Supreme Court Needs to Declare US Constitution "unconstitutional" (for separation of ch. and st.)

The Constitution ^ | James Madison

[GulliverSwift]

Here in the Constitution, it says that if the President doesn't return a bill (either signed or vetoed) from Congress within ten days, it becomes law.

But he can miss Sunday and it won't count as one of the ten days. Isn't that an abomination to the whinerbals? (whiner + liberal) Here's the constitution respecting the Christian Sabbath day of rest and not the Jewish day of rest on Saturday or the Muslim Friday. I think the Supreme Court needs to rule the entire Constitution as unconstitutional. All this lack of separation of church and state. < /sarasm>

the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

[steenkeenbadges]

Heard on KSFO Radio: Robert Bork ultimately gave up teaching Constitutional Law. His reason? "Effectively, we no longer have a Constitution."

[GulliverSwift]

More people need to emphasize the point I brought up. Also, there is NO WHERE in the Constitution the phrase "separation of church and state." That was from a LETTER by Thomas Jefferson to a friend. These founders said lots of things in letters, and I doubt these libbies would like 90 percent of it.

[dpwiener]

The Constitution specifically says "Sunday excepted", not "Sabbath excepted". It carefully and deliberately avoided an overt religious reference. That sounds to me like evidence against any explicit mixing of church and state.

[freeeee]

The Founding Fathers were certainly religious. New Hampshire and Georgia's constitutions actually had provisions in them requiring voters to be Protestant. That was the original intent of the founders. If we really want to get back to the intent of the founding fathers, no Jew, Catholic, Muslim, or atheist could vote.

Ahem,

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

I'm an atheist, and I'm one of the governed. Therefore for government to hold legitimacy it needs my consent in the form of a vote. If you take the vote away from me, I'll consider myself no longer governed. Got it?

That was the original intent of the founders.

"our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right"

Thomas Jefferson, "Draft of a Bill for Religious Freedom"

[GulliverSwift]

But why did they choose Sunday? Jews think the day of rest should be Saturday, a day when there should be no government or business activity.

I'll bet that's what they have in Israel right now.

[dpwiener]

But why did they choose Sunday?

Perhaps they chose Sunday because they were attempting to minimize the risk of religious disputes. Suppose a President failed to veto a bill by the 10th day (which happened to fall on a Sunday), thereby allowing it to become law without his signature, and then was hit by a political backlash. The President wouldn't be able to change his mind, veto the bill and return it on Monday to Congress, and then try to demagogue about the Sabbath not counting and thereby create a Constitutional crisis.

The Constitution obviously contained various political compromises and accomodations (the most famous one being the counting of slaves as only 2/3 of a person for apportionment purposes). But the Founders were careful to avoid provisions that explicitly favored or discriminated against any religion qua religion.

[Darth Sidious]

Heard on KSFO Radio: Robert Bork ultimately gave up teaching Constitutional Law. His reason? "Effectively, we no longer have a Constitution."

He's right.

Realistically, there is no more government per the United States Constitution. We now have a "bully-ocracy" where those who have the most money/force/guns make the rules.

Wonder how long it might be before the average American citizen realizes that.