The United States Court of Appeals has ordered Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to file her appeal brief in the "Moment of Silence" case, and to do so by September 8th.
Dawn Sherman.
Photo by her Daddy. Isn't she beautiful?
That's the case in which my sixteen-year-old atheist daughter, Dawn Sherman, who was only fourteen years old at the time, took on the entire Illinois General Assembly in federal court and won, getting the notorious mandatory Student Prayer Act declared unconstitutional on January 21st of this year by federal Judge Robert Gettleman, a former ACLU of Illinois Board Member (how convenient!).
Madigan requested last week, for the third time since April, that the Appellate Court suspend briefing on the case until the Illinois General Assembly acted on two Bills of proposed legislation, this time until November. A Bill in the Illinois House, HB 288, would make the "Moment" voluntary. A Bill in the Illinois Senate, SB 1658, would keep the "Moment" mandatory, but eliminate certain unconstitutionally unfair provisions of the law, such as showing a clear preference that the students engage in prayer, specifying how long the "Moment" could be and allowing atheists the same right that Christians were given to think about whatever they wanted to during the "Moment."
As I pointed out in this previous story, both of those Bills are dead, so there is nothing that could have been accomplished by further postponing of the briefing in this case.
The requirement that Madigan file her brief by September 8th was issued in a three-sentence order entered by the Court, yesterday, Monday, August 10, 2009.
Besides ordering that the brief and required short appendix of the appellant (that's Lisa Madigan's side) are due by September 8, 2009, the Court also ordered that the brief of the appellee (that's my side) is due by October 8, 2009, and that the reply brief of the appellant, if any, is due by October 22, 2009.
Now, Lisa, who is running for re-election as Attorney General, has thirty days to decide what case she can possibly make to defend this clearly unconstitutional law. It's always possible that Lisa could tell the court, "Never mind. Dawn and Rob have been right, all along."
Let's hope so.