you may have thought SB 2082 was evil, now prepare yourselves for SB 1558

[ck4829]

Religious Liberties Restoration Act (Introduced in Senate)

S 1558 IS

108th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 1558

To restore religious freedoms.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

August 1 (legislative day, JULY 21), 2003



Mr. ALLARD introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A BILL


To restore religious freedoms.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Religious Liberties Restoration Act'.



SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

(1) The Declaration of Independence declares that governments are instituted to secure certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, with which all human beings are endowed by their Creator and to which they are entitled by the laws of nature and of nature's God.

(2) The organic laws of the United States Code and the constitutions of every State, using various expressions, recognize God as the source of the blessings of liberty.

(3) The first amendment to the Constitution secures rights against laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof made by the Federal Government.

(4) The rights secured under the first amendment have been interpreted by the Federal courts to be included among the provisions of the 14th amendment.

(5) The 10th amendment reserves to the States, respectively, the powers not delegated to the Federal Government nor prohibited to the States.

(6) Disputes and doubts have arisen with respect to public displays of the Ten Commandments and to other public expression of religious faith.

(7) Section 5 of the 14th amendment grants Congress the power to enforce the provisions of the 14th amendment.

(8) Article III, section 2 of the Constitution grants Congress the authority to except certain matters from the jurisdiction of the Federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court.



SEC. 3. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY RIGHTS DECLARED.

(a) DISPLAY OF TEN COMMANDMENTS- The power to display the Ten Commandments on or within property owned or administered by the several States or political subdivisions of such States is among the powers reserved to the States, respectively.

(b) WORD `GOD' IN PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE- The power to recite the Pledge of Allegiance on or within property owned or administered by the several States or political subdivisions of such States is among the powers reserved to the States, respectively. The Pledge of Allegiance shall be, `I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and justice for all.'.

(c) MOTTO `IN GOD WE TRUST'- The power to recite the national motto on or within property owned or administered by the several States or political subdivisions of such States is among the powers reserved to the States, respectively. The national motto shall be, `In God we trust'.

(d) EXERCISE OF CONGRESSIONAL POWER TO EXCEPT- The subject matter of subsections (a), (b), and (c) are excepted from the jurisdiction of Federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court.

-(my comment)-It goes a step further it kills the courts jurisdiction when it comes to religion. I'm all for religion, but this practically fuses the Church and State and furthermore it takes away from the Pluralism and Democracy that makes our Nation great

[tom_paine]

1. These Bushevik Totalitarian Fuck ALWAYS use Orwellian language

It is one of the primary reasons I loathe them so. Their policies makes them Bad Guys. Their constant embrace of Orwellian/Totalitarian Tactics makes them Monsters (and they WILL become murderous within the next century, probably much sooner).

"Religious Liberty", indeed!

Yeah, Religious Liberty means having someone else's religion shoved down your throat!

[wasichu]

2. When a republican talks about liberty

it means they want to dictate your behavior.

[curlyred]

3. Wayne friggin Allard

is an embarassment to the state of Colorado.

[librechik]

7. too true.

Still, he's a tick above Tancredo, but only just.

[yardwork]

4. What part of.....

The first amendment to the Constitution secures rights against laws respecting an establishment of religion...

do they not understand? The Ten Commandments represent only two religions - Judaism and Christianity. Erecting statues to the Ten Commandments in public buildings clearly promotes those two religions, and thereby excludes other religions (or the Constitution right of "no religion").

The people who keep promoting these bills either don't understand the meaning of our Constitution or don't like our Constitution. What they are promoting is exactly what those who wrote and ratified the Constitution and Amendments protected against - a state-mandated religion.

It's time for us to turn the tables and resurrect an old saying from the 1960s: "America. Love it or leave it."

People who don't like our Constitution are free to leave the United States and move someplace else in the world that has a state-mandated religion. Iran, for instance.

[parkening]

5. All this bill is doing is restating that

anything not expressly reserved to the feds is reserved to the states. This is something that the constitution already states.

I don't see what the big hub-bub is about when someone brings in the Ten Commandments into a state building. It does not violate the Federal constitution in any way. The state's constitution may be violated by doing that, but that's the whole point. It is a right retained by the states. Nothing is preventing an atheist/Hindu/voo-doo guy from bringing in his/her stuff, too. There is no establishment issue here at all.

[Mountainman]

10. There is an establishment issue here . The very nature of the

10 commandments is a religious tradition. Look at this from an atheist's point of view which the constitution demands. There should be no religious traditions forced on anyone in this country!

[library_max]

11. When a shrine is built on government property

with no equal time given to other religions and religious points of view, there is an establishment issue. The 14th Amendment removed the exemption of states to do things the federal government is forbidden to do, including favoring one religion over others. The establishment clause now also applies to state governments.

[Mountainman]

12. Why do we need religion in every building we enter?

Why isn't enough to keep the 10 commandments in your church? Because you are trying to force them on everyone. If you weren't you would only have them in your church and your home.

I don't want your religion in my face and it is my right to not have it there.

[ck4829]

6. A follow up: My personal thoughts and how to fight against it

SB 2082 and SB 1558 are being pushed by the Christian Right. I don't think there has ever been such a push to theocraticize our government since before this time. They want to establish a theocracy and they want to do it by 2006 (just an estimate). Many people's lives are on the lines, if you know any people who are non-Christian, their lives could be on the line if a theocracy is established. We have to contact PFAW, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, I know thay will listen to us. We have to defend our Judicial system, we should contact the Supreme Court and tell them to declare these acts unconstitutional now and early. Lastly, we must remain vigilant and watch for other Acts these Intolerant fiends are trying to push down our government's throat.

[parkening]

Those of us who remember our church history

will remember that the "S" in the BAPTIST acrostic stands for "separation of church and state". As far back as the 1600s, with Thomas Helwys, the wisdom of separating the civil from the religious has been recognized by the church (not all churches and denominations, of course).

There is no big conspiracy of Christians to somehow take over the government and rule the country by the Levitical law. :tinfoilhat:


Churches are not even allowed to discuss who someone should vote for without losing their tax-exempt status.

[parkening]

13. duplicate

[library_max]

8. This is just empty election-year posturing.

It's "going straight to video" and its death will not be mourned. What makes me so sure? Because Corporate America doesn't want it.

[Mountainman]

9. You can believe in a god but not the 10 commandments

The 10 commandments are a Christian thing I think. I believe in a god and goddess but I don't believe in the 10 commandments. There is nothing restorative about this bill but to restore religious fascism in this country again.