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Editorials and Akin Updates
We must keep "under God" in the pledge
by Congressman Todd Akin, R-MO
I introduced HR 2028, the Pledge Protection Act of 2003 (PPA) in response to the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declaring the phrase "under God" unconstitutional. My bill currently has the support of over 220 members of the House, including the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. My co-author of the bill is a Democrat, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina.
As a Members of Congress, I took an oath to "support and defend" the Constitution of the United States. As such, it becomes incumbent upon us to act when we believe the Executive or Judicial branches have abused the Constitution and threaten the rights of the people. I believe the decision by the Ninth Circuit is an abuse of judicial review and a threat to the liberties of the people.
The PPA uses the powers granted to Congress by Article III of the Constitution. While the Supreme Court was created by ratification of the Constitution by the States, the Constitution leaves the power of creating the lower federal courts in the hands of Congress. While the Supreme Court is granted certain areas of jurisdictions by the Constitution with "such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make", the lower federal courts derive their jurisdiction entirely from the Congress. As a consequence, the Congress has the power to add to or remove from the jurisdiction of the lower courts virtually any issue. The exercise of this power by Congress is settled legal doctrine and has been used more than 200 times, most recently by Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle in a measure passed by the Senate last year.
Within the Declaration of Independence is found a simple formula: There is a God. God grants rights. The primary role of government is to protect those rights. The Ninth's decision to declare "under God" unconstitutional strikes at the very foundation of our rights and liberties. And as Thomas Jefferson, the author of that Declaration, put it: "Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"
I think not, which is why the Pledge Protection Act is a reasonable and necessary response to the usurpation of the Constitution by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
