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Editor, Times Dispatch: I am not sure to what specific issue Jason Edelman is referring in his letter First Amendment Limits Congress, Not Us, but he is wrong on several points. First, he is correct that the First Amendment and indeed the entire Bill of Rights initially only placed limits on the national government. However, since 1925 the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, to apply most of these rights to the states in a process that came to be known as selective incorporation. The freedoms of expression found in the First Amendment were among the first to be applied. Second, while he is correct that, whether state or national, the Bill of Rights places limits on governments, not individuals, the Court often has to make determinations as to who wins when two rights or freedoms conflict. Mr. Edelman seems to have a particular issue in mind here, and while it doesn’t really fit, I suspect it is the recent controversy over the Pledge of Allegiance. Regarding that, his third mistake is that he misquotes the beginning of the First Amendment. It reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..." It seems to me Congress did exactly that in 1954 when it added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. How can the phrase "one nation under God," written by the Congress of the United States and recited daily by public employees as a part of their jobs, in many cases mandated by the state for the expressed purpose of influencing young minds, be anything but a government establishment of religion? At the very least it is a government endorsement of not only a belief in God but a particular kind of God, one who takes sides among nations. Perhaps this is not the issue Mr. Edelman had in mind, but he is still wrong on the central point that the First Amendment only limits Congress. It also limits the state governments. Bob Alley This was the letter I sent. Click here to see how it actually appeared in the Richmond Times Dispatch. | |||||||
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