Michael: Thank you for asking. Of course I have no objection to protecting the least among us, let alone to the Golden Rule. Those are wonderful aspirations and guides to behavior, and they might even appropriately be considered in government decision-making, including even in deciding when to concede a lawsuit. But this is a case of an Attorney General publicly suggesting that an official decision of his was made by virtue of "Jesus's directive." And in an Establishment Clause case, at that!
I don't think it is necessarily unconstitutional for a state official to make decisions based upon injunctions of religious authorities (or, at least, that's not typically justiciable); but I do think it is inappropriate to publicly invoke such religious authority in explaining the basis for one's action on behalf of the state. I've been involved in many such decisions, and can't imagine any government official so much as proposing to invoke Jesus's authority as the basis for an appeal decision, let alone actually announcing it. If, however, my reaction is not universally shared (or my experiences are less-than-universal), please feel free to ignore the final word of my post -- suffice it to say that, at a minimum, an AG invoking Jesus certainly is noteworthy, whatever one thinks of its propriety. On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 11:05 AM, Michael Worley <mwor...@byulaw.net> wrote: > Marty, I, for one, would be curious what you meant by "sigh." > > On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 8:47 AM, Marty Lederman <lederman.ma...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> He claims he didn't appeal because "I don’t believe that’s the way to >> carry out Jesus’ primary directives to protect the least among us and to >> love thy neighbor." >> >> Sigh. >> >> On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 10:44 AM, Friedman, Howard M. < >> howard.fried...@utoledo.edu> wrote: >> >>> Issuing a strong statement, Mississippi's attorney general says he will >>> not appeal Judge Reeves' decision >>> >>> http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2016/07/mississippi-ag-will-not-appeal.html >>> >>> ------------------------------ >>> >>>
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