State fights to keep God in homeland security law

By Roger Alford - Associated Press

FRANKFORT — State attorneys prepared Friday to defend a Kentucky law that stresses dependence on "Almighty God" for protection in times of national emergencies, after the law was struck down by a judge.

The case is being closely monitored by advocates for and against separation of church and state.

Shelley Johnson, spokeswoman for the Kentucky attorney general's office, said lawyers planned to file a notice of appeal and a motion asking the judge to delay enforcement of his order until all appeals are exhausted. Both motions, she said, would be filed before the close of business on Friday.

"We believe there is a clear distinction in the law between acknowledgment of religion, which has been permitted for years, and the establishment of religion, which is prohibited by the Constitution," Johnson said. "The statute in question merely acknowledges religion and should have been upheld by the court."

American Atheists Inc. sued to have the God references stricken from the law that created the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security. Edwin Kagin, the group's Kentucky-based national legal director, said he wasn't surprised the state plans to appeal.

"It's regrettable that they wish to spend that much taxpayer money to try to further an unconstitutional attempt to establish a religion," Kagin said.

States in the Bible Belt, such as Kentucky, cannot afford to concede this court battle, even when legal grounds are shaky, said Western Kentucky University political scientist Scott Lasley.

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled last month that including the references in the law is akin to establishing a religion, which the government is prohibited from doing in the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions.

"The statute pronounces very plainly that current citizens of the Commonwealth cannot be safe, neither now, nor in the future, without the aid of Almighty God," Wingate wrote. "Even assuming that most of this nation's citizens have historically depended upon God, by choice, for their protection, this does not give the General Assembly the right to force citizens to do so now."

The state Office of Homeland Security was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and Wingate said in the order that two sections were at issue. One required that training materials include information that the General Assembly stressed a "dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth." The other required a plaque to be placed at the entrance to the state's Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort that said, in part, "the safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."

Kagin said he will seek to have the appeal expedited by asking that it bypass the Kentucky Court of Appeals and go directly to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

"I would not be at all uncomfortable taking the facts of this case before the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "I think the statute is so blatantly unconstitutional that any court would find it unconstitutional."