We hear so much about activist judges tossing the Constution out the window in order to impose their personal policy preferences over our republic. In light of that, stories like the one below are very gratifying. Todd Warner Huston at Publius’ Forum reports:
Teacher Wins Against Ban of His Patriotic Banners in ClassroomBack in January of 2007 math teacher Brad Johnson of Westview High in San Diego County, California was told by his school administrators told him he had to take down the patriotic banner he had put up in his classroom because the word “God” appeared on it.
Johnson, of course, was quite upset about being told to take down his banner and took the school to court. In 2008 Judge Roger T. Benitez sided with the patriotic-minded teacher saying that the school was “brash” in its effort to force the teacher to take down the banner.
Well, after so long we have some news to report on this story and it is good news, indeed. The very same judge that sided with Mr. Johnson two years ago has officially ruled in favor of the teacher’s right to free speech.
Judge Benitez’s 32-page opinion was strongly worded and critical of the Poway school districts aversion to mentioning God: “[The school district officials] apparently fear their students are incapable of dealing with diverse viewpoints that include God’s place in American history and culture. . . . That God places prominently in our Nation’s history does not create an Establishment Clause violation requiring curettage and disinfectant for Johnson’s public high school classroom walls. It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God.”
The Thomas Moore Law Center represented the repressed teacher to good effect. Likely this isn’t over as left-wingers are not apt to being told “no” very often, especially by a judge.
We will have to await to see what further comes of this. but as of right now, we have a victory for free speech to celebrate.
We hear this drumbeat constantly from the left about how conservatives want to impose their (usually Christian) religion on everyone else. Politicians like Sarah Palin and public school teachers like Brad Johnson are used as such examples.
The irony is that the situation is exactly the opposite: It isn’t conservatives that are unconstitutionally imposing their religion on anybody. It is instead liberals who are unconstitutionally violating the civil rights of a citizen who has every right to exercise their religion. Who cares that it’s a school. The Constitution doesn’t stipulate “except in a public location.” And besides, it’s not like Johnson’s banners were even religious; they were patriotic slogans that have been around since the beginning of this nation! If they violated the Establishment Clause, then the Founders had been violating their own Constitution.
I don’t know who this judge Benitez is or his approach to jurisprudence, but he is exactly right. Too bad that not enough judges follow this originalist view. The fear secular liberal leftists have of our nation’s religious, coupled with the miseducation most Americans have w.r.t. the Constitution’s “Establishment” Clause, has led to the notion that all references to God must be eradicated from the public square. Even as Jew, I consider it one of the most tragic consequences of the modern liberal assault on public life.
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