Wednesday, August 24, 1933
Daily Nebraskan
Page5
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Continued from Page 4
In a column on the decision, George Will
questioned whether the Establishment Clause of
the First Amendment was designed to apply to the
use of legislative chaplains.
That clause was designed to insure only that
government would be neutral between religions, not
between religion and irreligion," Will wrote.
How does he make this distinction so easily? The
least common denominator between all the
religions amounts to virtually nothing or it
amounts, as some politicians have thought it does,
to cloudy assertions that God is on our side and
heartily approves of America.
An idea which Burger and his supporters seemed
to find particularly powerful was that the founding
fathers allowed legislative prayer. The argument
runs that if the people who wrote the Constitution
approved of a particular practice, then it must be
constitutional; you will hear it often in the
conservative opposition to a wide interpretation of
civil liberties. But it simply means nothing.
The various opinions, letters, sentiments, beliefs,
and cosmology of people called the Founding
Fathers is not the law of the land. The document
under which we order our government is the U.S.
Constitution.
The opinions of the founding fathers on what is
constitutional even if we could confidently
establish them have no more relevance than the
opinions of any of its late interpreters on the subject
of w hat the Constitut ion means.
In the Chambers case last July, six justices
Burger, Bryon White, Harry Blackmun, Lewis
Powell, William Rchnquist, and Sandra Day O'Connor
sided against William Brennan.Thurgood Marshall,
and John Paul Stevens to preserve the nation's
public facade of religiosity at the expense of the
ideals of some of its members. The decision was
relatively predictable, considering the court's
composition.
A conservative Supreme Court of the kind we
have works to retrench on the progress made by an
activist and liberal court like the one presided over
by Earl Warren. Fortunately, the retrenchment can
be difficult, and complete retrenchment can be
impossible.
The Supreme Court would find it very difficult to
once again allow racial segregation to exist in our
schools; and despite the trend of their decision in
the Ernie Chambers suit, the justices probably
cannot put rote prayers back in them.
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LINCOLN GRAND ISLAND OMAHA
Welcome to UN-L
Velcomo to Hovland'o.
There are two of us, one in down
town Lincoln at 1230 O Street
and one at the Gateway
Shopping Center. If you don't
know us yet, we hope you will.
We're Nebraska's Fashion
Center and we've been
dressing Nebraska coeds since
1907. We've selected just a few
fashions to show you. Take
time, between your hectic first
days schedule, to come see us.
We'd love to meet you.
Left: Red jacket, $62. White cotton
turtleneck, $14. Red and white
reindeer sweater, $36. Zip-front cord
pants, $32.
Top right: Corduroy walking shorts,
$25. Button-down collar long-sleeved
shirt, $12.90. Duck applique pullover,
sweater. $38-
Bottom right: Cord blazer with suede
elbow patches, $44. Plaid button
down collar long-sleeved shirt, $25.
Knit cardigan vest, $28. Zip-front
washable, worsted, blend pants, $34-
Juniors, first floor
Downtown & Gateway
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Downtown, Mon-Fri 10-5:30, Thurs til 8, Sat til 5
Gateway, Mon-Fri 10-9, Sat til 5:30, Sun 1-5