Faith. Family. First Amendment?

Fort Smith, AR (12/31/09) - Here's another question for our scream team of legal eagles.

Let's start with this premise: Separation of church and state is safeguarded by the First Amendment. I and everyone else with even a rudimentary grasp of the Constitution knows this.

So does a certain sign posted by the town of Sulphur, Louisiana, violate this? The city's welcome sign reads, "Faith. Family. Community." Does the reference to "faith" in the city's slogan (which was established at taxpayer expense) violate the establishment clause?

One can probably make a strong case for both sides of the argument.

But here's a much more interesting question: By posting this sign, did the city actually try to provoke a court battle - in an effort to score political points?

I believe that it did. Odds are 99 to 1.

Why do I suspect this? Because public officials all over America think they have nothing more important to worry about than starting silly battles like this. It takes some of the pressure to fight real issues off of them, I guess.