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Personal Injury Lawyers - Legal Case Summary
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Legal Case for and Against Teaching Intelligent Design
Norman Perlberger, Esquire*
I. G-D WRITTEN INTO GOVERNMENT
The First Charter of Virginia (granted by King James I, on April 10, 1606)
We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty . . . Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God the Giver of all Goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.
The Mayflower Compact (1620)
Having undertaken, for the glory of God, . . . and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together..
Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men …
Founding Fathers
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. -John Adams, October 11, 1798
He who made all men made the truths necessary to happiness obvious to all... Our forefathers opened the Bible to all. Samuel Adams, [“American Independence,” August 1, 1776. Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia]
The Law given from Sinai [The Ten Commandments] was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code. John Quincy Adams, Letters to his son, p. 61
God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel" Benjamin Franklin -- Constitutional Convention of 1787
In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.... do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? Benjamin Franklin, [Constitutional Convention, Thursday June 28, 1787]
For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests." Alexander Hamilton, [1787 after the Constitutional Convention]
In circumstances as dark as these, it becomes us, as Men to reflect whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, ...at the same time all confidence must be withheld from the means we use; and reposed only on that God rules in the armies of Heaven, and without His whole blessing, the best human counsels are but foolishness.. . Resolved; .Thursday the 11th of May....to humble themselves before God under the heavy judgments felt and feared, to confess the sins that have deserved them, to implore the Forgiveness of all our transgressions, and a spirit of repentance and reformation ...and a Blessing on the ... Union of the American Colonies in Defense of their Rights [for which hitherto we desire to thank Almighty God]. . . John Hancock, “A Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, with a total abstinence from labor and recreation. Proclamation on April 15, 1775”
God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever." Thomas Jefferson, [Excerpts are inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial from Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, 1781.]
We've staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart. We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We've staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity...to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." James Madison, [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison proposed the plan to divide the central government into three branches. He discovered this model of government from the Perfect Governor, as he read Isaiah 33:22; "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us.”
It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author. The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal. Thomas Paine, “The Existence of God--1810 “
The duties of men are summarily comprised in the Ten Commandments, consisting of two tables; one comprehending the duties which we owe immediately to God-the other, the duties we owe to our fellow men. Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God [Exodus 18:21] . If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted. If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. Noah Webster, The 'History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie and Peck, 1832), pp. 336-337, 49]
The name of America, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same faith in one God . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle ... It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible. George Washington. Farewell Address, September 17, 1796.
U.S. Constitution
At the very end of the Constitution, appears the following:
Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty Seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names.
The Gettysburg Address
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. . . that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 19, 1863
S. 2690, 107th Congress, October 8, 2002.
Resolved, that the bill from the Senate (S. 2690) entitled 'An Act to reaffirm the reference to one Nation under God in the Pledge of Allegiance', do pass with the following AMENDMENT:
Section 1. Findings,
(1) On November 11, 1620, prior to embarking for the shores of America, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact that declared: 'Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia'.
(2) On July 4, 1776, America's Founding Fathers, after appealing to the 'Laws of Nature, and of Nature's God' to justify their separation from Great Britain, then declared: 'We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness'.
(3) In 1781, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and later the Nation's third President, in his work titled 'Notes on the State of Virginia' wrote: 'God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the Liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God. That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.’
(4) On May 14, 1787, George Washington, as President of the Constitutional Convention, rose to admonish and exhort the delegates and declared: 'If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God!’
(5) On July 21, 1789, on the same day that it approved the Establishment Clause concerning religion, the First Congress of the United States also passed the Northwest Ordinance, providing for a territorial government for lands northwest of the Ohio River, which declared: 'Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.'.
(6) On September 25, 1789, the First Congress unanimously approved a resolution calling on President George Washington to proclaim a National Day of Thanksgiving for the people of the United States by declaring, 'a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a constitution of government for their safety and happiness’.
(7) On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address on the site of the battle and declared: 'It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'.
(8) On June 15, 1954, Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed into law a statute that was clearly consistent with the text and intent of the Constitution of the United States, that amended the Pledge of Allegiance to read: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.';
(9) On July 20, 1956, Congress proclaimed that the national motto of the United States is 'In God We Trust’, and that motto is inscribed above the main door of the Senate, behind the Chair of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and on the currency of the United States.
(10) On June 17, 1963, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), in which compulsory school prayer was held unconstitutional, Justices Goldberg and Harlan, concurring in the decision, stated: 'But untutored devotion to the concept of neutrality can lead to invocation or approval of results which partake not simply of that noninterference and noninvolvement with the religious which the Constitution commands, but of a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular and a passive, or even active, hostility to the religious. Such results are not only not compelled by the Constitution, but, it seems to me, are prohibited by it. Neither government nor this Court can or should ignore the significance of the fact that a vast portion of our people believe in and worship God and that many of our legal, political, and personal values derive historically from religious teachings. Government must inevitably take cognizance of the existence of religion and, indeed, under certain circumstances the First Amendment may require that it do so.’
(11) On March 5, 1984, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Lynch v. Donelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), in which a city government's display of a nativity scene was held to be constitutional, Chief Justice Burger, writing for the Court, stated: 'There is an unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life from at least 1789 . . . [E]xamples of reference to our religious heritage are found in the statutorily prescribed national motto 'In God We Trust' (36 U.S.C. 186), which Congress and the President mandated for our currency, see (31 U.S.C. 5112(d)(1) (1982 ed.)), and in the language 'One Nation under God', as part of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. That pledge is recited by many thousands of public school children--and adults – every year . . . Art galleries supported by public revenues display religious paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries, predominantly inspired by one religious faith. The National Gallery in Washington, maintained with Government support, for example, has long exhibited masterpieces with religious messages, notably the Last Supper, and paintings depicting the Birth of Christ, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, among many others with explicit Christian themes and messages. The very chamber in which oral arguments on this case were heard is decorated with a notable and permanent--not seasonal-symbol of religion: Moses with the Ten Commandments. Congress has long provided chapels in the Capitol for religious worship and meditation.’
(12) On June 4, 1985, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S.38 (1985), in which a mandatory moment of silence to be used for meditation or voluntary prayer was held unconstitutional, Justice O’Connor, concurring in the judgment and addressing the contention that the Court's holding would render the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because Congress amended it in 1954 to add the words 'under God,' stated 'In my view, the words 'under God' in the Pledge, as codified at (36 U.S.C. 172 serve as an acknowledgement of religion with ‘the legitimate secular purposes of solemnizing public occasions, [and] expressing confidence in the future.’
(13) The erroneous rationale of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Newdow would lead to the absurd result that the Constitution's use of the express religious reference 'Year of our Lord' in Article VII violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, and that, therefore, a school district's policy and practice of teacher-led voluntary recitations of the Constitution itself would be unconstitutional.
Sec. 2. One Nation Under God.
(a) REAFFIRMATION-Section 4 of title 4, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
‘Sec. 4. Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery
'The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’, should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute.’
(b) CODIFICATION-In codifying this subsection, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel shall show in the historical and statutory notes that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has appeared in the Pledge for decades.
Sec. 3. Reaffirming That God Remains In Our Motto.
(a) REAFFIRMATION-Section 302 of title 36, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
‘Sec. 302. National motto
‘In God we trust' is the national motto.'.
(b) CODIFICATION-In codifying this subsection, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel shall make no change in section 302, title 36, United States Code, but shall show in the historical and statutory notes that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has appeared in the Motto for decades. Attest: Clerk
Oath of Presidency
The President of the United States oath of office was established in the United States Constitution, Article II, and is mandatory before taking office or for a re-elected President before beginning a new term. The oath is typically administered by the Chief Justice or sometimes by another federal judge. By custom the incoming President raises his right hand and holds the other on a Bible while he says the oath. The wording is prescribed by the Constitution (article II, section 1), as follows:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the of Office of President of the United States, and to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United Stares.
George Washington added the words "so help me God" at the end of the oath as is customary when taking any oath in the United States. He also kissed the Bible afterwards, as some later Presidents did, but modem Presidents have not. All presidents who have sworn the oath used a Bible and said the words Washington added, but neither is required by law.
* Norman Perlberger, Esquire is Managing Partner of Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis, LLP, which practice concentrates in serious personal injury and other major civil litigation. His background as a managing partner of Blank Rome involved him in major litigation in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Voted one of Pennsylvania's Super Lawyers and one of the Best Lawyers in America, Norman has authored several legal treatises, many articles and taught both as a professor at Temple Law School and for numerous continuing legal education seminars.
