AMERICA is no longer recognising Christian foundations: BLOOMFIELD, N.M. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ruled that a New Mexico city must remove a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lawn in front of Bloomfield City Hall. Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker said in his ruling in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that the monument amounts to government speech and has the principal effect of endorsing religion. Because of the context and history surrounding the granite monument, Parker said Bloomfield clearly violated the First Amendments Establishment Clause. He gave a Sept. 10 deadline for its removal. The suit was filed in 2012 on behalf of two Bloomfield residents who practice the Wiccan religion. Peter Simonson, ACLU of New Mexico executive director, called the decision a victory for protection against government-supported religion. We firmly support the right of individuals, religious groups, and community associations to publicly display religious monuments, but the government should not be in the business of picking which sets of religious beliefs belong at City Hall, Simonson said Friday. According to previous court testimony, plaintiff Jane Felix said the display says that anybody who doesnt agree with this monument on city grounds is an outsider. It has no place on City Hall property, Felix said in March. READ MORE: huffingtonpost/2014/08/08/judge-ten-commandments_n_5662743.html
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 23:05:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015