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Published January 27, 2017
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," December 14, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: We continue now with "Is It Legal?" In Tennessee, the ACLU has sent a letter to 137 school superintendents warning them not to emphasize Christmas this year:
"We believe that holiday celebrations that focus primarily on one religious holiday can result in indoctrination, as well as a sense within the students who do not share that religion of being outsiders to the school."
As usual, the ACLU does not acknowledge Christmas as a federal holiday mandated by Congress, signed into law by U.S. Grant.
Rejoining us now Lis Wiehl and Kimberly Guilfoyle. So Guilfoyle, first of all, we won the Christmas battle over the last five years or so. There haven't been too many of these cases around the country this year. A few, but not many. Was there a threat in the ACLU letter to the superintendents, if you do mention merry Christmas or you do have caroling, we will do this to you?
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: We are coming after you strong and hard. That's what the threat is right there.
O'REILLY: Is it though? Is it a stated threat?
GUILFOYLE: Of course. To me this is very clear. If you read this letter, which we have...
O'REILLY: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: ...they clearly state that we feel you are engaging indoctrination, which is unfair, inappropriate, unconstitutional...
O'REILLY: Indoctrination.
GUILFOYLE: ...and they focus specifically on Christmas.
O'REILLY: Indoctrination into what?
GUILFOYLE: I don't know. Santa and his elves, it's a bad, scary thing. It's ridiculous.
O'REILLY: Wiehl, you're a pagan, right?
LIS WIEHL, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. That's right. Call me a pagan.
O'REILLY: Tough on Wiehl tonight. She's not. She's not a pagan.
WIEHL: Not at all.
O'REILLY: Indoctrination into what?
WIEHL: Indoctrination into...
O'REILLY: Into?
WIEHL: ...Christianity.
O'REILLY: Why? Just because you think the baby Jesus had a nice effect on civilization?
WIEHL: I know, it's crazy. I think it looks like a scare tactic.
O'REILLY: You think it's crazy?
WIEHL: Yes, because there's no one sentence in here that you can parse out and say, "We're going to come after you and sue you if you have a Christmas parade or something like that, or a Christmas pageant."
O'REILLY: They don't even want the teachers to mention though, even to mention Christmas.
WIEHL: Well, you can mention Christmas if you mention also this long list.
O'REILLY: So you have to go, "Merry Christmas, happy Kwanzaa, happy Solstice..."
WIEHL: Winter solstice, everything.
O'REILLY: Do they not know that there's a federal holiday that all the federal offices are closed on Christmas day, that this was voted upon in the Congress?
GUILFOYLE: Right.
O'REILLY: Does the ACLU not know that?
WIEHL: Of course the people at ACLU would know that, because they work at the ACLU and it's going to be closed on Christmas.
GUILFOYLE: And you have...
O'REILLY: That's right. We're going to demand that every ACLU office be open on Christmas.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Exactly. They're -- they should be open.
O'REILLY: If you're not open, I'll scorn you.
GUILFOYLE: Exactly. Send Wiehl after them. But there was also a Rasmussen poll in 2009 that 83 percent of Americans actually believe in these religious holidays.
O'REILLY: Yes, yes, but they're indoctrinated. Guilfoyle, they're all brainwashed, everybody.
GUILFOYLE: But they have no constitutional leg to stand on.
O'REILLY: Of course they don't.
GUILFOYLE: This isn't appropriate. They're singling out Christmas. It's not...
O'REILLY: ACLU, everybody.
WIEHL: What I don't like about it is the scare tactic.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Threatening.
WIEHL: If you don't do this, we're coming after you.
O'REILLY: And they only do this in Tennessee, by the way. This is just the nuts in Tennessee, the ACLU nuts.
All right. In Chicago, a woman was supposed to get married. The fiance backed out, and she's suing him, Wiehl, for $95,000?
WIEHL: That's what she put out for the wedding costs. She put $30,000 into renting a hall, and another $11,000 on her dress.
O'REILLY: When did he back out?
WIEHL: Four days before the wedding.
O'REILLY: Four days. So she wants to be paid back for all expenses.
WIEHL: Exactly.
O'REILLY: That sounds logical, right?
GUILFOYLE: I think it's totally reasonable. And he should be a man and actually pay for half of it at the least, because he...
O'REILLY: No, I think he should pay for all of it.
GUILFOYLE: Fine. Hey, take it to the O'Reilly court.
O'REILLY: You bet. The O'Reilly court's ruled. Hey, you pinhead. If you're going to, you know, back out four days.
GUILFOYLE: You could have taken the pinhead.
O'REILLY: He is a pinhead.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
O'REILLY: You pay the $95k. Why should this woman, who's already suffering emotionally, I'm sure.
GUILFOYLE: Right. And then he spends all the money at the Pink Monkey at a, you know, bachelor party.
O'REILLY: Did she actually pay for his bachelor party?
WIEHL: No, I'm sure…
GUILFOYLE: No.
O'REILLY: We don't want to get into the Pink Monkey, but...
WIEHL: Illinois has a breech of marriage law.
O'REILLY: Does it really?
WIEHL: Old, old law. But she's going to win on that.
O'REILLY: Wait, they weren't married yet?
WIEHL: Breech of promise to marry.
O'REILLY: So if you're engaged in Illinois and you don't go through with it, you can get sued no matter what?
WIEHL: Yes. Once you make a promise. Well, no, no. You can only be sued for real damages. Things you know, you put the money out there. Not for punitive "I'm mad at you."
O'REILLY: OK, not for emotional distress.
WIEHL: Not for emotional distress.
O'REILLY: All right. So if they put money out, because, you know...
GUILFOYLE: But isn't that fair and equity tillable?
O'REILLY: I know most people understand this, but in the traditional marriage, the bride's father picks up the tab.
WIEHL: Right.
O'REILLY: And pays for most of it.
WIEHL: Here the bride, a lawyer, picked up the tab.
O'REILLY: All right. So the only reason that this pinhead in Illinois, who backed out four days before he's supposed to get married, after going to the Pink Monkey.
GUILFOYLE: And she had to hear it from her friends, too. He wasn't even man enough...
O'REILLY: I think she should sue the Pink Monkey.
GUILFOYLE: Sue the Pink Monkey.
WIEHL: Now, the only thing is give back the engagement ring, because she didn't go through with her promise to marry.
GUILFOYLE: Fine.
O'REILLY: Give it back. Why would you want it?
GUILFOYLE: It's probably a CZ. I wouldn't trust him. Examine the ring.
O'REILLY: Right? With a loser like that? Give it back.
GUILFOYLE: Examine the ring.
O'REILLY: Guilfoyle saying it's not even real she bets.
GUILFOYLE: I bet. I'd put some money back on that.
O'REILLY: All right, ladies and gentlemen. There you go.
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