Establishment clause anti-rip-off bill adds two Senate cosponsors, now has 19

S 415, the new Senate bill that would bar attorney fee awards in establishment clause cases, added two new cosponsors in July and August and now has 19 cosponsors in addition to the sponsor. I checked some other bills at random and found that 19 is a high number. A study showed that the average numbers of Senate cosponsors for bills that passed the Senate and for bills that were enacted into law were much lower.

In the last Congress, the same bill passed the House by a large margin but the Senate bill was not voted on by the Senate judiciary committee.

I would greatly prefer a bill that would cap attorney fee awards in both establishment clause and free exercise clause lawsuits, but I consider the current bills to be better than nothing. Also, I think that the bills should not mention the Boy Scouts -- that is completely unnecessary.

It is completely ridiculous that the Dover school district ended up paying $1 million in an attorney fee award to the plaintiffs in a lawsuit over a little one-minute statement about intelligent design.

Other articles about these attorney fee awards may be found by clicking on the post label below.