Election officials in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, may face legal action after they prohibited an elections judge from displaying a Bible on his desk.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is taking action on behalf of Pittsburg Judge of Elections John Goodhart, who was “unconstitutionally discriminated against while attempting to read his Bible during personal downtime at the polling place,” the legal group wrote.
ACLJ explained that Goodhart routinely had his Bible visible and read it on breaks.
An Allegheny County Elections Division staff member told Goodhart to remove his Bible from view due to the “separation of church and state.” He received a phone call from an elections staff member who said a voter “complained about the presence of a closed Bible among his personal effects on the table beside him.”
ACLJ sent a letter to the county’s elections division manager, David Voye, writing: “Today, we’re fighting for John Goodhart, a dedicated Judge of Elections in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who was unconstitutionally discriminated against while attempting to read his Bible during personal downtime at the polling place.”
“By reading his Bible during his personal time while on a break at his election desk, Goodhart is engaged in private activity, not within the scope of his employment,” Voye was told. “The Supreme Court’s analysis in Kennedy of a similar matter should be dispositive here. Goodhart wishes to engage in private religious activity, during his personal time, when his fellow coworkers are, likewise, engaging in private, personal activity.”
The Supreme Court reaffirmed in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District that the Establishment Clause “does not include anything like a ‘modified heckler’s veto, in which … religious activity can be proscribed’ based on ‘perceptions’ or ‘discomfort.'”
“At no time during his years of service has he opened a Bible in the immediate presence of an individual, nor has he ever proselytized anyone,” the legal group noted. “The staff member who called Goodhart referred only to a Bible on Goodhart’s table, not the other Bible in the polling place. She did not refer to any other person or Bible, but instead discriminated specifically against Goodhart’s religious materials.”
They demanded that Goodhart’s “constitutional rights to have a Bible for his personal use on personal time during the administration of elections” be honored.
