Equal Protection Under The Law – used to be

Obama “change” gains another sinister perspective – Equal Protection Under the Law, of the 14th Amendment, is not good enough for Obama and AG Eric Holder (who regards America as “a nation of cowards.”) The US Constitution, described by Obama as having “a vast blind spot,” takes another chop-job.

Wikipedia Equal Protection Clause

Background

The words inscribed above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court are: “Equal justice under law.”The Fourteenth Amendment was enacted in 1868, shortly after the Union victory in the American Civil War. After the Thirteenth Amendment, which was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1865, had abolished slavery, many ex-Confederate states adopted Black Codes following the war.

These laws severely restricted the power of blacks to hold property and form legally enforceable contracts. They also created harsher criminal penalties for blacks than for whites.[3]

In response to the Black Codes, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which provided that all those born in the United States were citizens of the United States (this provision was meant to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford), and required that “citizens of every race and color … [have] full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens.”[4] Doubts about whether Congress could legitimately enact such a law under the then-existing Constitution led Congress to begin to draft and debate what would become the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The effort was led by the Radical Republicans of both houses of Congress, including John Bingham, Charles Sumner, and Thaddeus Stevens. The most important among these, however, was Bingham, a Congressman from Ohio, who drafted the language of the Equal Protection Clause.

The Southern states were opposed to the Civil Rights Act, but in 1865 Congress, exercising its power under Article I, section 5, clause 1 of the Constitution, to “be the Judge of the … Qualifications of its own Members,” had excluded Southerners from Congress, declaring that their states, having rebelled against the Union, could therefore not elect members to Congress. It was this fact—the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted by a “rump” Congress—that allowed the equal protection clause, which white Southerners almost uniformly hated, to be passed by Congress and proposed to the states. Its ratification by the former Confederate states was made a condition of their reacceptance into the Union.[5]

By its terms, the clause restrains only state governments. However, the Fifth Amendment’s due process guarantee, beginning with Bolling v. Sharpe (1954), has been interpreted as imposing the same restrictions on the federal government.

Equal Protection is not progressive enough for Holder. Gays are to be protected, ministers not.

HATE BILL/HOLDER PROTEST SWAMPS SENATE!
By Rev. Ted Pike
3 July 09

Last Tuesday, I discovered Sen. Patrick Leahy was stacking the hate bill Judiciary hearing with pro-hate bill witnesses. I sent out an emergency alert, and all day Wednesday the Senate was “inundated” with protest calls (See, Hate Bill Protest Overwhelms Senate! Yet Homosexuals Calling, Too!).

Yet by Friday, like a flash flood, most calls ceased. One Senate office said NPN’s call was the only one against the hate bill all day. But that was before our new 10-minute video, “Holder Admits: No Equality under Hate Bill” was released Monday. Since then, calling has powerfully resurged.

Last night I sent an especially explosive e-alert, “Duke University Pedophile Would Benefit from Hate Bill.” I described how Duke University administrator Frank Lombard, a homosexual, adopted a black child and sexually assaulted him. He then pimped him for sex with other homosexuals. This is appalling enough. Then I explained how Attorney General Eric Holder testified in Senate Judiciary last week that the federal hate bill would give preferential service and protection to all homosexuals, including this monster. While providing special status to Lombard, it would deprive a policeman who apprehended him of such rights.

This was too much for many hundreds of readers. They stormed Senate offices today with protest. Phone lines were again jammed with what staffers described as “tons of calls.” This is happening when Congress is supposed to be quieting down—on the Fourth of July recess!

Others Blogging: Moonbattery Some Animals Are Less Equal Than Others

WorldNetDaily Holder: ‘Gays’ protected, ministers not

VDARE BLOG Featured: Holder’s chilling blunders on Hate Crime Bill