John Danforth: “first let me say that a lawyer, particularly a constitutional lawyer, would say that Senator Packwood has made a real…”

“first let me say that a lawyer, particularly a constitutional lawyer, would say that Senator Packwood has made a real contribution and that the Helms amendment, as modified, is not as pernicious as its original form because of the adding of the words ``constitutionally protected.'' However, I am concerned about the effect of this amendment, not on constitutional lawyers, but on real-world school board members and real-world school administrators. I think that even as modified, what this amendment says is, if you are on a local school board, you better watch out. If you are on a local school board, you better watch out because the Feds are after you. If you are on a local school board and you make a mistake of law, we are going to come and get you and we are going to take your money away from you. I do not think in some of our smaller school districts and some of our poorer school districts the constitutional lawyers are going to be consulted. I believe there is going to be some vague threat that, if you do not have school prayer, you are going to lose your money. Therefore, I think this is still a bad amendment.”