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Bill Would Reaffirm Words 'under God' in Pledge of Allegiance
AP Breaking News/ Tampa Bay Online ^
| Oct 7, 2002
Posted on 10/07/2002 5:05:21 PM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House considered a bill Monday that would reinforce support for references to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and the national motto.
The measure, scheduled to be voted on Tuesday, is expected to pass overwhelmingly. In addition to reaffirming support for the words "under God" in the pledge, it also reiterates that "In God we trust" is the national motto.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June ruled that the phrase "under God," inserted by Congress in 1954, amounts to a government endorsement of religion in violation of the separation of church and state.
The case was brought by a California man who objected to his daughter being compelled to listen to her second-grade classmates recite the pledge.
The ruling received sharp criticism from President Bush and members of Congress.
Immediately after the ruling, House members gathered on the front steps of the Capitol to recite the pledge. The next day, virtually the entire Senate showed up for a morning prayer to affirm that the United States is "one nation under God."
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., called the ruling "troubling."
Sensenbrenner, who serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the bill reaffirms "the myriad of ways in which federal, state and local governments acknowledge America's religious heritage and its consistency with both historical practice and legal precedent."
The House bill also includes rules on the appropriate manner for saying the pledge, including a provision that says anyone reciting it should remove nonreligious headgear with the right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, with the hand resting over the heart.
The Senate has already passed a bill, but it did not include the headgear provisions. Lawmakers there are expected to pass the House version soon. It would then go to the White House for the president's signature.
--
The bill is S. 2690.
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AP-ES-10-07-02 1938EDT
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KEYWORDS: bill; inpledge; ofallegiance; reaffirm; undergod; words; would
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To: patent; fatima; Salvation; billbears; JMJ333; EODGUY; Cap'n Crunch
To: TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
To: Anti-Bubba182
I can't believe the demon dems support this. most of their followers are scientologists or athiests.
To: All
To reaffirm the reference to one Nation under God in the Pledge of Allegiance. (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by Senate)
S 2690 ES
107th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2690
AN ACTTo reaffirm the reference to one Nation under God in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) On November 11, 1620, prior to embarking for the shores of America, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact that declared: `Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia,'.
(2) On July 4, 1776, America's Founding Fathers, after appealing to the `Laws of Nature, and of Nature's God' to justify their separation from Great Britain, then declared: `We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness'.
(3) In 1781, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and later the Nation's third President, in his work titled `Notes on the State of Virginia' wrote: `God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God. That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.'.
(4) On May 14, 1787, George Washington, as President of the Constitutional Convention, rose to admonish and exhort the delegates and declared: `If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God!'.
(5) On July 21, 1789, on the same day that it approved the Establishment Clause concerning religion, the First Congress of the United States also passed the Northwest Ordinance, providing for a territorial government for lands northwest of the Ohio River, which declared: `Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.'.
(6) On September 25, 1789, the First Congress unanimously approved a resolution calling on President George Washington to proclaim a National Day of Thanksgiving for the people of the United States by declaring, `a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a constitution of government for their safety and happiness.'.
(7) On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address on the site of the battle and declared: `It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'.
(8) On April 28, 1952, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952), in which school children were allowed to be excused from public schools for religious observances and education, Justice William O. Douglas, in writing for the Court stated: `The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every and all respects there shall be a separation of Church and State. Rather, it studiously defines the manner, the specific ways, in which there shall be no concern or union or dependency one on the other. That is the common sense of the matter. Otherwise the State and religion would be aliens to each other--hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly. Churches could not be required to pay even property taxes. Municipalities would not be permitted to render police or fire protection to religious groups. Policemen who helped parishioners into their places of worship would violate the Constitution. Prayers in our legislative halls; the appeals to the Almighty in the messages of the Chief Executive; the proclamations making Thanksgiving Day a holiday; `so help me God' in our courtroom oaths--these and all other references to the Almighty that run through our laws, our public rituals, our ceremonies would be flouting the First Amendment. A fastidious atheist or agnostic could even object to the supplication with which the Court opens each session: `God save the United States and this Honorable Court.'.'.
(9) On June 15, 1954, Congress passed, and President Eisenhower signed into law a statute, that was clearly consistent with the text and intent of the Constitution of the United States, that amended the Pledge of Allegiance to read: `I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'.
(10) On July 20, 1956, Congress proclaimed that the national motto of the United States is `In God We Trust', and that motto is inscribed above the main door of the Senate, behind the Chair of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and on the currency of the United States.
(11) On June 17, 1963, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), in which compulsory school prayer was held unconstitutional, Justices Goldberg and Harlan, concurring in the decision, stated: `But untutored devotion to the concept of neutrality can lead to invocation or approval of results which partake not simply of that noninterference and noninvolvement with the religious which the Constitution commands, but of a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular and a passive, or even active, hostility to the religious. Such results are not only not compelled by the Constitution, but, it seems to me, are prohibited by it. Neither government nor this Court can or should ignore the significance of the fact that a vast portion of our people believe in and worship God and that many of our legal, political, and personal values derive historically from religious teachings. Government must inevitably take cognizance of the existence of religion and, indeed, under certain circumstances the First Amendment may require that it do so.'.
(12) On March 5, 1984, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Lynch v. Donelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), in which a city government's display of a nativity scene was held to be constitutional, Chief Justice Burger, writing for the Court, stated: `There is an unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life from at least 1789. . . . [E]xamples of reference to our religious heritage are found in the statutorily prescribed national motto `In God We Trust' (36 U.S.C. 186), which Congress and the President mandated for our currency, see (31 U.S.C. 5112(d)(1) (1982 ed.)), and in the language `One Nation under God', as part of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. That pledge is recited by many thousands of public school children--and adults--every year. . . . Art galleries supported by public revenues display religious paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries, predominantly inspired by one religious faith. The National Gallery in Washington, maintained with Government support, for example, has long exhibited masterpieces with religious messages, notably the Last Supper, and paintings depicting the Birth of Christ, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, among many others with explicit Christian themes and messages. The very chamber in which oral arguments on this case were heard is decorated with a notable and permanent--not seasonal--symbol of religion: Moses with the Ten Commandments. Congress has long provided chapels in the Capitol for religious worship and meditation.'.
(13) On June 4, 1985, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), in which a mandatory moment of silence to be used for meditation or voluntary prayer was held unconstitutional, Justice O'Connor, concurring in the judgment and addressing the contention that the Court's holding would render the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because Congress amended it in 1954 to add the words `under God,' stated `In my view, the words `under God' in the Pledge, as codified at (36 U.S.C. 172), serve as an acknowledgment of religion with `the legitimate secular purposes of solemnizing public occasions, [and] expressing confidence in the future.'.
(14) On November 20, 1992, the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, in Sherman v. Community Consolidated School District 21, 980 F.2d 437 (7th Cir. 1992), held that a school district's policy for voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance including the words `under God' was constitutional.
(15) The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals erroneously held, in Newdow v. U.S. Congress, (9th Cir. June 26, 2002) that the Pledge of Allegiance's use of the express religious reference `under God' violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, and that, therefore, a school district's policy and practice of teacher-led voluntary recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional.
(16) The erroneous rationale of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Newdow would lead to the absurd result that the Constitution's use of the express religious reference `Year of our Lord' in Article VII violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, and that, therefore, a school district's policy and practice of teacher-led voluntary recitations of the Constitution itself would be unconstitutional.
SEC. 2. ONE NATION UNDER GOD.
(a) REAFFIRMATION- Section 4 of title 4, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
`Sec. 4. Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery
`The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: `I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.', should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute.'.
(b) CODIFICATION- In codifying this subsection, the Office of the Law Revision Council shall make no change in section 4, title 4, United States Code, but shall show in the historical and statutory notes that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has appeared in the Pledge for decades.
SEC. 3. REAFFIRMING THAT GOD REMAINS IN OUR MOTTO.
(a) REAFFIRMATION- Section 302 of title 36, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
`Sec. 302. National motto
`In God we trust' is the national motto.'.
(b) CODIFICATION- In codifying this subsection, the Office of the Law Revision Council shall make no change in section 302, title 36, United States Code, but shall show in the historical and statutory notes that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has appeared in the Motto for decades.
Passed the Senate June 27, 2002.
Attest:
Secretary.
107th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2690
AN ACT
To: TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
Nothing brings out religious fervor than the thought that someone isn't praying just like the fanatics.
6
posted on
10/07/2002 5:34:52 PM PDT
by
Dimensio
To: Dimensio; All
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
Just One Question...
NOW that the President has called us to prayer...
NOW that Congress has called us to prayer...
NOW that our Governor has called us to prayer...
NOW that the city Mayor has called us to prayer...
NOW that the "liberal" media and most other
- branches of our American society have called
- us to prayer...
AND NOW that our churches are assembling in
- special prayer...
Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court,
I have only one question............................
NOW would it be okay to pray in our schools??
~~ An American Citizen
To: TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
It's already 'okay' to pray in schools.
8
posted on
10/07/2002 5:58:28 PM PDT
by
Dimensio
To: Dimensio
To: TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
I concede your point. Your political cartoons that express outrage over a common misconception of existing law caused by people believing the hysteria of religious nuts who lie about prayer being outlawed in public schools have certainly strengthened your case. The one regarding the second amendment weakens your case, however, because that political cartoon is actually grounded in reality.
10
posted on
10/07/2002 6:14:59 PM PDT
by
Dimensio
To: Dimensio
Reality is- the moment of our death. Faith and prayer is the most conceptively intelligent reality known to the human intellect.
To: TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
You're almost making as much nonsense as f.Christian.
12
posted on
10/07/2002 8:24:59 PM PDT
by
Dimensio
To: TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
After how near they came to meeting God on 9-11, I am gratified to know that the experience moved even these scoundrels to insure the passage of this bill in a timely manner.
To: Dimensio
To: TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
"...virtually the entire Senate showed up for a morning prayer..."Virtually?
VIRTUALLY?
So who was absent?
Besides Hillary, I mean?
15
posted on
10/07/2002 8:37:20 PM PDT
by
Redbob
To: TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
Bump for the unborn little babies.Thanks for the ping and it sounds great,how bout lets not kill the unborn next,I was outside a killing center Saturday,MICKEY-MOUSE-kill our kids, bus them in from the prison-are we paying for this,you bet.Many cops,pro-lifers were into the streets-big money.But Not to worry,I met a grandfather who did an act of love-he helped his daughter kill his grandson.What a hell hole outside of a place they kill a baby.,
16
posted on
10/07/2002 8:49:56 PM PDT
by
fatima
To: Dimensio
Ah, there it is again: the myth that it's against the law to pray in schools.
Heck, some things never die out :(
17
posted on
10/08/2002 11:20:14 AM PDT
by
BMCDA
To: BMCDA
Ah, there it is again: the myth that it's against the law to pray in schools. Heck, some things never die out
Not so long as idiot school administrators keep reacting as though it were true for fear of lawsuits and so long as religious conservatives use it to spark the outrage of those who don't know better for their own motives.
Liberals aren't the only ones who use lies to promote a cause. (though they tend to do it more often)
18
posted on
10/08/2002 12:20:06 PM PDT
by
Dimensio
To: fatima; Saundra Duffy
Pro Life BUMP!
To: Dimensio
While it may not be A LAW, to not pray in public schools,the very lawsuit that threatens the school in their minds makes it against the law in the new age of polical correctness and lawsuits for hot coffee spilt.
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