Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Legislating the Courts
ACSBlog has a post which mentions H.R. 3799, the proposed "Constitution Restoration Act of 2004." The summary they gave appeared a bit frightening in the limitations it would place on federal courts, so I dug into the original sources. Still frightened.
You can find the text of the bill here. Basically, it bars federal courts from addressing questions of official acknowledgment of "God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government," and from looking to any foreign government or agency when it comes to questions of US Constitutional interpretation. It would also make nonbinding on the states any federal decision (at any time, past, present or future) which did either of these two prohibited things. It also makes violation of the act an impeachable offense.
The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property held hearings on the bill yesterday. The submitted texts from the witnesses are at these pages: Roy Moore (yes, the former Alabama Chief Justice), William Dannemeyer, Arthur Hellman, and Michael Gerhardt. You can view the webcast here.
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You can find the text of the bill here. Basically, it bars federal courts from addressing questions of official acknowledgment of "God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government," and from looking to any foreign government or agency when it comes to questions of US Constitutional interpretation. It would also make nonbinding on the states any federal decision (at any time, past, present or future) which did either of these two prohibited things. It also makes violation of the act an impeachable offense.
The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property held hearings on the bill yesterday. The submitted texts from the witnesses are at these pages: Roy Moore (yes, the former Alabama Chief Justice), William Dannemeyer, Arthur Hellman, and Michael Gerhardt. You can view the webcast here.
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Posted by Rogueslayer at 2:38 PM 
