pRIMrose
03-05-2003, 06:40 AM
Terence Jeffrey
Townhall.com
March 5, 2003
Here is a question for the San Francisco appeals court judges who last week let stand a ruling, signed last summer by two of their colleagues, that it is unconstitutional for students to say "under God" in public schools.
Dear Judges: If we are not under God, whom are we under? Who is final authority for our law?
Alfred T. Goodwin is the judge who authored the court's opinion striking down the practice in California's Elk Grove Unified School District of saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each day. Goodwin argued that the ultimate authority over these schools is not God, but the Constitution itself -- or, that is, the Constitution as interpreted by him and Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who joined his decision, and the majority on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit who let it stand.
Goodwin argues that in the First Amendment -- which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" -- the Framers adopted for the U.S. government a doctrine of neutrality on the question of whether there is a God.
It follows from this, even if we only discovered it last year, that the United States has been an officially agnostic nation ever since ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791.
The Framers understood that if we refused to recognize God's ultimate sovereignty over the state, we would be forced to recognize someone else's. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/terencejeffrey/tj20030305.shtml)
Very interesting concept. There is no doubt in my mind that the founding fathers intended for us to recognize a deity in our day to day lives.
Townhall.com
March 5, 2003
Here is a question for the San Francisco appeals court judges who last week let stand a ruling, signed last summer by two of their colleagues, that it is unconstitutional for students to say "under God" in public schools.
Dear Judges: If we are not under God, whom are we under? Who is final authority for our law?
Alfred T. Goodwin is the judge who authored the court's opinion striking down the practice in California's Elk Grove Unified School District of saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each day. Goodwin argued that the ultimate authority over these schools is not God, but the Constitution itself -- or, that is, the Constitution as interpreted by him and Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who joined his decision, and the majority on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit who let it stand.
Goodwin argues that in the First Amendment -- which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" -- the Framers adopted for the U.S. government a doctrine of neutrality on the question of whether there is a God.
It follows from this, even if we only discovered it last year, that the United States has been an officially agnostic nation ever since ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791.
The Framers understood that if we refused to recognize God's ultimate sovereignty over the state, we would be forced to recognize someone else's. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/terencejeffrey/tj20030305.shtml)
Very interesting concept. There is no doubt in my mind that the founding fathers intended for us to recognize a deity in our day to day lives.