Jessica Ahlquist Has Won Her Lawsuit!
Hemant has a much longer post at Friendly Atheist.
Jessica’s school had this banner on the wall.
When Jessica saw that banner over a year ago, she knew there was something wrong. She created a Facebook page to rally support to bring it down. For that, she was insulted and threatened by students and strangers. When the ACLU planned to file a lawsuit to bring the banner down, Jessica wanted to be the plaintiff.
Well, the court has made a ruling.
The Court rules that Plaintiff [Ahlquist] has standing in this matter and rules in her favor on the merits of this dispute. The Court also orders the immediate removal of the Prayer Mural from the auditorium at Cranston West.
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The Court refrains from second-guessing the expressed motives of the Committee members, but nonetheless must point out that tradition is a murky and dangerous bog. While all agree that some traditions should be honored, others must be put to rest as our national values and notions of tolerance and diversity evolve. At any rate, no amount of history and tradition can cure a constitutional infraction. The Court concludes that Cranston’s purposes in installing and, more recently, voting to retain the Prayer Mural are not clearly secular.
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Plaintiff is clearly an articulate and courageous young woman, who took a brave stand, particularly in light of the hostile response she has received from her community.
She faced a lot of grief from the people in the town and the students in the high school but, now she has WON! A scholarship has been set up and you can go to the friendly atheist blog to contribute.
