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Old 06-28-2008
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Mick Jagger Mick Jagger is offline
County Executive

 
Member Since: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 358

   
Re: First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and nonreligion

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcus1124 View Post
The text is clear
You're not qualified to ascertain the meaning of the text of the establishment clause. You still haven't demonstrated a working knowledge of the well established law of legal instrument interpretation, as it existed at the time the clause was made.

Quote:
...your interpretation is contradicted by contemporaneous acts, such as the appointment of a Congressional Chaplain (of a Christian denomination), the use of Federal buildings for religious services, etc.
Where did you get the cockamamie idea that "contemporaneous acts" trump the will of the lawmakers? If the supreme law of the land was going to be established by "contemporaneous acts", what was the point of making a Constitution?

Without a good knowledge of the law of legal instrument interpretation, at the time the establishment clause was made, you're just spinning your wheels trying to trying to ascertain it's meaning.
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I find it appalling that Justice Antonin Scala, in his dissenting opinion in McCreary County v. ACLU, constructed his model of "the relationship between church and state" in America without even considering the actual text of the Constitution. How do incompetents like him get on the U. S. Supreme Court?
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