Kentucky Supreme Court Allows State to Acknowledge ‘Reliance Upon Almighty God’

The Kentucky Supreme Court has let stand a ruling from the state Court of Appeals upholding the state’s right to acknowledge God in Kentucky’s homeland security law.

The organization American Atheists filed a lawsuit in 2008, claiming that the ordinance, written in part by Representative Tom Riner, a Baptist pastor in Louisville, violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause. The section written by Riner noted the state’s “reliance upon Almighty God” for the “safety and security of the Commonwealth.” As soon as the statute was signed into law, American Atheists stepped in to strike it down.

The following year, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate agreed with American Atheists, ruling that the homeland security ordinance was an infringement of the First Amendment and the Kentucky State Constitution.

More