[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 193 (Thursday, December 15, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H8972-H8973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                           BILL OF RIGHTS DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today is the 220th anniversary of the 
passage of the Bill of Rights. It was declared Bill of Rights Day by 
Franklin Roosevelt back in the forties and it's an anniversary that's 
too often overlooked.
  Ken Paulsen, the President of the First Amendment Center in 
Nashville, Tennessee, at Vanderbilt University's campus and the 
American Society of News Editors, recently wrote that the Bill of 
Rights is ``a document that guarantees core personal liberties, 
including freedom of expression and faith, a fair judicial process, the 
right to bear arms, and protection against unreasonable government 
seizures . . . yet almost no one takes time to reflect on the 
importance of December 15th and the anniversary of these fundamental 
freedoms,'' and particularly what they really are. That's why I wanted 
to come to the well today and spend a few minutes reflecting on this 
amazing document and the freedoms that we derive from it.
  It's easy to take our Bill of Rights for granted. Of course we have 
the right to speak our minds. We don't live in fear that the police 
will break down our doors without exigent circumstances or a warrant. 
It would be ridiculous to imagine a church of America to which we all 
must belong and to which we must worship according to its dictates; but 
you only need to look across the globe to the Arab Spring and elsewhere 
to see millions of people protesting and risking their lives just to 
have a taste of the freedoms we take for granted, and you realize how 
fortunate we are.
  When the Constitution was ratified, there were very few individual 
rights guaranteed. It was mostly about setting up the structure of 
government. But Thomas Jefferson and others argued that the Bill of 
Rights was necessary to protect individuals from their government. 
Think about how wise the Founders were to ensure that the very 
government they were establishing would not encroach on certain 
fundamental liberties of the people. As Jefferson wrote in letter to 
James Madison, ``a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to 
against every government on Earth.''
  Since Jefferson was not part of that Constitutional Convention, James 
Madison took up the task of drafting a bill of rights. After much 
debate and compromise, 10 amendments were approved and added to the 
Constitution. Right at the very beginning, we find the bedrock of the 
Bill of Rights, the great five freedoms of the First Amendment: 
religion, freedom of speech, press, to peacefully assemble, and 
petition of government. Those are the most basic freedoms we have, but 
they're not always without controversy.
  From the so-called ``War on Christmas'' to government-led prayer in 
school, we continue to debate what the free exercise of religion and 
the establishment clause meant. And that is not new.
  Thomas Jefferson found himself deep in the war over religious liberty 
as well. In response to attacks that he was insufficiently religious, 
he wrote in a letter to Benjamin Rush, ``For I have sworn upon the 
altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the 
mind of man.'' He went on to explain in his famous letter to the 
Danbury Baptists that there is ``a wall of separation between church 
and State'' since ``religion is a matter which lies solely between man 
and his God.''
  But that does not put the issue to rest. We continue to wrestle with 
these issues today. But the Bill of Rights, particularly the First 
Amendment, is what enables us to work our differences out peacefully 
through the democratic process.
  We have the right to speak our mind without fear that the government 
will stifle dissent. We have the ability to hold our government 
accountable with a vibrant free press because an informed citizenry is 
what keeps democracy strong. And we have the right to protest when 
we're dissatisfied with our government.
  Whether it's actions by the Tea Party or the Occupy movements, the 
people are exercising their right to assemble and petition their 
government for redress of grievances. As elected officials, it's up to 
us to consider their causes while also protecting their rights.
  I remember back in 1993 when I was a Tennessee State senator, in one 
week I stood on the legislative plaza and I defended the Second 
Amendment urging the passage of Tennessee's right to carry bill, and 
the next week I was on the plaza supporting a woman's right to choose, 
which comes through the

[[Page H8973]]

Ninth Amendment. No two people of either of those rallies were the 
same; they were indeed very different. But what they were advocating 
was both in the Bill of Rights, and both supported such and the Bill of 
Rights supported them.
  I have devoted much of my career to fighting for fairness in our 
criminal justice system. It's the Bill of Rights that builds 
fundamental fairness into that system, particularly the Fifth, Sixth, 
and Eighth Amendments. It guarantees that we'll have a reasonable bail, 
a fair chance to prove our innocence, have a lawyer, be able to 
question witnesses, and, if convicted, we won't be subject to torture 
or other cruel and unusual punishments.
  The Bill of Rights embodies the core values of this Nation: freedom, 
fairness, justice, and equality.
  We need to remember, though, that we have not always upheld those 
values. For example, the Fifth Amendment guarantees that we won't be 
deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. But 
many of the same people who drafted the Bill of Rights and the 
Constitution owned slaves, treated them as property, and gave them no 
rights whatsoever. It took almost 100 years to abolish slavery and 
almost another 100 years to get beyond the Jim Crow laws that continued 
such.
  We must honor the Bill of Rights and respect it for what it has done 
and recognize it today.
  I thank Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and others who gave us the 
Bill of Rights; and I swore upon the altar of God, eternal hostility 
toward all forms of tyranny over the mind of man.
  We must always strive toward that ``more perfect union'' discussed in 
the preamble of the Constitution.
  That's why we should be thankful for the organizations that fight 
each day to defend the Bill of Rights and our freedoms.
  You may not always agree with them, but groups like the ACLU, People 
for the American Way, and the Freedom Forum, are on the front lines 
defending our rights, even when it means taking unpopular positions.
  Every day, we're touched by the Bill of Rights, but too often we fail 
to recognize its importance.
  I hope my colleagues, and all Americans, will take time today to 
think about the Bill of Rights and how lucky we are to live in a 
country that guarantees us the liberty and freedoms enshrined in that 
document.

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