American Atheists has filed numerous lawsuits against public institutions which it considered to have breached the separation of church and state. Around 2,200 members attend a national convention and numerous regional meetings. Ellen Johnson has been President since 1995. The organization is headquartered in Cranford, New Jersey.
On November 2, 2002, at the Godless Americans March on Washington, Ellen Johnson announced the formation of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC), a PAC to endorse political candidates who support the separation of church and state. The PAC was officially launched on March 9, 2004. It endorsed John Kerry, a Catholic, for the 2004 United States Presidential election, despite Kerry being a cosponsor of the Senate resolution [1] (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:SE00292:@@@P) which strongly disapproved of the Ninth Circuit decision in the Newdow case, which found the phrase under God in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional".
GAMPAC was born in part out of a 2002 "Godless Americans March" on Capitol Hill which drew an estimated 3,500 people.
Though she says GAMPAC plans to endorse political candidates who "support our vision of a secular America, one where our right to freedom of and freedom from religion is valued and protected," Johnson says the group has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate.
But while GAMPAC appears to have no high regard for Christians, it does acknowledge Christians' influence in society, and even plans to employ some of their methods of political activism.
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