KIM DAVIS AND MR. JEFFERSON

I have been favored by several emails comparing Kim Davis to Saint Thomas More, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks, and while I admire the Chutzpah being shown by the Rowan County clerk, I have to say that she is waiving the wrong flag.

It is certainly true that same sex marriage offends the religious beliefs of a great many Americans, and it may well be true that statutes defining marriage as a union of one male and one female are adopted by legislatures and supported by voters in large part because of moral standards endorsed and taught by their churches.

But when those beliefs have been duly adopted as public laws, they are no longer mere sectarian discipline; they are public law, and entitled to the respect and dignity due to the laws adopted democratically by free men and women in a free republic.

Kim Davis should be remembered not a Christian who stood against a court decision which violated her religious faith; but as an American who stood against a court decision which violated the right of the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to legislate on the subject of marriage.

More than half a century ago, John F. Kennedy addressed the Greater Houston Ministerial Conference. His speech ought to be heard by every boy and girl in every high school in America. And it wouldn’t hurt if the rest of us tuned in as well to:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/ALL6YEBJMEKYGMCntnSCvg.aspx

Here is what JFK had to say about the relationship of conscience and public duty:

But if the time should ever come--and I do not concede any conflict to be even remotely possible--when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same.

The sad fact is that the strategy Ms. Davis has thus far pursued is not only legally unsustainable, it is politically inept. Any lawyer worthy of the name will tell you that religious, conscientious objection is no excuse for refusing to perform the duties of a public office.

Redefining the duties of the County Clerk is a cockamamie way to solve the problem. It doesn’t challenge the Obergefell decision. It doesn’t protest the dictatorial judicial assault on traditional American culture and values.

The Kentucky Resolution of 1799, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, asserted that the Commonwealth has the inherent power to oppose and even nullify unconstitutional acts by the federal government.

Nullification can be accomplished in several ways. Merely to declare an act of the national government to be void and of no effect is unlikely to accomplish anything. Public demonstrations, however massive, simply lead to confrontation and violence.

The better approach is that made famous by Martin Luther King; civil disobedience. King wisely stated that protesting unjust laws, while willingly accepting the legal consequences, is the highest expression of respect for the law.

It is in this spirit that Ms. Davis should simply refuse to issue same sex marriage licenses unless and until specifically ordered to do so in each case by the federal judge. She should then issue a license which specifies that it was issued in violation of Kentucky law by order of the United States District Court.

That course of action allows her to continue protesting same sex marriage. It gives evidence to the usurpation of State sovereignty by the federal courts. I have no doubt that couples receiving licenses with that disclaimer prominently noted will not be happy. They will, no doubt, run to the federal courthouse seeking relief from the form of the marriage license.

This will bring about a new lawsuit, one which could very well go all the way to the Supreme Court. One can only imagine the convoluted logic that eminent tribunal will have to concoct in order to prohibit Kentucky clerks from telling the truth about the licenses they issue under duress. 

Thomas Jefferson would be proud.

MORE KIM DAVIS

Two thoughtful emails from very intelligent men and a long chat with my equally intelligent wife have persuaded me that my last blog needs more explanation.

First, let’s make one thing perfectly clear. A county clerk must obey the law. Conscientious objection on the basis of religious belief does not excuse a public officer from doing his or her duty.

Faced with such a conflict, the officer holder should resign. That was the gist of John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech to the Protestant pastors in Texas.

The point that seems difficult for most people to grasp is the legal effect of a Supreme Court opinion. Everybody says that the United States Supreme Court “legalized” same sex marriage. The Obergefell decision was celebrated from the White House to the coffee houses by homosexual couples who perceived that they were now able to marry legally.

But the Supreme Court did not “legalize” same sex marriage.

Courts decide cases and controversies between plaintiffs and defendants. Courts do not enact, amend or repeal any law. When a court believes that a law is unconstitutional, it does not wipe that law from the statute books. It simply says that the law is unenforceable and decides the case as though the law does not exist.

Section 402.005 of the Revised Statutes of Kentucky defines marriage as a relationship between one man an one woman. That law is still on the books. It is still valid and it still defines the duties of county clerks.

When a same sex couple requests a marriage license, the clerk has two choices: either obey the statute or assume that the statute is unconstitutional and need not be obeyed. That choice was not created by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergesfell case. The clerk has taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. If she believed that the Kentucky statute violated the federal constitution, she would have been oath bound to ignore it, with or without a decision of the the high court or any court.

The clerk’s oath to support the Constitution binds her conscience. She has not sworn to obey the opinions of the United States Supreme Court. She has sworn to obey the Constitution, a document written in the English language, which she is quite capable of reading and understanding. The Supreme Court’s opinion in the Obergefell case is exactly that: an opinion. It is not a decree. It does not bind anyone except the parties to the lawsuit of which the Court has jurisdiction.

Courts change. Opinions change. A person cannot be punished for failure to obey a court order issued against somebody else. Ms. Davis’s case will be decided by a federal district judge. That judge, like Ms. Davis and the members of the Supreme Court, has taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. His oath, like that of the clerk, is a personal commitment of fidelity to the written words of the nation’s charter.

Typically and traditionally, lower courts follow the precedents of opinions by higher courts. But they are not bound by law or conscience to do so. Appellate court opinions are just that: opinions, and if a lower court judge thinks otherwise, he or she need not follow the example of the higher tribunal.

Of course, the trial judge who does not follow the opinions of the appellate court can expect to be reversed on appeal. But, obviously, that does not always happen. The Supreme Court has reversed its opinion many times, and the only way that can happen is if somebody has re-litigated the issue.

Lincoln’s words bear repeating and thoughtful consideration:

the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers,

The idea that opinions of the Supreme Court are the law of the land is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. The practice of substituting litigation for legislation is further evidence of the abandonment of our republic in favor of a dictatorial oligarchy.

We have only ourselves to blame.

TRUMP'S WALL

Donald Trump has made quite a splash with his proposal to build a two thousand mile wall between the United States and Mexico. He makes it sound easy enough. Heck, the Chinese built the Great Wall of China more than two thousand years ago. They didn’t even have bull dozers.

I got to thinking about Mr. Trump’s Wall, and quite frankly, I don’t like it.

It seems to me that walls are for prisons and dictators. I still get a warm fuzzy feeling when I hear a recording of Ronald Reagan’s famous speech in Berlin:

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!”

There is perhaps no more explicit definition of freedom or personal liberty than the ability to go where you want to go. The history of the human race is largely a story of migration. God gave us eyes to see the horizon and legs to get us from here to there.

The story of our nation is a tale of travelers; of pilgrims and refugees, adventurers and escapees, the ostracized and the ambitious.

The Statue of Liberty says it best: Give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free…

The Berlin Wall didn’t keep Westerners out or Easterners in. It just made getting in or out harder and more dangerous. People are going to go where they want to go. Somehow.

We used to call illegal immigrants from Mexico ‘wetbacks,’ the idea being that they swam across the Rio Grande to get into the United States. I puzzled about that. A couple of years ago, Polly and I vacationed with friends at El Cabo del Sol. We showed our passports and we were welcomed to Mexico. Can’t a Mexican vacation in California as easily?

So I Googled it. Not a very productive way to spend a morning. The Immigration Laws of the United States are a horrible example of the cancer of bureaucracy. ICE, ESTA, VWP, BCC, B1, B2, H1B, USCIS, OCC, INA, CFR, ELIS, I-90, I-539, SAWP, TFW, not to mention EP, VEE, CEM, APHIS, EP, DACA and USDA; the initials and acronyms are enough to boggle the brain.

The fact is that the border between the United States and Mexico is the busiest national border in the world, with roughly 350 million people crossing each year. The San Ysidro Port of Entry between Tijuana and San Diego alone recorded 8.4 million pedestrians and 12.3 million vehicles crossing in 2011.

Like the border between Detroit and Windsor, there are many people who cross daily to go to work or school.

Getting a Visa or a Border Crossing Card that will allow someone from Mexico to enter the United States is not difficult. The U.S. has issued over 4 million electronic Border Crossing Cards and continues to issue about 100,000 a month. They authorize the holder to enter our country for a short visit up to 30 days, the length of which is specified by the immigration officer when they enter the country. If they overstay the intended visit, the card will be cancelled and getting another one will be a problem.

Border Crossing Cards are good for ten years of short 30-day visits, but they limit how far the visitor can go into our country: 25 miles in California and Texas, 55 miles in New Mexico and 75 miles in Arizona.

Lots of people in Mexico want to come to America. Can you blame them? Our constitution requires the Congress to adopt uniform immigration and naturalization laws. It also requires the President to see that the laws are faithfully executed. If the President and the Congress do what the Constitution requires of them, there should be no great problem at our borders.

Immigration from Mexico, both legal and illegal has slowed in the past five years. Perhaps it is because of the economy, both here and in Mexico. That brings me to another pillar in Mr. Trump’s platform. Someone should tell him that if Ford Motor builds a plant in Mexico and provides a number of good jobs for the people who live there, fewer Mexicans will want to come to the U.S.A. in search of gainful employment.

Being a business man, he ought to know that a free enterprise economy is not a zero sum game. A rising tide lifts all boats.

August 29, 2015 Pro Life Rally in Petoskey

Driving over here from Harbor Springs, Polly and I noticed just a little bit of fall color in some of the trees. Summer is almost over. Labor Day is coming. Soon enough, here in God’s country, we will be surrounded by the spectacular symphony of nature preparing to renew itself through the long sleep of Winter.

And we wondered how many people would be here at the Knights of Columbus Hall. How many folks would put aside their Saturday chores, their golf clubs, or fishing gear, or their gardening tools to gather in this place and listen to speeches?

It’s a fair question to ask: why are we here? Just what exactly are we doing?

I’ll tell you what we are doing.

We are making a statement. That is what we are doing. We are standing up for America. We are standing up for Michigan. We are standing up for Petoskey and Harbor Springs, and all the good people who pay the taxes and fight the wars and pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

We came here to make a statement. We gathered here, because we believe that abortion is wrong. Because abortion stops a human heart. Because abortion is the deliberate killing of a human being. Because abortion is a death penalty carried out on an innocent human being. Without a trial. Without a jury. Without any due process of law.

We came here because Planned Parenthood of America is the symbol and the trademark of a poisonous public policy that is pushing our nation down the wrong road.

It’s a public policy approved by an arrogant, ego centric Supreme Court. It is a policy funded by a lobby-loving Congress; it is a suicidal public policy that has, in the last 42 years, witnessed, enabled, and has actually celebrated the annihilation of 60 million Americans.

The pro abortion Guttmacher Institute reports an actual count of 57 million, 762 thousand, 169 abortions and they brag about it.

Think about it. Sixty million Americans. That’s more than the combined population of California and New York. A little closer to home, my friends, for those of you who follow Big Ten sports, just think about this: sixty million people is more than the combined populations of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

We’re talking about sixty million human beings denied the basic human right to be born. Sixty million children who will never go to school or go to college, or learn a trade or get married or vote. Sixty million Americans who will never pay taxes or answer the call to defend our homeland from its enemies.

How could this have happened in America? How did we come to this insanity in the land of the free and the home of the brave?  How did a nation dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all of God’s children come to adopt a public policy of genocide?

Hitler killed six million Jews and took the gold from their teeth. Planned Parenthood and their ilk have exterminated ten times as many people and sold their livers and kidneys to the highest bidders.

We have come here today to tell the world that Margaret Sanger was wrong.

Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood. They still honor her as their hero. Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist. She wanted to improve the human race. She thought Americans were having too many babies. Not just too many babies. She thought Americans were having too many of the wrong kind of babies.

Believe me: Margaret Sanger didn’t think that black lives matter. She didn’t think that the poor people should have so many children. People who live in tenements. People who work two jobs to put food on the table. People who didn’t come from the right side of the tracks. The low class. The Underclass. The Uneducated.

Margaret Sanger had a vision of a nation that would be populated by people chosen for their blood line, just like horses and dogs. The good people. The best people. The Upper class.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty obvious that much of  Margaret Sanger’s vision has come to pass in America. We have witnessed the transition of our nation from a democratic republic to a bureaucratic oligarchy run, not by the people, but by a ruling political class who think they are the brightest and the best and who believe that they were born to tell the rest of us what kind of light bulbs to use and how much water to flush down the toilet.

And how many infants should be allowed to see the light of day.

My friends, we have come here today to tell the world that we reject the ideas of Margaret Sanger. We have come here today to protest the destructive activities of Planned Parenthood of America.

We have come here to join with thousands upon thousands of Americans all across this great land to send this message to the Congress of the United States:

Stop funding abortions! Stop paying for genocide! Stop using our tax dollars to eliminate black people or poor people or working people.

Stop spending our money to kill little boys and girls just because their mothers don't love them.

And for the love of God, please, please stop sending our money to Planned Parenthood of America.

If our Representatives in the Congress have any shred of decency, any modicum of respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life, they must not; they cannot be allowed to finance the harvesting of body parts from the unborn. 

Margaret Sanger’s blueprint for racial cleansing written in the 1920’s was echoed by Adolph Hitler in the 1930’s. It has nothing to do with women’s health care; it has everything to do with the politics of elitism and racism and class warfare.

The American people fought a bloody civil war in the nineteenth century to establish the sacred truth that no person can own another human being. The infant entrusted by the laws of nature to the care and protection of a mother’s body is not hers to destroy or to cut up and market by the piece.

She has no right to do it; and she has no right to authorize Planned Parenthood do it. Chopping up little babies to sell their body parts is wrong. It is just plain wrong.

And that brings me to a final point. Supporters of Planned Parenthood love to snicker that everyone who opposes them is just trying to impose religious beliefs on them. They love to identify protesters such as you and I, as Catholics or evangelical Christians.

The fact is that the prohibition of abortion is older than Christianity. It comes from the Hippocratic Oath written in Greek five centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ to define the ethics of the medical profession.

What the Greeks discovered from logic and human experience is still wise public policy for us today. Even if we forget religion; even if we ignore the moral  question of right and wrong; does anyone dispute the fact that America would be bigger and better, and stronger, and more prosperous, more powerful and more secure if we had those 60 million Americans living among us in 2015?

I don’t know about you people. But I am waiting for one of those 20 or 30 candidates who want to be the President of he United States to stand up and say that abortion ranks with slavery as the greatest curse and shame of America, and that its abolition is not only morally right, it is economically sound public policy and common sense. 

The United States of America is our country. We are the people; the ordinary folks; the common every day men and women who make this country good and make our nation the greatest place on the face of the earth.

What we say here today, my friends, won’t be reported in the New York Times. We may not go viral on the Internet or catch the attention of the talking heads on television. But I can tell you this and you can take it to the bank:

We are the people; and in the United States of America, the the people really matter. We all matter. black, white, born and unborn. Old folks matter. Babies matter.

You and I didn’t come here today just to make a little local fuss. We are part of a growing chorus of national protest against the criminal abortion culture which is dehumanizing its victims and snuffing out whole generations of our posterity.

It is already autumn in America. The political landscape is changing. We are already engaged in the long and difficult battle for the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens. And we will not back off. We will not back down. We will not compromise with Margaret Sanger.

In a little while you and I will go home. But we will not forget why we came here. And we will not rest until the scourge of genocide has been torn from the pages of American history.