Liberal Politician’s Lawsuit Against God Dismissed

Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers’ lawsuit against God has been thrown out of court because God couldn’t be served papers informing him of Chambers’ suit.   The court threw out the suit by Nebraska’s most famous liberal lawmaker because of his failure to serve God with a summons. 

But law professor Ilya Somin believes a better reason for dismissing the suit would be that any lawsuit against God, who is Almighty, would be “unredressable” by earthly officials, who could not force God to do anything.  (“Redressability” is one of the elements for showing standing to sue under the Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife). 

Last year, I predicted the dismissal of Chambers’ lawsuit here.  Like Somin, I argued that “Chambers’s suit fails the constitutional requirement for standing, that a harm be judicially redressible before it can be challenged in a lawsuit. It would be an exercise in futility for an earthly court to order God to do anything.”  Chambers’ lawsuit also should have failed because it was simply a “generalized grievance,” and been barred based on principles of sovereign immunity.

Chambers’ bizarre lawsuit, strange antics, and vitriolic speeches, have not kept him from being courted by liberal presidential candidates or receiving accolades from journalists, such as being called a “national treasure” by Mother Jones magazine, and being praised by reporters and liberal politicians for his “conscience,” “heart,” and “empathy.”