Rob Boston of Americans United has a great post today at the AU blog describing the reasons why many plaintiffs in church-state cases must stay anonymous.
At AU, we know from experience that plaintiffs in church-state lawsuits can and do experience harassment. When we sued Judge Roy Moore, Alabama’s infamous “Ten Commandments judge,” the plaintiffs were named. That means people could track them down – and some did.
During the litigation, plaintiff Melinda Maddox , who was newly married, returned from her honeymoon to find that the windows of her house had been shot out.
Filing a church-state lawsuit often brings one into conflict with a majority religious presence in the community, which can mistakenly interpret that legal challenge as a threat to their religion or religious beliefs. Even if unnamed, tremendous courage is required to place oneself in that position. And yet without them, many of our most precious religious freedoms would never have been recognized. We all owe a debt of gratitude to those champions of religious liberty willing to go forward.
