Rob Sherman Advocacy   
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"Fighting injustice, one victory at a time."

 

Liberal News and Commentary
Tuesday, September 3, 2002

Chicago's Response to 9/11 Dispute:
"Put up a shield against Rob Sherman"

      On Friday, I contacted the City of Chicago    Office of Special Events to find out what they were going to do about the nine unconstitutional elements of their September 11th municipal prayer service, which I discussed in last Friday's Liberal News & Commentary.  One employee, who for obvious reasons asked to not be identified, said, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but we've all been instructed that, if you were to call, we are to put up a shield against Rob Sherman and not tell him anything."

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      Stonewalling is a traditional way for government to try to hide from its own misconduct.  The theory that government uses is:  Perhaps if we stall, he'll lose interest and just go away.

      That's not going to happen, here.  I don't just go away.  If Mayor Daley doesn't want to resolve this matter administratively, then I'll take him to federal court in behalf of the Chicago residents who have asked me to intervene in their behalf.

      Frequently, when conservatives seek to defend unconstitutional use of the word, "God," in government settings, they contend that it doesn't violate the First Amendment because it doesn't establish "a religion."  That argument, however, is false.  The First Amendment prohibition is against establishment of "religion," not "a religion."  Establishing "a religion" is one of the prohibitions, but not the only one, as conservative try to falsely imply.  The First Amendment also prohibits government from showing a preference for religion over non-religion.

      Pursuant to a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, the religion clause of the First Amendment requires that an action by government:  

      These points are taken straight from the Supreme Court decision in the case of Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971).  (See Roman Numeral II, Paragraph 4, of the hyperlinked decision.)  This standard is known by every government agency and civil liberties group as the "Lemon Test," so named because the first person named in the litigation is some guy named "Lemon." 

      An argument could be made that the Chicago 9/11 municipal prayer service does not not violate the first prong of the test, in that it serves the secular purpose of commemorating yet another terrorist attack on this country by religious people.  (Atheists don't commit terrorist acts against the United States.  Only religious people do.)  However, the government prayer service certainly violates the second and third prongs of the Lemon Test and, in fact, it actually does establish "a religion."

      The government of the City of Chicago has set up a municipal religion by:

      Without question, Mayor Daley has set up a municipal religion.  In fact, this whole deal reminds me of, of all things, my Bar Mitzvah!  For my Bar Mitzvah, Dad, as spiritual leader of the family, decided who would would say which prayers, who would get an Aliyah (called to the Torah to recite a blessing), who would say the Moetzie (the prayer over the bread) and who would say the Kiddish (the prayer over the wine).  I think Dad did the Shekheyanu himself (the prayer expressing gratitude that this day has occurred).

      Mayor Daley, on the other hand, is not the spiritual leader of the residents of Chicago.  That's not his job.  He's the leader of the secular aspects of city life, and he is required, by the constitution, to not make decisions about the religious life of city residents.

      Why did I get Bar Mitzvahed?  When you're thirteen years old, you do what your father tells you to do, even if you're an atheist, as I was at the time.  You'll be glad to know, however, that I refused a request that I compose my own Bar Mitzvah prayer because, as I told my parents at the time, there is no god to say the prayer to.  My older brother composed the prayer for me and I read it under orders from my parents.

      The whole thing was a hypocritical farce, but in certain Jewish communities, such as in Highland Park, Illinois, in 1966, a Bar Mitzvah was more a social occasion for the parents rather than a religious event for the child.  The kid gets Bar Mitzvahed whether he likes it or not.

      Another Supreme Court case makes the situation regarding the Chicago municipal religion ceremony explicitly clear in yet another way.  In Walz v. Tax Commission, 397 U.S. 664 (1970), the Supreme Court stated that the three main evils against which the Establishment Clause was intended to afford protection are:  "sponsorship, financial support, and active involvement of the sovereign in religious activity."  (See Roman Numeral I, paragraph 2, of the hyperlinked decision.)

      Mayor Daley's plan clearly violates all of those provisions.  I said it on Friday and I'll say it again, today:  Mayor Daley can eliminate the prayer service from his 9/11 memorial ceremony without a federal lawsuit, or he can do it at the point of a federal injunction, which would be very expensive for the taxpayers of Chicago.  Either way, however, the nine constitutional violations will come out of that event.

         Rob Sherman          

P. O. Box 7410
Buffalo Grove, IL  60089-7410

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Telephone:  (847) 870-0700

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