Harris County Bible Update

Below is an editorial by an anti-judge activist mentioning our local fight. She seems to think, however, that the answer lies in jurisdiction stripping...or removing the jurisdiction of federal courts to hear these cases.

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: God and the Activist Judges by Phyllis Schlafly

That is a bunch of bullshit. That would mean only state courts can now rule on the first amendment issues? Or better yet, it would mean that the government can now establish an official state religion by simply preventing an article III judge from hearing the issue. There is a potent force in the current government that wants to do just that with many social issues. They seem to think that it will be permissible to violate the constitution by preventing the judiciary from reviewing their actions, and apparently they haven't read Marbury or any other damn court case. It is clear that what they want is a religious government, not to exercise any sort of equality. Funny thing, the founders of our country expressly rejected a religious government. Therefore, there will be no Sharia in the US, and no council of vicars, and no Pope.

The reality of the situation is that judges wrestle with complex problems and almost every single one of them (and certainly the ones at the top) do the very best they can in any given situation. This spate of jurisdiction stripping bills is probably nothing more than a publicity stunt, but it is also a symptom of a society that is pushing the limits it made for itself. Every time someone says the courts should not be able to decide this matter need to review the way the system works.

If you don't like the constitution, change the constitution. Quit trying to figure out end-around methods of bypassing the method already established to do that. If it fails, then you will be forced to worship the Ten Commandments on your own time.

That rant aside, I would like to point out that the actual appeal on the Harris County Bible case is only about whether the monument on the courthouse grounds was put there to show a preference for Christianity, or was it placed there by a third party to memorialize a Christian’s contribution. All this other stuff is nothing but sound bites.

Of course it got me worked up, so maybe they are accomplishing what they wanted.