Vanity: My Letter to Alabama Attorney General Pryor

Self | 11/11/2003 | Self

[farmer18th]

Dear Mr. Pryor:

Your actions with respect to Judge Moore confuse me.

Is "Thou Shalt Not Steal" offensive to you? (I'm glad I don't own property in Alabama)

Is "Thou Shalt Not Murder" problematic for you? (I'm glad I don't live in Alabama)

Is "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" hurtful to you? (I'm glad you don't know my wife.)

Is "Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness" repugnant to you? (I'm glad I never had to seek justice in your state.)

Is "Thou Shalt Have no Other Gods Before Me" distasteful to you? (What with lightning bolts and all, I'm glad I dont worship next to you.)

We are a nation of laws, Mr. Pryor, and not of men. I'm just confused as to which laws you follow.

[EternalVigilance]

While you're hiding in that cave waiting for a better battlefield, say hello to Pryor for us.

[dirtboy]

Go run and hide then.

Quit being an ass and alientating those who agree with your basic premise. There will be a better situation in the future to stand up to the federal judiciary.

[lugsoul]

Cite to the law that the Federal judges made.

[Texas Federalist]

Wrong. No act of Congress, nor the Constitution itself, gives the judiciary the power to interpret the Constitution. The judiciary claimed that power in Marbury v. Madison. Even after that decision, the Constitutionality of each law was considered independently by Congress before it was passed, and the executive branch before it was enforced. It was not until the years leading up to the New Deal that Congress and the executive branch began abdicating their responsibility to act as a check on judicial interpretation.

What you and I say is unconsitutional may amount to a "hill of beans", but Pryor is a member of the executive branch who has a duty to independently consider the Constitutionality of a law before he enforces it. In this case he has decided to punish Judge Moore for obeying the Consititution.

[dirtboy]

Congress is forever banned from making laws in this area.

No act of Congress was involved here, so your point is pointless.

Read the First Amendment with your mind unclouded by modern liberal revisionist thinking.

Now, apply the 14th and the question is, has an omnicient judiciary been created? That is a far more profound question than anything contained in the personal attacks you level at me.

For a federal judge to dictate in such a way based on nonexistent law which in fact cannot exist is tyrannical and 'lawless'.

Once again, I see nothing in the First which applies here. This is a state with a religious monument in its courthouse, which is a 10th Amendment issue, not a 1st.

[TheOtherOne]

Saving a life and saving "Roys Rock" are not quite the same.

Moore deserves to be fired and will be if justice is served.

[Texas Federalist]

"Actually, I would postulate that it is the 10th, not the 1st, that applies here."
_______________________________

While you are right that the 10th applies, the 1st also does. The district court's order amounted to an infringement of free speech. It was illegal.

[farmer18th]

I would have preferred a confrontation, but this wasn't the best time or place to challenge federal power. That day will come and hopefully soon, but we need to be on solid ground for it.

I hope the day will come, but the point I ask you to consider is that it never will come if we engage in a slavish submission to bad law. The example of the American Revolution is one of uniform, righteous defiance in the face of bad laws. Disobedience gets attention. It galvanizes. It enlightens. A bold defiance on the part of Pryor would have aroused the sleeping conscience of a nation. Conservatives like Pryor put the nation to sleep.

[EternalVigilance]

He's not going to get fired, he's going to get promoted by the sovereign citizens of Alabama.

[farmer18th]

Trivializing the Ten Commandments as "Roy's Rocks" means you are afraid of the language enscripted on the stones themselves. Which of the commandments are you afraid of and why? Are you a defender of murder, or just covetousness? Do you believe in the pagan gods of savage cultures or the one true God? Are you capable of a substantive dialogue on the subject or are you more of an Al Franken type?

[EternalVigilance]

The federal judge's order was based on nothing except bad precedent which is itself based on nothing but the ACLU and their fellow-travelers' agenda to drive God from the public square in America, contrary to original intent.

They read the first Amendment, and where it says 'white', they say it says 'black'.

[EternalVigilance]

No act of Congress was involved here, so your point is pointless.

Obviously, the fact that the courts cannot just make up laws from whole cloth goes over your head.

[Looking for Diogenes]

Congress is forever banned from making laws in this area.

The 14th Amendment extended the reach of the 1st Amendment to all government agencies, including states.

In the context of the 1st Amendment, 'law' is considered to include an action or policy.

Judge Moore therefore may make no law nor perform any action in his role as a government official respecting an establishment of religion. Establishing a large religious monument prominently in a government building was a clear violation of the First Amendment

[farmer18th]

Saving a life and saving "Roys Rock" are not quite the same.

By the way, did it ever occur to you that those who saved Jews during the Holocaust were responding to the commandments which you have designated "Rocks." Are you stone-headed or just a coward?

[Viva Le Dissention]

oh, come on. I think you need to climb down off that moral high horse you've got there.

Listen: there are plenty of conservatives that think that the government has no business tinkering in religion. Furthermore, although you are trying to rally the troops with stirring visions of the Founders, there were plenty who also shared the view I mentioned above, most notably Madison.

So enough already.

[TheOtherOne]

He's not going to get fired, he's going to get promoted by the sovereign citizens of Alabama.

You are half right. He will get fired, but then he will get voted to a higher office.

[lugsoul]

You said he "made" a law. What "law" did he make. Cite to it.

[TheOtherOne]

Are you stone-headed or just a coward?

Is your faith so shallow that you need a rock?

[EternalVigilance]

Now, apply the 14th and the question is, has an omnicient judiciary been created? That is a far more profound question than anything contained in the personal attacks you level at me.

Perhaps you mean omnipotent; and yes, they now think they are omnipotent. Patriots who believe in limited government will fight to show them their error.

My personal attack on your desire to put off the fight until conditions are more suitable in your opinion was mild. I must have hit a sore spot though.

[farmer18th]

oh, come on. I think you need to climb down off that moral high horse you've got there.

I wasn't aware that defending ancient laws against theft, murder, adultery, and perjury required a particularly "high horse." You must be riding on a pig of some sort.