| Supreme Court Rejects ACLU
Attack On Minute Of Silence! Washington, DC - "We are very grateful for the Supreme Court's decision on Virginia's minute of silence law," said Traditional Values Coalition Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon today. "The Court ruled wisely that this law does not violate the separation of church and state." On Monday, the Court rejected an ACLU effort to have Virginia's minute of silence struck down as unconstitutional. Virginia's Attorney General Randolph A. Beales noted: "The act does not require students to do anything or say anything or hear anything. It does not require them to make any gesture or acknowledgment. It only requires them to stay in their seats, to remain silent and not to distract their classmates." "The Court's refusal to hear the ACLU's appeal on this case is wonderful news to Virginia's 1 million public school children," said Rev. Sheldon. "Children of all faiths will now be free to begin each school day by acknowledging their reliance on God. This is especially important now that our nation is at war." Traditional Values Coalition has long argued that the separation of church and state is a myth-based upon a faulty Supreme Court ruling made in 1947 in "Everson vs. Board of Education." In this decision, the Court stated that the "First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach." "James Madison, one of the writers of our Constitution would have disagreed with this 1947 decision," noted Rev. Sheldon. "Madison once wrote: 'Religion [is] the basis and foundation of government . . . before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.' This view was universally held by our Founding Fathers." "From this bad decision, came dozens of other rulings over the years that have stifled religious freedom and violated the right of children to pray in school," said Sheldon. "This latest ruling by the Court is encouraging news to those of us who are defending the free exercise of religion guaranteed under the First Amendment to our Constitution." The Traditional Values Coalition is an interdenominational public policy organization comprising more than 43,000 churches across the continental United States and Puerto Rico. For more information, contact Steve Aiken at 202-547-8570. TVC's Web site is: www.traditionalvalues.org. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml] |