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The First Amendment (cont)
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The First Amendment (cont) Sorry it's been so long but work has been hectic and though I love to Blog ... I love to eat too, so work comes first. Anyway let's continue with the first amendment. Free Exercise of Religion Sounds simple right? The Government can't stop people from going to Church ... well yes and no. In Court ruling after court ruling, the exercise of religion has been broken up into two separate entities, belief and practice. The purpose of the Free Exercise Clause is "To secure religious liberty in the individual by prohibiting any invasions there by civil authority." It bars "governmental regulation of religious beliefs as to impede the observance of one or all religions or ... to discriminate invidiously between religions ... even though the burden may be characterized as being only indirect." Okay ... now it seems to be getting complicated, and you know what that means ... bring in the lawyers and judges. Court Rulings affecting the Free Exercise Clause: First and foremost, my favorite group of people ... the bigamists and polygamists. The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (Mormons) brought several cases before the Supreme Court involving the anti-bigamy and<b> polygamy </font></b>laws that prevented them from practicing their religion. The Court has ruled that while the Mormons could believe in multiple wives, they were not able to act on that belief. The banning of the practice of bigamy and<b> polygamy </font></b>was deemed to be of "compelling interest" to the Government, and could therefore be enforced without violating the Free Exercise Clause. This may be a bad thing for the Mormons, but it is a good thing for the country. If we were to exclude the Mormon Church from the Polygamy Laws, it would set a very dangerous precedent. As ridiculous as this might sound, it would open the doors to religions doing human sacrifices. I know it sounds ridiculous ... but once the precedent is there ... common sense takes a back seat to established case law. Another of my favorite groups, the Jehovah's Witnesses also went before the Supreme Court. The Witnesses were proselytizing in a heavily Catholic neighborhood and playing a phonograph record that was grossly insulting to the Christian religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular. The Witnesses were charged and convicted of breaching the peace. The Supreme Court overturned the conviction and ruled that the interest sought to be upheld by the State did not justify the suppression of religious views that simply annoyed listeners. So my friends, it seems we can not simply punch out people that start preaching to us on the street ... even if they piss us off. They have a Constitutional Right to do it. Our only redress is to walk away. Now, some States have Sunday Blue Laws which require retailers to be closed on Sunday. A Jewish merchant went to the Supreme Court with the argument that he already closed his business on the Sabbath (Saturday) because his religion compelled him to, and being closed on Sunday also would be an undue financial burden on him and his business. The Supreme Court ruled that being closed on Sunday didn't hinder the practice of his religion, so he had to close on Sundays too. While I can see that this ruling is completely in line with the First Amendment ... I can also see the unfairness of these Blue Laws to Jews and others that celebrate Saturday as the Lords' Day. Just because a decision is technically correct, doesn't make it right. Many States that still have these Blue Laws have modified them to say that businesses must be closed one day out of the weekend. But these Blue Laws are a relic of the past that should be repealed. Other cases dealing with this clause dealt with if the Amish could pull their from school after the 8th grade (yes), If the Amish had to pay into the Social Security System even though they don't collect (yes), if an Orthodox Jew in the Army could wear his Yarmulke (no), and so many others that you know a lot of lawyers got rich just off of this clause. But to re-cap, the exercise of religion is broken down into beliefs which are always allowed and the practice of religion which can be infringed upon by the secular government when the interests of the State "compellingly" outweigh the rights of the individual to practice. Wow, another clause ... another long post. At this rate I'll never be done. I will make sure to post again tomorrow ... I will try to finish the amendment in one last post ... but no promises.  |
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Know how, even as goofy kids, occasionally something taught in school actually stuck? Well I can remember being in fifth grade and Mrs C. Smith (we had 2 Mrs. Smiths that year) writing "the letter of the law" and "the spirit of the law" on the chalkboard and discussing it, using examples, etc. I also remember, oddly enough, that I actually got what she was saying. As read this (as well as previous post) I once again thought that we've gotten too far down the a HA! a loophole! path and stopped honoring the original intention of these words. Yeah, I'm still [blog 1hotwahine]
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In my area we are dealing with a street preacher here who chases women down the street if he finds their clothing offensive. He verbally abuses them along the way. With taunts of slut, whore and you are going to hell, this even occurs infront of the womens children. The preacher claims his behavior is protected by the first admendment.
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1/6/2007 7:08 am |
I sent you an email but I'm sorry it has many spelling errors. I was very angry when writing it so please excuse me although I know Senior Sizzle won't reject it because I wasn't being rude to you but angry over other reasons. I'm sorry. Please read and let me know what you think about it please?
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reminds me of the joke in Philadelphia what's 7,000 lawyers chained together at the bottom of the sea? You cannot conceive the many without the one.
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The protection of street harassment is changing in the eyes of the law. Where I live, we had a funeral for a young Marine. The Rev. Phelps and crew came to our town to protest it. The local Police called The motorcycle group made up of the color guards to line our streets and protect the family from the Phelps protest. The whole town plus about 2000 motorcyclist turned out to line the streets and keep Phelps from creating a problem. It was a site to see here. Not one house didn't have a flag flying. Phelps was also sent a bill for using up city budget. I doubt we will ever see him pay it but its a start.
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spunky got the right line from the movie - but i have to admit - your's made me laugh out loud - bows in appreciation of your wit we You cannot conceive the many without the one.
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