foreign aid and the establishment clause

[Steven Jamar]

There is, I respectfully submit, a chasm between what I said (that  
providing such foreign aid is a matter of foreign policy for the  
Congress and the President to decide) and Daniel Hoffman's assertion  
that this statement cannot withstand scrutiny if taken literally.
I assume that he meant that if an assertion I did not make (that  
anytime foreign policy is invoked the Court is debarred from  
considering the matter) were taken to its (il)logical extreme, then  
untoward results could occur.  With that I agree.  But that is neither  
what I said nor what the law is.

I said, and still stand by my assertion, that the court would consider  
the matter being discussed a matter for the Congress and the  
President, not for the Court.

Steve


On Nov 9, 2009, at 5:05 PM, Daniel Hoffman wrote:

>
>
> --- On Sun, 11/8/09, Steven Jamar <stevenjamar at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I can't imagine the Supreme Court finding a first amendment  
> violation in such circumstances for several reasons.
>
> 1.  It is a matter of foreign policy for Congress and the President,  
> not the Court to decide.
> I realize that the Court has sometimes spoken as if this were the  
> case, but this statement cannot withstand scrutiny.  Taken  
> literally, it would allow the political branches to circumvent any  
> and all constitutional limitations, simply by promising a foreign  
> government--or maybe even a foreign nonstate actor--to do so.
>
> It is one thing to be deferential in reviewing actions that impact  
> our foreign affairs, but an entirely different matter to claim that  
> the constitution and the judicial power have no role in this context.
>
> This is, I hope, a really wild hypo, but what if an Al Qaeda armed  
> with WMD demanded we establish Sharia law?
>
> Daniel Hoffman

-- 
Prof. Steven D. Jamar                     vox:  202-806-8017
Associate Director, Institute of Intellectual Property and Social  
Justice http://iipsj.org
Howard University School of Law           fax:  202-806-8567
http://iipsj.com/SDJ/

"I do not at all resent criticism, even when, for the sake of  
emphasis, it for a time parts company with reality."

Winston Churchill, speech to the House of Commons, 1941



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