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Keep Religion Free in Your Community

Target: United States Senate
Sponsored by: Defcon - Campaign to Defend the Constitution

The Establishment Clause in the Bill of Rights is supposed to keep our government from interfering with religion, guard against the states' use of religion for political purposes, and ensure that the government does not act in a way that prefers one religion over another, so that we may all worship freely.

But while the Establishment Clause protects our basic freedoms, it is not self-enforcing. If someone is forced to sue the government to protect their constitutional rights, justice and fairness dictate they be able to recover their legal fees expended to do so.

The Public Expression of Religion Act would prevent citizens from recovering their litigation costs if they sue to stop state-sponsored religion. This law is brazenly designed to make it next to impossible for private citizens to sue to protect their First Amendment rights because lawsuits are prohibitively expensive.

In other words, Congress and the Religious Right want to cement the establishment of their own religion as dominant via the force of the government, and the force of law.

Tell your Senators that religious freedom is more important than the agenda of the religious right!

deadline: 10-31-2006
goal: 20,000

13,554
signatures!

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I am writing to express my deep concern over the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA) and to urge you to vote against this proposal should it come up for a vote.

Under the guise of "religious freedom," PERA seeks to undermine the Establishment Clause, weakening our nation's commitment to the separation of church and state and actually threatening the religious freedom of millions of Americans.

Currently, citizens who win lawsuits challenging infringements of the Establishment Clause - such as Ten Commandment displays on government property and prayer in public schools - are able to receive reimbursement for the legal fees they collect in the process. This ensures that all Americans are free to challenge legitimate threats to the freedoms promised in the Constitution - and that this fundamental right will be extended to all Americans, not just those with the financial means to fund a legal challenge.

By ending this reimbursement, PERA would deal a massive blow to our nation's enlightened commitment to the separation of church and state.

Please put the religious freedom of all Americans above the interests of the religious right, and vote NO on this proposal.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

We signed the “Keep Religion Free in Your Community” petition!

# 200:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, David Kross, California

# 199:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, Karen Thrasher, Wisconsin

# 198:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, Nancy Kerson, California

# 197:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, Nancy Jo Chatham, North Carolina

# 196:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, Carolyn Keck, California

# 195:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, Andrew Jones, California

# 194:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, JENNIFER CAMPBELL, Arizona

# 193:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, Tim Martin, California

# 192:

12:42 pm PDT, Sep 26, SJ SC, Ohio

# 191:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Name not displayed, Indiana

# 190:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Phyllis Rose, Texas

# 189:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Patricia Ann, Oregon

# 188:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Jennifer Unger, Pennsylvania

# 187:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Jason O'Neill, Oregon

# 186:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Kathy Schwirzinski, Ohio

# 184:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Michael Sanderfer, Nevada
Religion is a Freedom of choice.

# 183:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, NicoleAnn Leppen, Illinois

# 182:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Alison Moski, Connecticut

# 181:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Ken Schiff, Oregon

# 180:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Jacqueline VanCampen, California
As a practitioner of Buddhism, I would like to be able to freely practice my religion of choice without government influence. Thank you

# 179:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, David DiMartino, California

# 178:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Larry Gilbert, Ohio

# 177:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Pam Ramirez, California

# 176:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Name not displayed, Michigan

# 175:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Name not displayed, California

# 174:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, JOEL THAMES, California
Keep Religion Free - SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

# 173:

12:41 pm PDT, Sep 26, Amy Lentine, California

# 172:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, Name not displayed, Pennsylvania

# 171:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, Stephen Gliva, Illinois

# 170:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, Brad Sprauer, Ohio

# 169:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, Hope Madden, Ohio

# 168:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, Shawn Koester, California

# 167:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, LeAndrew Moore, Texas

# 166:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, Joel Riley, California
Separation of church and state, enough said.

# 165:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, Stan Kain, Oklahoma

# 164:

12:40 pm PDT, Sep 26, Name not displayed, Pennsylvania

# 163:

12:39 pm PDT, Sep 26, Bruce Tucker, Delaware

# 162:

12:39 pm PDT, Sep 26, Ralph Yarnall-Rodland, North Carolina

# 161:

12:39 pm PDT, Sep 26, Anonymous Anonymous, New York

# 160:

12:39 pm PDT, Sep 26, Russell E. Gorga, Ph.D., North Carolina

# 159:

11:14 am PDT, Sep 26, Xenia Zilli, Greece

# 158:

10:50 am PDT, Sep 26, Autumn Fitzpatrick, Florida

# 157:

9:54 am PDT, Sep 26, Joanne Ferguson, Ohio

# 156:

9:44 am PDT, Sep 26, Sharon Carlaine, Puerto Rico

# 155:

8:57 am PDT, Sep 26, Brandy Garnett, Texas

# 154:

8:30 am PDT, Sep 26, Chris Fries, Michigan

# 153:

8:23 am PDT, Sep 26, Shan Pinkston, Alabama

# 152:

7:24 am PDT, Sep 26, Linda Thomas, Wisconsin

# 151:

11:31 pm PDT, Sep 25, Peter Bulmer, Australia

View Signatures:
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Keep Religion Free in Your Community

This petition has been closed.