Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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"Fighting injustice, one victory at a time."
The past five editions of Liberal News & Commentary have described how Rob Sherman Advocacy has attempted to persuade Chicago city officials to eliminate the prayer from its 9/11 memorial ceremony. On Friday, after an hour-long negotiating session with three of Mayor Daley's top attorneys, Chicago said that they wouldn't budge, so today, two Chicago atheists who are affiliated with Rob Sherman Advocacy filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago and Mayor Daley. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the municipal prayer service, scheduled for this Wednesday, that has been organized by the city's Office of Special Events to commemorate the September 11, 2001, attack on America by religious people.
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Our plaintiffs include Clint Harris, one of the most famous names in the history of Chicagoland atheist activism. Clint Harris lived in Zion in the 1980's and was our plaintiff in the famous Zion City Seal case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court and which we won. Nine years ago, when Clint was run out of Zion for being a successful atheist activist, he moved to Chicago to pursue his career.
When Mayor Daley announced his plans to commemorate the terrorist attack by endorsing and promoting religion, Clint was as outraged as I was. He offered to be the plaintiff if we couldn't talk some sense into city officials. Clint also mentioned that he has a child who is attending a Chicago public school, and that he was concerned, based on Mayor Daley's statements in his press release, that his child would be coerced into saying the Chicago Prayer against his/her will. As a result, Clint's child became the second plaintiff in our lawsuit.
Below, you'll find links to the documents in our filing with the court. One thing that you'll notice in these documents that differs from what I've said in Liberal News & Commentary during the past week is our lawyer's assertion that the city's planned action violates all three prongs of the Lemon Test. I had said that it only violates the second and third prongs. The reason for the apparent discrepancy is that, according to our lawyer, the Seventh Circuit combines the first and second prongs, so if either are violated, then both are considered violated.
Also, due to difficulties converting the text from word processing software to internet text, you will see double spacing in certain titles where single spacing occurred in the documents filed with the court, and single spacing in the body of the text where double spacing occurred in the court documents. You can still read it, so don't worry about it if you're a lawyer and you think that I don't know how to format the text of a legal brief.
The filing with the federal court consisted of seven documents. The one with the most information that you'd be interested in is the third document.
The first document is the Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief. This document outlines certain technical aspects of the case to demonstrate that the federal court is the correct place to seek to have this dispute resolved.
The second document is the Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and/or Preliminary Injunction. This document asks the court to act immediately to stop Mayor Daley's plan to conduct a government prayer service.
The third document is the Plaintiff's Memorandum in Support of Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and/or Preliminary Injunction. This document makes our case. If you only read one of these seven documents, this is the one that explains our position on the issues.
The fourth document is the Verification by Certificate. The purpose of this document is for the plaintiff to certify that the information contained in the first three documents are truthful and accurately reflect the plaintiff's perspective. It's very similar to that new law that you've heard about, in which corporate CEO's are now required to sign a statement personally certifying the accuracy of the company's accounting statements.
The fifth document is the Notice of Motion and Proof of Service by Delivery. The Notice officially informs the lawyer for the other party that we've filed the first four documents and that the court will hear the matter at a particular place and time. The Proof informs the court that we've served our opponent with all the documents so that our opponent will have a fair opportunity to know what we are alleging and a fair opportunity to respond to our allegations. In the document for our particular case, the date, time and judge was filled in by hand after we filed the first four documents. Ordinarily, the court hears cases whenever they get around to it. In our case, however, we want the case heard either today or tomorrow, since the government prayer service is scheduled for Wednesday of this week. The federal courts have always been wonderful about accommodating these types of requests expeditiously.
The sixth document is the Civil Cover Sheet Input Form. This document is used by the office of the Clerk of the Federal Court. The above link is to a blank one.
The last document is the Summons in a Civil Case. This document tells the other party to the litigation that they should respond to our complaint. The above link is to a blank one.
Rob Sherman Advocacy thanks Clint Harris and his child for their act of patriotism in standing up for the constitution. We also thank Richard Grossman for providing legal assistance to us.
When religious people in this country have a disagreement with the way our government does things, they kill thousands of innocent people and destroy billions of dollars of property. In fact, that's what September 11th is all about. On the other hand, when we atheists in this country have a dispute with the way government does things, we politely ask a federal judge to decide whose right, and then we abide by that decision.
I sure am glad that I'm an atheist. Aren't you glad that you're one, too?
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
because
the street address uses a curb mail box,
which is not secure.
Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com
