[Vision2020] First Amendment doesn't apply here: N.C. lawmakers push bill for state religion

[Saundra Lund]

I had to read the article twice to make sure it wasn't Idaho legislators
pulling this stunt.  My guess would be there are a lot of ID GOPer/TPer
troglodytes lamenting that Idaho didn't make the move first.

 

Saundra

 

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/03/17584491-first-amendment-doesnt-a
pply-here-nc-lawmakers-push-bill-for-state-religion?lite

OR

http://tinyurl.com/c7gz94l

 

First Amendment doesn't apply here: N.C. lawmakers push bill for state
religion

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have introduced a bill declaring that
the state has the power to establish an official religion - a direct
challenge to the First Amendment

One professor of politics called the measure "the verge of being
neo-secessionist," and another said it was reminiscent of how Southern
states objected to the Supreme Court's 1954 integration of public schools.

 
<http://www.ncleg.net/Applications/BillLookUp/LoadBillDocument.aspx?SessionC
ode=2013&DocNum=2501&SeqNum=0> The bill says that federal courts do not have
the power to decide what is constitutional, and says the state does not
recognize federal court rulings that prohibit North Carolina and its schools
from favoring a religion.

The bill was introduced Monday by two Republican representatives from Rowan
County, north of Charlotte, and sponsored by seven other Republicans. The
party controls both chambers of the North Carolina Legislature.

The two lawmakers who filed the bill, state Reps. Harry Warren and Carl
Ford, did not immediately return calls Wednesday from NBC News. 

The American Civil Liberties Union sued last month to stop the Rowan County
Commission from opening meetings with Christian prayers. One of those
prayers declared that "there is only one way to salvation, and that is Jesus
Christ," the ACLU said.

The bill does not specify a religion.

The  <http://www.acluofnorthcarolina.org/> North Carolina ACLU chapter said
in a statement Tuesday that the sponsors of the bill "fundamentally
misunderstand constitutional law and the principle of the separation of
powers that dates back to the founding of this country." 

North Carolina scholars also cast doubt on the bill.

"It has elements of not being American," Gary Freeze, a professor of
politics and history at Catawba College, told
<http://salisburypost.com/article/20130402/SP01/130409928/1023/lawmakers-fil
e-rowan-county-defense-of-religion-act> The Salisbury Post. "I think it goes
far beyond religion and frankly doesn't have a lot to do with North Carolina
or tradition."

Another professor at the college, Michael Bitzer, told the newspaper that
the bill is based on discredited legal theory that the states can declare
themselves exempt from federal law.

"We saw this in the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education," he said,
referencing the integration ruling. "The belief is that the states hold more
power than the federal government. If the federal government does something,
the states can simply ignore it."

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 3, 2013 10:45 AM EDT

 

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