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"Our nation is not founded on a religion. It's not based on a common culture, even, or heritage. ... We're a creedal nation," Justice Neil Gorsuch tells

@nickgillespie

on The Reason Interview podcast.

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly that this great nation was founded — not by religionists — but by Christians . . . on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” — Patrick Henry

"Do not let anyone claim to be a true American who attempts to remove religion from politics.” —

George Washington

"May every citizen in the army and in the country have a proper sense of Deity upon his mind and an impression of the declaration recorded in the Bible, ‘Him that honoreth Me, I will honor, but he that despiseth Me shall be lightly esteemed'” (I Samuel 2:20). — Samuel Adams

"We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” — John Adams

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the Gift of God. That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” — Thomas Jefferson

"he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be aid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.” — Benjamin Rush

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” — John Jay

I could go on and on but you get the point; Gorsuch is wrong on his first point.

And he's wrong on point number two; the United States was founded as an ENGLISH nation and often appealed to "the rights of Englishmen" and it was this that led to independence.

William Blackstone elucidated those rights, and it was this that Jefferson and other Founding Fathers appealed to when writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. How can Gorsuch argue the U.S. is not about culture when the Founding Fathers themselves appealed to the English cultural traditions when creating this nation?

"We claim nothing but the liberty and privileges of Englishmen in the same degree, as if we had continued among our brethren in Great Britain." George Mason

Mason was echoed in 1873 by Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. Bradley asserted that the "rights of Englishmen" were a foundation of American law in his opinion on the 14th Amendment.

Bradley stated:

The people of this country brought with them to its shores the rights of Englishmen, the rights which had been wrested from English sovereigns at various periods of the nation's history"

Thomas Jefferson based the rights he said were being violated on rights granted in the Magna Carta and the fundamental rights of Englishmen. Yes, he universalized and Christianized it, but it came out of the Magna Carta and is what he meant by "these truths are self-evident." They are self-evident in the Anglo culture.

The Founders thought that culture was self-evident, that we were an ENGLISH nation and not, say, Islamic. Culture very much did matter to the Founders - it just wasn't an issue they had to address at that time so much.

As John Jay pointed out:

With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people--a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence.

This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.

So clearly John Jay disagrees with Justice Gorsuch.

America is not founded on heritage so much; you don't have to be English to be American. But you do have to be part of the common culture and recognize the Judeo-Christian nature of America, and accept the fundamental rights of Englishmen as absolute. You cannot come here uninvited and demand America reject all that to make you comfortable.

Which is what Gorsuch's comment suggests. He appears to think illegal aliens can claim to be Americans just by showing up because it is our creed to give sanctuary and comfort.

This nation would never have been founded had the Founding Fathers knew that we would be overrun by non-European peoples who came here in violation of our laws. They would have set it up very, very differently and made it quite plain about who could come in and who could not.

So watch for Gorsuch to screw us over on the birthright citizenship issue. He seems to be setting the stage for that.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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