Sandra Aldersea’s recent letter, “Money drives policy not the Constitution,” printed on  Dec. 20 merits further attention in light of the on-going invocation dispute in Mesa County.

In her letter, Sandra asserts that Earl Mullen, newly elected president of the Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers, previously wrote that the U.S. Constitution – and particularly the Bill of Rights (which contains the establishment clause of the First Amendment) – protects the “needs of a minority.”

Sandra properly disagrees with this statement on two grounds. First, as a matter of law and history, the purpose of the Bill of Rights is to protect the inalienable legal “rights” of minorities from compromise by the majority and thus is particularly relevant when the Christian majority seeks to intimidate religious minorities and/or atheists.

Second, as a practical matter, it may be true that “Big money is what will win for him, that and the backing of the ACLU.” Sandra seems to realize that local atheists have the Bill of Rights on their side, and may well prevail against at least the Mesa County commissioners – their defense by the Alliance Defense Fund notwithstanding.

Moreover, our courts fully appreciate that “money talks” in our society and therefore award both damages to plaintiffs and attorney fees to lawyers (including those of the ACLU) who successfully vindicate constitutional rights against governmental abuse.

In sum, if the ACLU decides to sue the Grand Junction City Council over its invocation policy and/or the Mesa County Commissioners over their foolishly stubborn invocation practice, it will be because the ACLU fully expects to win – and thus also expects that all its expenses of litigation will eventually be borne by the taxpayers of Grand Junction and/or Mesa County, and/or personally by those elected officials who have blithely subordinated their oaths of office to their peculiar religious beliefs.

BILL HUGENBERG
Grand Junction

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