Kentucky

Last year we wrote about a provision inserted into legislation by Kentucky State Rep. Tom Riner requiring the state's Office of Homeland Security to openly and repeatedly stress “the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth" and thank God for keeping the state safe. The provision has now been ruled unconstitutional:

A judge on Wednesday struck down a 2006 state law that required the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to stress “dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the commonwealth.”

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the law violated the First Amendment’s protection against the establishment of a state religion. Homeland Security officials have been required for three years to credit “Almighty God” in their official reports and post a plaque with similar language at the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort.

“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,” Wingate wrote.

“This is the very reason the Establishment Clause was created: to protect the minority from the oppression of the majority,” he wrote. “The commonwealth’s history does not exclude God from the statutes, but it had never permitted the General Assembly to demand that its citizens depend on Almighty God.”

State Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville, a Southern Baptist minister, placed the “Almighty God” language into a homeland security bill without much notice.

Riner said Wednesday that he is unhappy with the judge’s ruling. The way he wrote the law, he said, it did not mandate that Kentuckians depend on God for their safety, it simply acknowledged that government without God cannot protect its citizens.

“The decision would have shocked and disappointed Thomas Jefferson, who penned the words that the General Assembly paraphrased in this legislation,” Riner said.

USA Today reports that the $27 million Creation Museum, which Answers in Genesis opened last May in Petersburg, Kentucky, is exceeding its attendance expectations:

Halfway into its first year, it is on the verge of surpassing its projected year-long attendance goal of 250,000. Officials now expect nearly 400,000 people to pass through the doors by year's end.

"It's been a surprise," said spokeswoman Melany Ethridge, who attributed it to the dramatic exhibits and ongoing media interest from Europe and elsewhere.

While much of that attendance is likely comprised of Christian schools and church groups showing support for young-Earth creationism, the museum has also benefited from wide publicity. In May, Answers in Genesis distributed an elaborate press kit, including a “video news release.” VNRs are pre-produced news segments, complete with fake reporters, that many cash-strapped local TV stations will air with little or no editing or attribution.

Also included in the press kit was this sample science video, a recreation of the deluge:

You can hear screams in the background, but we are hopeful that no scientists were actually harmed in the making of that exhibit.

In 2004, Kent Ostrander of the Family Foundation of Kentucky was at the forefront pushing an amendment to the state’s constitution to ban gay marriage. Ostrander said he wasn’t “out to target gays and lesbians” but rather defending “true diversity” in families – “a mother and a father.” And when opponents of the amendment pointed out that the clause banning civil unions was extremely broad – banning recognition of any “legal status identical to or similar to marriage for unmarried individuals” – and could have unanticipated consequences, such as the inability of the state university to offer domestic partner benefits to faculty, Ostrander dismissed these objections as a scare tactic. “Those on the other side of this issue are raising the specter of a number of different scenarios that are not relevant and are at best speculation,” he said. (Link thanks to Christine Sun.)

Three years later, Ostrander is once again at the vanguard – this time fulfilling the “speculation” he dismissed back then:

Ostrander says the universities are granting medical insurance coverage to an individual's sexual partner.

"This means heterosexual, it means gays, lesbians and what-have-you," the family advocate explains. "And it's in direct violation of our state constitution, which we passed -- the marriage protection amendment in 2004, saying that only marriage would be one man and one woman, and that nothing identical or substantially similar would be validated or recognized," he says.

While the universities are changing their policies to broaden the health coverage beyond the scope of the anti-gay marriage amendment, Ostrander still organized a rally against the benefits last week, and is planning another one on Monday urging legislative action.

The Washington Times reports that the English-only movement is “building momentum,” citing Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)’s plans to reintroduce his English Language Unity Act in the new Congress and “seven states pushing legislation to make English the official language or to strengthen laws already in place."

“This is the strongest push for official English legislation that I have seen in the last 15 years,” crowed Mauro Mujica, chairman of US English. Rep. King claimed that “There's been such strong support. And it's gaining momentum.” Of course, with Republican immigration hawks out of power, King’s bill may have even less chance of becoming law than last year, when it languished in committee. And while King may use his skills in exaggeration to magnify the “momentum” and to try to create a wedge issue to motivate the anti-immigrant base, the real focus may be on proposed state laws.

"The states have been wonderful on this,” said Jim Boulet Jr., the executive director of English First, a group most recently involved in a failed attempt to prevent Florida Sen. Mel Martinez from being named general chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Washington Times cites efforts by legislators in Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey and Oklahoma, as well as an English-only referendum that passed last year in Arizona. King himself is devoting his energy to the state level by suing the governor of Iowa for supposedly violating the English-only law King crafted as a state legislator.