To: Skooz
If Congress (or any other governmental entity, school board, local assembly, or a group of dogcatchers) were to release a document with these words, I have no doubt it would immediately be declared an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
Aah, well you just said "for any reason at all", you did not qualify it as being issued by a government authority. Still, I offered my own opinion and I am not a lawyer nor do I have sufficient legal training to even hazard a guess on the legality.
Whether or not a document or a sign "has no legal basis for the laws of this country" is beside the point. A sign on school property which reads "God Bless America" has no legal basis for the laws of this country, either. Yet, some arrogant ACLU types declare it to be unconstitutional.
Well, the school is issuing a statement asserting belief in a "God" -- therein lies the problem for some people. Not everyone believes in a God and of those who do some believe that it is improper to turn a request for a blessing into an informal catchphrase. The issue is the appropriateness of the school acknowledging the existence of a God, and once doing that acknowledging a God who can be called upon through a generic statement to bless America.
>This comes from the Decleration of Independence, which has no legal basis for the laws of this country that of which I am aware (feel free to correct me on this matter).
I remember reading in college (about 500 years ago) that the courts often refer to the Federalist papers and the Declaration of Independence as a reference framework for making constitutional decisions. My memory is a bit fuzzy in this respect, so I'm not sure.>
I'm not sure of such either. The Constitution is the foundation upon every law in this country, any documents penned before it have no legal meaning unless enumerated through action after the ratification; however, it might be possible that a judge, seeing an ambiguity in a Constitutional matter, referred to an earlier work to perhaps find a means for interpreting the Constitution in light of the founders' intent. Such interpretation can lead to danger, however: I have seen a claim made in the past that the First Amendment was only meant to apply to Christianity and not religion in general and was only written as it appears because the writers did not think anyone would ever interpret it as applicable to non-Christian religions.
58 posted on
10/29/2001 12:01:12 PM PST by
Dimensio
To: Dimensio
The issue is the appropriateness of the school acknowledging the existence of a God, and once doing that acknowledging a God who can be called upon through a generic statement to bless America.You didn't answer this question earlier, so I'll post it again: How could saying/displaying "God bless America" be misconstrued by any reasonable individual as Congress making a law respecting an establishment of religion? What law is being enacted by Congress by the simple posting of a phrase on a sign owned by a school controlled by a local school board?
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson