The Common Law and The 10
by Jay Soto

We are not wrong when we say that today we believe it unlawful to display the moral guidelines of our past in public buildings. Let us have open debates about whether its' mere display is the act of this government creating a law "respecting an establishment of religion". After all, we were not wrong when we rebelled against the tyranny of a King that imposed his taxes on a people without representation in his royal courts or his parliament, and our founding Fathers established this government by the people, for the people and created our Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Where is the word "separate?" Where are the words 'church' or 'state' "They are not there. Never have been. Never intended to be! The Congressional Records during the four-month period of 1789 when the amendment was being framed in Congress indicates their intent was to prohibit a single denomination in exclusion of all others, whether it was Anglican or some other.

The history of law is the history of civilization, and law binds human society to itself. Some of our ancestors had no idea of "redress" beyond vengeance, or of "justice" beyond individual reprisal. Law, like everything we do and say, has been and is recorded as an inheritance from the past, which we have changed, and will alter in order to live in the present, and bequeath its successes to future generations.

The exchange of different beliefs we, as a society, are having with one another are the propellants that will be used to launch us into our collective future. That we are discussing, and formulating opinions of the Constitutional legality of various groups having their rights safeguarded is the real evidence that the Constitution is a living work in progress. Society is in the process of change. Some of its citizens are prepared for societal changes, while others are not. Most apply what they believe to be their Judeo-Christian beliefs into their arguments against what they perceive to be the moral decline of this society. Some have chosen to take what is considered to be the higher ground by not participating in meaningless exchanges. All in all, these are exciting times for the application of the Constitution.

For lack of a better term in describing our great society, America is destined to repeat history and has experienced its rise to greatness in a process of violent change. This country will go through periodic violent change in order to continue this great experiment in democratic government. Remember the Revolution; the birth of this great Nation, The Civil War; that made "we the people"- all the people, The Alamo; which helped grow this Nation by increasing our boarders, all of the Wars and conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries; that secured our way of life.

Try to remember most recently, the terrorist attacks on New York that took out the Twin Towers, and the attack on the Pentagon, those who died in the Airliners, and those on the ground who were killed. They didn't realize that they were the targets of an ancient application of the law in the form of vengeance. Our society is well equipped to deal with any form of attack.

In the mean time, questioning the legality to display the moral guidelines of a previous generation and considering it a violation of Constitutional law is our right as citizens within this free democratic society. Open exchanges of religious and secular beliefs should be exercised and encouraged as an example of a previous generation, to this generation, and on to the next. The democratic processes that the Constitution guarantees must be placed into action in order to test its strength and weakness as an instrument of democratic rule.

We have seen what happens when one group uses government to force its beliefs on all the citizens of this nation. The result is one group telling another group what they should believe and how they should behave. The modern day religious zealots that gathered in Montgomery Alabama did not think of themselves as tyrants, and it is not suggested that they had any evil intent. They firmly believe this nation was founded as a "Christian nation", and that symbols of Judeo-Christian principles should be on display in public places. They even quote Bible Scripture to show where God's place is in our nation. This is their right under our Constitution, a First Amendment right. But, the same Constitution that gives them the right to hold to their religious beliefs forbids them from using the government to force others to accept or support those beliefs.

Religious beliefs should be deeply held. Wars have been fought over whose religion is the "ONE". Wars are fueled by religious beliefs, with the goal to gain the power to force everyone to follow the winner's belief. Without a Constitution and the First Amendment, struggles like the one in Montgomery could have easily become a bloody encounter, with Christians and non-Christians battling over the display of some good words. The United States has avoided such religious conflicts because of our founding Fathers' wisdom. The monument to the Ten Commandments was removed from the Alabama judicial building in the middle of the night, as if we were dumping a shipment of tea into Boston Harbor. We didn't remove the monument to somehow persecute Christians, but to protect rights, the rights of all Americans to live according to their conscience.

Consider the 18th Amendment, Prohibition, which was placed into Constitutional law in 1913. It made it unlawful to distill and distribute intoxicating beverages. It was supported by a group of well meaning citizens. Yet, it was then necessary to create the 21st Amendment, the Repeal of Prohibition in 1933. After 20 years of Prohibition it was found that the 18th Amendment had created a society that was continually in the process of breaking the law of the land because of its failure to control the human tendencies of the citizens.

The "Common Law" is being transformed again into something that the present society can live with. As a society, are we wrong to attempt change? Historically this form of government has successfully changed the Law even when confronted by its own peoples' behaviors, good or bad, and when it has identified law, as "for the common good" of we the people. Judges who legislate instead of adjudicate do it without being responsible to a single voter for their actions. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence was a young physician from Pennsylvania named Benjamin Rush.

When he was elected to that First Continental Congress, his close friend Benjamin Franklin told him 'We need you. "We have a great task before us, assigned to us by Providence.' Today, over 200 years later there are other great tasks before us assigned to us by Providence. Our Founding Fathers did not shirk their duty and we can not.

Ancient societies experienced the rise and fall of their governments and out of their ashes a greater, more powerful society has eventually been created to insure that civilization endures. We are the current laboratory of the greatest experiment civilization has ever attempted. The formula we are using as the fuel to take us into the future is this democratic government under the guidelines of the greatest instrument of law, civilization has ever written: The Constitution of the United States.

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Copyright ©2004 Jay Soto