Establishment Clause

The US Supreme Court ruled today on the issue of the constitutionality of a latin cross on federal property in the Mojave National Preserve in California. The cross was planted there in 1934 as a tribute to the US war dead from the First World War. The ruling was deeply confrontational and decided the issue by a vote of 5 to 4 with the cross remaining on the property. The majority said the cross was "not mearly a reaffirmation of Christian belief". However, the issue has not been completely resolved (as I understand it) by this decision because it only returns the case to lower courts to reconsider. It seems that the issue being debated here was the lower court ruling that an acre of land, that the cross rested on, was to be transferred to private hands. A lower court ruled that was an unconstitutional way to avoid the issue. Thus, this ruling did not directly deal with the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The case was Salazar v. Bruno 2010.

(Source: "Cross gets court's blessing" by David G. Savage of McClatchy Newspapers. In The Record on 4/29/10. New York Times online 4/29/10)

Alabama Claims

During the Civil War the British built for the CSA naval cruisers that were used to attack Union merchant fleets. Some of the most famous cruisers were the Florida, Georgia, Sumter, Shenandoah, Chameleon and Tallahassee. The most well known was the Alabama. The ship was allowed by the British to go to sea and "taken to one of the Azores Islands". This source states the following. "The officers were confederates the crew British".

(Source: History of the United States Volume IV by E. Benjamin Andrews of the University of Nebraska and Brown University. 1913 by Charles Scribner's Sons

History Textbooks

The ACLU comments on the controversy over the re-writing of American History textbooks meant for use in public high schools in this country. They note that the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is doing the re-writing. The changes may include the following. The removal of reference to the "founding fathers" and "separation of church and state". The downplaying of the campaigns to extend right to African Americans, Latinos and women. Less coverage of "traditional historic figures" and more coverage of the role of right-wing ideologues in the country. The source also notes that 45 of 47 state would be efffected by these textbooks changes. The source is the ACLU, so some might consider this information suspect.

(Source; ACLU on line. 4/21/10)

School Lunch Programs

The paper the other day had an article about the danger to national security of overweight children, saying that 27 % of all Americans "are too fat to join the military". The military is now pushing for a change in the school lunch program to address this issue. The article includes the following interesting comment. "During World War II, military leaders had the opposite problem, reporting that many recruits were rejected because of stunted growth and inadequate nutrition. After the war, military leaders pushed congress to establish the national school lunch program so children would grow up healthier...the program was established in 1946". Now the military wants changes made in the "junk food and high-calorie beverages" now in many public schools.

(Source: "Security threats" by Mary Clare Jalonick of The AP. In The Virginian Pilot on 4/21/10).

Civil War

A letter to the editor in The Virginian Pilot states the belief that "many constitutional scholars today affirm their right then and now to secede". The letter writer was referring to the right of Virginia-and I would assume-and other states to leave the union if they so desired. I have not heard this argument before and wonder if there is any truth in it.

(Source: Letters to the editor, "southern fact check" by Douglas M. Allen of Suffolk. The Virginian Pilot on 4/13/10).