Byron Dorgan: “I have great respect for courts in this country, but it raises the question: Is there one ounce of common sense left…”

“I have great respect for courts in this country, but it raises the question: Is there one ounce of common sense left when you hear a decision announced today that suggests that the Pledge of Allegiance somehow is in contravention to the principles of the Constitution of the United States? I do not understand for a moment how a majority of that court could have made this ruling. Some people need their collective heads examined when we hear opinions such as this. We had a celebration on the 200th birthday of the writing of the Constitution in that room in Philadelphia. Fifty-five people went back to that celebration. I was selected to be 1 of the 55. Two hundred years before, 55 white men were in that room in the hot summer of Philadelphia, and they wrote the Constitution. Two hundred years later, 55 of us went back--men, women, minorities--and we had a ceremony and a celebration of the 200th birthday of the writing of that wonderful document.”