Free Republic

<p>The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to withhold funds from any enforcement action related to a federal appeals court's decision that the Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama judicial building is unconstitutional.</p> <p>By a vote of 260-161, lawmakers last week OK'd an amendment by Rep. John N. Hostettler, R-Ind., to prohibit any money in the bill funding the Justice Department from going to enforcement of the controversial decision.</p>

The Constitution offers Congress powerful means to deal with an increasingly lawless judiciary.How should we deal with a renegade federal court? This question has been asked by constitutionalists with increasing frequency in recent years, as outrageous judicial rulings accumulate.Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional on account of the phrase "under God." On July 1st of this year, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a District Court ruling that displaying a granite sculpture of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama Judicial Building is an unconstitutional establishment...

Congress Checkmates Runaway Courts Congress has invoked its constitutional power of the purse to block renegade federal courts. Before the House recessed last week, Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) attached to the Commerce, State and Justice appropriations bill an amendment denying any use of federal funds to enforce the U.S. 9th Circuit Court's ruling striking down the Pledge of Allegiance as unconstitutional. The amendment passed 307-119. By a vote of 260-161, the House also approved a second Hostettler amendment barring the federal government from enforcing the 11th Circuit Court's order that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore remove the Ten Commandments from...