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To: Long Cut
You wrote:

Ah, so the guide should be what a judge BELIEVES,instead of what the document actually SAYS (as long as we agree). I get it now...

You are being hypocritical because what you believe is also what judges say. Of course, if I am wrong, then you would believe that only the Congress is prohibited from passing laws respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and that states and local communities can pass any law they please regarding religion; which, or course, they did until the corrupt 1947 Hugo Black supreme court usurped that power from them.

Thomas Jefferson understood the original intent of the religious clause, as he explained in this 1808 letter:

"I consider the government of the U S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment, or free exercise, of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the U.S. Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority."

61 posted on 08/16/2004 5:48:04 PM PDT by PhilipFreneau
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To: PhilipFreneau
"Of course, if I am wrong, then you would believe that only the Congress is prohibited from passing laws respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and that states and local communities can pass any law they please regarding religion; which, or course, they did until the corrupt 1947 Hugo Black supreme court usurped that power from them."

Oh, where to begin? First, I do NOT believe that, due to the 14th Amendment, which you can look up. It prohibits the states from violating the Constitution in their own constitutions and laws. It was ratified in 1868, far earlier than your 1947 bugaboo you so love to scapegoat. Prior to that time, any states wishing to join the union had to conform to the Constitution as a condition of entry. See Article IV, section 2. Because of communication, and of plain resistance, some states took their time (decades in some cases), but all eventually conformed.

It seems we have both read the Constitution. The difference is, I see what IS there, and you see what you WISH was there. As for Thomas Jefferson's quote, it quite nicely puts another nail in America as a "Christian Nation", as he quite clearly speaks AGAINST an establishment. His reference to the states was trumped by the 14th Amendment.

You are into the realm of spinning.

71 posted on 08/16/2004 6:41:07 PM PDT by Long Cut (The Constitution...the NATOPS of America!)
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To: PhilipFreneau

Kudos to your posts, but I fear they have fallen on deaf ears...


179 posted on 08/18/2004 9:33:35 AM PDT by Windsong (FighterPilot)
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