Veterans' Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, And Other Public Expressions Of Religion Protection Act Of 2006

VETERANS' MEMORIALS, BOY SCOUTS, PUBLIC SEALS, AND OTHER PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS OF RELIGION PROTECTION ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 26, 2006)

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, any time you name a bill using the words ``veterans memorials'' and ``religious protection,'' you can assume that we are just about to cut veterans health care.

Now, if we are going to deal with veterans issues, I would hope that we would fully fund the veterans health care VA expenditures rather than cut them. We ought to do more for veterans pensions, we ought to do more for veterans disability, rather than naming a bill which undermines the freedoms they actually fought for.

Thirty years ago, Mr. Speaker, Congress recognized the importance of passing a law to ensure that those who suffer violations of their constitutional rights or unconstitutional discrimination will be able to obtain legal representation to vindicate their civil rights; but only in cases where they actually win the case will they be able to get help with their attorneys fees.

This bill would rescind the ability of victims whose rights under part of the first amendment have been found to have been violated from receiving reimbursement for attorneys fees and costs. This means that only the most fortunate in our society will be able to enforce their civil rights and seek redress when those rights are violated. It means that the less fortunate can only get those rights if they can raise enough money to enforce them. When the cost of enforcement becomes too great, there will not be any private enforcement and then our constitutional rights will be reduced to hollow pronouncements for the average citizens because only the wealthy will be able to seek enforcement.

But this bill goes actually further, because the bill will specifically deprive victims whose rights have been found to be violated by a court and those whose rights continue to be violated after the court has ordered, from being able to seek remedies other than those provided in the bill, namely injunctive or declaratory relief.

Now, if a school system were to decide to ignore the Constitution and require school children to recite a state-sponsored Protestant prayer in some areas, or a Mormon prayer in others, what would happen? Or if a State or locality were to just declare itself to have a particular established religion, what would happen under the bill? Nothing. Nothing would happen, until such time as you have a wealthy individual willing to fund a lawsuit to try to vindicate the obvious violation of their constitutional rights.

In all other classrooms and all other localities where you don't have a wealthy individual to fund the lawsuit, nothing will happen, because the perpetrators of the violation will know that there is no sanction. Nothing can happen. The only thing that can happen is you just sit around and wait for a court to declare that you are in violation. Nothing else can happen. And even after that finding occurs, nothing will happen until the court actually starts enforcing the court order, and you will need additional attorneys fees to go in and get that order.

This just invites violations of the law because we know there is no sanction for violating the first amendment. We know that the establishment clause, part of the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, will be the only part of the Constitution without any remedy to effectively enforce the provisions of that Constitution. That is why virtually every civil rights group, religious organization and legal organization opposes the bill; and, Mr. Speaker, I hope we oppose the bill too.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that letters from over a dozen organizations in opposition to this bill be entered into the RECORD to the extent that some of them have not been entered in the RECORD so far.

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rehberg). Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Virginia?

There was no objection.

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