Ethics

Judge Strikes Down Ky Homeland Security God Law

By Ed Brayton

Congratulations to my friend Edwin Kagin, legal director for American Atheists, who won his lawsuit against the state of Kentucky for a law that required the state to post plaques and include in all its educational and planning materials a statement saying that the security of the state "cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon almighty God."

A judge on Wednesday struck down a 2006 state law that required the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to stress "dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the commonwealth."

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the law violated the First Amendment's protection against the establishment of a state religion. Homeland Security officials have been required for three years to credit "Almighty God" in their official reports and post a plaque with similar language at the state's Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).