The Tribute

By John E. Jenkins

In the genre of Inherit the Wind, a trial takes place in a small New Hampshire town. For Atty. Thaddeus Publius, in the trial concerning his client, an eleven-year-old student, it is not a question of whether she has a constitutional right to the free exercise of religion. Rather, did the Supreme Court of the United States have the right and power to take it away?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483634715

John E. Jenkins

John Edward Jenkins, an ardent reader of the Constitution and its historical events over many years, is retired and resides in Florida. This is his first writing, based on an incident in his past, and transforming it into a fictional drama.

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THE TRIBUTE

John E. Jenkins

Copyright © 2013 by John E. Jenkins.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013907934

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4836-3470-8

                Softcover        978-1-4836-3469-2

                Ebook            978-1-4836-3471-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 05/08/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

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131919

CONTENTS

One   The Courthouse

Two   Edward Berry

Three   Emily

Four   Richey

Five   The Courtroom

Six   Ms. Hollis

Seven   Mr. Wallace

Eight   Conversations

Nine   Chairman Blaine

Ten   Court Rulings

Eleven   The First Amendment

Twelve   The Wall of Separation

Thirteen   The Amendment Process

Fourteen   The Supreme Court

Fifteen   Strategies

Sixteen   The Soldiers

Seventeen   The Courtroom, Second Day

Eighteen   The Father

Nineteen   The Agnostic

Twenty   Expressions

Twenty-One   The Opposites

Twenty-Two   To the Soldier

Twenty-Three   Summations

Twenty-Four   Incorporation

Addendum

To my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and a part of history that needs some reformation.

"People have been taught to believe that when the Supreme Court speaks it is not they who speak but the Constitution, whereas, of course—it is they who speak—and not the Constitution."

—Professor and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter

ONE

THE COURTHOUSE

I t was a warm September morning in the late summer of ’73 as Thaddeus Publius hesitated momentarily on the first step leading up to the entrance of the Rockingham Superior Courthouse. He then turned to face the boisterous divided groups of people edging their way closer to the roped-off barriers and the uniformed policemen poised behind them. Banners and placards were rising up and down, each trying to outdo the other. Voices from all directions chanted, And we pledge and we pray!

A young man with a bullhorn stepped forward, screaming, Ya… well do it in ya home… or in ya church!

An older man took a swing at the bullhorn and countered with Oh no, knucklehead… No one’s gonna stop us… not even the courts… no more—we’ve had enough!

Then a roar resounded. Amen!

Thaddeus turned at the sound of Lynn’s voice moving toward him. All of this is so discomforting for me. It could be heard in the uneasiness of her voice. She was holding her father’s hand as she approached.

Lynn Dodd was attired in neatly pressed black slacks. Her auburn hair was full and flowed down atop her loosely fitted white cotton blouse. She was an attractive woman with a serious expression. She tightened her grip on her father’s hand as they moved alongside Thaddeus up the stairs.

How are you doin’, Ed? Thaddeus questioned.

I’m doin’ just fine, Thad… just fine. Thank you.

Thaddeus walked slowly with his worn black legal briefcase in hand, continuing up toward the columns.

It’s just as impressive the second time around, Ed remarked. His eyes lifted upward at the architrave. Let’s hope there is… equal justice today, he added.

TWO

EDWARD BERRY

T hese were different times, none like the years Ed had first grown up in a long time ago in eastern Massachusetts. He was born in the winter of 1914, a time when the First World War had begun in the summer of the same year. And as he aged into his teens, there came the Depression of 1930. He could remember people standing in line for rations. Horsemeat was not an unusual meal. Gasoline was going for 19¢ a gallon. A nickel would buy a hefty bagful of candy.

He grew up a rather innocent young man. It was an era when the society itself was governed mainly by the towns and the cities and overseen by the state-governing bodies. To a great degree, the federal government had left the compact of liberty and freedom with the people geographically. Their religious heritage, regardless of sect and their personal civil liberties, was mainly free from federal encroachment. At that time, the young generation was brought up with a great sense of respect for all of their surroundings; it was ingrained by a subtle, yet determined, God-given atmosphere of kindness and good will between themselves. The young ladies were highly respected; foul language was a no-no in their presence. The schools of learning taught a student the three Rs successfully. The teachers were of a high moral character. The people, as a whole, were honest, hardworking, neighborly individuals. Doors and windows of homes would be left open with little fear of criminal behavior happening. As a community of people then, he believed they were the fortunate benefactors of a society that had carried on the wholesome religious and patriotic consciousness of those before them.

At the age of twenty-two, he married his sweetheart, Nora. Two years later, their first child was born and then another. And then shortly thereafter came the Second World War. He and his older brother, Richard, had gone off to that war. They returned home at the war’s end. In the late fifties, Ed and his family moved to Melas, New Hampshire, where he took on the management of a local merchandising store.

As his family aged, Ed noticed unusual changes taking place throughout the nation. He was witnessing various groups, organizations, education philosophers, college professors, local school administrators, legal interpreters, party politicians, congressional representatives and senators, presidents, and federal judges redefining the heritage of America’s culture.

And from the realization of these radical changes, he took to reading, as he had never done before, of the origins of his forefathers, the framers of the Constitution, and the Constitution itself and their reasoning meanings. He was reading and absorbing.

The rebellious sixties emerged in full swing, a revolution in lifestyles. Drug subculture, rise of obscenity, and defiance abounded throughout many colleges, along with student demonstrations against the Vietnam War. The nation of America had been transformed. The basic values of the public customs and lifestyles had been rearranged. The federal government had, over those years, intruded into those spheres of wholesome consciousness that had been ingrained within his own self-being; a wholesome consciousness within the nation itself slowly and aggressively being redefined to a culture unlike the nation had ever witnessed in its past and contrary to the civil and religious beliefs of the majority at large. The people were slowly becoming divided. Some force, both political and worldly, had produced an elitism with a so-called enlightenment into the fabric and framework of the people’s safe and secure liberty.

He had continued his reading and absorbing to the present.

Dad… Dad… ? Lynn motioned to the opened door leading into the courthouse, and he followed them inside.

THREE

EMILY

E mily delicately lifted the silky strands of her soft auburn hair aside. Her petite eleven-year-old body, attired in a simple short-sleeved pink and white cotton dress, stood upright before her pinewood school desk; her sparkling blue eyes stared at the American flag in her classroom, her hand now held over her heart. She went through the pledge, paused for a moment, and let it end there. This is what she had been instructed to do—or else.

Her teacher was specifically watching Emily during the pledge—that