McGhee’s
Capitol ReportPerhaps this is the perfect time to reflect on how recent Supreme Court rulings fit with what we have thought were our constitutionally guaranteed rights and liberties as citizens of the United States of America.
We have been under the impression that the Constitution guarantees private property rights. The recent Supreme Court ruling seems to say that our property rights are not guaranteed by the Constitution after all. Rather, these perceived rights, according to the Court, exist only if granted by local governments, and only so long as someone else doesn’t want what you thought was your property. Hmmm.
Then we have what we thought was a Constitutional guarantee to practice our religion of choice. Here the Court seems to have ruled that religion can only be recognized in public places so long as no one is offended and all references to religion are only done in a historical context. What the heck does that mean? We have a liberty of religious expression only so long as we do not exercise that liberty or so long as we place no real value on it? Huh? I can pray so long as I don’t do so on public land, or in view of someone who may be offended, or acknowledge that there really is a God listening?
The copy of the Constitution I have says the following under the First Amendment: “Congress shall pass no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prevent the free exercise thereof.” I must confess I haven’t a clue as to what constitution the Supreme Court is reading. The Court seems to have missed half of what my, our, Constitution says. Government cannot mandate a state religion, nor can it prevent citizens from practicing their religion. And yet, preventing the practice of ones religious faith is exactly what the Court is trying to do.
What happens when someone living next to a church decides they are offended by all the Sunday morning traffic generated by worshippers coming to church? Or all the commotion created by a Wednesday evening service? Can they now petition their local government to have the church declared a public nuisance and closed, or forced to move out of town? Sound far-fetched? I’m not so sure.
You see folks, the simple truth of the matter is, that if you are not at liberty to practice you religious faith, you have no freedom of religion. If a group of judges can degree that you have a freedom of religion only so long as no one is offended by your faith, you have no freedom of religion.
Now I realize I’m nowhere near as well schooled in the law as our Supreme Court, but to this old farm boy for Odessa, it seems to me that if a group of judges in Washington D.C. can dictate when, where and how I can worship my God, then I have no freedom of religion after all.
This Sunday, when you go to church, as I know most of you will, say an extra prayer for our Justices in D.C. If ever there was a group in need of the touch of God, this is it.