PA taxpayers pay $1 million to following ACLU lawsuit

By Steven T. Voigt

The ACLU's recent lawsuit against Dover Area School District in Pennsylvania, where the ACLU opposed Dover's effort to balance its science curriculum with different viewpoints on evolution, is over for the ACLU. For local residents, however, the impact of the litigation has only begun. As a result of the judge's ruling in favor of the plaintiffs--who were represented by the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State ("AUSCS"), and a corporate law firm--Dover Township residents will pay $1 million in attorneys' fees and costs to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

From the million dollar purse, the two legal organizations and the law firm will first deduct their out-of-pocket expenses, and then the ACLU and the AUSCS will split the remainder as fees, and these fees represent the bulk of the cash. Of course, Dover taxpayers also had to pay the fees for the attorneys for the defendant, Dover Area School District, as well.

In nearly all lawsuits, litigants pay only the fees for their own attorneys, regardless who prevails. This is known as the "American Rule." One exception to the American Rule is where the plaintiffs' attorneys recover their fees from the defendant under a fee shifting statute, 42 U.S.C. §1988, which Congress ratified in 1976.

The ACLU and like-minded groups have abused 42 U.S.C. §1988 to perpetuate endless lawsuits, such as the Dover lawsuit, against religion. Using this statute, the ACLU has been accumulating a war chest of cash to fund ongoing and future attacks against communities and schools that display crosses, post the Ten Commandments, set up nativity scenes, permit moments of silence, or allow public prayer.

To return to the original legislative intent behind civil rights legislation and to stop taxpayer funded lawsuits against religion, Congress must pass new legislation that amends or re-drafts 42 U.S.C. §1988 to expressly exclude suits against religion from its scope.

It would also effectively decommission the ACLU and the AUSCS as taxpayer-funded "private attorney generals" in religion cases, stop wasting judicial resources on these cases, and move a long way toward restoring trust in the legal profession.

To read more of Steven's works, please also visit www.VoigtonAmerica.us.