‘A blatant violation of the First Amendment’
By Bob Unruh
A fight – that could end up before the federal courts – has erupted in Virginia because officials in the National Park Service abruptly have decided to censor all “religious” events planned to honor Memorial Day at Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg.
Officials with First Liberty Institute have written to federal officials offering advice on “the right” thing to do to resolve the standoff.
“Our hope is that the National Park Service will immediately correct this error and grant the permit,” said John Moran of the McGuireWoods law firm working with the institute. “This policy and the decision to block the Knights of Columbus from continuing their long-standing religious tradition is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
Roger Byron, of First Liberty, added, “Due to the religious nature of the Knights’ annual service to honor and pray for the nation’s fallen soldiers, they have been assigned a second class status and relegated to the proverbial back of the bus. That is precisely the kind of unlawful discrimination and censorship the First Amendment was enacted to prevent. Surely this decision was an oversight.”
The problem is that while the Knights of Columbus Petersburg Council 694 has held Memorial Day services in the cemetery since the 1960s, the Parks Service now is banning them, because there is a new prohibition on “religious services.”