"Chose." Not "were compelled."
Posted on 06/26/2002 7:53:53 PM PDT by Sabertooth
"Chose." Not "were compelled."
1.Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
2.A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
3.The life or condition of a person in a religious order.
4.A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
5.A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.
The Democratic National Party is a religion.
Its spiritual members use the government to impose government mandated morality through the "charitable" redistribution of wealth from those that can work to those that cannot.
The Democratic party is un constitutional and needs to be separated from government activities.
So true. To the Democratic ideologues, the party is the highest arbiter of right and wrong. It is their religion, and that places them at odds with the vast majority of Democratic voters who care more about providing for their families than in advancing the fad Democratic causes of homosexuality, abortion, pornography, prostitution, promiscuity, perversion, adultery, sodomy, and obscenity.
Great idea!
Did you see the comments about the Newdow interview this morning. The daughter did NOT find the Pledge distasteful! In fact she recites it verbatim!! It is the father that is playing games and he said so, using the very term "games"!!! (And I am starting to sound like Nitro!!!!)
Newdow's complaint in the district court challenged the constitutionality, under the First Amendment, of the 1954 Act, the California statute, and the school district's policy requiring teachers to lead willing students in recitation of the Pledge.
.................................................................................."Utah"?
The phrase prohibits Congress, and therefore the Federal government, from making any laws regarding religion. That right was left to the individual states, many of which had been settled by those fleeing religious persecution, and those states had established religions at the time of the revolution. The founders therefore meant to prohibit the federal government from meddling in religion.
Sorry, no. It means no more or less than the federal government may not establish a religion as the official one of the United States. If memory serves, one of the first acts of the first Congress was to fund religious missionaries to hector the Indians.
But if the 9th Circuit finds mentions of God so offensive, perhaps the federal government should withdraw all currency from the states in the 9th Circuit. They get to have our money if and when we decided to delete "In God We Trust." Wouldn't want to offend them.
As far as the legislative branch being "first among equals", there may be some problems convincing the judiciary of that. I believe that it was Chief Justice John Marshall who claimed such primacy for his branch...everyone always jostling for power in this system.
Because the words that amended the Pledge were enacted into law by statute, the district court may not direct Congress to delete those words any more than it may order the President to take such action. All this, of course, is aside from the fact that the President has no authority to amend a statute or declare a law unconstitutional, those functions being reserved to Congress and the federal judiciary respectively.
Newdow nevertheless argues that because the 1954 Act violates the Establishment Clause, Congress should not be protected by the Speech and Debate Clause. This argument misses the jurisdictional, or separation of powers, point. As the Court held in Eastland, in determining whether or not the acts of members of Congress are protected by the Speech and Debate Clause, the court looks solely to whether or not the acts fall within the legitimate legislative sphere; if they do, Congress is protected by the absolute prohibition of the Clause against being "questioned in any other Place." Id. at 501. "If the mere allegation that a valid legislative act was undertaken for an unworthy purpose would lift the protection of the Clause, then the Clause simply would not provide the protection historically undergirding it." Id. at 508-09.
Although the district court lacks jurisdiction over the President and the Congress, the question of the constitutionality of the 1954 Act remains before us. While the court correctly dismissed the claim against those parties, it survives against others.
I suppose this would be business as usual to a lawyer, but what bothers me is that court makes its separation of powers argument based on a previous court decision, and not on the Constitution. In other words, the validity of the Constitution itself depends on the interpretation of the court?
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