The Essence of Liberty: Part 260 (1)
Compiled by
Dr. Jimmy T. (Gunny) LaBaume
A Summary of Gutzman, Kevin R.C. The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Constitution
(The book is available from the Ludwig von Mises Institute at
http://www.mises.org)
Chapter 10: The Grand Wizard's Imperial Court
How the Ku Klux Klan separated church from state
In Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940) the Court turned the 1 st Amendment upside down. The case involved the prosecution of a Jehovah's Witness for going door-to-door on behalf of his religion. Using the Incorporation Doctrine and the 14 th Amendment, the Court ruled that Connecticut had violated his 1 st Amendment rights. The Free Exercise Clause had become a tool for federal oversight of state policies.
In Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township (1947), Justice Hugo Black wrote for the majority. Black had been a pro-New Deal senator from Alabama elected with the active support of his fellow members of the Ku Klux Klan. In the 20 th century, the Klan had added anti-Catholicism to its anti-Semitism and an important issue was opposition of government support for parochial (Catholic) schools.
Black claimed that the 1 st Amendment erected “a wall of separation between church and state.” This is language not found in the Constitution. Nevertheless, he concluded, “In the words of Thomas Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between Church and State.'”
This opinion was remarkably ignorant of history. But, that has not stopped it from being invoked ad nauseum. The 1 st Amendment says nothing about the establishment of an official religion by the states. To the contrary, the purpose for the Amendment was to prevent Congress from establishing a religion for the whole united States as well as preventing it from interfering with the religions policy of the individual states.
The “leading role” that Black attributed to Jefferson was historically inaccurate because Jefferson had played no role in drafting or adopting the Establishment Clause. He was neither a member of the Congress that drafted the amendment nor of the Virginia General Assembly that ratified it. The “wall of separation” metaphor was coined by him in a letter written a decade after ratification. Said letter was not concerned with the issue of state establishment of religions. Instead, it was an explanation of why he did not issue a presidential declaration of Thanksgiving.
The most notorious decision stemming from Everson was Engle v. Vitale —the School Prayer Case (1962) wherein the Court considered the constitutionality of New York requiring school districts to recite a prayer each morning which said, “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.”
Thus, the only “religious beliefs” reflected by this innocuous prayer were that there was a god and that the students depended upon it. As a matter of fact, a traditional Christian might have objected on the grounds that it did not invoke the name of the Trinity.
Although Black had incorrectly assumed that Jefferson informed the Establishment Clause, he should have remembered that Jefferson had also written that all men were “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” If that reference did not offend Black's sensibilities, why should New York's prayer?
Thus the ban on prayer was essentially a judicial coup de main that amended the Constitution without going through the constitutional process—a process that was intentionally made difficult in order to protect the states. Back then the idea did not enter anyone's mind that the Supreme Court justices would ignore the Constitution or Congress would let them get away with it.
Thus, nowadays public schools bear the imprint of an anti-Catholic Klansman who advanced the cause of left-liberal secularists.
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Copyright ©2004, FlyoverPress.com
Jimmy T. LaBaume, PhD, ChFC is a full professor teaching economics and statistics in the School of Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, TX. He does not speak for Sul Ross State University. Sul Ross State University does not think for him.
Dr. LaBaume has lived in Mexico and spent extended periods of time in South and Central America as a researcher, consultant and educator.
“Gunny” LaBaume is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War and Desert Storm. His Marine Corps career spanned some 35 years intermittently from 1962 until 1997 when he refused to re-enlist with less than 2 years to go to a good retirement. In his own words, he “simply got tired of being guilty of treason.”
He is also currently the publisher and managing editor of FlyoverPress.com, a daily e-source of news not seen or heard anywhere on the mainstream media. He can be reached at jlabaume@sulross.edu.
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