Constitutional Ignorance
My ten-year-old daughter asked me to help her study for a U.S. history test. Her teacher gave her a list of 100 questions to study. The teacher had been going over the list with the students for several class periods, giving, and I suppose discussing the answers.
We came to question 43 – “Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?” The answer: “William Rehnquist (?)” I thought for a moment and looked at my daughter and sadly informed her that he couldn’t be the Chief Justice since he’s been dead nearly 4 years. The answer, of course, is “John Roberts”. The fact that the teacher, who teaches U.S. History and Civics, gave her students the incorrect answer is only half the story.
Next, we came to question 64 – “Where does the freedom of speech come from?” The answer: “The Bill of Rights (?)” WHOA! NOW!
Over the years, I have discovered that I am one of the few Americans who has actually read and studied the United States Constitution and I can say without a doubt that The Bill of Rights DOES NOT give us the right of free speech. In fact, here is the text of Amendment One:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Notice the part in bold text. The First Amendment specifically states what Congress can’t do, not what We, The People can do. This isn’t a granting of rights. The Bill of Rights doesn’t grant rights. It specifically enumerates certain rights or prohibits the Congress from taking certain actions.
So, where do our rights come from? Thomas Jefferson so eloquently wrote in The Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Notice again the bold text. Our rights do not come from the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution does not grant rights.
Remember I said this was only half the story; here is the rest.
The questions on the study guide looked a little suspicious. That’s when I noticed the title at the top of the sheet: “INS 100 Questions and Answers”. Uh Oh, time to do a Google Search. Here is what I found – INS Citizenship Test Questions. It appears that this was the question pool the Immigration and Naturalization Service was using to test citizenship applicants prior to October 2008. Scary huh?
I am happy to report that the new Question Pool is much more appropriate.
