[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 108 (Thursday, August 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S7858]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROTECT THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND THE 
                             NATIONAL MOTTO

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, on June 27, the Senate voted 99 to 0 to pass 
S. 2690 to reaffirm the reference to ``One Nation under God'' in the 
Pledge of Allegiance and the National Motto ``In God We Trust.'' Today, 
to be absolutely sure that the Nation's courts abide by the original 
intent of our Founding Fathers, I am proposing an amendment to the 
Constitution of the Untied States that would make it clear that the 
establishment clause in the first amendment was never meant to be 
construed in a manner that would prevent schools from leading our 
children in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance simply because it 
contains the words ``under God.''
  The Senate and the House of Representatives--and the vast majority of 
the American people--have all expressed their outrage at the decision 
by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 26 that reciting the 
Pledge of Allegiance in school is unconstitutional because it includes 
the phrase ``under God.'' People are still understandably stunned and 
find it not only unbelievable, but indefensible.
  The fact that two Federal circuit judges were capable of making such 
an absurd decision points up, once again, how vitally important these 
Federal judicial appointments are in guiding not only the Nation's 
present, but its future as well. Judges are important at every level, 
but particularly at the appellate court--the circuit court--level.
  And this may not be the end of such shocking decisions. There have 
been reports that similar court challenges will be made to the use of 
the National Motto ``In God We Trust'' on our currency and to 
references to God in our official oaths of office. It is simply 
incomprehensible that so many Federal judges are so quick to find that 
the Constitution protects the right of child pornographers to debase 
society while at the same time requiring the removal of every last 
vestige of God from the public forum.
  It is easy for us all to say the Pledge of Allegiance with gusto and 
mean it, but we need to look behind this latest decision--and examine 
how and why it came about. And America's voters need to understand that 
these Federal judgeships, and who fills them, do make a difference in 
the kind of society that not only will we live in, but our children's 
children will live in as well.

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