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Bad Laws Make Good Cases

By Robert J. Ambrogi

In the news this week are two stories linked only by the fact that both involve ill-advised pieces of legislation and suggest well-advised legal challenges. In Kentucky, when the General Assembly passed a law creating the state's Office of Homeland Security, it apparently did not want to take any chances with any power -- whether foreign or higher -- that might influence the state's security. It inserted language in the law requiring the new office to acknowledge "the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth." The law required the office to include this statement in training materials and on a plaque in its operations center. While God may have appreciated the recognition, others saw it as perhaps a violation of the Constitution. Ten Kentucky residents and a national atheists' organization filed a lawsuit to strike the language from the law. Last week, a circuit judge in Frankfort had the good sense to agree with them. In an 18-page order, Judge Thomas Wingate declared the law's reference to God to be unconstitutional. In Missouri, meanwhile, public records advocates were caught off guard by a law that took effect this week. The law closes from public...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).