Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers (D - Omaha) filed suit against God Friday, asking a court to order the Almighty and his followers to stop making terrorist threats.
The suit (.pdf), filed in a Nebraska district court, contends that God, along with his followers of all persuasions, "has made and continues to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons." Those threats are credible given God's history, Chambers' complaint says.
Chambers, in a fit of alliteration, also accuses God of causing "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like."
Likewise the suit accuses God of having his chroniclers "disseminate in written form, said admissions, throughout the Earth in order to inspire fear, dread, anxiety, terror and uncertainty, in order to coerce obedience to Defendant's will."
Chambers, who has represented Omaha, Nebraska since 1970, asked the Douglas County district court for summary judgment or to set a quick hearing date "if the Court deems such a hearing not to be a futile act."
The senator also wants the court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting God from issuing plagues and terrorist threats. It's unclear how this could work since God is usually understood to be all powerful.
Chambers does admit that God is omnipresent and omniscient, however. Since God is everywhere, the Nebraska court has jurisdiction, Chambers argues, and since God is all-knowing, Chambers need not serve him with a notice of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit indicates that Chambers attempted to make God appear in order to serve him by saying "Come out, come out, wherever you are," but the Almight declined, like many defendants, to make it easy for a plaintiff to serve him with court papers.
Chambers filed the suit to make a point that the state constitution allows lawsuits to be filed for any reason, according to WOWT.
Attempts to reach Chambers for comment were unsuccessful.
God did not immediately respond to a non-denominational prayer for comment by this reporter.
The suit is Chambers v. God .
CC Photo: Soham Banerjee
Michelangelo, face detail of God.
Nebraska state Senator Ernie Chambers, who represents legislative District 11 in North Omaha,  filed an unusual lawsuit on Friday. According to court documents obtained by Wikinews, Chambers has decided to sue God, looking for a judge to issue a "permanent injunction" against the highest power.
Senator Chambers. 
Chambers says in his suit that God has spread fear across the globe causing "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants. God also caused fearsome floods, horrendous hurricanes, earthquakes, plagues, famine, genocidal wars, birth defects, terrifying tornadoes and the like" and he wants the courts to order God "to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats."

The suit is in an apparent retaliation for a recent ruling where the words 'rape' and 'victim' were banned from a recent criminal case involving a sexual assault incident. The woman who was assaulted, Tory Bowen, filed a lawsuit against Jeffrey Cheuvront, a district judge in the city of Lancaster when he banned the use of those words in her criminal case. Chambers says that her lawsuit is "frivolous" and he filed his suit to show people that "anybody can sue anybody."

"This lawsuit having been filed and being of such questionable merit creates a circumstance where my lawsuit is appropriately filed. People might call it frivolous but if they read it they'll see there are very serious issues I have raised." stated Chambers. "The Constitution requires that the courthouse doors be open, so you cannot prohibit the filing of suit. Anyone can sue anyone they choose, even God," he added.

Richard Kopf, a U.S. District Judge has ordered that Bowen must show evidence to support her lawsuit, saying that her case does not have "any legal basis whatsoever" until she does so.

It is not known when or if any additional hearings have been scheduled. Mr Chambers complaint consists of in part, "despite reasonable efforts to effectuate personal service on Defendant God has been unable to do so."

Attempts by a ''Wired News'' reporter to contact God for comment were not successful.