Since 12-01-06
A Victory Over
the ACLU and for Justice - Finally!
Since 12-01-06
Comrades, Colleagues, and Patriots:
WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am forwarding FYI this news bulletin from the Alliance Defense Fund on the decision of the California Court of Appeal reversing the San Diego Superior Court judge who had nullified the special election in which 76% of the voters voted to transfer the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial to the federal government after a U.S. District Judge ordered the cross at the memorial destroyed or he would impose a fine of $5,000 per day on San Diego taxpayers.
The Court of Appeal, in a precedent-setting, 53-page published decision, upheld the election, and the memorial itself, against every constitutional challenge, and ruled that neither the federal nor California Constitution has been violated.
Further, the Court of Appeal wiped out the $275,000 attorney fee "award" sought and received by the ACLU-backed attorney for the atheist plaintiff who brought this and other lawsuits to destroy the veterans memorial because of the cross that has been there for over half a century.
The Court's opinion can be read at http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/opinions.cgi?Courts=D.
A great debt is owed to Attorney Charles LiMandri, Regional Director of the Thomas More Law Center, attorney for the San Diegans for the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial who has led the legal fight to save the veterans memorial. His legal work has been as outstanding as has been his years-long dedication to the cause of defending the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial as it is, where it is.
I gratified am that we veterans in The American Legion Department of California, beause of our allies in the Alliance Defense Fund, were able to stand with Chuck LiMandri of the Thomas Moore Center in the legal fight to defend the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial, which I consider not only a California but a national treasures evidencing our respect and gratitude to our fallen American veterans.
I am personally thankful to Charles LiMandri, and to Attorney Robert P. Ottilie, attorney for appellant Mike Shelby, for yielding twenty-seven minutes of their time to me to present argument to the Court of Appeal on behalf of The American Legion Department of California Defense of Veterans Memorials Project. I used every second of that time, of course; and I hope to some persuasive effect in support of the effort to overturn the lower court and protect the memorial.
This is the first case in which our Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of the American Legion Department of California and the Alliance Defense Fund has appeared and argued in defense of a veterans memorial. We are indebted to the Alliance Defense fund without whom this victory could not have been won.
May it be but the first of many victories as our Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of The American Legion Department of California and the Alliance Defense Fund, standing with such allies as Charlies LiMandri and the Thomas More Law Center, combats the ACLU and cohorts all across the country in ACLU's fanatical Establishment Clause litigation attacks against veterans memorials, the Boy Scouts, and the public display of symbols of our American heritage in the public arena if they have a religious aspect.
Concisely stated:It is a constitutional obscenity that the modern ACLU has become nothing but a pimp of the law, prostituting justice for profits by judge-ordered attorney fee "awards" in Establishment Clause lawsuits against our veterans memorials, including the $275,000 the ACLU-backed attorney of the atheist plaintiff in San Diego sought and received from a single judge. I am gratified that entire rip-off of taxpayers has been reversed and taxpayers' funds can be used for public service instead of attorney profit by attacking a veterans memorial.
This case, however, is further evidence of the need for passage of the Veterans Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, And Other Expressions of Religion Act (PERA), which the House passed as H.R. 2679, sponsored by Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), and which is pending in the Senate as S. 3696, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback.
PERA will, if passed by the Senate, withdraw from judges the authority to award attorney fees to the ACLU, or anyone else, in Establishment Clause cases. This is absolutely necessary if we in The American Legion and others willing to fight the ACLU are going to effectively combat them in court without threat that they will collect their court-awarded fees from us or other veterans -- which is precisely the threat made by the ACLU-backed attorney for the atheist in this Mt. Soledad National War Memorial Case. I placed a copy of his threat letter in the evidentiary record when I testified for the American Legion before the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution in support of passage of PERA.
It is poetic justice that the ACLU-back attorney who threatened imposition of his judge-ordered attorney fees on the individual veteran appellants in this case, will now receive nothing as a result of a victory achieved, in some small measure, by the effort of American Legion veterans who, with the aid of the ADF, stood with Charles LiMandri of the Thomas More Law Center, to fight for this memorial to veterans.
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO THE ACLU--NEVER!
--Rees
REES LLOYD, Attorney
Commander, American Legion District 21
Director, Defense of Veterans Memorials Project
of The American Legion Department of California
951-849-8676