Judges are stepping in where they have no jurisdiction, no constitutional backing, no understanding of the limits of the federal government in relation to the states, and almost no knowledge of American history.
A Carroll County [Maryland] commissioner said she was “willing to go to jail” opening up a board meeting with a prayer despite a federal judge in Maryland ruling the board has to stop opening meetings with prayers that reference Jesus Christ or any specific deity.
“If we cease to believe that our rights come from God, we cease to be America,” Robin Bartlett Frazier said Thursday. “We’ve been told to be careful. But we’re going to be careful all the way to Communism if we don’t start standing up and saying ‘no.’ ”
First, note that this is a federal judge who has made this ruling. The federal government does not have jurisdiction over what goes on in county commission meetings.
Second, the First Amendment is directed at Congress: “Congress shall make no law. . .” Congress has not made any law.
Third, if Congress had been involved, it can’t make any law establishing a religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
So in what way does this federal judge have the right to intervene in a county commission meeting? Absolutely none.
Fourth, Article 3 of the “Declaration of Rights” under the Maryland Constitution states the following (echoing the Tenth Amendment):
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution thereof, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people thereof.
Fifth, the Preamble to the Maryland Constitution states the following.
We, the People of the State of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty, and taking into our serious consideration the best means of establishing a good Constitution in this State for the sure foundation and more permanent security thereof, declare.
Sixth, Article 36 states that no person shall be “be deemed incompetent as a witness, or juror, on account of his religious belief; provided, he believes in the existence of God, and that under His dispensation such person will be held morally accountable for his acts, and be rewarded or punished therefore either in this world or in the world to come.”
Historically speaking, the “God” of Maryland’s founding is the God of Christianity. This is clearly stated in numerous documents and given the fact that Maryland was first settled by Roman Catholics and is described as a “Christian Commonwealth.”
Seventh, as to the sectarian nature of county commission prayers, we can find support for them in the United States Constitution and the use of “in the year of our Lord,” a reference to Jesus Christ.
The next time Robin Bartlett Frazier prays, she can begin by reciting a section from the Preamble to Maryland’s Constitution (“We, the People of the State of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God”) and close with, “and I make this prayer on this day ‘in the name of our Lord Christ,’” a phrase that was used by Thomas Jefferson.