NEWS STORY: Legislator: Religious expression constitutional amendment dead

c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., a key Republican legislator on constitutional issues, says the proposed constitutional amendment aimed at expanding the public sphere of religious expression will not garner enough support to pass the House and is dead for this session of Congress. The Religious Freedom Amendment, proposed by […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., a key Republican legislator on constitutional issues, says the proposed constitutional amendment aimed at expanding the public sphere of religious expression will not garner enough support to pass the House and is dead for this session of Congress.

The Religious Freedom Amendment, proposed by Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., would permit prayer in public schools and emphasize the right to express religious beliefs and traditions on other public property.


It also would acknowledge God in the Constitution for the first time.

It has been a top legislative priority for the Christian Coalition and other conservative religious groups.

But Canady, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, said he doesn’t believe it will get the necessary two-thirds vote to continue down the long legislative and ratification process designed to enact constitutional amendments.”He said it is very difficult to get two-thirds majority for any constitutional amendment and anything is possible but he believes the odds … are against it passing,”said Michelle Morgan, Canady’s press secretary.

But Morgan said Canady is working with Istook to move the bill forward.”He’s doing his part, which is to have it … brought up at the subcommittee level,”she said.

The subcommittee is likely to schedule a markup of the proposed amendment in the next couple of weeks. It had been scheduled for Thursday (Oct. 23) but was delayed at the request of Jewish groups because that day is Simchat Torah, a holiday marking the start of a new cycle of Torah readings in Jewish worship services.

Kristy Khachigian, Istook’s press secretary, said Istook remains optimistic about the amendment’s prospects because it is headed toward markup, a session in which the language of a bill is developed and modified.”This is the first markup of any school prayer amendment in modern history, definitely since all the Supreme Court cases starting in the 1960s, which incrementally stripped away American religious freedom rights,”said Khachigian.”This is the first House subcommittee markup.” In addition, Khachigian said, there are about 146 co-sponsors and”we’ve got commitment from members who don’t want to sign on but have expressed their willingness to vote for the Religious Freedom Amendment,”she said.

But even some supporters agree with Canady that the votes are not there.”You need 290 in the House and I don’t think those votes are there nor does anyone else,”said Forest Montgomery, general counsel of the National Association of Evangelicals, which is supporting Istook’s proposal.”There simply aren’t enough conservative votes to muster the two-thirds. Canady can count and he doesn’t see the votes there.” But Montgomery said principles, as well as votes, are at stake.”There are certain principles that you pursue which you think are right and you pursue them over time,”he said.”We support the Istook amendment but support and optimism in terms of political reality are two different things.” Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, agreed that supporters expect a long battle, even though he hopes Canady is wrong.”We certainly are going to do what we can to maximize the vote and hopefully we will get a two-thirds vote,”said Land.”If we don’t, then we will access where we are and make certain that all Southern Baptists that we can reach understand how their particular congressman voted on this particular bill.” Mark Pelavin, co-chairman of the legislative task force of the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty, views the efforts to continue to try to pass the measure as a political device.”I think the people are starting to understand that, of course, kids are allowed to pray in the public schools,”Pelavin said.”Individual students bow their heads, say grace pray before a test. The only people who are telling kids that they can’t do that are the supporters of the bill.” Pelavin said Canady is now openly saying what his group, which opposes the measure, has been saying for months.”One of the things that’s been clear all along is that they don’t have the votes to pass a constitutional amendment,”he said.”We’ve done our homework. We’ve been working the issue. We know where the votes are and now Congressman Canady seems to know where the votes are as well.”

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