John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the 17th U.S. chief justice today.

I haven't been following the 3 month ordeal but was pleased today to see the following statements made by Roberts today:

The Senate's endorsement is ``confirmation of what is for me a bedrock principle, that judging is different than politics,'' Roberts said. ``Every generation in its turn must accept the responsibility of supporting and defending the Constitution and bearing true faith and allegiance to it.''

And our President's remarks

Bush, in the East Room of the White House, lauded Roberts as a man of ``integrity, deep humility and uncommon talent'' who will be ``a faithful guardian of the Constitution.''

I hope that he will be a guardian of the constitution, a strict constructionist rather than a deconstructionist.

source:  bloomberg

Many of us have been watching this one for a while. 

A federal judge in California Wednesday ruled that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional.

The case was brought by two families represented by Michael Newdow, an atheist whose case before the U.S. Supreme Court was thrown out because it was brought on his daughter's behalf and he did not have custody of her.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton said the words "under God" violate the right of school children to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God." According to the Associated Press, Karlton said he was bound by precedent of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in favor of Newdow in 2002. 

Regardless of what you feel about whether or not "under God" (added in 1954) was anything other than an ackowledgement that freedom does not come from government, the history of the person and organization behind the case is interesting:

Apparently, in Colorodo it is unlawful for a jury member to reference God's law in coming to a verdict.

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court last month, defense attorney Kathleen Lord said the jurors had gone outside the law. "They went to the Bible to find out God's position on capital punishment," she said.

On a spiritual level, the source of law is God Himself. Our framers attributed our very rights as "endowed by our Creator". As a Constitutional matter, this is quite scary, even if you don't believe in the Bible. I don't know much about jury rules (maybe [Matt] can help with this one), but it seems to me that in a free society, part of the beauty is that citizens bring with them their beliefs and who they are to the jury room. They are expected to objectivly deliberate about what they believe is true or not true about the case, however the sentence under the law can not be separated from their personal view of justice. For government to separate a persons beliefs and opinions from their actions is, according to James Madison (Federalist Paper #10), is to remove liberty itself. Faireness does not come from government stepping in, it comes from competing factions within the jury room. It is in by encouraging free and competing thoughts that freedom is ensured, not by mandating one faction (in this case Atheism).

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A national organization of pro-life gays and lesbians says it supports an unusual bill in the Maine legislature that is causing a nationwide discussion of the issues of abortion and homosexuality.

"Most people would agree that to kill someone just because that person might be gay would constitute a hate crime," Duprey said.

"I have heard from women who told me that if they found out that they were carrying a child with the gay gene, then they would abort. I think this is wrong," Duprey explained to the Press Herald. "Those unborn children should be protected."

Woohoo, the city finally answered my request. Take a look below:

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. Per your Indigenous Tree Permit under the conditions you are required to replace a coast live oak in your front yard by November 1, 2004. Any inspections regarding the landscaping of the front yard area will be done after that date, I will schedule the follow up inspection for November 8, 2004. Again I apologize for the delay in responding. Thank you for your cooperation regarding this matter.

Now, the two departments are on the same time line! Yeah!!!