On Monday, April 1, two GOP state legislators introduced a bill which stated that North Carolina does not recognize the US Constitution’s prohibition against the establishment of a state religion or any federal court ruling affecting North Carolina’s ability to legislate one for itself. The bill, which with unintended irony is called the North Carolina Defense of Religious Freedom Act, is not, however an April Fools Day joke.
Along with its two sponsors, State Reps. Carl Ford (R-China Grove) and Harry Warren (R-Salisbury), the bill is endorsed by nine other Republican legislators, including the House Majority Leader Edgar Starnes (R-Hickory). You can find the text of the bill here. While it’s not spelled out within the legislation, there is little doubt as to which faith they intend to establish as the state religion.
The argument that North Carolina’s GOP legislators are using to justify their stance is based on states rights; the idea that individual states have the right to nullify or invalidate any federal law that the state deems unconstitutional. While it’s cropped up a few times in the 20th century, as in the case of Southern states that opposed implementing desegregation laws, it was never upheld in court and was settled pretty decisively by the Civil War in the 19th.
Not that that fazes these Republican legislators.
In some ways, the North Carolina legislature can be viewed as very progressive… that is, provided you have a medieval outlook. Not only does the state constitution prohibit anyone who does not believe in God from holding public office, but last year, they passed legislation denying climate change by making the use of scientific data that measures recent sea level changes illegal. House Bill 819 forces the state’s Coastal Resources Commission to plan only for a steady linear rate of sea-level rise, whatever the actual numbers prove to be. Despite national ridicule, the bill was allowed to become law with only a few changes in wording to eliminate some of the more offensive language. One wonders whether this will be the pattern for the North Carolina Defense of Religious Freedom Act as well.
One also wonders what's next on the North Carolina legislature’s faith-based march backwards? It’s a pity that Fort Sumter is located in South Carolina. It will make it difficult for North Carolina to open fire on it.
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