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July 30, 1999/17 Av 5759, Vol. 51, No.43
Bible Week decision delayed
ANNE BRADY
Managing Editor
A court decision regarding the constitutionality of municipal Bible Week proclamations is being deferred another couple of weeks, as U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn O. Silver considers new evidence involving a Gilbert resident - a Christian woman married to a Jewish man - who says she has strongly considered moving because she is so upset about her mayor's repeated Bible Week proclamations.
The chief issue now in dispute in the case is whether the proclamations really harm anyone.
The Arizona Civil Liberties Union sued the town of Gilbert last fall and obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting Mayor Cynthia Dunham from proclaiming Bible Week in 1998.
The ACLU also sued the state of Arizona, but after Gov. Jane Hull's Bible Week proclamation was declared unconstitutional in federal court, Hull agreed not to issue any more such proclamations.
Gilbert is the only known government entity in Arizona that still issues Bible Week proclamations, and the ACLU is now seeking a permanent restraining order against Dunham and the town.
Bible Week proclamations are issued at the request of the New York-based National Bible Association. Some 500 mayors and 30 governors across the country sign Bible Week proclamations recognizing Thanksgiving week as a week honoring the Bible and, in some cases, encouraging people to read and study the Bible. At a court hearing July 12, Silver noted that the proclamation of Bible Week "establishes allegiances."
At issue at the hearing was whether Bible Week proclamations harm anyone. Attorneys for the town argued that because the proclamation is ceremonial and no town money is spent, it is not an official action and no one is harmed by it.
Attorney Walter Weber of the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing Gilbert, noted precedents in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that merely being offended by something was not sufficient to constitute harm and warrant a claim of injury.
Silver, who told the plaintiffs they needed to present "some case law to support your claims of injury," said at the hearing that she would decide the case by this week.
The ACLU later entered into evidence an affidavit from Gilbert resident Eileen Levine. The town's attorney responded, and the ACLU attorney has until today (Friday, July 30) to file a reply brief. An assistant to Silver said this week that the judge would decide within another two weeks.
ALCU Executive Director Eleanor Eisenberg said Levine was one of the first to call the ACLU and complain about Gilbert Bible Week back in 1997. According to ACLU attorney Tim Nelson, Levine's "interest in the ACLU was piqued by this," and she became a member in the fall of 1998. Her affidavit is key, Nelson said, because her status as an ACLU member affirms the ACLU's standing to bring the lawsuit.
In the affidavit, Levine explains the negative impact Bible Week proclamations have had on her family, including making them feel unwelcome in their town, Eisenberg said.
"We have always said that people were genuinely hurt by this," said Eisenberg. "The judge has acknowledged their pain."
Nelson predicted that "the combined effect of all the evidence will tip the scales" in the ACLU's favor.
But Weber insisted that Levine is "no different" from other plaintiffs in the case, Jewish and Christian, who were offended by Bible Week. "There's nothing new there," Weber said. "(Levine) may have more strongly considered moving, but that's only a change in the intensity, not in the nature of being offended."
The ACLU also has argued that, if the Bible Week proclamations are unconstitutional because they violate the principle of the separation of church and state and demonstrate government support of a religious belief, then that alone constitutes injury to the plaintiffs.
"The proclamation aids one religion (Christianity, or alternatively, all Judeo-Christian religious tradition) and prefers religion over non-religion," alleged the original lawsuit filed by the ACLU in U.S. District Court, challenging Bible Week in Gilbert. "Mayor (Cynthia) Dunham and the Town of Gilbert violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United State Constitution by: promoting or affiliating the Town of Gilbert with the religious doctrine of the Bible; discriminating against non-Christians in favor of Christians; and favoring religion over non-religion."
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