Welcome back to the Dirt Show. On my last show, I talked a lot about the Constitution,

the Bill of Rights. I compared and contrasted the right of abortion to the right to bear

arms and got hundreds and hundreds of letters. And so what I thought I would devote this

show to was really an analysis of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and how it

relates to unnumerated rights. And of course there is no right of abortion in the Constitution

and there are at least words that say the right to bear arms and the Constitution.

So let's talk about that. But any discussion of the Bill of Rights has to begin with the

words themselves. Now the words of the Bill of Rights have been obviously modified over

the years of the first word of the Bill of Rights has been abolished essentially.

The first word of the Bill of Rights is Congress. Congress shall make no law respecting

an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise. They are offered abridging

the freedom of speech. Congress shall make no law. I always remember Justice Franklin

who was an advocate of judicial restraint. When they'd be a First Amendment case, he would

bang on the table and he would say, Congress. It says Congress shall make no law. It doesn't say

that state legislatures can't make a law. Justice Black would say it says Congress shall make

no law. Emphasize the word no. So it really depends on which word you emphasize.

Obviously with the passage of the 14th Amendment, justices began to what's known as incorporate

the Bill of Rights selectively into the Constitution. So the Supreme Court held and it's now

pretty much established law that the First Amendment is incorporated in whole into the Constitution

and therefore the states cannot do what Congress can't do. So just reread the First Amendment now to

say Congress, state legislatures, governors, executives, no government entity, no government entity,

shall make a law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise.

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