Melvin Watt: “in 1994 we got a new majority in this body. They came saying that they were part of a conservative revolution. They were…”

“in 1994 we got a new majority in this body. They came saying that they were part of a conservative revolution. They were going to be conservative. Who would have ever guessed that that conservative group would have introduced 118 amendments to the United States Constitution? Who would have ever guessed that that conservative group would have voted on 10 amendments in one session, 10 amendments to the Constitution in one session of Congress more than the whole 10 sessions of Congress leading up to it? And they called themselves conservatives, protecting conservative philosophy. They must believe that they are smarter than the Founding Fathers. So here we are today. We can either have George Washington or we can have Istook. We can have Alexander Hamilton or we can have Istook. That is the choice we have. They say they can draft it better, when our Founding Fathers said it in 10 words: ``Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.'' They take 86 words to say that they are doing the same thing, using the same word, ``establish.'' If the Supreme Court is having trouble understanding what ``establish'' means in the existing Constitution, how are they going to understand it any better in this Constitution? If the Supreme Court is having trouble deciding what it means to discriminate under the existing Constitution, how are they going to have less trouble understanding it under this Constitution?”