Panel tackles civil liberties, rights

Sep. 12—The topics of equal protection and religious freedom were among those discussed at Order in the Court with the topic of Constitution Day: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Hosted by Odessa College at the Dick and Amelia Saulsbury Conference Room in the Electronics Technology Building, it featured a diverse panel of judges, professors and students. The continuing educational series is meant to provide unbiased information to the public. Daniel Regalado, professor of government and history, was the moderator.

Autumn Zimmerman, professor of history, said the reason the Constitution passed is because of the Bill of Rights.

"Without that Bill of Rights and without the allocation of civil liberties into the United States, the Constitution would never have passed," Zimmerman said.

Political Science Instructor Ryan Ledbetter said it goes back to early forms of politics in the U.S.

"We had to get buy-in from more states and from more people, specifically Rhode Island and North Carolina that didn't want to ratify the Constitution without the Bill of Rights being present," Ledbetter said.

Regalado brought up a recently passed Texas law that mandates that schools have to post an In God We Trust poster where you can see it. He said that brought up a case, Reynolds v United States, 1878.

Reynolds was a Mormon who practiced polygamy and federal law claimed it was illegal, Regalado said. Reynolds claims his freedom of religion rights were being violated. The case went to the Supreme Court and Regalado said the question was do you have the right, as far as freedom of religion, to believe in what you want to believe.

"We know now that yes you do have the right. But you can't break the law. So the court rules against Reynolds saying basically you have the right to believe what you want, but you can't break the law. The cheesy joke I always tell my students is you have the right to believe human sacrifice is going to get you wherever you want to go to, but you can't actually practice that right," Regalado said.

Zimmerman cited Snyder v Phelps, which centered on freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

Fred Phelps is a prominent leader of Westboro Baptist Church which commonly protests military funerals. They protest them because of the larger conflicts, she said.

"They claim that war is going to damn people and they claim that the tolerance of homosexuality inside of the United States is going to basically send us all down under instead of up above. ... In order to protest this inside of the United States, they've decided to protest it in the form of military funerals because homosexual individuals have been allowed to maintain military status. ... Because they disagree with this, they started with Alfred Snyder's son, who was a lance corporal who died in 2006 in Iraq. And they publicly told the church, who was presiding over the funeral, that they were going to protest the funeral. They held up signs saying that the military was going to cause God to rage down on the United States and that these public issues were going to basically cause all of us to go to hell ... They would post signs that said God hates the United States. God hates the United States, so he sent the terrorists to attack on 9/11 ... As a result, Alfred Snyder ended up taking it to court. He felt that this was violation of his mental health. He felt this was a violation of his son and things that really caused a lot of emotional turmoil inside of him," Zimmerman said.

He took it to the Supreme Court arguing that this violated his inherent right to happiness. Felps argued that he had the right to freedom of speech and religion.

"Because his religion is adamant that people of the LGBTQ-plus community should not exist and he's also adamant in the idea that publicly supporting these ideals and this form of ideology is going to result in a bad scenario for the United States and because they were doing this on public ground, in a public way and they weren't privately attacking the Snyder family, but were rather publicly arguing over public issues," Zimmerman said. "They decided in an 8-1 Supreme Court decision that the Westboro Baptist Church did have protections of religious values and the freedom of speech, so they could not prevent them from protesting military funerals."

Ledbetter discussed the case of the Bremerton, Washington, high school football coach who was "not rehired following the 2015 season after praying with students at the 50 yard line following games," the Kitsap Sun reported.

He added that this was a really important case on how we view religious freedom in the U.S.

The high court said it's OK to practice religion regardless of employment status, or position.

"I think we viewed this as sort of a narrow window before and I think it widens that window a lot, in a lot of ways," Ledbetter said.

446th District Judge Sara Kate Billingsley said it's tough to be on a court.

"Any court is required to not legislate from the bench. There are three branches of government, very distinctive for a reason and quite honestly you don't want any of us legislating from the bench. ... But I think the Supreme Court has a difficult job in that they only accept certiorari in certain cases, and so when they do, a lot of times those cases involve more than one of your inalienable rights. ... ," and it's a balancing act for jurists, Billingsley said.

Ledbetter said we're all in a social contract with the federal government.

"... We give up certain things in order to have certain protections and those protections are given to us in the Bill of Rights, but we also have to give a certain level of freedom in order to exercise those rights for everyone and everyone to have equal protection," Ledbetter said.

Billingsley said people should know their rights and know why they draw a distinction between a civil liberty and a civil right. A civil liberty is a freedom guaranteed under the Constitution and a civil right guarantees of equal social opportunities and equal protection under the law, regardless of race, religion, or other personal characteristics, the Britannica website said.

"... Know your rights. Know what you're entitled to. Know what you stand for. Know how you can stand up for the things that matter ...," Billingsley said.

Alexandra Garcia, who attended the discussion, said it was very educational and she enjoyed it. She wished more people had attended because it included things people need to know.

"There are fires we need to take out all over the country, so it's showing up to things like this and knowing more like one of the people said on the panel, know your rights. ... It's very important because especially with sexism and racism and all this religious stuff, it's so important to be able to fight these battles," Garcia said.