By Dave Crater
Next, a right to ignorance?
By Jeremy Schupbach jshoebox@mac.com A federal judge in San Francisco, where else, ruled today that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional! Citing the precedent set by the 9th Circuit Court, Judge Karlton found that being required to say "under God" created a coercive environment that violated the children's rights.
Judge Karlton did not mention in his decision whether or not having to recite the multiplication tables in math class created a coercive environment that voilated the kids' right to remain ignorant.
Smugness of the law-school liberals
By Dave Crater crater@wilberforcecenter.org “There was no controlling authority, no precedent to follow; this was a purely utilitarian ruling,” the law professor argued earnestly of Pierson v. Post, a standard case studied by first-year law students everywhere. Post and his hounds were chasing a fox in the Year of Our Lord 1805 across unoccupied New York countryside; Pierson, not of the Post party, rudely interrupted the fun by shooting and possessing the fox.
Post, perhaps possessing a few more free moments at that point in life than is healthy, sued to recover the fox. The case started in Queens County but was appealed to the Supreme Court of New York, which is New York’s name for its lowest-level state court – a classic Empire State oxymoron on par with “The Honorable Mrs. Clinton.”
Courtroom shocker out of Carolina
By Dave Crater, crater@wilberforcecenter.org The “separation of church and state” crusade is joined every day in courtrooms across the land, but today in especially interesting fashion in North Carolina. Front page news says Chief N.C. District Court Judge Joseph Turner interpreted a reference in state law requiring witnesses to place their hand on the “holy scriptures” as, to everyone’s amazement, the Bible.