In the name of God, Congress ignores law
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=84800&ran=231449The Virginian-Pilot
© April 11, 2005
It’s a fundamental inconvenience of the American system of government that the will of the majority must occasionally be ignored to protect the rights of a minority. It’s an inconvenience unless, of course, you’re in that minority, say, because of what you worship, the company you keep, or the words you speak.
The last resort for an aggrieved minority is the federal court system, which — among other things — exists to protect the rights Americans are granted under the U.S. Constitution.
Unfortunately, not everybody on Capitol Hill appears to have read that document, or even have a basic understanding of what it means. There’s little else that can explain the tragi-comically titled "Constitution Restoration Act of 2005," which was introduced in early March, though it has existed in one form or another for a while now.
The bill would bar the federal courts from reviewing any issue involving government or its employees’ "acknowledgement of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government."
Acknowledging God as the source of those things, especially by a government, walks perilously close to a state endorsement of religion, an issue important enough that the Constitution’s First Amendment begins with it: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ..."
Congress, legislatures, city councils, school boards and even state courts are forever trying to find ways around those words. Hence the crosses in public squares, the prayers invoking Jesus Christ at City Council meetings, the Ten Commandments in state courthouses. Conservative Christian groups have started claiming discrimination because they can’t inculcate society with their religious views, even as they agitate about "activist judges" — who are activist only when they disagree with them.
Unfortunately, some members of Congress will knuckle under to such politically prominent pressure groups — and to such popular positions. That’s where the federal courts come in, as the brake on the excesses of the majority. The bill would allow Congress to take away the court’s jurisdiction.
The only way Congress could tell the federal courts to butt out would be in a law that was itself an unconstitutional power grab and would invite court review, setting off a dizzying cycle. All of which can come as no comfort to Americans who value the rule of laws over the rule of men, or of any one group’s God.
To paraphrase George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley, bills like the one Congress is currently contemplating represent an attempt to replace some imagined tyranny of the judiciary with a very real tyranny of Congress.
yes, direct copying, but its something that NEEDS to be be seen by as many americans as can be...
