The House of Representatives voted recently to pass HR-2389, the “Pledge Protection Act of 2005.” The bill precludes the federal courts from ruling on the wording or recitation of the Pledge in public schools. This is, of course, a Conservative response to the 9th circuit court’s ruling that the phrase “Under God,” violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
That is, the response is to take the issue out of the hands of those covetous unelected tyrants, the Courts. The falsely perceived injustices of those damned East Coast latte-sipping activist judges are nothing when compared to violating the Constitution to restrict them from doing their jobs.
What really gets me is the misinformation, the ignorance, and the outright lies spread by one brand of the Conservative proponents of the bill. For the record: the government of the United States of America is in no way founded on the Christian religion.
Don’t believe me? Let’s hear what George Washington had to say about it:
“The Government of the United States of America is in no way founded on the Christian Religion.” –George Washington
One of the purposes of this country was to establish a land free from any coercive governmental endorsement of religion, like, say, telling impressionable children to acknowledge that the nation is established “under God” every morning of public schooling. Children should encounter religion on their own time, not in the same environment they are otherwise generally being taught facts.
The problem is twofold. First, the legislature should have no right to pass a bill saying what the judiciary can and cannot do. It’s a violation of the Federalist system and the separation of powers. The Constitution spells out the powers of the legislature and the judiciary. If you want to change their powers, change the Constitution. At least, then, the methods would be kosher.
The point of the judiciary is to judge the laws against the Constitution. If this bill passes the Senate, which I sincerely hope it does not, I cannot wait until it is challenged in court. How ironic that would be.
I acknowledge that the pledge was not around at the time of the Constitution. Interesting that the Founders didn’t see it necessary to daily indoctrinate our youth. If the Founders had believed in a pledge, they would have written one themselves, not waited around for a Socialist, Edward Bellamy’s cousin, to write it at the turn of the century. And if these Judeo-Christian notions permeate our history and the beliefs of our Founders so much, then why did Jefferson call the New Testament a “manifest forgery?” Even if a pledge had been back then, I doubt the Founders would have seen it so Holy as to protect at the expense of some ad hoc unConstitutional farce of a bill.
Neither the means nor the motive of the Conservative-controlled legislature stand up to these common sense criticisms. I can’t wait until the mid-term elections.
In the mean time, I urge parents to lecture their children on the meaning of the Pledge, in concert with their own religious beliefs, which are not the government’s business. As a footnote, fully fourteen percent of the United States population is atheist or agnostic.
