Pete Sessions: “this is, indeed, a shocking culmination of a decade-long trend of liberal activist courts that have been misreading the…”

“this is, indeed, a shocking culmination of a decade-long trend of liberal activist courts that have been misreading the first amendment of the Constitution. The first amendment protects the free exercise of religion. That is what it says. It says Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof. There is no word in the Constitution, the document ratified by the people of the United States, about a wall of separation. There is nothing in the Constitution that says we cannot have any reference in public life in America to a higher being. As the Senator from West Virginia has eloquently stated, our founding documents make multiple references to God. Indeed, the Declaration says we are created with certain inalienable rights. We did not create ourselves but were, indeed, created by a higher being. That is a strong part of our belief as a nation. Our courts have been on the wrong track for a long time. They have consistently gotten this thing wrong. Not all the courts, but the Federal courts to a large degree. Particularly the Ninth Circuit is out of the main stream, in my view. This trend has been there for some time. It is not part of the American tradition. In America, we need to respect people's religion. We need to give people a full chance to express their faith wherever they may choose. We should not put down or laugh or demean somebody else's religious belief.”