Posted on 10/19/2010 8:25:06 AM PDT by truthfreedom
Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.
The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O'Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It's been a controversial issue for years, and Fox should point out the facts. If I'm not mistaken, Clarence Thomas, and many legal scholars agree with Christine on this.
It's complicated, but the 1A reads in part "respecting an establishment of religion". Basically, that says that the Fed Gov has to leave its hands off the states and the localities. If they want to establish religion, they can.
And prior to 1947 there was no question that states and localities could establish religion.
The Fox lead is misleading. “Separation of church and state” is not specified in the First Amendment. “Establishment of religion” is. People are entitled to their opinion on this and should not be accused of ignorance for not equating the two.
If the lead came from AP, it’s still Fox’s lameness for picking it up and sending it on its way to us. I’m sick of this.
O'Donnell was absolutely correct. The 1st Amendment says nothing about the "separation of church and state" -- that's a modern and incorrect description of the prohibition of the establishment of a national religion.
Note, it is NOT Fox News. It is an Associated Press story.
The First Amendment does NOT bar Churches from endorsing candidates, for instance.
At least originally the Constitution only restrained the Federal Government. Most people, I don’t think are even aware of that (a fault of our public school system). In addition, I don’t see how what is taught in school is establishing a religion.
My version of the US Constitution states pretty clearly that the First Amendment Applies to Congress NOT THE STATES. “Congress Shall Make No Law...”
But then again I learned to read in the early 60’s when words still had meaning.
THe author of this piece is the f****** clueless one regarding the 1A, not Christine.
The 14th Amendment incorporated the First, though.
My recollection was that there was a Supreme Court decision a 100 years ago or so that interpreted "Congress" to mean any state or local government (I know, I know - not sure how that works). Does anyone recall the particulars or is my memory flawed (certainly possible)?
Well yeah, it is. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Next will come the libtard talking points expressing dismay and disgust that a conservative does not know about separation of church and state and the sheeple will mimic.
Right. But a terrible story. Widener Law is a really bad law school, so I’m not surprised that the students there who couldn’t get into a better than average law school were gasping. “Separation of church and state” was first mentioned in a Supreme Court case in 1947. I can’t recall exactly, but I don’t think it was in the holding. Everson v Board of Education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everson_v._Board_of_Education
She gets it correct but gets accused of not understanding the first amendment.
While I want her vote in the Senate, I hope she wins in order to continually torment the left.
If you heard the exchange...Coon said that the “separation of church and state was in the 1st amendment when he said the other lines...O’Donnell caught Coons and he tried to change the subject, this writer is being bias in how it’s being reported.
I would like it if we could get our people up to speed on the facts and battle the leftists to a draw, at least, on this one.
Fox News can find someone, maybe the Judge, who can correctly point out that Christine is basically right. Separation of Church and State was invented out of thin air in 1947. It’s not in the Constitution. Leftists put it there in 1947. Everson and the Everson line of cases are just as fictional and make as little sense as Roe v. Wade. Battle this one. Christine did not say anything wrong at all.
I hope the good folks in Delaware see through these cheesy attempts to portray a conservative woman as a dope because she doesn't follow the liberal line. However, Delaware elected Joe Biden to the senate for almost 40 years so I'm not as optimistic as I would like to be.
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