Posted on 08/22/2003 2:58:32 PM PDT by Vindiciae Contra TyrannoSCOTUS
WASHINGTON – A leading scholar of the First Amendment says if he were Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, he would "rather go to jail" than allow the Ten Commandments to be removed from his court building.
In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, Dr. David Lowenthal, emeritus professor of political Science at Boston College, said the Founding Fathers would be appalled at the federal court order for the removal of the Ten Commandments monument.
"I would not want to go to jail," he said, "but if I had to, I wouldn’t give up on the principle" that Justice Moore is defending "that cuts across all lines that [concern] first of all, states’ rights, and ... the proper interpretation of the First Amendment."
To compare Moore’s refusal to bow to the atheist/left-wing/ACLU axis with George Wallace’s standing in the schoolhouse door to preserve segregation in 1962 is ludicrous, declares Lowenthal, author of the new book "Present Dangers: Rediscovering the First Amendment."
Furthermore, this "present danger," as he calls it, predates the uproar that began 40 yeas ago when the courts started chasing religion out of classrooms. For 70 years, he argues, the courts have willfully misinterpreted the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment in an attempt to banish religion from public life. Such court decisions betray "a gross misunderstanding" of the Constitution, Lowenthal says. No 'Separation' Is Mandated
Contrary to federal court decisions, Lowenthal says, the First Amendment to the Constitution does not require "a perfect separation of church and state, that there be no vestige of religion in the state or in public life or in government." Furthermore, "even the [U.S.] Supreme Court has edged away from that view in recent decades."
Note that the phrase "separation of church and state" parroted by anti-religious extremists appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, a fact that many Americans miseducated by government schools do not know.
It is not only the First Amendment that is distorted beyond its meaning by the courts, but the Fourteenth Amendment as well. And that raises the question in this scholar’s mind as to whether the Supreme Court of the United States has jurisdiction over the Alabama Supreme Court in matters of this kind. Lowenthal agrees with Moore that it does not.
Ratified after the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment says that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or due process of law, the noted authority notes.
"The word ‘liberty’ there has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to include" a meaning far beyond what was intended.
"You see, originally that was intended to simply make sure that blacks and whites were treated equally under the law, particularly in the Southern states after the Civil War," Lowenthal explained to NewsMax. "It was not meant for the Supreme Court to be the judge of what constitutes human liberty. That was left to the states just so long as they treated people equally." Thus, the court "has enormously expanded its authority over the states."
As for the decision by Moore’s colleagues on the Alabama Supreme Court to oppose him: "It seems to me that any state worth its salt would not submit to this kind of thing."
Lowenthal said: "Obviously Justice Roy Moore believes that it’s wrong. Otherwise he wouldn’t be doing this. He would bow down to the federal judiciary. But he doesn’t think that he has to. I don’t think so either."
No 'Separation' Is Mandated
For those who have been misled by the media, incompetent federal judges, demented schoolmasters (professors) or some trashback Marxist diatribe on the FIRST Amendment, see AMENDMENT ONE - FREEPER rwfromkansas to correct your gross conceptual errors.
Others who already understand their Constitution can proceed with:
The Congressional testimony presented in Congress, the Court, and the Constitution, explains how your representatives can ensure the federal courts comply with the Constitution.
Those who support Federalism contact your representatives about voting for Ten Commandments Defense Act of 2003 & Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Those who want incompetent federal judges removed, contact your representatives:
The following will educate all but the most implacable anti-Christians on the Church/State issue:
Solzhenitsyn's consistent resort to the context of religion for his social and political pronouncements is apparent in his Templeton Address of 1983, in which he speaks about his own country. He rehearses how he heard his elders explain all the horrors that that the Bolshevik Revolution had inflicted upon the citizenry by saying, simply, "Men have forgotten God. That is why all this has happened." And he goes on to say that if he were to give an account for all the horrors of our terrible twentieth century, he could do no better to provide a pithy explanation than to repeat what he had heard from his elders: Men have forgotten God" Solzhenitsyn On America
1785, If men are so wicked with religion,what would they be if without it? Franklin's Advice to Thomas Paine Regarding the Age of Reason
Why do we allow our taxes to be spent perpetuating brainwashing in our own schools?
A pox on all anti-religious extremists and the judges who aid them in their agenda to destroy this nation under God.
They do not serve this country nor its constitution , rather they serve their true masters.. Marx, Lenin and Mao, imo
Leviticus 25:10, as incribed upon the Liberty Bell, as displayed in the U.S. Supreme Court chambers at Independence Hall, 1790.
Moses holding the Ten Commandments sculpted in Italian marble inside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. today.
Moses as sculpted into the Chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. today.
Yhwhsman
Where will we get another politician to lead us if we do not answer the call many of us are hearing?
If we don't take this opportunity offered us by Chief Justice Moore, a single man who has had the courage to risk his stature for the benefit of our dear culture, who would so dare next?
"Who died and made you God" or somesuch should be chanted by crowds at the appearance of politicians of every stripe. Keep promoting the movement until a significant number get the message that such rulings need to be stopped, even reversed.
Would not this be a good thing to try out at some FReep venue?
The metaphor, `Separation of Church and State', was extracted, out of context, from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists in reply to a letter from them expressing concern that the Federal Government might intrude in religious matters by favoring one denomination over another. Jefferson's reply was that the First Amendment would preclude such intrusion. Religious Freedom Restoration
Additional commentary - Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Cheese
When all is said and done I'm glad the culture war has been ignited in Alabama by the feds. They elect their Supreme Court and 75% of Alabaman's are backing the Ten Commandments.
If it happened in my state of Ct there would be no backlash, believe me, but fortuantely the south is a whole other ball of wax.
And thank goodness for that!
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