American Civil Liberties Union

"Ignorance is behind the criticism of Sohail Mohammed," said Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey during a press conference last week. "They're criticizing him because he's a Muslim American." Sohail Mohammed was appointed as a New Jersey Superior Court judge last week, having been nominated by Gov. Christie.

Gov. Christie's comments came after the state Senate Judiciary Committee focused on his faith instead of his credentials, questioning Mohammed about Hamas, the Muslim community's reaction to terrorism, and the terms "jihad" and "Islamo terrorist" during his confirmation hearing last week. These questions were asked despite the fact that Mohammed has, in Gov. Christie's words, "never been accused of doing anything but honorably and zealously acquitting the oath he took when he became a lawyer," and despite his assistance in setting up "dozens of meetings with Muslim American leaders to convince them that federal law enforcement could be trusted in the aftermath of September 11th and that they should provide information and leads to help to combat potential terrorist attacks in our state."

Yesterday, a federal court decision barred the City of South Bend, Indiana, from unconstitutionally donating land bought with taxpayer funds to a private religious school. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Indiana, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

On September 25, 2010, an evangelical Christian concert was held on the military base at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. After receiving complaints about the "Rock the Fort" concert, military officials claimed that they would support similar events sponsored by nonevangelical groups. But when one such event, "Rock Beyond Belief," was proposed by Sgt. Justin Griffith, an atheist, military brass refused to provide the same level of support.

The ACLU of North Carolina first became involved in October of 2010, when it sent a letter and Freedom of Information Act request regarding the "Rock the Fort" concert. Since then, the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, ACLU of North Carolina, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent two follow-up letters (here and here) encouraging the officials at Fort Bragg to do the right thing — and the constitutional thing — by not playing favorites with religion and, at the very least, showing the same amount of support for "Rock Beyond Belief" that it offered to "Rock the Fort."