Sen. Cruz Files Amicus Brief in Defense of Religious Expression

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, filed an amicus brief in defense of the original meaning of the Establishment Clause in Cave v. Jester. The brief, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, urges the court to reverse the ruling that ordered the removal of Arkansas's Ten Commandments monument from the State Capitol grounds.

Excerpts from the amicus brief are below, and the full text of the brief can be viewed here.

"The district court ignored significant changes in Establishment Clause jurisprudence when it held that plaintiffs offended by a government display of the Ten Commandments have standing to challenge it, and that such a display violates the First Amendment. Standing for offended observers has never been embraced by the Supreme Court, and was instead squeezed by lower courts directly from Lemon, a decision that no longer has any import in this Court's jurisprudence.

"The Constitution limits the judicial power to deciding "Cases" and "Controversies."..."The law of Article III standing," the Supreme Court has said, "is built on separation-of-powers principles, [and] serves to prevent the judicial process from being used to usurp the powers of the political branches."

"Plaintiffs here cannot allege that the passive display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the State Capitol forces them to participate in religious practices or attend church, just as Coach Kennedy's personal prayer at the fifty-yard line did not force students to participate. Merely being offended by the display's presence does not amount to coercion. And as the Supreme Court has now held, the "legally protected interest" the Establishment Clause protects against, and which therefore must underlie any claim of injury giving rise to standing, is religious coercion."