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BURIED DEEP IN the appropriations legislation the House passed for the departments of Commerce, Justice and State is a little-noticed pair of amendments that attack the independence of federal judges. The amendments, offered on the House floor by Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.), are designed, as Mr. Hostettler put it, to "block federal funds from being used to enforce court decisions that found the use of 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional and ordered the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse.
At one point Mr. Hostettler said this:
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"I, (name of Member), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."
UPDATE: Calpundit remembers one of Andrew Jacksons's not so fine moments.