NEVER fear, all you defenders of state sovereignty, the Virginia General Assembly is taking up the banner of "states' rights" and sticking it to the federal government. In what can best be described as a thinly veiled attempt to beguile the socially conservative aspects of Virginia's electorate, the House of Delegates passed a resolution this week urging Congress to allow states to decide whether to display monuments of the Ten Commandments. One can only imagine that this move was precipitated by the judicial stalemate in Alabama that caught national attention last year. This issue has no place on the agenda of an already overburdened legislative schedule in the Commonwealth's General Assembly. This resolution is an embarrassment to Virginia's legislature and an equal mark of shame for the Commonwealth.
In 2002, a federal judge ordered Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore to remove a multi-ton granite carving of the Ten Commandments from the atrium of the Alabama Supreme Court building. Moore balked at the edict and was subsequently removed from his position thanks to a finding by a federal judicial ethics panel. Unlike Virginia's system of appointed Supreme Court justices, Moore was popularly elected in Alabama. This political consideration more than likely precipitated Moore's grandstanding in the face of the federal order due to the prevalence of traditional Christian values within the Alabamian populace. Not surprisingly, it triggered a debate which left behind the debate over interpretations of the First Amendment -- specifically the prohibition against government respecting an established religion -- and raised questions about the nature of the federalized system of government. It aroused attention because of a face-off between federal and state authorities that provoked painful memories of similar -- be they futile -- attempts by traditional Southern state officials to play chicken with the federal government.
Virginia, like Alabama, does not exactly have a spotless record when it comes to standing up to the federal government. Even if you ignore the unpleasantness of the 1860s and fast forward to the civil rights era, the Virginia political elite dug in its heels over the issue of federally mandated public school integration, intra-city busing and other similarly contentious issues. In each case, the federal government won. Martyrs may have fought on with large popular followings, but their causes were soon abandoned as history marched forward.
Curiously, the Ten Commandments case elicited legislation authored by two U.S. senators (after consultation with Moore) that would prohibit federal courts from overruling state courts when it came to issues of acknowledging God. It can certainly be accepted that bright minds may disagree on the constitutional basis of such a legal proposal. For many, an additional bulwark against the encroachment of government can be a good thing in society. The real question is exactly what horse Virginia has in this race.
The resolution that passed the House has absolutely no legal power on the Commonwealth or on the Congress of the United States. As a "resolution," it merely asks politely. But, of course, such issues of constitutionalism evoke passionate debate in our democratic assembly halls. Rather than hashing out a compromise between House and Senate tax proposals or addressing a critical shortage in state college and university enrollment capacity, the House of Delegates engaged in debate over a completely irrelevant point of federalism thanks to the actions of a judge 200 miles away.
The only reasonable answer is that the majority-conservative Republican House knows what side of the bread the butter is on. Del. Robert Brink, D-Arlington, put it bluntly when he accused Republicans of "throwing a little red meat to its political base" ("Virginia House Affirms Ten Commandments Resolution," Associated Press, Feb. 18). Between attempting to eliminate college students' access to emergency contraceptives and increasing felony penalties for public sodomy -- hardly pressing issues of the day in a Commonwealth currently facing a $1 billion dollar budget deficit -- the House has now taken to piddling away its precious time by debating constitutional questions of federalism just to placate conservative Christian voters.
The General Assembly has bigger fish to fry than resolutions that prop up Christian values or attempt to debate constitutional minutia. They should feel free to make speeches about it on the weekend or outside of the session, but this taxpayer would prefer that when the elected officials are on the clock, they stick to the business of the people that most deserve their attention. The "Roy Moore Martyr Memorial Resolution" does not fall into that category.
(Preston Lloyd's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at plloyd@cavalierdaily.com.)
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