A resolution filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide.
The resolution originates with a dispute between the American Civil Liberties Union and Rowan County Board of Commissioners. In a federal lawsuit, the ACLU alleges that the board has opened as many as 97% of its meetings with Christian prayers, despite the fact that not all N.C. Senators are Christian.
In a 2011 ruling on a similar lawsuit against the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not ban prayer at government meetings completely, but did rule that prayers favoring one religion over another are unconstitutional.
Two Rowan County representatives, Harry Warren and Carl Ford, believe they have found a way around this. It involves nullifying the Constitution.
House Joint Resolution 494, as written, would allow North Carolina to establish a state religion through nullification of the First Amendment.
"The Constitution of the United States does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal courts the power to determine what is or is not constitutional; therefore, by virtue of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the power to determine constitutionality and the proper interpretation and proper application of the Constitution is reserved to the states and to the people."
In other words, Resolution 494 argues that the Constitution is unconstitutional.
Do not try to find the logic in Warren's and Ford's way of thinking, lest your brain flash the blue screen of death on you.
Logic doesn't even begin to enter into this. This is something that all parties involved know is wrong but want badly enough to cling to anything in order to try and justify it. Even something as asinine and illogical as declaring the Constitution to be unconstitutional.
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