Supreme Court to Discuss Guidelines for Thinking During Government Meetings

Photo by Jeff Kubina, via Wikimedia

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court began a discussion over whether there needs to be clearer guidelines concerning prayers that take place at government meetings. However, this is only the opener to a bigger debate over whether guidelines concerning the proper use of thought while government leaders, especially lawmakers, are assembled.

“Some types of thought patterns are extremely offensive to different kinds of people. Some are fiscally conservative, fiscally liberal, for example. Things start to get dangerous, though, when people from one side of an issue try to think the way their opponents do.” said Senator Jeffry Schweighauser about the debate.  “There’s just too much risk.”

Schweighauser stated that many of his close associates in Congress believe an argument can be made that it’s unconstitutional to allow thinking of any sort during meetings. 

Opponents to this position made sure to point out that this is somewhat of an over-generalization. In order to accomplish normal legislative tasks (such as reading documents, saying yay or nay, and filibustering), at least a rudimentary, autonomic form of "thought" likely still has to take place. They did, however, admit that nowhere in the Constitution is it explicitly allowed that any sort of comprehensive or analytical thought take place while decisions are being made. 

Others in congress felt the need to mention that any sort of abolition of thought, of any variety, would end up an unnecessary formality. House Democrat for Montana, Peter Glendale, stated it quite simply: "Legislators have been following such guidelines on their own good will for centuries."