Court of Appeals: Kentucky can credit 'Almighty God' for homeland security

The state can continue giving official credit for its homeland security to Almighty God, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday in a decision overturning a lower-court ruling.
A three-judge panel, in a split decision, rejected the 2009 ruling of Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate, who declared legislation requiring credit to the Almighty to have “created an official government position on God.”
A group of 10 Kentucky residents filed suit to challenge the legislation in 2008, saying the laws creating an Office of Homeland Security violated the Kentucky and U.S constitutions’ bans on state-sponsored religion.
Virtually every state legislator, the attorney general and both major-party candidates for governor had weighed in on the case, supporting the law with legal briefs or public statements of support.
Judge Laurance B. VanMeter wrote in his majority opinion that the appeals court disagrees with Wingate’s “assertion that the legislation seeks to place an affirmative duty upon the Commonwealth’s citizenry to rely on ‘Almighty God’ for protection of the Commonwealth.”
“The legislation merely pays lip service to a commonly held belief in the puissance (power) of God,” VanMeter said in an opinion joined by Judge Thomas Wine. “The legislation complained of here does not seek to advance religion, nor does it have the effect of advancing religion, but instead seeks to recognize the historical reliance on God for protection.”
Such a reference couldn’t be unconstitutional, the opinion added, because “that rationale would place this section at odds with the (Kentucky) Constitution’s Preamble,” which itself thanks “Almighty God” for the welfare and freedom of the commonwealth.
At issue are two related laws passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A 2002 “legislative finding” said the “safety and security of the commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”
And a 2006 act creating the state’s Office of Homeland Security requires its executive director to publicize this “dependence on Almighty God” in agency training and educational materials and through a plaque at the entrance to its emergency operations center.
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