Dimitri Cavalli, in today’s WSJ:

The town of Bridgeport, W.Va. (pop. 7,300), recently became the site of the latest skirmish in the culture wars. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the West Virginia chapter of the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two plaintiffs against the county board of education and other local officials. The suit alleged that Bridgeport High School violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause by hanging a copy of Warner Sallman’s famous portrait, “Head of Christ,” on a wall outside the principal’s office.

Read Cavalli’s piece to see why the picture was there, for how long, what attempts were made to compromise (rejected by the ACLU), what other religious symbols were in the school (a 2-foot statue of Buddha; ignored by the ACLU), and so on.

Cavalli’s final point is on the financial burden of these cases:

There is another aspect of this case that deserves attention. In federal lawsuits against state officials that allege violations of constitutional rights, defendants are required to pay the plaintiff’s attorney fees if they lose the suit. In this case, Americans United explicitly warned the Bridgeport school board that, if it lost the case, it would be paying over a substantial amount of money to its own lawyers and those of the ACLU. Thus there is a strong—and unjustly one-sided—financial incentive on the part of many public institutions to cave in to the demands of groups such as the ACLU and Americans United and settle such suits.

More