Posted by Erik on May 13, 1998 at 12:26:10:
In Reply to: If it passes, the Supreme Court won't allow it posted by rpcman on May 13, 1998 at 10:25:58:
: I don't know a whole lot about the issue, but from the bit that I read on the linked site it appears that it will never make it past the Supreme Court. Check out the quote near the bottom of the following page the last time the Religious Right tried to establish religion as part of the Constitution.
You are right in that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, a law passed by Congress, was struck down by the Supreme Court because it was in conflict with the Constitution, specifically the 1st Amendment. The Religious Freedom Amendment proposed by Representative Istook is an amendment to the Constitution, which, if it passed, would change the fundamental law of the land by abrogating the First Amendment. The Supreme Court bases its decisions on the Constitution, and if it changes, so must their decisions. Basically, the RFA is an attempt at an end run by the Relgious Right around the Supreme Court and the Constitution.
Reading the text of the Amendment and the expressed intentions of its proponents is rather frightening. I have just recently started Kramnick and Moore's book, The Godless Constitution, a book I wish that Rep Istook would read before deciding he knew better than the Framers what they wanted.
-Erik
"By the efforts of these infidels, the name of God was left out of the Constitution of the United States. They knew that if an infinite being was put in, no room would be left for the people. They knew that if any church was made the mistress of the state, that mistress, like all others, would corrupt, weaken, and destroy."
[Ingersoll's Works, Vol. 3, p. 382]