Judge Roy Moore and Foundation for Moral Law File Brief in Federal Appeals Court Arguing that First Amendment Allows Military to Support the Boy Scouts of America
November 7, 2005
Case: Winkler v. Rumsfeld
On November 7, 2005, former Chief Justice Roy Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law filed an amicus curiae (“friend-of-the-court”) brief in Winkler v. Rumsfeld before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that a congressional statute that authorizes the U.S. Military to help the Boy Scouts of America conduct a National Jamboree every four years does not violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. (read/print brief here) The ACLU sued the military, and a federal district court incredibly ruled in the ACLU's favor. The ACLU objects to the Boy Scout oath which acknowledges a duty to God.
Judge Moore recently observed, “the Winkler case demonstrates just how far the ACLU and other liberal organizations will go to remove any public recognition of God who has so blessed our Nation.” In 1954 the U.S. Congress stated that “by the addition of the phrase ‘Under God' to the pledge, the consciousness of the American people will be more alerted to the true meaning of our country and its form of government.”
In the legal brief, Judge Moore and the Foundation urged the court to halt the use of various judicial tests that have yielded ridiculous results in many cases regarding our recognition of God. Judge Moore encouraged the court to return rulings based on the words of the First Amendment. When the statute is compared to those words, it becomes obvious that acknowledging God is not a law “respecting an establishment of religion.” In authorizing support for the Boy Scouts, the statute does not favor any particular religion because the Boy Scouts is not a religious organization. Moreover, the statute does not “establish” a national religion of any kind because it does not force anyone to believe in a particular religion.
The Boy Scouts of America is a private organization that seeks to instill positive values in young men, and in doing so the organization encourages its members to acknowledge God and His many blessings. The federal government has a rich history of doing the same, and yet a lower federal district court prohibited the military from supporting the Boy Scouts. The First Amendment was designed to encourage religious freedom, not to sever the government's association with any and all things related to God. The Foundation now comes to the defense of the Boy Scouts' and the right of our military to acknowledge God in this Country.
The desire of the Foundation for Moral Law is that the Court of Appeals will reverse the egregious decision of the lower court.
