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International Decisions to Influence US Constitutional Law – Homeschoolers Alarmed
LifeSiteNews ^ | 10/11/06 | Hilary White

Posted on 10/11/2006 4:35:12 PM PDT by wagglebee

PURCELLVILLE, VA, October 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  International law and court decisions will have increasing influence on US Supreme Court and Constitutional analysis, warns an American lawyer Michael Farris, head of the Virginia-based Homeschool Legal Defense Association.

The US Supreme Court will increasingly use international, not domestic, law sources to “help interpret American law, including the US Constitution,” Farris writes.

He quotes the late Justice Rhenquist, considered a conservative, who said, “It is time that the United States courts begin looking to the decisions of other constitutional courts to aid in their own deliberative process.”

Given the direction towards the extreme left and the revival of anti-Christian statism that is the fashion in legal decisions and legislation in Europe, however, Farris says that those who hold to more traditional concepts of rights, particularly parental and family rights, may have reason to worry.

As an advocate for homeschoolers, Farris particularly points to the recent jailing of a homeschooling mother in Germany and the government’s attempt to force children into state schools against their parents’ wishes.

In September, the online news magazine, Brussels Journal, reported that Katherina Plett, a German Baptist in Paderborn, was arrested in her home and charged under a Hitler-era law originally designed to ensure the indoctrination of children into Nazi ideology.

The law is still on the books and was largely ignored until recently when the German government began cracking down on Christian homeschooling families. Katherina Plett’s husband fled with the children to Austria while another family had their children removed by the court for the crime of homeschooling.

These and similar decisions in other countries could, says Farris, become the standard for interpretations of US law by courts. “No one should miss its bigger meaning. The state has the power to demand attendance at government schools so that children may receive indoctrination in today's theories of pluralism.”

In the case of the German homeschoolers, writes Farris, when parents argued for their rights of religious freedom, the European high court declared that “in view of the power of the modern State, it is above all through State teaching that this aim must be realized.”

Farris writes that a specific amendment to the US Constitution is needed to protect the rights of parents from state interference in education choices, “in order to stop the internationalists from using European law to erode our liberty to educate our children outside the orb of state efforts to indoctrinate them in pluralism.”

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Germany Uses Nazi Era Law to Imprison Mom for Homeschooling; Family Flees to Austria
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06091407.html



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: homeschool; internationallaw; scotus
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This is the United States of America, the birthplace of personal freedom and liberty, we don't have to follow anyone!
1 posted on 10/11/2006 4:35:14 PM PDT by wagglebee
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To: 69ConvertibleFirebird; Alexander Rubin; An American In Dairyland; Antoninus; Aquinasfan; ...
Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]


2 posted on 10/11/2006 4:35:36 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: Tired of Taxes; Republicanprofessor; mcvey; JamesP81; DaveLoneRanger

Ping!


3 posted on 10/11/2006 4:37:18 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: wagglebee

Time for an amendment?


4 posted on 10/11/2006 4:37:46 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Treaty Fetishism: "[The] belief that a piece of paper will alter the behavior of thugs." R. Lowry.)
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To: wagglebee

Liberal judges. One of so many reasons we cannot afford to sit this one out, and let the RATS win.


5 posted on 10/11/2006 4:39:38 PM PDT by wjcsux (Not voting this time?! How much $$ will a RAT Congress really cost you?!?)
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To: NonValueAdded

THIS is something to fear.


6 posted on 10/11/2006 4:39:40 PM PDT by rovenstinez
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To: rovenstinez
Actually, no amendment is needed, Article VI of the Constitution says, in part (emphasis added):
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Supreme means supreme and foreign law cannot override our Constitution. It is time to make this application of foreign law nonsense part of the confirmation process. Any candidate justice that wants to undermine Article VI with foreign law should be rejected. Any sitting justice doing so should be impeached.
7 posted on 10/11/2006 4:48:17 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Treaty Fetishism: "[The] belief that a piece of paper will alter the behavior of thugs." R. Lowry.)
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To: wagglebee; freepatriot32

liberty ping


8 posted on 10/11/2006 5:00:09 PM PDT by proud_yank (Socialism - An Answer In Search Of A Question For Over 100 Years)
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To: Carry_Okie

What do you make of this?

Do you have another link to the 'Constitutional Koan' piece that you wrote too? I recently moved and don't have it anymore. Is this applicable to what you were talking about in it?


9 posted on 10/11/2006 5:04:04 PM PDT by proud_yank (Socialism - An Answer In Search Of A Question For Over 100 Years)
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To: wagglebee; Famishus

We need to follow this.


10 posted on 10/11/2006 5:05:04 PM PDT by mother22wife21 (Dog Soldiers-Great Movie! NOT for kids.)
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To: wagglebee; Tired of Taxes; DaveLoneRanger; Republicanprofessor

Where in the Constitution does the United States need permission from a foreign entity for anything?


11 posted on 10/11/2006 5:08:36 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (Nihilism is at the heart of Islamic culture)
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To: NonValueAdded
any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding

The problem with the Court is in how it interprets this last sentence. There is a correct way and an incorrect way, a misconstruction.

When the Constitutions refers to itself it makes it clear: "this Constitution." And the sentence above is an ellipsis for "any Thing in the Constitution [of any State] or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

Any treaty "made under the Authority of United States" should not attempt to amend the Constitution. The Constitution lays out the process for changing itself, and it is not by treaty or by applying foreign law.

12 posted on 10/11/2006 5:09:30 PM PDT by nonsporting
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To: Clintonfatigued

Ever since the Roosevelt socialists forced the United Nations on us six decades ago we have adopted the absurd attitude that we need the international community's permission to pursue our national sovereignty -- and it's been downhill ever since.


13 posted on 10/11/2006 5:12:43 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: wagglebee

Very bad.


14 posted on 10/11/2006 5:28:26 PM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: wagglebee

Hmmmmm, It's coming. God help my children and grandchildern. I'm glad I won't be around to see what's going to become of this country down the road. It was great while it lasted though.


15 posted on 10/11/2006 5:41:32 PM PDT by processing please hold
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To: NonValueAdded

" Supreme means supreme and foreign law cannot override our Constitution. "

Unfortunately, it means whatever the judges say it means.


16 posted on 10/11/2006 5:51:00 PM PDT by rogator
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To: rovenstinez
European high court declared that “in view of the power of the modern State, it is above all through State teaching that this aim must be realized.”

Basically, rights have ceased to exist it Europe. Freedom is no longer a right, but a privilege awarded by the "modern state". Scary stuff. People need to realize international law is increasingly totalitarian. The UN wants to take away our guns, and home schooling, as those things are to be controlled by the "modern state". Welcome to the Modern State, where Big Brother is always watching. This is exactly what the founders feared, which is why the Constitution guarded against it. Too bad nobody in power, especially the judges take the Constitution seriously, they just want to impose their will on you, Constitution by damned, hence the blatantly unconstitutional decisions, such as using international law, by the supreme court. Power is not a means to protect your freedom anymore, it is an end.
17 posted on 10/11/2006 6:10:45 PM PDT by gafusa
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To: rogator
Unfortunately, it means whatever the judges say it means.

Which is when the 2nd Amendment kicks in.

18 posted on 10/11/2006 6:14:23 PM PDT by suijuris
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To: NonValueAdded
I am sad to say that an amendment is probably needed, as our treaty obligations have consistently been held to trump local, state, and even federal laws. Furthermore, even implied constitutional rights are trumped by our treaty obligations. This all pretty much started w/ the Missouri v. Holland SCOTUS decision.

The Bricker amendment possibly could have resolved all this, but it failed by 1 vote as the republican party was widely divided w/ President Eisenhower working hard to see the amendment defeated. For anybody not familiar w/ Ohio Senator John W. Bricker's proposed amendment, there is a good summary on wikipedia.
19 posted on 10/11/2006 6:14:51 PM PDT by CitadelArmyJag ("Tolerance is the virtue of the man with no convictions" G. K. Chesterton)
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To: wagglebee
Depends on who appoints the next couple of SC Justices. Scalia type Judges think this "Internationalists" doctrine is dangerous nonsense.

Be careful who you vote for Freepers

20 posted on 10/11/2006 6:25:16 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (EeevilCon, Snowflake, Conservative Fundamentalist Gun Owning Bush Bot Dittohead reporting for duty!)
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