AMERICA'S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE HOMEPAGE
Week 3 - How we got off Track !
A. The Constitution gives Congress ultimate power over raising taxes and spending money.
Congress was given the power to impeach the Chief Executive or any Federal Judge. By a
simple Majority vote, Congress could set the number of Judges on the Supreme Court.
In Total, the framers dedicated 2,700 words in the Constitution to the legislature. Article III,
which establishes a federal judiciary contains only 282 words (67 words in section 1, 215 in
section 2). The difference in attention to the subjects is a clue to the power the framers intended
each group to wield.
Article III section 1 of the Constitution states: �The judicial Power of the United States,
shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may
from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior
Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive
for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance
in Office.�
Further, Article III Section 2 clause 2 states: �In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other
public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court
shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court
shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under
such Regulations as the Congress shall make.�
B. Under Article IV, section 1 of the Constitution, �Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each
State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the
Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and
Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof."
C. Section 2 of Article IV goes on to state: �The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all
Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States."
A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from
Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the
State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of
the Crime.
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into
another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such
Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service
or Labour may be due."
D. Basically, the courts were established as Congress saw the need and were limited in jurisdiction
by whatever limits Congress would impose on them. However, once a person was found
guilty or indebted in one state, that charge would be held against him in another state. This is
the part of the Constitution that concerns opponents of state sponsored gay marriage.
E. John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, offered his own view on Christianity.
�The Bible is the best book of all books,� he said, �for it is the word of God and teaches us
the way to be happy in the world and in the next.� Then he charged his fellow citizens,
�Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.�
F. In 1782 Congress voted this resolution: �The Congress of the United States recommends and
approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.�