The Germantown Police Department removed religious scripture from a social media post promoting a job listing after the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin sent a joint letter to the police chief warning that signaling religious preference in hiring for a government job is unconstitutional.
After a concerned resident of Germantown brought the organization’s attention to the social media post on Sept. 13, FFRF and the ACLU sent the letter on Sept. 26.
“The separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of our Constitution and identity as a nation,” says FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi. “Favoring religious viewpoints sends an improper and exclusionary message in the hiring process and alienates individuals who do not share those religious beliefs. We hope this serves as a reminder to all government institutions to refrain from promoting religion in any official capacity.”
ACLU of Wisconsin Staff Attorney Hayley Archer remarks, “When a government agency suggests a preference for a particular religion, it poses serious constitutional concerns.”
“As the Supreme Court has put it, the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause ‘mandates government neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion,’” Archer adds. “We are happy that the department took the concerns raised in our letter seriously and made the correct decision to remove the bible text.”
Both state and federal law and the Constitution prohibit religious preferences in hiring for government positions, as the letter pointed out. And by promoting religious viewpoints through its official channels, the Germantown Police Department alienated the 37 percent of non-Christian Americans, including the nearly 30 percent who are religiously unaffiliated.
“We’re always trying to ensure that law enforcement folks adhere to constitutional law,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “While this was a very serious violation, the Germantown Police Department did well in correcting its overtly illegal behavior quickly.”
The Madison, Wis.-headquartered Freedom From Religion Foundation is the largest national association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics) with more than 40,000 members, including more than 1,700 in Wisconsin. FFRF works to educate the public about nontheism and to uphold the constitutional principle of separation between state and church.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin fights to protect, defend, and expand civil rights and liberties — particularly for communities historically denied their rights — through nonpartisan advocacy, community education, litigation, and organizing in order to create a more just future.
