1

The Supreme Court Blesses

The Ten Commandments

Robert V. Ritter, Founder

Jefferson Madison Center

for Religious Liberty

May 2016

[Second Ed.]

3

Religious freedom is greatest

when separation of church and state is absolute and, conversely, religious persecution is greatest

when government is fully entangled with religion.

Robert V. Ritter January 30, 2009

5

Robert V. Ritter October 12, 2014

7

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to acknowledge two friends who motivated me to write Supreme Scandal —

Avrahaum Segol and Jon Lindgren.

Avrahaum, an Israeli-American currently living with his family in Israel, contacted me at the

American Humanist Association in 2008 shortly after I had filed an amicus brief in Pleasant

Grove City v. Summum. He requested that I assist him in his efforts to get the Supreme Court to

reverse Van Orden v. Perry sua sponte (on the Court’s own initiative). I informed Avrahaum

numerous times in the months and years that followed that the Court does not reopen cases.

Instead, a new case must be brought by new plaintiffs with hopefully more convincing facts

and/or legal reasoning. Altho Avrahaum has never accepted my explanation, we nevertheless

collaborated for a couple of years on our research of the Eagles Ten Commandments program

and the Van Orden decision. I am especially indebted to Avrahaum for providing me with

several documents, an analysis of the Austin Ten Commandments monument, a translation of the

Hebrew on the tablets Moses is holding on the South Wall Frieze of the Supreme Court’s

courtroom and a digital copy of the Eagles 1950s comic book On Eagle Wings (about a priest

taking a boy camping and teaching him the Ten Commandments).

I also wish to acknowledge Jon Lindgren, former mayor of Fargo, North Dakota and former

president of the Red River Freethinkers. I met Jon when he visited the American Humanist

Association building while I was the organization’s legal coordinator. I provided him advice

while the Red River Freethinkers were suing the City of Fargo to remove an Eagles-donated Ten

Commandments monument outside of Fargo’s City Hall. Jon provided me with photographs of

the Eagles Ten Commandments monuments in Fargo and the International Peace Gardens (near

Dunseith, North Dakota) and his Freethinker friends provided me with photos of other

monuments.

And I also wish to thank my family — Nga, Vinh and Vi — for putting up with my long

hours at the computer researching and writing Supreme Scandal.

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PREFACE

Writing a book is hard work, especially since I am not a gifted writer and procrastinator-in-

chief best describes me. Thus, it is no surprise to me that I began researching for Supreme

Scandal in 2008 and am still plugging away in 2016.

In 2008, I wrote an amicus brief (with substantial assistance from a legal intern) on behalf of

the American Humanist Association in the matter of Pleasant Grove City v. Summum. The case

involved a Fraternal Order of Eagles-donated Ten Commandments monument in a public park

that Summum also wanted place a monument of its Seven Aphorisms. My brief drew the

attention of Avrahaum Segol. Avrahaum sought my assistance in overturning the 2005 Supreme

Court decision Van Orden v. Perry, which also involved an Eagles-donated Ten Commandments

monument. I have been working on Supreme Scandal in spurts ever since.

I tell the story of the Eagles Ten Commandments program in Chapter 4: The Ten

Commandments Soar on Eagles Wings. In a nutshell, between 1955 (Ambridge, Pennsylvania)

and 1993 (Hayden, Idaho), the Eagles erected more than 180 granite Ten Commandment

monuments on public lands across America for the purposes of promoting “God’s law” and

subliminally declaring the United States a Christian nation.

But the reality is that the United States is a secular nation. The U.S. Constitution is “the

supreme Law of the Land,” not the Ten Commandments or the Bible. There is no “higher law”

in America than the Constitution. It is my love for the Constitution and the Jefferson-Madison

principle of separation of government and religion (or freedom from government sponsored

religion) that has provided the energy and stamina to produce the website

www.EaglesMonumemnts.com and Supreme Scandal.

It is my personal and legal opinion that the Supreme Court’s majority in Van Orden v. Perry

went far astray from the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state. In Part IV –

Limbo Rock: How Low Can the Court Go, I present the mythical (false) arguments of the Van

Orden majority. I leave it to my readers to be the judge of whether I’ve made my case.

I want to be perfectly clear — I do not have an animus for Judge E. J. Ruegemer (who

orchestrated the Eagles commandments program) or the Fraternal Order of Eagles, nor do I wish

that their monuments be destroyed or vandalized. Indeed, the Eagles have contributed greatly to

our society thru their charitable works. This being said, I have been fascinated by their Ten

Commandments program from a constitutional law perspective and am a troubled that our

judicial system has failed to uphold the Constitution’s prohibition against government

sponsorship of religion by allowing religious monuments to be placed on public land. Many of

the Eagles monuments have been relocated to private property as a result of litigation or threat of

litigation. Ideally, the remaining monuments on public land will be moved to private property as

well. This will permit persons of all faiths and nonbelief to enjoy our public lands.

My journey in search of religious freedom in America has taken me to the Library of

Congress to skim thousands of pages of Eagle magazines from the late 1940s to present. I have

visited a number of cities to view and photograph Eagle monuments, read numerous articles and

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cases and, as well as, continuously reexamine my religious beliefs and understanding of the

Constitution.

I feel at peace because I believe that what I have written is an honest assessment, albeit a

microcosm, of the state of religion in the United States. Altho the book is nearly finished, the

journey is a life’s journey in search of religious freedom in America.

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

PART I - My Journey and Troubled Times

Chapter 1: My Journey In Search of Religious Freedom in America

Chapter 2: Troubled Times and the Rival of the Christian Crusade

PART II - Judge Ruegemer and the Fraternal Order of Eagles Ten Commandments Project

Chapter 3: The Ruegemer Fable

Chapter 4: The Ten Commandments Soar on Eagles Wings

Chapter 5: The DeMille Connection

Chapter 6: The Eagles Monuments Are Jesus Tombstones

Chapter 7: Overwhelming Evidence of a Religious Purpose

Chapter 8: Liar. Liar. Pants on Fire!

PART III - Legal Compass

Chapter 9: The Case for Separation of Church and State as the Best Interpretation of the

Establishment Clause

Chapter 10: The Ten Commandments

Chapter 11: The Harm of Religious Monuments on Public Property

PART IV – Supreme Court Does The Limbo Rock

Chapter 12: The Supreme Scandal – The Court Hits Bottom

PART V – The War Is Joined

Chapter 13: Secularists Return Fire

Chapter 14: “Pick Your Poison”

Chapter 15: Second Influence

Chapter 16: In Search of a Solution

APPENDICIES

Appendix 1: Eagles Ten Commandments Prints

Appendix 2: Eagles Monuments by City

Appendix 3: Eagles Monuments by State

Appendix 4: A list of Non-Eagles Ten Commandment Monuments and Plaques

Appendix 5: About the Fraternal Order of Eagles

Appendix 6: Egbert James Ruegemer Chronology

Appendix 7: The Fables Many Takes

Appendix 8: Ruegemer’s Affidavit in FFRF v. State of Colorado

Appendix 9: Ruegemer’s Affidavit in Books v. City of Elkhart

Appendix 10: Ruegemer’s Declaration in Card v. City of Everett

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Appendix 11: Ruegemer’s False View About the Declaration of Independence and the

Constitution

Appendix 12: The Eagles Amicus Brief in Van Orden v. Perry (Excerpt)

Appendix 13: List of Eagle Monument Cases

Appendix 14: Adoption of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause

Appendix 15: 36 Supreme Court Majority Decisions Mandating Religious Neutrality

Appendix 16: Eagles Comic Book “On Eagles Wings”

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PART I

My Journey and Troubled Times

14

Chapter 1

~♦~

My Journey In Search Of Religious Freedom In America

Introduction

Supreme Scandal tells of my journey in search of religious freedom in America. Our federal

government pontificates that we are “one nation under God”1 and “In God We Trust.”

2 These

and numerous other endorsements of religion — Christianity preferred — by federal, state and

local governments place a substantial burden on my and tens of millions of other Americans free

exercise of religion. My journey has taken me on a long and seemingly never ending road in

search of an elusive freedom of religion.

In Supreme Scandal, I discuss my early years of being raised a Catholic and losing faith in a

supreme being, the Christian Right’s war for dominion, including the Fraternal Order of Eagles

Ten Commandments program, and the secularists response in defense of freedom of religion. I

conclude with a discussion of where the future may take us — which is to say the direction of

my journey. My views are informed by my fifty plus years of studying government, history and

constitutional law and being in the mix of things.

To understand Supreme Scandal, you must understand me.

To understand me, you must understand my journey.

My Journey Begins

My journey started in 1949 — the year of my birth. At birth, my mind was virgin — a clean

slate. Indeed, at the beginning of our lives, we are all without information and, therefore,

commence life as apolitical and areligious.

Quickly, tho, our parents and other care givers, including teachers, indoctrinate us with both

information and “belief.” Throughout our early years, our mental faculties are too undeveloped

to be able to differentiate (or ascertain) truth from fiction. In later years, we are often too set in

our ways to critically re-examine our beliefs and, in a sense, blindly or by inertia,3 adhere to what

we have been taught.

1 Congress added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag in 1954 Pub.L. 83-396, Chap. 297,

68 Stat. 249, H.J.Res. 243, enacted June 14, 1954). 2 Congress adopted “In God We Trust” as the national motto in 1956 (Pub. L. 84-851, 70 Stat. 732, 36

U.S.C. § 302, enacted July 30, 1956). 3 Including peer pressure and desire to belong to a group.

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The Influence Of My Mother

Memories of my early years have faded, if not disappeared completely from my memory.

What follows is an effort to tell of my search for truth as honestly as possible. If inaccuracies or

embellishments creep in, they are unintentional and probably insignificant.

My mother, Alice (Mom to me),4 was born in the suburbs of Boston of a Roman Catholic

family. At some point after graduating from high school, her family moved to Hyattsville,

Maryland in the mid-to-late 1940s. My father, Alvis (Dad to me),5 who grew up in Anson,

Texas, met my mother in Washington, D.C. while serving in the U.S. Army. They married in

1948. I was their second child. My parents moved to Fort Myers South Post (now part of

Arlington Cemetery) when I was about a year old. When I was about five years old to a house

on Evergreen Street in Arlington, Virginia — a house that would be in the family for over fifty

years.

My mother raised my siblings and me as Catholics. I attended kindergarten thru fourth

grades at Saint Agnes Catholic School in Arlington, Virginia.6 Between my mother and Saint

Agnes, I was taught that “God” created the Universe as described in Genesis and created people

in the image of Himself (thus God is referred to in the masculine gender), that He is all powerful

(omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient) and all good. I was also taught that Jesus was the son of

God, born of the virgin Mary, died for our sins, resurrected on the third day and ascended into

Heaven forty days later.

I was also taught that there is a Holy Ghost (but I don’t recall what the function of this figure

is); collectively God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost form the Trinity. Come Judgment

Day, God will judge each of us for our behavior while on Earth. Those who worshiped God and

behaved according to His commandments or committed only minor sins will spend the rest of

their eternal lives in Heaven while those who commit “mortal sins” will spend the rest of their

eternal lives in Hell. Essentially, the threat of going to Hell was suppose to make us behave

consistent with the Catholic Church’s teaching of “the good.”

Evil or “the bad” is variously attributable to God punishing us for our poor choices in the

exercise of freewill or to the Devil’s (Satan’s) misdeeds.

Obviously, I was taught a lot more but the above expresses the key tenets of the Catholic

faith that I indoctrinated in.

4 Alice Josephine Voit (Ritter) was in 1923. She graduated from Saugus (Mass.) High School. She died in 1989 at

the age of 66. 5 Alvis (“Tex”) Ritter was born in 1917 in Anson, Texas. My father graduated from Anson High School. He joined

the Civil Conservation Corps. He served twenty years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a Master Sergeant. He died in

1980 at the age of 63. 6 Full disclosure – I actually attended first grade twice. First at John Marshall Elementary School (a public school in

Arlington, Virginia). I passed to second grade, but after a short time, my mother and Saint Agnes thought it better

that it would be in my best interests to repeat the first grade. Eventho I was only eleven months younger than my

older sister, I would fall two school years behind her. I don’t recall if we were ever very close.

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My mother was hospitalized in 1960 with a severe case of pneumonia. My six siblings (at

that time) and I went to live with aunts and uncles in Maryland (my mother’s side) and Texas

(my father’s side). This would be the start of a major change my life. Up until that time my

only doubts about god were that god did not answer my prayers for happiness in our family and

that priests’ telling me to recite Hail Mary’s for committing sins seemed like trivial punishment.

I arrived in Texas on my eleventh birthday and would soon start fifth grade at Anson

Elementary School. I lived with my father’s oldest brother and his wife—Uncle Pete and Aunt

Margie — and their daughter who had recently graduated from high school. They were very

good to me during the two years that I lived with them. My aunt and uncle treated me as they

would a son. Of particular relevance to my journey in search of religious freedom, my aunt took

me to the First Baptist Church where I attended Sunday school for the first couple of weeks or

so.

The Baptist Sunday school was different from what I was used to. I told Aunt Margie that I

was uncomfortable attending the Baptist Sunday school, but I don’t recall why. She was

understanding and arranged for me to go to the town’s Catholic church with the Hispanic family

that lived next door. I would become an altar boy. I had trouble remembering what and when I

was supposed to do certain things during the mass. Looking back, whatever mistakes I may have

made must have been minor or forgivable (or is that forgettable!).

Jones County where Anson is located was a “dry” county in the early 1960s, meaning adults

could not buy any kind of alcohol. As I previously said, my memory of particulars is fuzzy at

best. Nevertheless, it seems to me that we (the altar boys) poured whiskey (probably purchased

in a neighboring county) into the little serving bottles instead of wine. I also wondered whether

priests could really turn wine (or whiskey) into the blood of Jesus. I didn’t drink it, so I’ll never

know for sure but I have my doubts!

During the two years I lived in Anson, I had lots of free time because the town was small and

there were no kids my age nearby. Across the street was a cotton field. There were trees and

occasionally cows on the property behind my uncle’s house. (I nearly landed on a snake when I

jumped across a creek.) Infrequently, I played with the younger kids next door or visited my two

brothers across town. Science fascinated me. I built a diode radio from a kit that I bought — but

it sure didn’t pull in the stations like a transistor radio I would be given a few years later. I saved

up a few dollars and bought a BB gun. Unfortunately, after a short time BBs would dribble out

when I pulled the trigger. Such a major disappointment.

Because my memory of the period is all but gone, I cannot say for sure but I believe my

Catholic faith was fading fast during my Texas stay.

My mother recovered from pneumonia and I returned home during the summer of 1962 in

time to start seventh grade at Williamsburg Junior High School.

During my two-year absence, my mother explored different religions and ultimately

converted to Unitarianism. She took my brothers, sisters and me to the Arlington Unitarian

Church. We attended Sunday school while she attended adult services. I also attended Catholic

Church for several years — perhaps somewhat out of spite or not wanting my mother to know

that I was independently becoming an Atheist.

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My brothers and sisters never returned to the Catholic Church. They just went with the flow.

It didn’t seem to me that religion and philosophy were as important to them as it was to me. Or

maybe they just didn’t want to waste their Sunday leisure time attending a second church. Of

particular note, I don’t recall saying “grace” at the dinner table or nightly prayers after returning

home from Anson.

Rather than indoctrinate us in a particular religious doctrine, my mother just wanted to be

expose us to other religions and nonbelief. While attending Unitarian Sunday school, I went on

several field trips to different churches. Quite frankly, none of the religions that I was exposed

to impressed me or seemed to possess the “truth.” At this point in my life — mid-to-late teens

— all religious seemed to me to be based on myths and their rituals seemed artificial.

An Atheist Since High School

I do not know whether curiosity ever killed a cat, but the things I was taught just didn’t seem

to add up. I needed to find an answer that made sense. Ultimately, Roman Catholicism was no

longer believable and I abandoned it. Interestingly, my mother — who was the reason I became

a Catholic in the first place — was not an obstacle in my religious conversion because she had

become an Atheist before me. But she was an impediment to my religious freedom — first by

indoctrinating me in Catholicism and later forcing me to attend Unitarian Sunday school against

my will.

By the time reached high school in September 1965, my conversion to Atheism was in high

gear. My belief in the Catholic god7 had been eroded by:

My Inability to communicate or observe a god,

An inability to reconcile the view that god is “all good” with the prevalence

of unhappiness, poverty, disease, natural disasters, crime and war,

My passion for science, the importance of observation and the enormous

power of reason and critical thinking AND

The reasonableness of the scientific explanation of the origin of the

Universe and development of life and the implausibility of the Biblical view

of creation.

First, witnessing—that is, to personally observe—is the basis of knowledge. Many toddlers

in the United States, including myself, are taught to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and

the Tooth Fairy. Yet our belief in each of these vanishes when we learn that they are really our

parents who put presents under the Christmas tree or a dollar bill under our pillow. For me, it

was not enough to be told that god is in the Heavens and directs everything we do. I needed

proof and found no credible evidence of the existence of a god or gods.

7 I have developed the view that each religion has its own god because the powers attributed by religions to eaches

god and the resulting dogma and culture differs from others. Otherwise, the god of Abramhamic religion—

Judaism, Christianity and Islam—would be the same, there should be but one religion. The same argument could

be made for each denomination within a religion.

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Second, I found the attribution of good things to god’s plan and bad things to freewill or the

devil unbelievable. In my view, if god created the Universe, god is responsible for everything. I

heard too many excuses why bad things happen. Bad things happen simply because they

happen. In many cases, we can explain the “why.” For example, we can explain how certain

weather patterns may create a hurricane, or running a red light can cause a car accident in an

intersection, or a virus or bacteria might cause disease. In other situations, we may never know

the “real” cause of a bad event. But to say that someone’s death at an early age, for example,

was “God’s plan” is a cop-out. For me, what we don’t know, we simply don’t know. We might

someday learn the “why,” or we may never find the answer.

And third, I’ve always been fascinated by science and the scientific method—the process of

discovery by hypothesizing, observation, critical analysis (reason), conclusion (answer) and

validation. I’ve studied cosmology, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology. Neither then,

as a teenager, did I nor now, as a senior citizen, do I now claim to know the origin of the

Universe. The unknown, however, is not evidence that there was a Creator. Rather, it is merely

evidence that the origin, if any, is unknown. We cannot simply say: “there had to be a creator,

the creator is a supreme being and the supreme being is called ‘God.’” Instead, thru

developments in sciences, we have a relatively complete explanation for the creation of the

Universe that is consistent with the evidence. I subscribe to that view, and am willing to modify

my view if future evidence warrants a change.

Before I graduated from high school in June of 1968, I no longer believed in a god. I have

been an unwavering Atheist for over fifty years. In spite continuous inquiry, I have witnessed

nor heard of any credible evidence of a god or gods.

The Influence Of My Father

Up to this point, I have not mentioned the influence of my father in my life. That is because

my father did not directly influence my religious beliefs. That would be the province of my

mother. My father did the typical fatherly things like holding a job (or two) to support our

family, teach me to play baseball, chauffeured me to Junior Achievement and other events, etc.

My father was a southern Democrat — opposite of my northern liberal mother. His views on the

integration of the races were at times troubling especially during the Watts riots in 1965 and the

D.C. riots in 1968. Yet on a personal level, we had a black nanny for some years and some of

my Dad’s best friends in the Army were black.

What is important in my journey for religious freedom in America is that I do not recall my

father ever talking about religion. Nor do I recall his older brother, Uncle Pete, with whom I

lived with for two years in Texas, ever talking about religion. Neither attended church. For all I

know, my father and uncle were silent Atheists.

This “silence” would be significant in my search for religious freedom in that they were not

obstacles to my conversion from Catholicism to Atheism. Not one ill-spoken word from either

of them. No ostracism. I didn’t have to hide my Atheism in a closet (actually I did because I

didn’t want my mother to know that I too changed). My conversion was unremarkable!

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Little Change In 50 Years

Since my late teens — fifty years ago — my nontheistic beliefs have solidified. Not once in

these many, many years have I come across any credible evidence of the existence of a god or

gods. And I have looked. I have asked people why they believe in a god and their responses

were underwhelming. Some try to convince me of their belief by referring to Bible passages.

Others have told me of a series of events which they believed could not have occurred without a

god directing those events. To me, the biblical passages are unverifiable and the events seemed

coincidental. The common thread of all my inquiries over the years has been — as I have said

before — is that I am not aware of any credible proof of the existence of a god or gods. Just a lot

of wishful (if not delusional) thinking. Regrettably, most humans are very gullible when it

comes to religion, rather than truth seekers.

Only a minor change is my cosmological thinking comes to mind. In my late teens, I

accepted the Big Bang theory without hesitation. Today, I neither accept nor reject it. With

astronomers telling us that there are billions of stars, planets, etc. in the Universe, I am unable to

comprehend the density of the initial mass immediately prior to the Big Bang (explosion). I am

also unable to comprehend the enormity of the mass at the “beginning” of the Universe. Has

there always been a Universe? Or could there have been spontaneous creation (“something from

nothing”)? Importantly, I accept “the beginning” as a mystery8 and the mystery does not

undermine my nontheistic worldview.

What is clear to me is that the biblical version of creation — Genesis — is fiction. Please

realize, however, that I don’t look upon the people of millenniums ago as stupid. They did not

have the scientific knowledge that we have today. People created a god or gods to explain the

unknown.9 Religion is the cult of wishful thinking.

10

But people who believe in “God” and Genesis today do not deserve a “pass.” In my opinion,

there is no excuse for people today to believe in either. Their ignorance is deliberate.

To conclude this point, Carl Sagan said it succinctly: “The cosmos is all that is, or ever was,

or ever will be.”11

Fast forward. I founded the Jefferson Madison Center for Religion Liberty, Inc. in

November 2006 with the goal of establishing a nonprofit dedicated to educating Americans

about separation of church and state that was advocated by Presidents Thomas Jefferson and

8 It is my understanding that by the very nature of the Big Bang, all prior history of the Universe, if any, would have been

obliterated. Thus, the origin of the Universe is speculative. The good news is that progressive enhancements of various types

of telescopes have enabled astronomers to see deeper into space and time. I am in awe of the photographs I have seen and the

cosmological views by scientists who study deep space. 9 Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses the expansion of scientific knowledge and the shrinkage of the view of god from Ptolemy to

Galileo to Newton to Hygens to Lapace. Available on YouTube, Neil de Grasse Tyson – Debunks Creation (Intelligent Design)

at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epLhaGGjfRw. 10

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Id. 11

Carl Sagan opened his 1980 series Cosmos

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James Madison during the founding of our nation. Tho I have since terminated the nonprofit

corporation, I continue the “Center” as a personal project.

In September 2007, I was hired by the American Humanist Association as the legal

coordinator of its Appignani Humanist Legal Center. The job would be my favorite among those

that I had over a half-century12

largely because as an Atheist I shared the nonprofit’s view of

Humanism13

and separation of government and religion. During my three years at AHA, I

authored with the assistance of legal interns that I supervised six amicus briefs — four Supreme

Court14

and two U.S. Courts of Appeals.15

I consider these briefs among my greatest

professional achievements.16

Not only did these briefs represent the views of the nonprofits I

represented, they represented my personal views as well. I am also very proud of serving as co-

counsel with Michael Newdow in Newdow v. Roberts, which challenged the religious practices

of the 2009 presidential inaugural ceremony.

Roy Speckhardt, AHA’s executive director, fired me in November 2010, telling me only that

he wanted to take the Legal Center “in a different direction.” To this day, I have no clue what

Roy meant. Perhaps he took exception to my writing in a self-appraisal (that he requested) that

my greatest weakness was being too ethical for not taking cases intended primarily for publicity.

Anyway, I have moved on.

In November 2012, with the U.S. economy still in the doldrums, unable to find suitable

employment and reaching the ripe old age of 63, I decided to retire. But we never really retire as

life goes on. I continue to read Howard Friedman’s Religion Clause blog every day and from

time to time read court opinions and law review articles on church-state matters. I’ve been

researching for and writing this book, Supreme Scandal, discontinued the JM Center website and

started www.EaglesMonuments.com website.

Next up in Chapter 2: Troubled Times and the Cold War Revives the Christian Crusade, I

discuss how post-World War II anxieties of communism and juvenile delinquency gave rise to

federal, state and local governments sponsorships of religion, Christianity preferred. Such

“establishments of religion” have turned the First Amendment upside down and have

12 Jobs have included TV repair, banking, business analyst, personal injury attorney, president and manager of a family owed

company and an office manager of a nonprofit. 13

“Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and

responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.” Visit AHA’s website

at http://americanhumanist.org/ for information about Humanism. 14

Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, No. 07-665, June 23, 2008, in support of neither party (arguing that permanent monuments

on public property are “government speech”); Salazar v. Buono, No. 08-472, July 31, 2009, in support of respondent

(opposing a Christian cross in the Mojave National Preserve); Christian Legal Society Chapter of the University of

California, Hastings College of Law v. Martinez, No. 08-1371, Mar. 15, 2010, in support of respondents (the law school’s

anti-discrimination policy); Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, No. 09-987, Sept. 22, 2010, in support of

respondents (opposing Arizona’s tax credit for contributions to religious schools). 15

American Atheists, Inc. v. Duncan, 10 Cir., No. 08-4061, Aug. 5, 2008, in support of appellants (opposing Christian crosses

erected on highway right-of-ways); and Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Obama, 7th Cir., No. 10-1973, in

support of appellees (opposing presidential National Day of Prayer proclamations). 16

Interestingly, my very first legal filing — soon after being admitted to the D.C. Bar in 1988 — was a petition for

certiorari with the Supreme Court on behalf of an indigent while still working at the IBM Corporation in an

administrative position in its national marketing division.

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substantially burdened my free exercise of nonbelief. This harm is shared by tens of millions

Americans, if not all Americans, inasmuch as a violation of the Constitution is an injury to the

nation as a whole.