Pledge Protection Act of 2004

PLEDGE PROTECTION ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - September 23, 2004)

(BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT)

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, if anyone had told me that coming to the Congress of the United States of America, representing my district, I would have to be on the floor of Congress defending the constitutional rights of the Supreme Court to make constitutional rulings, I would have told them they are crazy. This is absolutely outrageous. The gentleman just asked when do we get so angry that we agree to strip the Court of its constitutional responsibility.

Mr. Chairman, I have disagreed with any number of decisions of the Supreme Court. I disagree with the fact that the Dred Scott decision said separate was all right, separate but equal. And in the last 2002 election, I disagreed with the fact that the Supreme Court gave the Presidency to George W. Bush. But my colleagues did not see me and others coming in here and talking about stripping them of their ability to make constitutional decisions.

The court-stripping proposed in this bill would destroy the Supreme Court's historical function as the interpreter and ultimate arbiter of what the Constitution requires. This misguided legislation to strip the Supreme Court of its appellate jurisdiction also would have seriously damaging implications for the relationships among our three branches of government. This bill and other court-stripping bills proposed by the Republicans would be laughable if the results of enacting this bill were not so tragic and not so threatening to the constitutional rights of our people and the independence of the Federal judiciary.

If H.R. 2028 were passed into law, it would constitute the first and only time Congress has enacted legislation totally eliminating any Federal court from considering the constitutionality of Federal legislation, in this case the Pledge of Allegiance.