Maine Owl

Let's propose that Amendment!

Via Atrios and over to Lawyers, Guns and Money, is a Huckabee doozy from a campaign speech in Warren, Michigan:

Huckabee:I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.

View the video from Scarborough's show here:



Farley, naturally, cannot say exactly what Huckabee means, "it's a bit unclear to me what amending the Constitution to 'God's standards' would require..."

I don't know either. But it strikes me that we should not decry Huckabee for being a nut job. Let's take him seriously and try to figure out just exactly how we would make the US Constitution friendly for the Christian God. Then we can have a debate with a real proposal for changing the essential basis of America on the table.

It's a teachable moment. People would have to consider these changes and figure out what they would mean, and whether or not we should support them. My first swipe at a proposed amendment is below...

Keeping it simple, I'll only strike clauses. Preachers like Huckabee might be thinking of adding prohibitions on abortion or gay rights. But let's just do the deletions in this exercise. I think the deletions would be essential for the Christian God to be let in. And that should open the floodgates for pious legislators to shape the law as they'd say God would see fit.

First, we'd have to get rid of the prohibition on religious test for office. Next, of course, the Establishment clause would have to go, and religious freedom too (can't have a right to practice Islam, or be an atheist).

These being gone, clergy would gain exclusive right to have the executive power and to rule from Biblical principles. Finally, the Ninth Amendment and first section of the Fourteenth Amendment would be struck in entirety, because after the Roe v Wade decision granting abortion rights (35 years next Tuesday), all "persons" born (or naturalized) in America have privacy and liberty, not to mention equal protection under the law. After those words are gone, then the clerics now in control (see above) would just tell us what God's will is concerning our bodies, and we would have to obey.

The proposed Amendment, therefore, would perform the following deletions:

Article VI
All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Amendment I
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.

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment XIV
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

My belief is that the finest principles at the basis of America's founding are free personal religion and freedom from state religion. My main purpose in this exercise, then, is to help people think through the consequences of Huckabee's notions. I know well-meaning people with deep religious convictions who are very frustrated with freedom from state religion, and also find it difficult to co-exist with the religious freedom of others--for example those who practice (locally) minority faiths, or especially those who, like me, do not believe in an interested God.

I just have to think that very few people, even those who cheer for Huckabee, would want to live in the country that would result from the Constitutional surgery described above.