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Archive for August, 2008
O’Connor Disrespects the Constitution!
By Retired Judge Darrell White
Sandra Day O’Connor, now a retired Supreme Court justice, has rendered another decision illustrative of the contempt she shows for the Constitution, particularly the text of our First Amendment. Her opinion, while sitting as a “fill-in” judge on a panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, held that excluding persons who pray “in Jesus’ name” (from a rotational roster of officials who open city business meetings) is a fair and reasonable way “not to exclude or disparage a particular faith.” The focus of the dispute is Fredericksburg, Va. Councilman Hashmel Turner (pictured below)– a Baptist minister – whose practice of concluding his prayers “in Jesus’ name” prompted a threat of litigation by offended listeners. In response, the city adopted a non-sectarian prayer requirement, imposing a ban on any reference to “Jesus.” When Reverend Turner sued, O’Connor upheld the ordinance, writing that “Turner was not forced to offer a prayer that violated his deeply-held religious beliefs. Instead he was given a chance to pray on behalf of the government.” Behind that rhetoric is one unmistakable conclusion: conform to political correctness or face the punishment of exclusion. Has O’Connor decided that the United States of America is no longer “under God?”
I’d like to know where O’Connor found Reverend Turner’s name in the First Amendment. He clearly is not “Congress” – the focal point of our First Amendment’s prohibition against making a “law respecting an establishment of religion.” The word “Congress” is used sixty times in the Constitution and its amendments. Why is it that our federal courts are so thoroughly confused over the word’s meaning in the First Amendment? There are no battles over the other 59 uses.
O’Connor’s long-standing disregard for history and the clear text of the First Amendment was also on display in her concurring opinion in the notorious 2004 Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow case that sought removal of the words “under God” from America’s Pledge of Allegiance. Therein, O’Connor contended that federal judges could ignore recital of the concluding “So Help Me, God” sentence of their obligatory oaths of office. Not so!