The Public Record
this evening I think it is important that we talk about one of the very first liberties, one of the very first freedoms of the United States of America, something which motivated people to cross the ocean hundreds of years ago in some very…
I might mention, because I have read comments from different city officials and the city of Republic, and they make the point that that is meant to be an emblem of religion, the principles of religion generally as opposed to saying it has …
But there is no perfect symbol. There will always be, to any symbol, some people who object, saying I do not like that. In the case of Edmond, Oklahoma, I thought it was an outrageous comment, but they had a person saying, well, every time…
If you look here in this circle of the Great Seal of the United States, on the front side of it you have the eagle, and above its head is a cluster of 13 stars. But look at the pattern in which those stars are arranged. It is a Star of…
I think that the dissent into that minutia or trivia is not the intent of any constitutional amendment. For example, we have many rights that the U.S. Constitution expresses in absolute terms. Let us take free speech. The Constitution says…
Free speech does not give someone the ability to incite people to engage in violent acts or to overthrow of the government. Yet, the First Amendment says simply that we have free speech, that Congress shall not abridge free speech. Those…
That is not the job or the responsibility of the Congress of the United States or the Supreme Court to decide what should be the scheduling of a public school if a school chooses to make an opportunity during homeroom time or at school…
I very much appreciate the reference there. The web page that we have established for reference is religiousfreedom.house.gov., and I should caution people, do not put a www in front of it, or they will get a totally different web page…
I do not know the actual number of how many hundreds or thousands of rabbis are in this particular organization. It is a national organization of rabbis. The American Conference of Jews and Blacks, the American Muslim Network, those are…
I think the first thing of course that we all need is perspective on it, because frequently I find that some people want to construct what they think is a trap. They will first say, oh, the Religious Freedom Amendment is only meant to…
Certainly, Mr. Speaker, I think that it is interesting that, of course, people are concerned that we do not use the pressure or influence of government to try to tell them what their faith or what their religion should be. And, of course…
Sure. Certainly we recognize that different children will have different levels of maturity; and it is not something, of course, when we talk about people that may feel sometimes like they are not necessarily part of a group, it may not be…
Yes. The ones that they categorize as offensive, if it is a religious symbol or if it is sexually suggestive or pornographic. But do you see the connection? Why do they lump a religious item or symbol in the category of things that are…
Maybe they should have banned an emblem of the IRS itself since that is, as you point out, offensive to many people. But that is such a dangerous trend. But you see, it is not only the IRS. If you read the Supreme Court decision in the…
We are going to be having a vote in this House in a month on doing something about it, and it is called the Religious Freedom Amendment, to make it possible for students to have prayer in public schools, to make it possible for the Ten…
Our intent is first to have the House vote, which will create the incentive for the Senate vote. And there are multiple Members of the Senate who are potential principal sponsors in the other body.
That is typical, of course, because most pieces of legislation have far fewer co-sponsors than they do have people who actually vote for them.
But we are at a key position, because this amendment has been approved by the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, and approved by the House Committee on the Judiciary. That is the first time a committee of…
Here is the requirement, for this or any other constitutional amendment. The requirement that is set forth, in I think either article 5 or 6 of the Constitution, sets up the way that the Constitution is amended. Now, the way the Supreme…
You can have the initiative for prayer that must come, not from government, but from the students, because following that, we have the requirement that it says, ``Government shall not prescribe school prayers.'' That means two things. You…
What we have here is a clear requirement, because a teacher, of course, as any person who is part of local government, is considered an agent of State government. That is a binding rule of law. Local government is a subset of State…
And they probably labeled the gentleman, who is one of the cosponsors, as a right wing religious extremist. Of course, they are wrong on that.
Yes. This would not permit government to tell them that they must pray, it would not permit government to tell them what the content of the prayer would be; but absolutely correct, I say to the gentleman, it would permit students to…
If we look right above the Speaker's chair, above the Speaker's chair and the flag are emblazoned the words ``In God we trust,'' which we also find on our currency. There are people that find that offensive. Does that mean we should take…
tonight I am going to be talking about a very important issue that is coming before this House in approximately a month, that being the Religious Freedom Amendment. The Religious Freedom Amendment, known as House Joint Resolution 78, is…
Politicians like Ernest Istook
