judicial-verbicide-an-affront-to-the-constitution2.pdfVIP

Judicial Verb icide: An Afront to the Constitution Judicial Verbicide .JIM’S ADMINISTRATOR was suing the railroad for his wrongful death. The first witness he called to the stand testified as follows: “I saw Jim walking up the track. A fast train passed, going up the track. After it passed, I didn’t see Jim. I walked up the track a lit- tle way and discovered Jim’s severed head lying on one side of the track, and the rest of his body on the other.” The witness was asked how he reacted to his gruesome discovery. He responded: “I said to myself something serious must have happened to Jim. ” Something serious has been happening to constitutional government in America, and I want to write about it. My motive for doing so is as lofty as that which caused Job Hicks to be indicted and convicted of disturbing religious worship in the Superior Court of Burke County, North Carolina, my home county, 75 years ago. Job revered the word of the Lord. An ac- quaintance of his, John Watts, took a no- tion he had been called to preach the Gospel, and adopted the practice of doing so in any little country church which would allow him to occupy its pulpit. While he was well versed in his profession as a brick mason, John Watts was woefully ignorant in matters of theology. One Sunday, Job Hicks imhihad a litde too mcch E9rl.e County corn liquor, a rather potent beverage. After so doing, he walked by a little country church, saw John Watts in the pulpit, and heard him expounding to the congregation his peculiar version of a biblical text. Job Hicks entered the church, staggered to the pulpit, grabbed John Watts’ coat collar, dragged him to the door, and threw him out of the church. When the time came for the pronounce- ment of the sentence upon the jury’s ver- dict of guilty, Judge Robinson, the presiding judge, observed: “Mr. Hicks, when you were guilty of such unseemly conduct on the Sabbath Day, you must have been too drunk to realize w