From: Philip Sutton (Philip.Sutton@green-innovations.asn.au)
Date: Mon Mar 15 2004 - 21:46:22 MST
Has anyone been tracking the implications of the recently introduced
(US) Constitution Restoration Bill of 2004?
I gather a Bill has been introduced into both houses for The
Constitution Restoration Act of 2004 (House version: H.R. 3799;
Senate version: S. 2082). If passed, the Act would bar the U.S.
Supreme Court and federal courts from hearing cases challenging
“expressions of religious faith by elected or appointed officials”. The
surface issue looks pretty trivial eg. preventing Supreme Court
reviewing decisions by government officials to display the ten
commandments and other religious references. However these may not
be the only expressions of religious faith by elected or appointed
government officials as the Bill expressly includes a reference to God
being the *sovereign source of law* by an official in his capacity of
executing his office - rather than the sovereign source of the law being
the people of the United States. Perhaps government officials could
make other much more important executive decisions claiming imunity
from court review on the grounds that they were expressions of
religious faith based on the law of God.
http://www.renewamerica.us/news/040225baldwin.htm
http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=1644862
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/ConstitutionRestorationAct.htm
The third report suggests that the the religious Right is the source of the
Constitution Restoration Bill of 2004 and that the Bill is meant to have
much more than cosmetic efect.
I'm too unfamiliar with the US body politic to be able to evaluate this
issue adequately but it could perhaps have a direct bearing on activities
in the US that the religious Right feel challenge the supremacy of God
in US society.
Cheers, Philip
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