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High school student successfully sues her school to remove a religious prayer banner

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And how is the school Congress? Where are laws respecting the establishment of religion being made by Congress?

okay, further:

The guiding principle of Establishment Clause jurisprudence has been government neutrality. In McCreary County v. ACLU, the Supreme Court wrote:

The touchstone for our analysis is the
principle that the First Amendment mandates
governmental neutrality between religion and
religion, and between religion and
nonreligion
. When the government acts with
the ostensible and predominant purpose of
advancing religion, it violates that central
Establishment Clause value
of official
religious neutrality, there being no
neutrality when the government’s ostensible
object is to take sides.

in other words, by funding a school that promotes religious principles, the government endorses a religion, which it has consciously chosen not to do.
 
So, what part of the Constitution is this girl invoking? It certainly can't be the First Amendment because I fail to see how Congress is the school and the banner is a law...

Even with incorporation, her claim still doesn't hold up.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Text:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Definitions!!!!
The establishment clause is "[t]he First Amendment provision that prohibits the federal and state governments from establishing an official religion, or from favoring or disfavoring one view of religion over another."

Bolded part is relevant. It doesn't have to be a law.
 
Sound like it hit close to home

True. But trying to do it retroactively seems petty.

nope...but i don't want petty people who just want to impose them thoughts and opinions on my life either. That goes for teachers who bring personal politics into the classroom
So, you don't really have a point, do you?
So, what part of the Constitution is this girl invoking? It certainly can't be the First Amendment because I fail to see how Congress is the school and the banner is a law...

Even with incorporation, her claim still doesn't hold up.

I see you have missed the thread, here is some catch up material if you want to participate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Establishment_Clause
 
I see you have missed the thread, here is some catch up material if you want to participate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Establishment_Clause

I knew they enacted the Establishment Clause (albeit I believe they did so wrongly). I was simply pointing out that I think the court's decision doesn't hold any ground. And that this is petty.

They also used incorporation it seems. Interesting.

that's an entire debate unto itself

Yup. It sure is. I simply think it's dangerous to give the courts the sole power of deciding what is and what is not Constitutional. There, the Constitution isn't really the Law of the Land, it's more or less the courts who gain that power.

Why are you talking about Congress?

The Establishment Clause was meant (at least initially, before incorporation) to restrict Congress exclusively. Hence why Congress is the one specifically mentioned in it. States have their own state Constitutions to guide them for a reason.
 
/idiocy

yay!

image.php


yay!
 
This thread just EXPLODED, and yet I haven't seen it until just now.

While I think it would have been better if this banner had never been hung all those years ago, I don't see how it will cause anyone any real harm. I dunno, I guess I give teenagers more credit to make decisions on their own, because they're faced with attempts at coercing consumer action thousands of times a day, and they don't make thousands of consumer decisions a day.

We went through this in my high school almost a decade ago. The ACLU and the religious organizations battle it out, and the real losers are the students. We lost all our clubs that year, because they couldn't exclude one club that promoted gay rights, they got rid of all of them to spite 'the liberals.' That's what I see happening here... the Christians will see this as a concession, and one that they will demand concessions in exchange. When I was a student, I just wanted people to shut the fuck up and quit trying to decide what was best for me without giving me the option of deciding for myself. In my opinion, the school has no business of putting up pro-religious stuff. But, if a student wanted to, then so be it. It's how things worked in college, and it was a fair and harmonious place, comparably.
 
If this was a single happenstance at this school, how is it offensive? This is a question to the girl. Some religious attire found in schools and state/federal buildings represent traditional and/or historical artifacts for many people in this country. Yes many still allude to the religious context of these attires, but probably in many situations it remains a happenstance rather than a religious tool. I would have loved to have seen this situation and/or arguments take place personally between the school and the girl.

I personally do agree that it should have been removed or edited, this is coming from a Christian who doesn't feel the need to push my religious beliefs on others.

And for an off beat comment, I wish some people on GAF wouldn't be so negative towards religion or others that practice. OF course this is a two lane street.
 
This thread just EXPLODED, and yet I haven't seen it until just now.

While I think it would have been better if this banner had never been hung all those years ago, I don't see how it will cause anyone any real harm. I dunno, I guess I give teenagers more credit to make decisions on their own, because they're faced with attempts at coercing consumer action thousands of times a day, and they don't make thousands of consumer decisions a day.

We went through this in my high school almost a decade ago. The ACLU and the religious organizations battle it out, and the real losers are the students. We lost all our clubs that year, because they couldn't exclude one club that promoted gay rights, they got rid of all of them to spite 'the liberals.' That's what I see happening here... the Christians will see this as a concession, and one that they will demand concessions in exchange. When I was a student, I just wanted people to shut the fuck up and quit trying to decide what was best for me without giving me the option of deciding for myself. In my opinion, the school has no business of putting up pro-religious stuff. But, if a student wanted to, then so be it. It's how things worked in college, and it was a fair and harmonious place, comparably.

That is no ones fault but the bigots.
 
This thread just EXPLODED, and yet I haven't seen it until just now.

While I think it would have been better if this banner had never been hung all those years ago, I don't see how it will cause anyone any real harm. I dunno, I guess I give teenagers more credit to make decisions on their own, because they're faced with attempts at coercing consumer action thousands of times a day, and they don't make thousands of consumer decisions a day.

We went through this in my high school almost a decade ago. The ACLU and the religious organizations battle it out, and the real losers are the students. We lost all our clubs that year, because they couldn't exclude one club that promoted gay rights, they got rid of all of them to spite 'the liberals.' That's what I see happening here... the Christians will see this as a concession, and one that they will demand concessions in exchange. When I was a student, I just wanted people to shut the fuck up and quit trying to decide what was best for me without giving me the option of deciding for myself. In my opinion, the school has no business of putting up pro-religious stuff. But, if a student wanted to, then so be it. It's how things worked in college, and it was a fair and harmonious place, comparably.

And just whose fault do you think that is?
 
On the surface I must admit this appears like using a double-barreled shotgun to shoot a cockroach, but nonetheless it doesn't change this one simple fact:

The sign is against the law.
 
Why am I not surprised the girl is being threatened?

I like how a bunch of humorless people took your post seriously. Well played.

As of right now, two people appear to have taken the post seriously.

As for why, we've all seen far stupider things posted in these topics and they're usually not jokes.
 
As of right now, two people appear to have taken the post seriously.

As for why, we've all seen far stupider things posted in these topics and they're usually not jokes.

3 by my count. And yeah I understand that this is srs bsns. Still funny when joke posts are taken seriously.
 
3 by my count. And yeah I understand that this is srs bsns. Still funny when joke posts are taken seriously.

One is just a '?', which can be interpreted as not taking the post seriously, so I only counted two.

The embarrassing thing here is that trolling so accurately mirrors actual dialogue.
 
One is just a '?', which can be interpreted as not taking the post seriously, so I only counted two.

The embarrassing thing here is that trolling so accurately mirrors actual dialogue.

Yeah, that post is so close to actual dialog that now I'm not sure it's a troll at all!
 
Yeah, that post is so close to actual dialog that now I'm not sure it's a troll at all!

Works both ways though. Nothing makes me groan more than coming into one of these topics and reading "THE WORLD WOULD BE PERFECT IF THERE WAS NO RELIGION!". I can never tell if those people are serious either.
 
People who'd normally play the "this belief system isn't hurting anyone, it's innocuous" card suddenly make the case against themselves by acting rowdy and spitting vitriol in a public forum (not talking about gaf here, but literally the public forums at town halls and such).

No need to exclude GAF.

In this thread she's been accused of being petty, of being an attention whore, of being a mindless drone, of being a slut, of being an attention whore once again, of being that annoying girl in class archtype, of being butthurt (possibly only the friend that told her about it), of acting like an 18 year old know-it-all, of being an attention whore for a third time, of being a chronic complainer, of being petty again, of being an attention whore for a 4th time, of being stupid, as being just as disgusting as religious extremists, of being petty for a 3rd time, resentful and shoving her beliefs down people's throats, of being an annoying, complaining member of society in the future, of being a crybaby, of being an uptight priss, attention-seeking activist asshole and of being annoying and self-righteous.

Posters have asked for background info on the girl, wanted to ask what the fuck her problem is, told her not to go to school if she doesn't like it, accused her of forcing her views on others, accused of taking an idiotic action, of having no respect and being a pussy, along with trying to connect her atheism to being a vegetarian (the hell kind of schoolyard insult was this?).

Now considering how GAF is probably one of the most tolerant places you'll find for atheists, I can only imagine what she went through when the school decided to take her request to a public committee.
 

Bravo for outing some fools.

edit: I'll say the worst insult was ghostofsparta's bizarre and misogynistic claim that she'll be "pregnant in a year."
 
Now considering how GAF is probably one of the most tolerant places you'll find for atheists, I can only imagine what she went through when the school decided to take her request to a public committee.

I feel honored that I am included in that list (not really)

I personally think that you're taking my archetype comment too seriously, though. Just relax a bit.
 

I told you guys this thread was mostly an embarrassment. Every single person linked here should feel ashamed of themselves for their idiocy and despicable behavior.

I agree that your post is worthy of a thread in an of itself.


I feel honored that I am included in that list (not really)

I personally think that you're taking my archetype comment too seriously, though. Just relax a bit.

We'll lighten up when you stop acting like a cretin. There is no excuse for that shit.
 

This posts needs to be quoted a thousand times. What a fucking shame
 
This thread just EXPLODED, and yet I haven't seen it until just now.

While I think it would have been better if this banner had never been hung all those years ago, I don't see how it will cause anyone any real harm. I dunno, I guess I give teenagers more credit to make decisions on their own, because they're faced with attempts at coercing consumer action thousands of times a day, and they don't make thousands of consumer decisions a day.

We went through this in my high school almost a decade ago. The ACLU and the religious organizations battle it out, and the real losers are the students. We lost all our clubs that year, because they couldn't exclude one club that promoted gay rights, they got rid of all of them to spite 'the liberals.' That's what I see happening here... the Christians will see this as a concession, and one that they will demand concessions in exchange. When I was a student, I just wanted people to shut the fuck up and quit trying to decide what was best for me without giving me the option of deciding for myself. In my opinion, the school has no business of putting up pro-religious stuff. But, if a student wanted to, then so be it. It's how things worked in college, and it was a fair and harmonious place, comparably.

But they won't get them, because they aren't legally entitled to them.

This brave young woman was.


Great post.

I love the smell of facepalm the morning.


Agreed, hence his new tag.

Oh, that is a good one.
 
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