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

God Bless America Bus

      Rob Sherman Advocacy has succeeded in getting a government transit agency to stop using a bus that equates god-belief with patriotism and implies that atheists are not patriotic.

      Pace, the suburban bus division of the Chicago area's Regional Transportation Authority, rolled out what they called their Patriotism USA bus.  The bus is wrapped with patriotic themes, but proclaims "God Bless America" in large, bold letters that run along the top of both sides from the front of the bus to the back of the bus.  Pace had gone to great lengths to make it clear that GBA is their message, the message of the government, and not the message of a private advertiser.

      The purpose of the design is to send a message of patriotism from the agency and to promote patriotism.  The words that were selected to send that message, however, had the effect of equating god-belief with patriotism and, by implication, equating atheism with a lack of patriotism.

      The Supreme Court of the United States, in the Lemon v. Kurtzman decision of 1973, held that, in order for an action by government to be constitutional, it must be secular in both its purpose and in its effect.  The patriotic themes on the sides of the bus have a secular purpose, but the effect of displaying GBA on the side of the bus is not secular.  Therefore, it is unconstitutional for the government to use taxpayer property to send the GBA message. 

      The same Supreme Court decision also held that an action by government must neither advance nor inhibit religion.  The GBA message clearly advances religion, so it is unconstitutional under this provision.

      The same Supreme Court decision also held that an action by government must not create an excessive entanglement between government and religion.  The GBA message clearly does just that.  There is no need for government to comment on theology in order to send a patriotic message, so inclusion of the GBA message excessively entangles government with religion.

      The GBA message on the side of the bus, therefore, fails all three prongs of the Lemon test.

      On Tuesday, January 29, 2002, I spoke with Pace Executive Director T. J. Ross and asked that he review the constitutionality of using GBA on the side of a taxpayer-owned bus, and that Pace cease and desist from displaying the message from any of its busses.  Mr. Ross said that one private company rents the advertising space on all Pace busses for a flat, annual fee, so it was their message, not Pace's.  I replied that that's not what his web site says, and that there is no indication on the side of the bus to indicate that GBA is a private, rather than a government, message.  Furthermore, since the government has already unambiguously embraced the message as its own, it was too late, now, for the government to disown the message by attributing the message to a private party.  Another Supreme Court decision has held that the government cannot have a private party do for the government what the government constitutionally cannot do itself.

      On Tuesday, February 5, 2002, Pace Communications Director Mindy LaFlamme called me to say that Pace agreed with everything that I said.  They removed the endorsement page and press release from their web site and promised to attach a disclaimer to the outside of the bus if it could be done before the advertisement is removed at the end of March, 2002.

      To see how this story developed, read Liberal News & Commentary for February 5, 2002, and February 6, 2002.