EASTERN
DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
LONDON
DIVISION
SARAH DOE and THOMAS DOE, )
on behalf of themselves and their )
minor child, JAN DOE )
)
Plaintiffs )
)
v. ) Civil Action No. 99-508
)
HARLAN COUNTY, SCHOOL DISTRICT; )
and DON MUSSELMAN, in his official capacity )
as Superintendent of the Harlan County )
School District, )
)
Defendants )
__________________________________________)
RESPONSE OF DEFENDANTS HARLAN COUNTY, KENTUCKY
AND
DON MUSSELMAN TO PLAINTIFFS' CONSOLIDATED REPLY
MEMORANDA
IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' MOTIONS FOR
PRELIMINARY
INJUNCTION AND IN RESPONSE
TO DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS TO DISMISS
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INTRODUCTION
Plaintiffsâ consolidated reply memorandum, in support of their Motions for Preliminary Injunction and in response to Defendantsâ Motion to Dismiss (hereinafter, ãPlaintiffsâ Memorandumä), fails in any way to address the unique and historic stated herein facts of this case. The ACLU seeks to mislead the Court about its political purposes to censor, suppress or restrict, under the guise of the religion clauses of the First Amendment, any public display of some of Americaâs founding documents, including official public Acts of the Congress and the President of the United States. The document displayed by the Defendants are all official and public Acts and documents which are beyond the power of any Court to censor without altering the foundations of American civil government and laws.: The displayed public documents of our civil government which the ACLU seeks to censor, remove, suppress and restrict, include:
1. A page from the Congressional Record of Wednesday, February 2, 1983; Volume 129, No. 8, in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives House Joint Resolution 487;
2.
An excerpt from the
Declaration of Independence, which is the first ordinance in the first volume
of THE PUBLIC STATUTES AT LARGE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, printed in
1845 by authority of the United States Congress. 1 Stat. 1-3 (1845);
3. The Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, adopted in 1792, and which continues without change unto this very day;
4. The National Motto, ãIn God, We Trustä as adopted as the National Motto by United States Congress on July 20, 1956;
5. A public Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, calling for a National Day of Prayer and Humiliation
At the White House, in the city of Washington, DC, on March 30, 1863, ãin the Year of our Lordä one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. President Lincoln was born in Hodgkinsville, Kentucky.
6. A public address by Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, to the Committee of Colored People from Baltimore, dated September 5, 1864, ãIn regard to this Great Book, I have but to say I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for this Book we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for manâs welfare here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. To you I return my most sincere thanks for the elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present.ä. President Lincoln was born in Hodgkinsville, Kentucky.
7. The Mayflower Compact, signed at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, 1620.
Plaintiffs do not want the Court to understand that what they are asking for is unprecedented in American law, justice and jurisprudence. No attorney admitted to a bar of any state has ever urged the Court to censor, suppress or restrict in any way, by citing the United States Constitution, or particularly the First Amendment thereof, for the preposterous proposition that the public acts of two of the separate, but equal branches of our federal government, that is the Chief Executive of the United States, the President of the United States, proclamation, or the Congressional Record, the official legislative record of the historical processes on the floor of the United States Congress, should be restricted in a public building, either a courthouse or a schoolhouse. The ACLU has gone much more than a bridge too far. They are asking for something revolutionary and they are saying to this Court ãAssist us in a political revolution through the abuse of the courtsä, and are asking this Court, on the basis of the First Amendment, guaranteeing freedom of religion as well as freedom of the press, that these organic laws and proclamations of either the President of the United States, or the United States Congress, or the Commonwealth of Kentuckyâs foundation document should be suppressed. This attack on the foundation of our civil law and civil government is done in the notion that somehow Supreme Court cases in the past sixty years construing the religion clauses of the First Amendment somehow give the authority of a Court to preclude the official public acts and historic documents of the other two branches of government because of the religious references contained in those documents.
The ACLU has gone way too far and actively misleads the Court because they know what they are doing and do not want the Court to understand what they are doing. Appropriate Motions for Contempt of Court and Abuse of Process will follow unless this matter is dismissed voluntarily by the ACLU, or unless our well-grounded Motion to Dismiss is not granted.
As stated in Defendantsâ Motion to Dismiss, the former Executive Director of the ACLU, Everett C. Hoffman, an attorney of record in this case, participated for two years in an ad hoc public committee to look at the enforcement of KRS 158.195, which states:
ãin participating in the PERK committee, chaired by former Governor Brereton Jones of Kentucky, and which included leading citizens of all backgrounds and diverse political as well as religious backgrounds, the ACLU former Executive Director and counsel in this case, signed off on the final document, and during the meetings and in signatory, concedes the constitutionality of the 1992 law which forbids any censorship in the Commonwealth of Kentucky of the original documents and sources of American Law and government.ä
Make no mistake about it, this is a dishonest argument intended to censor and suppress, and alter American history so that the school children and citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky will be cut off from their public laws and records of the past. These are serious allegations but the ACLU has brought this upon themselves.
Respectfully submitted,