GOP Lawmakers Propose Official State Religion

[bodecea]

By John Celock

Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed allowing an official state religion in a measure that would declare the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings.

The bill, filed Monday by two GOP lawmakers from Rowan County and backed by nine other Republicans, says each state "is sovereign" and courts cannot block a state "from making laws respecting an establishment of religion." The legislation was filed in response to a lawsuit to stop county commissioners in Rowan County from opening meetings with a Christian prayer, wral.com reported.

The bill reads:

SECTION 1. The North Carolina General Assembly asserts that the Constitution of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.

SECTION 2. The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.
​

The North Carolina state constitution disqualifies those who do not believe in God from public office. The provision has been unenforcible since the 1961 Supreme Court decision in Torcaso v. Watkins, which prohibited such bans.

More: North Carolina May Declare Official State Religion Under New Bill

More evidence that North Carolina is no better than some backwater third world country.

 

[Avatar4321]

Interesting. Pennsylvania was a theocracy when it joined the union. Does the 14th Amendment trump the 10th Amendment?

Looks like we may see.

Oh the 14th amendment does trump the 10th. It was added later. and the caselaw has already addressed it.

The real question is does the 14th amendment really incorporate the Bill of Rights to apply to the States? The case law has decided that already as well though.

And if it didn't then the States would be able to pass gun control laws despite the Second amendment.

 

[legaleagle_45]

Interesting. Pennsylvania was a theocracy when it joined the union.

Maryland had an official state religion as well.

Does the 14th Amendment trump the 10th Amendment?

Looks like we may see.

The 14th does trump the 10th... general rule of thumb is "last in time, first in right"... thus allowing the prohibition amendment to be repealed by a subsequent amendment.

 

[legaleagle_45]

The real question is does the 14th amendment really incorporate the Bill of Rights to apply to the States? The case law has decided that already as well though.

And if it didn't then the States would be able to pass gun control laws despite the Second amendment.

Yeah, but the way they incorporated the Bill of Rights was whacky... and most scholars agree. They nullified the Privileges or Immunities clause in Slaughterhouse and then, much latter, made up "substantive due process" as means of overruling Slaughterhouse without really overruling Slaughterhouse.

 

[rdean]

These are the same fruitloops that are going to make it illegal for the ocean to rise in this century any more than it rose in the last century.

Kind of like democratic lawmakers who think restricting the size of a piece of stamped metal that contains a spring will end gun violence.

No body believes that idiot. What the fuck is wrong with you? And Right wingers complain I call names. That wasn't a name. It was clearly a very astute "observation". And they didn't even have a link. Just stupidity.

 

[rdean]

Democrats have wanted a state religion for years. They only needed an acceptable diety. They found that in obama. Now they want laws protecting their religion.

More fucking stupidity. Give us some links. Some "proof". Don't just repeat stupid and bizarre right wing propaganda or people will think you are........well, you know.

 

[rdean]

To democrats, fundamentalist islam is their natural ally. Muslims can kill all the Christians because democrats faint at the sight of blood.

A decade ago, there were an estimated 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Since then, around half the Christian population has left the country due to hardship and persecution. Today, there are reportedly fewer than 60 churches left in the country.

Iraq's Christian exodus could be repeated in Syria | Christian News on Christian Today

BAGHDAD — The U.N. refugee agency said Friday that it was rushing aid to thousands of Christians who fled a northern Iraqi city, while a prominent Shiite cleric appealed for unity as lawmakers consider a U.S.-Iraq security deal.
Some 13,000 Christians have been chased away by threats and extremist attacks in Mosul this month, said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

That number is over half the community in a city where Christians have lived since the early days of the religion.

"Many left with little money and need help," Redmond told reporters in Geneva, where the agency is headquartered.

UN aids Iraqi Christians chased from Mosul - USATODAY.com

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When are these fucknig right winger EVER going to own up to what their party did when more than half a million Christians were murdered or chased out of Iraq, land, as a people, they lived on since BEFORE Islam even existed?

Republicans did this. Did they bring Iraqi Christians here? Fuck no. If they refer to Americans as "let him die", what do they think about Christians who are the WRONG color?

So why isn't Obama taking care of them? Ask the Republicans. They hate immigrants.

 

[whitehall]

Come on lefties. Even a union sponsored ignorant education should stimulate enough brain cells that aren't overwhelmed by hatred to understand that the Republican legislators are fighting for freedom of religion expressed in a simple Christian prayer.

 

[Mustang]

By John Celock

Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed allowing an official state religion in a measure that would declare the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings.

The bill, filed Monday by two GOP lawmakers from Rowan County and backed by nine other Republicans, says each state "is sovereign" and courts cannot block a state "from making laws respecting an establishment of religion." The legislation was filed in response to a lawsuit to stop county commissioners in Rowan County from opening meetings with a Christian prayer, wral.com reported.

The bill reads:

SECTION 1. The North Carolina General Assembly asserts that the Constitution of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.

SECTION 2. The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.
​

The North Carolina state constitution disqualifies those who do not believe in God from public office. The provision has been unenforcible since the 1961 Supreme Court decision in Torcaso v. Watkins, which prohibited such bans.

More: North Carolina May Declare Official State Religion Under New Bill

LOL! These guys are always trying to stir up trouble.

 

[ogibillm]

Technically, they aren't wrong. The Constitution does not prohibit the States from establishing State religion. The Founders all recognized it. It's the caselaw that interprets the 14th amendment that outlaws it.

and since the 14th amendment is part of the constitution your original statement is wrong.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

The North Carolina state constitution disqualifies those who do not believe in God from public office. The provision has been unenforcible since the 1961 Supreme Court decision in Torcaso v. Watkins, which prohibited such bans.

How quaint, North Carolina thinks it’s the 16th Century.

Here’s another Supreme Court decision that will make the new proposed measure also un-enforceable:

Cooper v. Aaron (1958)

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Technically, they aren't wrong. The Constitution does not prohibit the States from establishing State religion. The Founders all recognized it. It's the caselaw that interprets the 14th amendment that outlaws it.

Actually, you’re wrong, you must have missed the cited case law in the OP:

Later we decided Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, at pages 15 and 16, 67 S.Ct. 504, at page 511, and said this:

'The 'establishment of religion' clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between church and State."

Roy R. TORCASO, Appellant, v. Clayton K. WATKINS, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute

 

[Harry Dresden]

Gee, what took so long? I foresee Christianity becoming the official state religion in all the RED states.

what is the official Religion on the Reservation?.....

 

[Harry Dresden]

By John Celock

Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed allowing an official state religion in a measure that would declare the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings.

The bill, filed Monday by two GOP lawmakers from Rowan County and backed by nine other Republicans, says each state "is sovereign" and courts cannot block a state "from making laws respecting an establishment of religion." The legislation was filed in response to a lawsuit to stop county commissioners in Rowan County from opening meetings with a Christian prayer, wral.com reported.

The bill reads:

SECTION 1. The North Carolina General Assembly asserts that the Constitution of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.

SECTION 2. The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.
​

The North Carolina state constitution disqualifies those who do not believe in God from public office. The provision has been unenforcible since the 1961 Supreme Court decision in Torcaso v. Watkins, which prohibited such bans.

More: North Carolina May Declare Official State Religion Under New Bill

More evidence that North Carolina is no better than some backwater third world country.

with just nicer things.....

 

[OODA_Loop]

NC to legislate pepper flake and white vinegar use.

 

[Lakhota]

There is some academic debate about whether the architects of the Fourteenth Amendment intended the freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights to be applied to the states because these liberties are part of the “privileges or immunities” of U.S. citizens, or because they are liberties that cannot be denied under the Constitution’s “due process” guarantees. Regardless of the correct answer to this academic question, however, one of the most important judicial projects of the Twentieth Century was a series of Supreme Court decisions applying most of the Bill of Rights’ limits to state governments. This project completed the work the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment began nearly 150 year ago — reconstructing America as a nation that recognizes certain civil rights which no lawmaker is allowed to trample. The right to be free from government endorsements of religious is one of these civil rights.

So when Starnes and his colleagues lash out against this one freedom, they are not simply lashing out against some court decisions that they disagree with. They are rejecting the most transformative moment in American constitutional history and denying that their side lost the Civil War.

More: Eleven North Carolina Republicans Sponsor Resolution Saying Their State Can Ignore The Constitution - By Ian Millhiser/ThinkProgress

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Interesting. Pennsylvania was a theocracy when it joined the union. Does the 14th Amendment trump the 10th Amendment?

Looks like we may see.

If you understood the meaning of the 10th Amendment, you’d not ask the question.

 

[whitehall]

Come on lefties. This issue is BS and you know it. All they want to do is be able to say a Christian prayer before convening a session of state legislature without the federal gestapo beating down the doors in the name of a fictional "separation of church/state" statute that does not exist in the Constitution.

 

[hortysir]

Vote with your feet

 

[Lakhota]

Come on lefties. This issue is BS and you know it. All they want to do is be able to say a Christian prayer before convening a session of state legislature without the federal gestapo beating down the doors in the name of a fictional "separation of church/state" statute that does not exist in the Constitution.

I believe they're already doing that.

Prayer at General Assembly continues despite ACLU lawsuit - News14.com