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Originally Posted by Etienne
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Originally Posted by Neptunus Rex
..."The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said eavesdropping in the US without a court order and without complying with the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was "both illegal and unconstitutional"...
The same ACLU that considers the public display of Christmas Trees to be illegal?  |
First, I don't see any contradiction in the two ideas.
Second, the ACLU does not consider the display of Christmas Trees to be illegal. What it fight against is the support of a religion by the government - and, by extension, by public services and agencies - of the United States. As forbidden by some obscure article of law. 
You can display a tree all you want. But the government, a publically funded school or a courthouse cannot use tax-payer funded ressources to promote a religion - And yes, that might include a Christmas tree, unless efforts are made to make the display non-denominational.
A boatload of people would get angry if the local post office had a ramadan display. It's the same damn thing. The government cannot support a religion, any religion. Christian or otherwise.
And that's a damn good principle of law. I wish Canada had it. |
Acutally, the separation of church and state was established to prevent the formation of a goverment sponsored church, ie The Church of England, which is where most of the founding fathers had come from. It was never intended to prevent the public celebration of any religious holiday on public or private ground. In fact, Sunday Christian services were held in the Capitol Building until the early 20th Century. Thusly, the notion of government-enforced secularism is a strictly modern sentiment.
Furthermore, if the postmaster is a follower of Islam, I would encourage him to demonstrate his adherance to faith. After all, we do allow people to pray at Giant's Stadium. The taxpayers of the state of New Jersey seem to have no issue with that.