The Associated Press reports
House Republicans intend to hold votes this summer and fall touching on abortion, guns, religion and other priority issues for social conservatives, part of an attempt to improve the party’s prospects in the midterm election.
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One would to strip the Supreme Court and other federal courts of jurisdiction over cases challenging the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance. The legislation is a response to a 2002 Appeals Court ruling that held the pledge is unconstitutional because of the presence of the words “under God.” A federal judge made a similar ruling last fall, citing the appeals court precedent.
Another measure would block the payment of attorney fees in challenges to the display of the Ten Commandments in public areas and other, similar church-state lawsuits.
An abortion-related proposal would require that some women seeking to end their pregnancies be informed the procedure “will cause the unborn child pain” and they have the option of receiving drugs to reduce or eliminate it. A separate measure would ban human cloning, a prohibition that cleared the House in the previous Congress.
It looks as if House Republicans have taken a page directly out of the Right’s “Values Voters’ Contract With Congress,” a document launched at Vision America’s “War on Christian and Values Voters Conference” and supported by right-wing stalwarts such as Phyllis Schlafly, Alan Keyes, Lou Sheldon, Janet Folger, Andrea Lafferty, and others.
The Values Voter’s Contract seeks, among other things
1. TO AFFIRM the national relationship with God in our places of worship, schools, mottos, and public spaces, we call for the passage of –
* The Pledge Protection Act to prohibit activist judges from taking “under God” out of the Pledge (H.R. 2389, S.1046);
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*The Public Expression of Religion Act to prohibit activist judges from ordering taxpayers to pay lawyers who seek to erode our national relationship with God (H.R. 2679); and
4. TO SECURE our God-bestowed right to life, we call for the passage of –
* The Human Cloning Protection Act to prohibit human cloning (S.658, H.R. 1357);
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* The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act to raise awareness of the pain experienced by children before birth (S.51, H.R. 356)
Notice any similarities?
