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Franklin Sun Features AJA

Article From the Franklin Sun:

Appealing to a Higher Court

Retired Judge Brings Bibles to the Bench

By Tom Bonnette,  The Franklin Sun, May 12th, 2010, Page 7A

Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Rudy Mclntyre (left) holds a copy of the Harlan Bible presented to him by retired Baton Rouge City Judge Darrell White. Also pictured is Jason Stern, vice president of the American Judicial Alliance. (Sun photo by Tom Bonnette)

The Bible is a fundamental building block of our nation’s legal system and retired Baton Rouge City Judge Darrell White wants to make sure that isn’t forgotten. White, who is on a quest to place “Harlan Bibles” in every courtroom in the country, is founder of the American Judicial Alliance, a non-profit research and education organization dedicated to “awaken the conscience of one nation under God” by recapturing the vitality of America’s organic laws – the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He was in Franklin Parish Friday at the Winnsboro Rotary Club’s monthly luncheon at Brown’s Landing to ask for prayers and support.

“We are asking people like you, who think that this is important, to help us to put one of these Bibles in every single courtroom in America,” White said. The Bible is a replica of the Bible donated by to the U.S. Supreme Court by Justice John Marshall Harlan in 1906. The original Harlan Bible is kept by the Supreme Court Curator and holds the signatures of every U.S. Supreme Court Justice since 1906 when it was donated. Judges have been invited to sign the inside leaflets of the more than 100 Bibles donated by the Retired Judges of America that White has helped place in courtrooms over the last few years.

He believes the Bibles will serve as a reminder that we are “one nation under God” and that the U.S. Constitution should be the guiding factor in our judicial system.  “It’s the supreme law of the land. Unless we pay attention to it, it’s just so many words,” White said. “The question is whether or not we are going to follow the Constitution and adhere to it.”

A Harlan Bible donated to the Fifth Judicial District Court by the RJA a year ago that is signed by Judge E. Rudolph Mclntyre and Judge Terry A. Doughty was on display at the luncheon.  To help White place similar Bibles in other courtrooms, the Winnsboro Rotary Club donated $150.  More is needed, said Jason Stern, vice president of AJA.  “Every little bit that we can gather together helps us make a difference in bringing back our nation to the nation of our founders for the next generation,” Stern said.  Justice Harlan is best remembered as the lone dissenting voice in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, in which a Louisiana statue that called for “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” was upheld as constitutional. To help the RJA and AJA donate Bibles, call (225) 603-2544.

Houston Judges Discuss Their Harlan Bibles

 

What are They Saying about American Judicial Alliance?

“American Judicial Alliance’s presentation should be required for all Supreme Court nominees and sitting Federal Judges.” 
— Congressman Ted Poe

 

“I am so impressed with the great work you are doing! You have a powerful team working with you. America needs you more than ever.  You give me hope!”
– William J. Federer, Jr.
Speaker and best-selling Author

 

“More than anything, thank you for the Harlan Bible. Our nine judges all thank you for your kindness and your effort!”
– Judge Harmon Drew, Jr.
Louisiana 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal

 

“I appreciate your efforts to restore some morality in our courts.”
– Retired Judge William N. Knight
31st Judicial District Court of Louisiana

 

“The judges are already tracking down their predecessors to have each one sign the Bible you presented in the tradition of the Supreme Court. Thanks again!”
–Retired Judge Tim Taft
Texas First Court of Appeals

 

What Supreme Court Justices are saying about the Harlan Bible:

“It was a thrilling moment when I signed my name in the Bible which…contains the signatures of all the Justices for the past 100 years. Thank you for sending your article…. I found it inspiring. 
–Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

 

“I read with special interest your account of the first Justice Harlan and his Bible.… Thank you for an engaging pause in the day’s occupations.”
—Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Click here to join American Judicial Alliance

American Judicial Alliance Introduction Video

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John Jay – First Supreme Court Justice – President of Bible Society

Via American Minute:
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.”

Houston Judges Receive Bibles

Houston Judges Pose with Retired Judge Darrell White and Jason Stern as they receive their Court Bibles on May 1st, 2010

The Houston Chapter of Concerned Women for America invited American Judicial Alliance to speak to their gathering on Saturday, May 1st, so the team traveled overnight Friday to make the 9 am meeting.  

Retired Judge Darrell White shared the vision and dedicated seven Court Bibles.  Two previous recipients of Houston-area Court Bibles also joined us to support the event!

Incidentally, May 1st is the inscription on all Bibles dedicated by this organization.  May 1st is celebrated as “Law Day,” and creates a perfect reminder of why we remember the source of Law.

A good time was had by all.  Thank you CWFA for the wonderful meeting!

American Judicial Alliance Presents Bibles to 28 North Louisiana Courts

 

Retired Judge Darrell White presents the Ruston City Court Bible to Judge Danny Tatum

Choudrant, La. –  On Friday, March 12, 2010, American Judicial Alliance, a national organization based in Louisiana, dedicated twenty-eight bibles to north Louisiana courts at Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant, Louisiana.

The Bibles are dedicated in replication of a tradition held by the United States Supreme Court for over one hundred years.  One of America’s most interesting justices, John Marshall Harlan (I) began the tradition by donating his personal Bible to the court.  Since that time, every Supreme Court Justice has signed the “Harlan” Bible. 

Friday night’s dinner featured a keynote by nationally-known historian and author, William J. Federer, whose books include “America’s God and Country,” “What Every American Needs to Know about the Qur’an” and “The Original 13: a Documentary History of Religion in America’s first Thirteen States.”

American Judicial Alliance (AJA) and its associated organization, Retired Judges of America (RJA) are led by Retired Judge Darrell White and Jason Stern.  Both men share a vision for “awakening the conscience of One Nation Under God” and for restoring the importance of both the Bible and the Constitution to American jurisprudence.

Judge John Slattery of Springhill City Court said, “We are so grateful to receive this Bible into our court.  The Framers knew what they were doing when they established this nation. It’s our duty to continue that vision.”

 “American Judicial Alliance intends to place a Bible in every courtroom in America and to ask active and retired judges all across America to join the “Harlan tradition” of signing the Bible and utilizing them in their courts,” said Retired Judge Darrell White.

American Judicial Alliance is based in Baton Rouge, La. and has so far dedicated approximately 100 Bibles to courts across the South including the Supreme Courts of Louisiana and Texas.

Church and State Discussed in the New York Times Magazine

Russell Shorto writes a balanced piece on the place of faith in the Founders’ plans for America and how the fight over whether that is true is being fought in Texas today.  Here’s an excerpt:

If the fight between the “Christian nation” advocates and mainstream thinkers could be focused onto a single element, it would be the “wall of separation” phrase. Christian thinkers like to point out that it does not appear in the Constitution, nor in any other legal document — letters that presidents write to their supporters are not legal decrees. Besides which, after the phrase left Jefferson’s pen it more or less disappeared for a century and a half — until Justice Hugo Black of the Supreme Court dug it out of history’s dustbin in 1947. It then slowly worked its way into the American lexicon and American life, helping to subtly mold the way we think about religion in society. To conservative Christians, there is no separation of church and state, and there never was. The concept, they say, is a modern secular fiction. There is no legal justification, therefore, for disallowing crucifixes in government buildings or school prayer.

Read the full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?pagewanted=all

Justice Thomas and the Constitution

“If [a law] is wrong, the ultimate precedent is the Constitution. It’s not what we say it is, it’s what it actually says. And I think we have to be humble enough to say ‘we were wrong.'”
Justice Clarence Thomas, February 2009

Thomas was responding to a question about the Court’s review of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law.  His quote echoes former Justice Felix Frankfurter (who happened to have been the president of the ACLU before his court days).  Here is Frankfurter’s quote:

“The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution, and not what we have said about it.”  — Felix Frankfurter, Graves v. New York, 306 US 466 (1939)

Here is an audio clip of Justice Thomas’ remarks:

Here are a few more quotes to chew on:

“[I]n the lapse of [time], changes have taken place which in particular passages … obscure the sense of the original … [and] present wrong signification or false ideas. Whenever words are understood in a sense different from that which they had when introduced …. mistakes may be very injurious.” Noah Webster in Preface of the Webster Bible

“Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally.”  — Thomas Jefferson

“On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”  — Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p322.

“The first and fundamental rule in the interpretation of all instruments is, to construe them according to the sense of the terms, and the intentions of the parties.” Justice Joseph Story, III Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States §400 (1883) at p383

23rd Judicial Bible Dedication Coming Soon!

Join us at Frank’s Restaurant in Prarieville next Thursday, February 4th at 8:00 AM as we dedicate a commemorative Bible to the Louisiana 23rd Judicial District Court. 

Please RSVP by contacting Retired Judge Darrell White or Jason Stern at the office or by emailing us through the website.  Breakfast will be served.