Which book, which document, is paramount in America — the Bible or the Constitution? It’s a Middle School civics quiz question that some legislators on both sides of the aisle get wrong. The answer — as concerns the rule of law, not the nurturing of spirit — is the U.S. Constitution.
Asked about some of his House colleagues, including perhaps new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who sometimes conflate the authority of the two sources, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) gave a helpful and pithy lesson in American Democracy with a memorable turn of phrase.
“When we take our oath of office we put our hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution,” Raskin explains to Jen Psaki on MSNBC. “We don’t put one hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible,” Raskin says.
“The Constitution is the governing document of the country,” Raskin says.
Raskin: When we take our oath of office, we put our hand on the Bible and we swear to uphold the constitution, we don't put our hand on the constitution and swear to uphold the Bible. pic.twitter.com/3cwE1PZT7t
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 12, 2023
A Constitutional scholar, Raskin also references the freedom to pray in a classroom, which some religious conservatives say the Supreme Court removed in a 1962 decision.
Raskin says that the freedom to pray in classrooms is alive and well and often practiced, humorously noting its prevalence during “pop math quizzes.” What the Supreme Court decided in 1962’s Engel v. Vitale decision was that, Raskin says, “the government can’t compel you to pray according to a script the government writes.”
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