The federal judge’s last sentence of the article linked above ["We don't put the Constitution to a vote,"] illustrates an important distinction between pure democracy and the rule of law under a constitutional republic. But it neglects the crucial point that, as ACLU co-founder Justice Felix Frankfurter once acknowledged,

“The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution and not what we [the justices] have said about it.” -Felix Frankfurter, concurring in Graves v. New York, 306 US 466, 491-2 (1939)

We may take comfort from the assurance of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the “separation of church and state” metaphor that has so clouded First Amendment jurisprudence:  “Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally.”

It was Justice Byron White who recently noted that “The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law [sic] having little or no recognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution.”

Small wonder that recent polling suggests that 77% of Americans believe our courts have gone too far in restricting free exercise of religion; 76% support public displays of Ten Commandments; and 90% support keeping “one nation under God” in our Pledge.

Founder and Patriot John Adams once remarked to Governor Dickinson that “We Americans are not to be conjured out of our senses by the words ‘British Empire’ as we know that Britain is a constitutional monarchy.”

Similarly, we Americans today are not to be “conjured out of our senses” by the words “separation of church and state.” Let’s continue to defend our Constitution’s text and heritage as we stand for “separation of atheism and state.”

As George Orwell once observed, “We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” AJA’s point in calling attention to America’s “Organic Laws” is to espouse the obvious reality contained in our Declaration of Independence – that is, that law comes from God and the self-evident reality of objective truth. In other words, the inscription on America’s coins is the “National Motto” and not the “National Anachronism” [i.e., "out-of-date application or wrong-period attribution of an event"]

And let’s remember that it was judges’ “perversion of judgment” rather than “walking in God’s ways” that was the catalyst directly resulting in the leaders of Israel abandonment of self-government under God to ask for a king (i.e. authoritarianism) in 1 Samuel 8:3+.

Otherwise, we abandon our children to an “Orwellian” future:

“You are a slow learner, Winston,” said O’Brien gently. “How can I help it?” he blubbered. “How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.” “Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.” -George Orwell, 1984

Justice Clarence Thomas deserves commendation for suggesting that “a more fundamental rethinking of…Establishment Clause jurisprudence remains in order.”  My expectation is that those prayer-wishful students in Indiana would say, “Amen to that!”

Appealing to a Higher Court

Retired Judge Brings Bibles to the Bench

By Tom Bonnette, The Franklin Sun, May 12th, 2010, Page 7A

Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Rudy Mclntyre (left) holds a copy of the Harlan Bible presented to him by retired Baton Rouge City Judge Darrell White. Also pictured is Jason Stern, vice president of the American Judicial Alliance. (Sun photo by Tom Bonnette)

The Bible is a fundamental building block of our nation’s legal system and retired Baton Rouge City Judge Darrell White wants to make sure that isn’t forgotten. White, who is on a quest to place “Harlan Bibles” in every courtroom in the country, is founder of the American Judicial Alliance, a non-profit research and education organization dedicated to “awaken the conscience of one nation under God” by recapturing the vitality of America’s organic laws – the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He was in Franklin Parish Friday at the Winnsboro Rotary Club’s monthly luncheon at Brown’s Landing to ask for prayers and support.

“We are asking people like you, who think that this is important, to help us to put one of these Bibles in every single courtroom in America,” White said. The Bible is a replica of the Bible donated by to the U.S. Supreme Court by Justice John Marshall Harlan in 1906. The original Harlan Bible is kept by the Supreme Court Curator and holds the signatures of every U.S. Supreme Court Justice since 1906 when it was donated. Judges have been invited to sign the inside leaflets of the more than 100 Bibles donated by the Retired Judges of America that White has helped place in courtrooms over the last few years.

He believes the Bibles will serve as a reminder that we are “one nation under God” and that the U.S. Constitution should be the guiding factor in our judicial system.  “It’s the supreme law of the land. Unless we pay attention to it, it’s just so many words,” White said. “The question is whether or not we are going to follow the Constitution and adhere to it.”

A Harlan Bible donated to the Fifth Judicial District Court by the RJA a year ago that is signed by Judge E. Rudolph Mclntyre and Judge Terry A. Doughty was on display at the luncheon.  To help White place similar Bibles in other courtrooms, the Winnsboro Rotary Club donated $150.  More is needed, said Jason Stern, vice president of AJA.  “Every little bit that we can gather together helps us make a difference in bringing back our nation to the nation of our founders for the next generation,” Stern said.  Justice Harlan is best remembered as the lone dissenting voice in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, in which a Louisiana statue that called for “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” was upheld as constitutional. To help the RJA and AJA donate Bibles, call (225) 615-7337.

If the fight between the “Christian nation” advocates and mainstream thinkers could be focused onto a single element, it would be the “wall of separation” phrase. Christian thinkers like to point out that it does not appear in the Constitution, nor in any other legal document — letters that presidents write to their supporters are not legal decrees. Besides which, after the phrase left Jefferson’s pen it more or less disappeared for a century and a half — until Justice Hugo Black of the Supreme Court dug it out of history’s dustbin in 1947. It then slowly worked its way into the American lexicon and American life, helping to subtly mold the way we think about religion in society. To conservative Christians, there is no separation of church and state, and there never was. The concept, they say, is a modern secular fiction. There is no legal justification, therefore, for disallowing crucifixes in government buildings or school prayer.

Read the full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?pagewanted=all

Ever wonder what the phrase the “Pursuit of Happiness” meant in the U.S. Constitution? Well here’s a hint from the Massachusetts Constitution. Remember, John and Samual Adams were two of the three framers. Hence, what they did in Massachusetts in 1780 gives us real insight into what the framers meant in 1776:

“Art. III. As the happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality, and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community but by the institution of the public worship of God and of the public instructions in piety, religion, and morality: Therefore, To … See Morepromote their happiness and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies-politic or religious societies to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily.”

“There was a time in U.S. history when American school children began each day with public prayer. The entire class prayed together. That is now “illegal.” This is why:

• The Supreme Court first ruled against public school prayer in the 1962 case of Engle v. Vitale. The decision struck down a New York State law that required public schools to begin the school day either with Bible reading or recitation of a specially-written, nondenominational prayer.

• One year later, in Engle v. Vitale (1963), the Supreme Court struck down voluntary Bible readings and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools.

1. In this context, our kids can no longer pray in public. There have been many ensuing court cases over the liberty to engage in public prayer:

“U.S. Supreme Court rules, 6-3, that prayer before football games in Texas is unconstitutional,”

http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=12727

“School Faces Big Legal Fees In Prayer Lawsuit.”

http://paganwiccan.about.com/b/2009/06/23/school-faces-big-legal-fees-in-prayer-lawsuit.htm

“Florida school officials in prayer case could get jail time.”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/17/florida.school.prayer/index.html?iref=newssearch

“School district faces second lawsuit over prayer”

http://www.srpressgazette.com/articles/school-9300-district-second.html

2. There have been multiple court cases against students who have or open Bibles:

“Lawsuit claims students not allowed to carry Bibles” http://www.adherents.com/misc/school_houston.html

“Bible study banned on playgrounds”

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44223

“Gideons Forbidden From Distributing Bibles at School”

http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2007/08/gideons_forbidd.html

“Bibles Banned in Bible Belt”

http://www.foxnewsradio.com/2010/01/06/bibles-banned-in-bible-belt/#ixzz0de1D4mmO

“Bible Banned From School Football Field”

http://news.aol.com/article/bible-verses-banned-from-lakeview-fort/700655

“High School Cheerleaders Banned From Using Bible Verses”

http://digg.com/world_news/High_School_Cheerleaders_Banned_From_Using_Bible_Verses

“The Bible Banned at a New Jersey School” http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bible-banned-at-a-new

“Bibles banned at Stigler Oklahoma library”

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=635514

3. Display the Ten Commandments in a public place, and you could end up in court.

“U.S. Government bans Ten Commandments from Public Places”

http://theratzingerforum.yuku.com/topic/1011/t/U-S-Government-bans-Ten-Commandments-from-Public-Places.html

“Ten Commandments monument moved. New poll says Americans disapprove of federal court order.”

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/08/27/ten.commandments/

“Ninth Circuit Sued For Displaying Ten Commandments”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102×1222468

“Chief Justice Roy Moore removed for acknowledging God–Ten Commandments Inquisition”
http://www.greaterthings.com/News/Christian/RoyMoore_Inquisition.htm

Retired Judges of America is asking judges to return to their Oaths to protect and defend the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land.

“Strange to say, the American judges, ever since the organization of the Government, have been the least criticised and least arraigned public officers. On the contrary they have been the most respected and most honored among all the dignitaries of America.  We may attribute this strange phenomenon to the fact that the only thing which the American will obey is law and the only thing in which he will know the meaning of obedience is his relation to law.  The judges of the United States and of the several States are thoroughly conscious of their exceptional privileges and immunities; also of their correspondingly great responsibilities as the only interpreters of the law, to whom alone the final construction of the law of the land is unreservedly entrusted.

All the American judges realize this. The American people know that the strictest obedience to law is the foundation stone of the strength and permanence of the republic.  This has been understood by the American people ever since they founded their country.  Departure from this common understanding tends to involve national ruin by creating anarchy.  Superficial observers who see but the so called material side of American progress, or those who are devotees of the game of profit, do wrong when they do not appreciate the fundamental proposition that the people are the backbone of progress.

Such superficiality not only fails to grasp the true situation, but also fails to appreciate the true meaning of the beneficent opportunity upon which the Americans build their higher and nobler civilization.  The statements recently made that the American people have changed their allegiance from the great principles which they embodied in the Declaration of Independence to the worship of the almighty dollar, and that the American people have changed from their appreciation of the Bible to the worship of the sword are evidence of the fact that their authors are but shallow students of the America of to day.  

To illustrate the fallacy of such statements:  A few years ago, in Washington, D.C., we happened to enter one of the local churches.  We saw among the younger Sunday school scholars a man holding a Bible in his hand, teaching the tidings from God, a man whose duty it was to settle the disputes of men in the business world, a man whose thirty years judgeship in the Supreme Court has just been celebrated as the pride of Kentucky: Mr. Justice Harlan.  Some time later in Chicago, we happened to come across a local newspaper that reproduced a speech containing this wonderful remark, “Our country of liberty is not a country only for the white race.  Ours is and must be the country of all races,” a speech which was uttered by an American whose legal knowledge it is not necessary for us here to emphasize: Mr. Justice Brewer.  

We are impelled by the force of the facts to recall the tradition about the Pilgrim Fathers who claimed the promise of God to Abraham as the sanction of their voyage. Obedient to the divine command they forsook their country. On the morning they were to set sail from the harbor of Delft Haven, the Pilgrim Fathers formed a solemn procession. Reverend Robinson, having a Bible in his hand, then told them that more truth and light were yet to break out of God’s word.  “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house into a land that I will show thee and I will make thee a great nation and in thee shall all families and nations of the earth be blessed.”  These are but a few examples, and these men are but a few Americans among innumerable others who constitute the America of to day, and who are taking the command of God to Abraham and His promise to the father of the faithful as a pledge vouchsafed unto them and to their children after them.

The Americans do not have to ask God for material treasures.  He has already granted them that in abundance. It is theirs to thank Him for the strength to perpetuate their institutions firm as heaven and earth and to bless all peoples and nations with an example of peace, happiness, and prosperity.  The quickest way to the brotherhood of man demands, as a necessary organization, therefore, not kings or nobles, but wise magistrates whom the people have elected, and who administer equal laws, which the people have framed.

Realization of that brotherhood is in sight for the Palladium of the Republic is in the courts of law.  The statues of the dead and the figures of the living judges on the bench are the ceaseless sources of our gratitude and veneration.  To them we owe the vitalization of the Constitutional provisions.  It is they by whom the Congressional and Executive acts have been made to breathe and the unformed and immaterial phenomena transformed into the living forces comprising the written and material wealth, progress and prosperity of the United States and the various States.

There is not a blot on our body politic to day that the better element of the people could not remove if they resolved to do so.  They will so resolve in good time as they have always done in the past.  There is not a defect or deformity in our political administration that they cannot and will not correct by the peaceful expression of their sober convictions and in the legitimate way pointed out by their free institutions.  

It would be well always to keep in mind this reserved power of the people so immediately connected with the preservation of their Government.  It has been the source of safety in all times past, in peace and in war, and it is to day, and will ever continue to be, the omnipotent power that forbids us to doubt the complete success of free government.  The virtue and intelligence of the people are the sure bulwark of safety for a republic.”

There is only one word for Tueday night’s keynote Speaker.  That would be “Wow.”  His Honor Retired Judge White was both a delight and enlightening at the same time.  His portion of the evening lasted about 1 and 1/2 hours but seemed like 20 minutes.  Sit back with a great cup of coffee and watch the entire video here.  Judge Darrell White is an asset that needs to be exploited and duplicated. 

Justice Alito

“The ABA is a venerable organization with a history of service to the bar, but it is, after all, a private group with limited membership. The views of the association’s members, not to mention the views of the members of the advisory committee that formulated the 2003 Guidelines, do not necessarily reflect the views of the American bar as a whole. It is the responsibility of the courts to determine the nature of the work that a defense attorney must do in a capital case in order to meet the obligations imposed by the Constitution, and I see no reason why the ABA Guidelines should be given a privileged position in making that determination.”   - Justice Samuel Alito

“Get serious this year. Put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.”

Justice Potter Stewart

Actually, this language is not unlike the New York Board of Regents’ prayer that was nullified in the extraordinary 1962 case of Engle v. Vitale: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on thee, and we beg thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.” Earl Warren’s supreme Court, in derogation of the free exercise clause those justices were sworn to uphold, nullified that prayer. In that case, Potter Stewart (1915-1985), the only justice with prior judicial experience before taking his position on the U.S. supreme Court, filed this dissent:

“A local school board in New York has provided that those pupils who wish to do so may join in a brief prayer at the beginning of each school day, acknowledging their dependence upon God and asking His blessing upon them and upon their parents, their teachers, and their country. The Court today decides that in permitting this brief nondenominational prayer the school board has violated the Constitution of the United States. I think this decision is wrong.

“The Court does not hold, nor could it, that New York has interfered with the free exercise of anybody’s religion. For the state courts have made clear that those who object to reciting the prayer must be entirely free of any compulsion to do so, including any ‘embarrassments and pressures.’ But the Court says that in permitting school children to say this simple prayer, the New York authorities have established ‘an official religion.’

“With all respect, I think the Court has misapplied a great constitutional principle. I cannot see how an ‘official religion’ is established by letting those who want to say a prayer say it. On the contrary, I think that to deny the wish of these school children to join in reciting this prayer is to deny them the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of our Nation … For we deal not here with the establishment of a state church, which would, of course, be constitutionally impermissible, but with whether school children who want to begin their day by joining in prayer must be prohibited from doing so.

“Moreover, I think that the Court’s task, in this as in all areas of constitutional adjudication, is not responsibly aided by the uncritical invocation of metaphors like the ‘wall of separation,’ a phrase nowhere to be found in the Constitution.

“At the opening of each day’s Session of this Court, we stand while one of our officials invokes the protection of God. Since the days of John Marshall our Crier has said, ‘God save the United States and this Honorable Court.’ Both the Senate and the House of Representatives open their daily sessions with prayer. Each of our Presidents, from George Washington to John F. Kennedy, has upon assuming his Office asked the protection and help of God.

“The Court today says that the state and federal governments are without constitutional power to prescribe any particular form of words to be recited by any group of the American people on any subject touching religion. One of the stanzas of “The Star Spangled Banner,” made our National Anthem by an Act of Congress in 1931, contains these verses:

“Blessed with victory and peace,
may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made
and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must,
when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto,
‘In God is our Trust’”
“In 1954 Congress added these words to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: ‘one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ In 1952, Congress enacted legislation calling upon the President each year to proclaim a National Day of Prayer. Since 1865, the words IN GOD WE TRUST have been impressed on our coins.

“Countless similar examples could be listed, but there is no need to belabor the obvious. It was all summed up by this Court just ten years ago in a single sentence: ‘We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.’

“I do not believe that this Court, or the Congress, or the President, has by the actions and practices I have mentioned established an ‘official religion’ in violation of the Constitution. And I do not believe the State of New York has done so in this case. What each has done has been to recognize and to follow the deeply entrenched and highly cherished spiritual traditions of our Nation – traditions which come down to us from those who almost two hundred years ago avowed their ‘firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence’ when they proclaimed the freedom and independence of this brave new world. I dissent.”

Houston,Texas — Retired Judges of America (RJA) dedicated Court Presentation Bibles to six Harris County area trial courts while attending and speaking at the Houston Christian Legal Society’s meeting today. Receiving Bibles were judges representing the Harris County Criminal Court at Law Number 14, the 174^th Criminal District Court, the 189^th, 269^th, and 333^rd Civil District Courts, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.  These judges are setting a worthy example for their judicial colleagues through acceptance of these commemorative court presentation Bibles,” said RJA’s Founder and President, Darrell White, a retired city judge and former military judge for the Louisiana National Guard.

These Harris County area courts are following a tradition begun by U.S. Supreme Court when in 1906, Justice John Marshall Harlan, I (1833-1911), gave a Bible to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).  It has become known as the “Harlan Bible” and is maintained by that Court’s Curator.  Since its presentation, the Harlan Bible’s flyleaf pages have been signed by every justice in succession shortly after taking the oath of office.  Justice Samuel Alito recently acknowledged what a “thrilling and awe-inspiring moment” it was when he signed his name alongside “all of the Justices for the past 100 years.”

The Bibles accepted by the judges are genuine leather Thompson Chain Reference Study Bibles bearing gold imprinted covers and hand-calligraphy bookplates.  Said Judge Daniel Hinde of the 269^th Civil District Court, “I am pleased to accept this Bible on behalf of our Court and expect that its flyleaf signing custom by successor judges will become a rich tradition that is sure to enhance this Book’s value to our community over time.”

Judge White concluded, “Changing times do not change timeless truths, and history shows that the Bible has played a pivotal role in shaping America’s law and culture.  One key purpose of our Constitution is to secure the blessings of liberty to our posterity.  Calling attention to these commemorative court presentation Bibles can help secure that future here for our children and grandchildren.”