By Doug Newman

May 21, 2009

I just declined an invitation to support the proposed Parental Rights Amendment (PRA) to the Constitution.

This Amendment is being promoted -- www.parentalrights.org -- in response to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a horribly anti-family treaty.

I oppose this Amendment for four reasons.

1) Parental rights are already covered by the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution -- i.e. my favorite -- which reads

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

2) The Tenth Amendment forbids Uncle Sam from intruding where not expressly authorized.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

3) Section 2 of the PRA reads

"Neither the United States nor any state shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served."

This is like saying that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed ... unless the federal government demonstrates that its in interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served."

The PRA actually puts a constitutional blessing on federal intrusion into parenting.

4) Thoreau once remarked that "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking the root." The PRA hacks at a branch of evil, i.e. the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The root of evil in this case is America's very membership in the UN. America's withdrawal from the UN -- and kicking the UN off US soil -- would rid America of a lot of problems.

Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) has introduced the American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2007, HR 1146, which would get the US out of the UN and vice versa. You may read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sovereignty_Restoration_Act

If you would like to post this, please e-mail me and include this URL.

Freely Speaking: Essays by Doug Newman

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