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Two Republicans in North Carolina have proposed a bill that has two sections.
31 SECTION 1. The North Carolina General Assembly asserts that the Constitution
32 of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws
33 respecting an establishment of religion.
34 SECTION 2. The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal
35 court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public
36 schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an
37 establishment of religion
In other words, the bill says that the Federal government has no power over states and that federal court decisions ar not applicable to states.
Seriously?
All joking aside, this is the kind of thing that started the Civil War.
North Carolina has long had a law on the book that one must be a Christian to hold office. It’s been totally unenforceable, but the law remains.
Now, they want to say that it’s OK if North Carolina enacts a state religion and ignores all precedent to the contrary (including that part of the US Constitution).
The great state of Mississippi (where the Capital closes down at 3:30 because of fear of being downtown after dark) has a similar proposal, but more wide-sweeping proposal.
The Mississippi bill would have the state form a committee that would examine federal laws and ‘nullify’ those it doesn’t want to follow.
Federal Law, now just a strong suggestion.
Any bets on who would be staffing that committee, especially since Tea Party legislators proposed the bill?
Gary Chism (a Republican legislator) says that “Obamacare is one of the reasons we started talking about this bill”.
These guys are literally proposing that we throw the US away and go back to states. Every state might as well be its own country at that point.
None of these bills have a good chance of passing and even if they did, the ink wouldn’t be dry before they were challenged in court. The states would waste millions of dollars for a trial and still, nothing in these bills increase jobs, education, or anything else for the people of these states.
This is all about two things. The first is a power grab. A rather blatant attempt to wrestle power away from the Federal government. According to one poll, 40 million people in the US believe Obama is the antichrist. (Perhaps they all live in Mississippi and North Carolina, with some small groups in Texas and Louisiana.)
The second is an attempt to fire up their base. “See, we’re doing something.” It will be shot down, but that may be enough to make them martyrs for the cause.
