Police Departments Adding "In God We Trust" To Patrol Cars

The New York Times, in an article posted yesterday, reviews the growing trend among law enforcement agencies in the South and Midwest to place the national motto "In God We Trust" on their squad cars. The Times reports:

“With the dark cloud that law enforcement has been under recently, I think that we need to have a human persona on law enforcement,” said Sheriff Brian Duke of Henderson County, Tenn. “It gave us an opportunity to put something on our cars that said: ‘We are you. We’re not the big, bad police.’ ”

But critics worry that displays of “In God We Trust” on taxpayer-funded vehicles cross the threshold of constitutionality, even though the courts have repeatedly brushed aside challenges to the motto, which Congress enshrined in 1956. Explanations like the one Sheriff Duke offered have not curbed those frustrations.

“This motto has nothing to do with the problem of police forces’ shooting people, but it’s a great way to divert attention away from that and wrap yourself in a mantle of piety so that you’re above criticism,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, a co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group that has demanded that law enforcement officials stop exhibiting the motto. “The idea of aligning the police force with God is kind of scary. That’s the first thing you’d expect to see in a theocracy.”

Freedom From Religion Foundation Founder Ann Gaylor Dies At 88

Freedom From Religion Foundation announced yesterday that its principal founder Anne Nicol Gaylor died Sunday night. She was 88. Gaylor served as president of FFRF until 2004. According to FFRF:

A master of “sound bites” with media savvy, Anne quickly took FFRF from a tiny organization to the largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics) in North America.

FFRF, founded in 1976, has in recent years developed a major national presence in litigating church-state cases. Gaylor was also a co-founder of the Wisconsin-based Women’s Medical Fund, the oldest continuously operating abortion rights charity in the U.S.

FFRF Moves Into Expanded Headquarters

LaCrosse (WI) Tribune reports that the Freedom From Religion Foundation headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin last week saw its staff begin the move into the four stories added to its headquarters as part of an over $3 million expansion.  The addition quadrupled the office space of the organization which is one of the leading legal advocacy groups promoting separation of church and state.  A second phase of the project will remodel the original part of the FFRF headquarters.  The FFRF staff will be expanded from 14 to 17.

Saturnalia Billboard Angers Town Residents

In the small town of Pitman, New Jersey, for over 40 years a large banner proclaiming "Keep Christ in Christmas" has hung over a street in the city's business district. Philly.com reports that the Freedom from Religion Foundation has been rebuffed for several years in its attempt to get permission to put up a competing sign, so instead they have now rented billboard space at a busy intersection to display their message: "Keep the Saturn in Saturnalia."  This has apparently incensed some Pitman residents, and protests are escalating.  On Sunday, a family attempted to shroud the billboard with a picture of Jesus, and on Tuesday night, two men attempted unsuccessfully to burn down the billboard after pouring gasoline at its base.  The police chief says that patrols near the billboard will be increased, and the arsonists will be prosecuted if caught.

Court Holds That Tax Code's Parsonage Allowance Violates Establishment Clause

In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Lew, (WD WI, Nov. 22, 2013), a Wisconsin federal district court held unconstitutional Internal Revenue Code Sec. 107(2) that excludes from gross income a minister's parsonage allowance. The court held that the exclusion "violates the establishment clause under the [U.S. Supreme Court's] holding in Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock... because the exemption provides a benefit to religious persons and no one else, even though doing so is not necessary to alleviate a special burden on religious exercise."

An important issue in the case was plaintiffs' standing to bring the challenge.  FFRF co-presidents who were plaintiffs ultimately were found to have standing because of the non-excludable housing allowance they received as part of their compensation from FFRF. The court rejected the argument that plaintiffs should be seen as being entitled to claim the parsonage allowance as atheist ministers. The complaint in the case originally also challenged Sec. 107(1) that allows ministers who are furnished a home instead of a housing allowance to exclude the rental value of the home from income. Plaintiffs essentially conceded they lacked standing to pursue that challenge, and the court dismissed that aspect of their complaint. [Thanks to several readers who alerted me to the decision.]