American Minute
with
Bill Federer
"The power to tax is the power to destroy," wrote John Marshall, 4th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who was born SEPTEMBER 24, 1755.
No one had a greater impact on Constitutional Law than John Marshall.
Sworn in February 4, 1801, Marshall served 34 years and helped write over 1,000 decisions, including supporting the Cherokee Indian nation to stay in Georgia.
During the Revolution, John Marshall fought under Washington and endured the freezing winter at Valley Forge.
The Liberty Bell, according to tradition, cracked tolling at Marshall's funeral, July 8, 1835.
Chief Justice John Marshall wrote to Jasper Adams, May 9, 1833:
"The American population is entirely Christian, and with us Christianity and Religion are identified. It would be strange indeed, if with such a people, our institutions did not presuppose Christianity and did not often refer to it and exhibit relations with it."
A hundred years after John Marshall's death, the Supreme Court Building was completed in 1935.
Herman A. MacNeil's marble relief above the east portico prominently features Moses in the center with two stone tablets.
Adolph A. Weinman's marble frieze on the south wall includes Moses holding Hebrew tablets.
Every Supreme Court session opens with the invocation:
"God save the United States and this Honorable Court."
American Minute
with Bill Federer
He was one of six founding fathers to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
President Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court.
Born in Scotland, he was an active delegate at the Constitutional Convention, speaking 168 times.
His name was James Wilson and he died AUGUST 21, 1798.
The first law professor of the University of Pennsylvania, James Wilson wrote in his Lectures on Law, 1789-91:
"Law...communicated to us by reason and conscience...has been called natural; as promulgated by the Holy Scriptures, it has been called revealed...
But it should always be remembered, that this law, natural or revealed...flows from the same divine source; it is the law of God."
James Wilson continued:
"Human law must rest its authority, ultimately, upon the authority of that law, which is divine."
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania records in Updegraph v. Commonwealth, 1824:
"The late Judge James Wilson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, Professor of Law in the College in Philadelphia...for our present form of government we are greatly indebted to his exertions...
In his Course of Lectures (3d Vol. of his Works, 122), he states that...'Christianity is part of the common-law.'"
The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first definitive pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.
Answering a 127-year old constitutional question, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, at least in one’s home. The Court, splitting 5-4, struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession.
Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion for the majority stressed that the Court was not casting doubt on long-standing bans on gun possession by felons or the mentally retarded, or laws barring guns from schools or government buildings, or laws putting conditions on gun sales.
In District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), the Court nullified two provisions of the city of Washington’s strict 1976 gun control law: a flat ban on possessing a gun in one’s home, and a requirement that any gun — except one kept at a business — must be unloaded and disassembled or have a trigger lock in place. The Court said it was not passing on a part of the law requiring that guns be licensed.
American Minute
with Bill Federer
The first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court was the president of the American Bible Society.
Who was he? John Jay, who died MAY 17, 1829.
A member of the Continental Congress, even serving as its president, John Jay signed the Treaty of Paris with Franklin and Adams, ending the Revolutionary War.
Jay helped ratify the Constitution by writing the Federalist Papers with Madison and Hamilton.
In 1777, John Jay told an Ulster County Grand Jury:
"The Americans are the first people whom Heaven has favoured with an opportunity of...choosing the forms of government under which they should live."
To the New York Convention, December 23, 1776, John Jay said:
"When you have done all things, then rely upon the good Providence of Almighty God for success, in full confidence that without his blessings, all our efforts will inevitably fail."
Jay continued:
"The Holy Gospels are yet to be preached to these western regions, and we have the highest reason to believe that the Almighty will not suffer slavery and the gospel to go hand in hand. It cannot, it will not be."
On May 17, 1829, as he was dying, John Jay was asked if he had any last words for his children. He replied: "They have the Book."
Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in cases considering the constitutionality of an Indiana statute requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls (Crawford v. Marion County Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita). A decision in the case will be rendered later this year.
American Minute
