as nothing more than "psychological displeasure." Privileging certain religious groups over the rest of society is more than "psychological displeasure." The Secular Coalition for America applauds the dissenting Justices Souter, Stevens, Ginsberg, and Breyer, who understand that this "type of injury has deep historical roots going back to the ideal of religious liberty."
The ruling begs a close evaluation of federal funding from the President's faith-based initiatives. To date, no congressional legislation has authorized the President's faith-based initiative offices and no oversight hearings have been held on how the President has used his discretionary funds to finance these projects. Since the Court has declined to act Congress must now step forward.
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The Secular Coalition for America is the only organization in the nation whose primary purpose is lobbying Congress on behalf of atheists, humanists, freethinkers, and other nontheistic Americans. The coalition is the first and only cooperative venture of eight member organizations coming together to improve the political situation of a previously unrepresented constituency: the tens of millions of atheists and agnostics in the United States.