{"id":7117,"date":"2006-04-12T10:47:19","date_gmt":"2006-04-12T14:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7117"},"modified":"2006-04-12T10:47:19","modified_gmt":"2006-04-12T14:47:19","slug":"a-constitutional-amendment-to-establish-a-right-that-already-exists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-constitutional-amendment-to-establish-a-right-that-already-exists\/","title":{"rendered":"A constitutional amendment to establish a right that already exists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Usually, advocates of a certain policy push for a [tag]constitutional amendment[\/tag] when they disagree with existing law and want to establish a right that does not already exist. Some conservatives in [tag]Missouri[\/tag] seem to have things <a href=\"http:\/\/www.family.org\/cforum\/briefs\/a0040147.cfm\">backwards<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Missouri House of Representatives has voted to place on November&#8217;s ballot a proposed constitutional [tag]amendment[\/tag] that would protect students&#8217; right to [tag]pray[\/tag] in public [tag]schools[\/tag], The Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n<p>While the language in the proposed amendment would prohibit the establishment of an official religion as well as state-composed or -coerced prayer, it gives students the right to freely express their religious beliefs without interference, as long as &#8220;expression is private and voluntary and in a manner that is not disruptive nor in violation of other policies, rules or standards.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, the proposed amendment to the state constitution would change&#8230;nothing. Students in public schools <a href=\"http:\/\/www.au.org\/site\/PageServer?pagename=resources_brochure_schoolprayer\">already have these rights<\/a>. In fact, students can pray voluntarily in class, say grace before meals, read religious texts during their free time, form after-school Bible clubs, wear religious clothing, and invite other students to worship services. All of this is already legal.<\/p>\n<p>So, why is the amendment necessary?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rod Jetton, speaker of the House, said the law is necessary to educate the public about students&#8217; rights.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Missouri is going to change its constitution to protect a right that already exists to &#8220;educate the public&#8221;? Wouldn&#8217;t it be easier and less expensive to just publish a brochure or something?<\/p>\n<p>The measure has already passed the state House. If it&#8217;s approved by the state Senate, it will be on the ballot in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Usually, advocates of a certain policy push for a [tag]constitutional amendment[\/tag] when they disagree with existing law and want to establish a right that does not already exist. Some conservatives in [tag]Missouri[\/tag] seem to have things backwards. The Missouri House of Representatives has voted to place on November&#8217;s ballot a proposed constitutional [tag]amendment[\/tag] that would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}