Fundamentalist Bailout: Ark. Bill Asks Religious Right Legal Group to Defend Hypothetical Ten Commandments Monument
An Arkansas lawmaker’s proposal that would result in the placement of a Ten Commandments monument on public land looks like a jobs bill for a Religious Right legal organization.
Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) filed a last-minute measure yesterday that would allow for the Decalogue display on the grounds of the state capitol in Little Rock.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing is common in some states. But there is one unusual aspect to Rapert’s proposal: It includes a provision that should there be a legal challenge to the monument’s constitutionality, Arkansas’ attorney general has the option to hire Liberty Institute, a Texas-based Religious Right legal group.
Liberty Institute is not among the best-known of the fundamentalist legal outfits, but Americans United has tangled with it a few times. In fact, Liberty Institute recently named AU one of the “5 Dangerous Enemies Against Your Christian Faith” and claimed that it had beaten us in a case concerning graduation prayer and that it fought us in a battle over a veterans’ memorial that contained Christian symbols in King. N.C. (Those claims are less than accurate. In fact, both of those cases were settled on terms favorable to Americans United.)