AMERICA'S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE HOMEPAGE
Week 3 - How we got off Track !
12. Between 1857 and 1900, the Supreme Court declared twenty-one Acts of the United States
Congress unconstitutional. That number increased by more than 600% between 1900 and
2000 as 129 times the Supreme Court declared Acts of Congress unconstitutional.
13. Justice Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1812 to 1845 wrote the
first commentaries on the Constitution and they stand as the definitive 19th Century
interpretation of the Constitution. On the issue of the First Amendment and religion he wrote:
�The right of a society or government to interfere in matters of religion will hardly be
contested by any persons, who believe that piety, religion, and morality are intimately
connected with the well being of the state, and indispensable to the administration of civil
justice. The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion, the being, and attributes, and
providence of one Almighty God; the responsibility of him of all our actions, founded upon
moral freedom and accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation
of all the personal, social, and benevolent virtues; - these never can be a matter of
indifference in any well ordered community. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive, how any
civilized society can well exist without them. And at all events, it is impossible for those, who
believe in the truth of Christianity, as a divine revelation, to doubt that it is the especial duty
of government to foster, and encourage it among all the citizens and subjects.�
14. After the Civil War, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments were passed and ratified.
The Thirteenth prohibited slavery or involuntary servitude. The Fourteenth gave every
native-born or naturalized American dual citizenship in the nation and their state of residence.
It also forbade any state from �making or enforcing 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 laws.�
15. Shortly after the ratification of the 14th Amendment, Senator James G. Blaine sought to
make the Fourteenth Amendment expand the First Amendment restrictions on the power
of Congress and apply them to the states. The measure failed.
16. In short, those who passed the Fourteenth Amendment never intended it to incorporate
the First Amendment and apply it to the states.
17. Ex Parte McCardle, 74 U.S. 506 (1868) is a United States Supreme Court decision that
examines the extent of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to review decisions of lower
courts under federal statutory law. During the Civil War Reconstruction, William McCardle,
a newspaper publisher and not a member of the military, published some "incendiary" articles.
He was jailed by a military commander under a law passed by the United States Congress.
18. Mr. McCardle invoked habeas corpus in the Circuit Court of the Southern District of
Mississippi. The judge sent him back into custody, finding the military actions legal under
Congress's law. He appealed to the Supreme Court under a congressional act of 1867 that
allowed federal judges to issue writs of habeas corpus and hear appeals from circuit courts.
After the case was argued but before an opinion was delivered, Congress repealed the statute.
At issue was the question of 1) does the Supreme Court have jurisdiction to hear the case?
And 2) was McCardle's imprisonment constitutional? The answer to question 1) was � No�
and thus question 2 was not discussed.
19. Durousseau v. United States, (1810) held that Congress's affirmative description of certain
judicial powers implied a negation of all other powers. Creating such legislation was
legitimate under the authority granted them by the United States Constitution. By repealing
the act which granted the Supreme Court authority to hear they case, Congress made a clear
statement that they were using this Constitutional authority to remove the Supreme Court's
jurisdiction. The court has no choice but to dismiss the case.
20. In 1892, in the case of Holy Trinity v. United States, the Supreme Court issued a
unanimous decision in the case of Holy Trinity v. United States: �Our laws and our
institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of The Redeemer
of mankind. It's impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent
our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian... This is a religious people.
This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is
a single voice making this affirmation... we find everywhere a clear recognition of the
same truth... These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of
unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.�
21. On May 3, 1907, Justice Charles Evans Hughes, of the U.S. Supreme Court, in a speech
to the Chamber of Commerce of Elmira, New York, stated: �We are under a Constitution,
but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.�
22. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1931 declared: �We are a Christian people, according to one
another the equal right of religious freedom, and acknowledging with reverence the duty
of obedience to the will of God.�