The American Civil Liberties Union has reportedly filed a lawsuit in Louisiana over a painting of Jesus that hangs in the lobby of the Slidell City Courthouse, saying it violates the First Amendment.
Not surprisingly, the anti-ACLU (aka the Alliance Defense Fund) has stepped in to defend the painting:
The painting clearly delivers an inclusive message of equal justice under the law,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson … “The ideas expressed in this painting aren’t specific to any one faith, and they certainly don’t establish a single state religion,” Johnson explained. “The reason Americans enjoy equal justice is because we are all ‘created equal, endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable rights.’ This painting is a clear reflection of the ideas in the Declaration of Independence.”
All well and good, but since we as a nation are governed by the Constitution rather than the Declaration of Independence, that is not really the issue.
As for the claim that the “painting clearly delivers an inclusive message” that isn’t “specific to any one faith”:
