Supreme court should allow challenge to “faith-based initiatives.”

Letter to the Editor:

What good is the First Amendment if citizens cannot sue to prevent the White House from spending tax money to promote religion?

The Supreme Court in Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation should proclaim that taxpayers have legal standing to challenge “faith-based initiatives” such as those engineered by the White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. That office, established by President Bush in 2001, promotes funding of religious groups who offer godliness and scripture as solutions to social ills.Lawsuits such as this are vital to upholding Thomas Jefferson’s principle of church-state separation as embodied in the First Amendment. President Bush’s shameful record of insinuating religion into politics demonstrates that the government will not police itself.

The courthouse doors must therefore remain open to courageous plaintiffs who safeguard everyone’s future by mounting constitutional attacks on creeping theocracy. The Islamic totalitarian government of Iran is, after all, only a highly advanced, highly devout “faith-based initiative.”