September 2006
Monthly Archive
Wed 27 Sep 2006
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Washington, DC 20585
In the Matter of:
Application for Renewal of
The Association for Clinical Pastoral
Education, Inc. to accredit clinical
pastoral education (CPE) and
supervisory programs
National Advisory Committee on
Institutional Quality and Integrity
meeting December 4-6, 2006
Federal Reg Notice Vol 71 No. 165
August 25, 2006 – Page 50404, 3rd column
Item 5, Association for Clinical Pastoral
Education, Inc.
JEFOUND AND SCOTT REQUEST TO MAKE AN ORAL PRESENTATION IN SUPPORT OF THEIR OPPOSITION TO THE REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL PASTORAL EDUCATION, INC. TO RENEW ITS ACCREDITATION AUTHORITY
1. Presenter
William Sumner Scott, J.D. (“Scott”), P. O. Box 380341, Miami, FL 33233, wss@jefound.org, presents the following request:
2. Organization Represented
Scott represents himself and Judicial Equality Found, Inc., a 501(c)(3) qualified, Florida non-profit corporation, (“jefound”) dedicated to the use of the judicial system to maintain civilized order. See http://jefound.org for statements of its history, purpose and other activities.
3. A. Jurisdiction
1) The Higher Education Act of 1985, 79 Stat. 1212, as amended, 20 U.S. C. A. § 1070, granted the Department of Education (the “Department”) the right to determine which associations and agencies will have authority to accredit schools of higher education and on what terms.
2) Scott is a citizen of the United States. Scott and jefound have standing to make their presentation to the Committee as members of the public.
3) The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. (the “Association”) is engaged in the promotion of the study of faith-healing. The application to the Secretary for accreditation rights seeks approval of the Association’s religious beliefs and gives appearance of credibility that violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution that prohibits the establishment of Religion by the Federal government because (i) the study of the faith healing has no secular purpose, (ii) to accredit faith healing education is to advance religion by government action, and (iii) to supervise the accreditation of faith healing education is excessive entanglement of church and state. Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U. S. 602 (1971).
4) Pastoral education as the word of God or any other divinely inspired work is without proof or valid theory worthy of higher education.
B. Argument
1) The Association members claim the existence of God without attempt of proof or empirical investigation of that claim. The Association teaches its members to teach their students to appeal to a higher power. The Association requires that an applicant must usually have completed at least one year of theological school to enroll in clinical pastoral education (“CPE”) and such other requirements or education and experience as a specific Association member CPE center may require.
2) The Association requires that an applicant complete several units of CPE, demonstrated a readiness to utilize Supervisory CPE, usually has a theological degree, and several years of pastoral experience prior to entry to Supervisory CPE training. The Association has not required study of religious history or holy books to explain that two or more of the Torah, Bible and Qur’an are wrong when they claim to be the only true word of God.
3) The Association teachings fail to have the fair and balanced approach to question the beliefs presented that one would expect of higher education. The Association member’s courses and methods lack sufficient validity to be claimed to be education in any form and, therefore, are not proper subjects for accreditation.
4) There is no evidence that pastoral intervention has any benefit in excess of positive thinking that could have been generated by the parishioner, his or her family, psychology professionals, or any other concerned person.
5) Many, if not all, members of the Association believe their particular denomination or sect is the only true prayer and other intervention medium to reach God[1]. The practices the Association promotes to its members expose the member’s followers to damage. For example, The Church of Christ, Scientist, followers are urged to rely solely on the faith healing methods advocated by the Association. They are legally permitted to refuse medical treatment in spite of the knowledge that one or more of them have died from a disease the medical profession could have easily cured. See Hermanson v State, 604 So. 2d 775 (Fla 1992) for a child who died in bed of infant diabetes while the parents and clinical pastoral practitioner prayed.
6) Although Congress has granted the authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate patent medicine and the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate fraudulent presentations to raise money, nether they nor any other government agency has been given the power by Congress to eliminate the unsubstantiated claims made by the Association and its members to seek donations from the afflicted and their families.
7) The Association claims that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution intended to protect individual religious thought extends to their organized religion’s fraudulent business practices to seek donations. The misappropriation of the individual’s First Amendment protection of religious freedom must not be allowed to morph into approval of organized religions’ faith healing hocus pocus under the guise of government accredited education. The conflicting claims of various organized religious businesses are best evaluated in a rational unbiased educational setting rather than presented unchallenged by the Association. If an analysis of the value of the belief in God and heaven is to be made, it should be made by psychology departments based upon an observational or a posteriori approach.
8) Although the Association limits its activities to the United States, its members practice the same beliefs throughout the World. The Association is open to all organized religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Anarchy to further those organized religions’ beliefs that were proven by the confession or eyewitness accounts have included the murder of an abortion doctor[2], movie producer[3], judge[4], and Jewish volunteer[5]. It was demonstrated in the streets of a United States occupied Kabul, Afghanistan in response to twelve Danish cartoons that depicted Muhammad, the Islamist messiah[6].
9) Civilization’s first line of defense against anarchy is its’ formally educated.[7]
10) The advent of nuclear weapons combined with the irrational thought processes of organized religious leaders and their followers require an examination of the effect of organized religious beliefs upon civilization. Under this scrutiny, the unproved beliefs promoted by the Association and its members will not stand muster. By a trace of the evolution of religious beliefs, one can prove that organized religion is man made and forced upon the masses by government sanctions, violence, and intimidation.[8]
WHEREFORE, the Advisory Committee is requested to recommend to the Secretary that the Petition to renew the authority of The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc., to accredit its member programs, be DENIED.
JUDICIAL EQUALITY FOUNDATION, INC.
/s/ William S. Scott
By: William Sumner Scott, J.D.
Executive Director
Judicial Equality Foundation, Inc.
/s/ William S. Scott
William Sumner Scott, J. D.
1. Dave Anderson, The Infidels, Authorhouse, 2005, p 212.
2. Dr. John Britton and his bodyguard, James Barrett were murdered on July 29, 1994, by the Rev. Paul Jennings Hill, a Presbyterian minister, because the Doctor Dave Anderson, The Infidels, Authorhouse, 2005, p 212.
3. See Deuteronomy 13:6-9 : “If your very own brother, or your son, or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the people around , whether near or far, from the one end of the land to the other) do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death.” The New International Version, The Holy Bible, performed legal medical procedures that were believed to violate Association Christian member religious teachings that God forbids abortion.
4. Theo van Gogh was murdered on November 2, 2004, by Mohammed Bouyeri to defend Association Islamist religious teachings from a movie legally written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and produced by van Gogh titled Submission that violates Islamist beliefs that God permits male abusive treatment of woman.
5. Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin was murdered in Ankara, Turkey, on May 17, 2006, by Alpaslan Aslan, a lawyer, to defend Association Islamist religious beliefs that God requires Islamist woman to wear a headscarf.
6. Pamela Waechter was murdered on July 28, 2006 by Naveed Afzal Haq, an American Islamist, at the offices of the Jewish Federation, Seattle, Washington, to further Association religious beliefs that Islam is superior to Judaism and that Islam is mistreated by the American government’s support of Israel.
7. Two protesters of the cartoons were killed and 13 others injured, when Afghan police fired on February 6, 2006, on about 2,000 protesters who tried to force entry to the Bagram Airbase, a U.S. base north of Kabul, Afghanistan.
8. Wilhelm Niemoller, Struggle and Testimony of a Confessing Church, Bielefeld L Bechauf, 1948, p 526, citing Albert Einstein’s first look to the formally educated in a Democratic Germany to stop Adolph Hitler.
9. The edict that the Christian Bible and the Nicene Creed was to be the only recognized religion by Constantine I in 325 A. D. and the outlaw of Arianism by Theodosius I in 379 A.D. The sword was used to impose Christianity pursuant to those edicts. Sam Harris, End of Faith, W. W. Norton, 2005, page 155, notes 9 and 10.
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
On this 25th day of September, 2006, the undersigned certifies that a copy of the above Opposition of jefound.org and Scott to the Renewal of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. to accredit clinical pastoral education and supervisory programs was sent by email to: Francesca.Paris-Albertson@ed.gov and the original hardcopy was by first class mail, postage prepaid, to: Ms. Francesca.Paris-Albertson at U. S. Department of Education, Room 7110, MS 8509, 1990 K Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006 and a copy by the same methods to: teresa@acpe.edu and a printed copy to: Teresa Snorton, Executive Director, The Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc., 1549 Clairmont Road, Suite 103, Decatur, GA 30033-4611.
/s/ William S. Scott
William Sumner Scott, J.D.
Executive Director
Judicial Equality Foundation, Inc.
P. O. Box 380341
Miami, FL 33238
email: wss@jefound.org
website: http://jefound.org
Wed 27 Sep 2006
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Washington, DC 20585
In the Matter of:
Application for Renewal and
Expansion of Recognition
of The Association for Biblical Higher
Education to accredit Bible Schools
National Advisory Committee on
Institutional Quality and Integrity
meeting December 4-6, 2006
Federal Reg Notice Vol 71 No. 165
August 25, 2006 – Page 50403 3rd column
Item 1, Association for Biblical Higher
Education
JEFOUND AND SCOTT REQUEST TO MAKE AN ORAL PRESENTATION IN SUPPORT OF THEIR OPPOSITION TO THE REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR BIBLICAL HIGHER EDUCATION TO RENEW AND EXPAND ITS ACCREDITATION AUTHORITY
1. Presenter
William Sumner Scott, J.D. (“Scott”) P. O. Box 380341, Miami, FL 33238, wss@jefound.org, presents the following request:
2. Organization Represented
Scott represents himself and Judicial Equality Found, Inc., a 501(c)(3) qualified, Florida non-profit corporation, (“jefound”) dedicated to the use of the judicial system to maintain civilized order. See http://jefound.org for statements of its history, purpose and other activities.
3. A. Jurisdiction
1) The Higher Education Act of 1985, 79 Stat. 1212, as amended, 20 U.S. C. A. § 1070, granted the Department of Education (the “Department”) the right to determine which associations and agencies will have authority to accredit schools of higher education and on what terms.
2) Scott is a citizen of the United States. Scott and jefound have standing to make their presentation to the Committee as members of the public.
3) The study of the Bible as the word of God or any other divinely inspired work is without proof or valid theory worthy of higher education.
4) The past accreditation by the Department of The Association of Biblical Higher Education (the “Association”) violated the obligation imposed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution that the Federal government will not establish a religion because to accredit is to establish. Further, (i) the study of the Bible has no secular purpose, (ii) to accredit Bible schools is to advance Christianity by government action, and (iii) to supervise the accreditation of Bible schools is excessive entanglement of church and state. Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U. S. 602 (1971).
B. Crises Conditions Exist
1) a) The United States government has declared victory in the Middle East without the separation of Islam from the Afghanistan and Iraqi constitutions. This is caused, in part, by a refusal of the religious in the United States to accept that all of the religions of Abraham, including Christianity, are the root cause of violence and other abuse. The Association members, applicants and affiliates assert that their religious beliefs are superior to Judaism and Islam without justification. The Bible teaches its followers that they have a right to stone anyone to death who attempts to change their beliefs.[1] Because the Association refuses to renounce Deuteronomy 13:6-9 and other violent and abusive practices advocated in the Bible, it and its members are subversive to peaceful co-existence with followers of other religions.
b) The Association does little to teach the possibility that their belief in the Bible as the word of God could be wrong. As Sam Harris reports in the introduction to his thesis that God is a myth: “Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite (sic Bible) chapter and verse.”[2]
2) These same or similar intolerant versus are taught to the followers of the Torah and the Qur’an.[3] Rather than teach that no fewer than two out of three of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are absolutely wrong, the Association promotes the concept that only the Bible can be right. This has led to war both before and after the United States was founded.[4]
3) The Association requires each of its accredited schools to affirm as follows:[5]
ABHE (sic the Association) Tenets of Faith
According to the Constitution of the Association, the following statement of faith is to be subscribed to annually by each member institution through the signature(s) of the president or of a board official.
1. We believe that there is one God, eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
3. We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious death and atonement through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal and visible return in power and glory.
4. We believe that man was created in the image of God, and that he was tempted by Satan and fell, and that, because of the exceeding sinfulness of human nature, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary for salvation.
5. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life, and by Whom the Church is empowered to carry out Christ’s great commission.
6. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost; those who are saved unto the resurrection of life and those who are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
The above required certification and teachings are lessons in hocus pocus rather than higher education coarse work worthy of accreditation.
4) The Association has no announced purpose to teach the dangers of anarchy promoted by those who follow the teachings of the Bible as the word of God.[6]
5) Civilization’s first line of defense against anarchy is its’ formally educated.[7]
6) The Association presentations fail to have the fair and balanced approach to question the beliefs presented that one would expect of higher education. Unless the sources of religious violence and other religious abuse are eliminated, Americans are at risk of annihilation by use of weapons of mass destruction by those who seek to impose their religion on others.
7) On September 12, 2006, Christian Pope Benedict XVI quoted a statement made by Byzantine Orthodox Christian Emperor Manuel II Paleologus during the period between 1394 and 1402 A.D. while the Emperor was under house arrest by Islamists: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” The Emperor and the Pope conveniently overlooked the use of violence to spread Christian beliefs. From 325 A.D. until they were separated from government, Christianity was spread by the sword.[8]
8) It is true that Islamists can be distinguished today because they continue to use violence to force submission to their religion.[9]
9) The use of violence to foster religious beliefs is evidenced by the high percentage of European populations that are Christian and Middle Eastern populations that are Islamist. An organized religion can achieve 90% adherence to the faith only by the use of government sponsored or condoned force.
10) A relatively new development is the practice of religious moderates to ignore the violent passages in their religious texts. Because those texts continue to be used, none of the moderates can identify who in their midst will commit the next violent act. In the name of their God, apparent moderate followers of the Bible commit murder[10]; the Church of Christ, Scientist, teaches its followers to refuse medical treatment, which leads to death;[11] and the Amish deny their children an education beyond the eighth grade.[12]
11) The Association advocates that their members teach, without proof of their claims, that parents may indoctrinate their children before they reach the age of reason that Bible based religion is the only religion to perpetuate the conflict with other religions.
WHEREFORE, the Advisory Committee is requested to recommend to the Secretary that the Petition to Renew and Expand the Authority of The Association for Biblical Higher Education be DENIED.
JUDICIAL EQUALITY FOUNDATION, INC.
/s/ William S. Scott
By: William Sumner Scott, J.D.
Executive Director
Judicial Equality Foundation, Inc.
/s/ William S. Scott
William Sumner Scott, J. D.
1. Deuteronomy 13:6-9: “If your very own brother, or your son, or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the people around , whether near or far, from the one end of the land to the other) do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death.” The New International Version, The Holy Bible, Zondervan Corporation, 1988, 13:6-11, page 185.
2. Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, Alfred A. Knoff, 2006, introduction.
3. Dave Anderson, The Infidels, Authorhouse, 2005, page 4.
4. Adam Zamoyski, Holy Madness, Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, NY 1999.
5. http://abhe.gospelcom.net/tenets.htm - last viewed on September 22, 2006.
6. Followers of the Bible must obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29.
7. Wilhelm Niemoller, Struggle and Testimony of a Confessing Church, Bielefeld L Bechauf, 1948, p 526, citing Albert Einstein’s first look to the formally educated in a Democratic Germany to stop Adolph Hitler.
8. The edict that the Christian Bible and the Nicene Creed was to be the only recognized religion by Constantine I in 325 A. D. and the outlaw of Arianism by Theodosius I in 379 A.D. The sword was used to impose Christianity pursuant to those edicts.
9. On July 28, 2006, Naveed Afzal Haq, opened fire on Jewish volunteers, killing Pamela Waechter. At the time of the shooting, it was reported by witnesses that Haq announced, “I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel.” Seattle Post – Intelligencer, July 29, 2006; the May 2006, threat of the death to Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan for conversion from Islam to Christianity; the February 14, 1989, sentence of death by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the then Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, upon British author, Salman Rushdie, for having insulted Islam in his novel “The Satanic Verses”; the murder of Theo van Gogh on November 2, 2004, because he produced the movie “Submission” to depict violence upon Islamic woman; the murder on May 17, 2006, of Turkish Judge Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin in retribution for his ruling against the Islamist head scarf; the violence that resulted in multiple deaths in response to twelve Danish cartoons of Muhammad published on September 30, 2005; the murder in Somalia of Sister Leonella and her bodyguard by two Islamists on September 17, 2006, in to protest the Pope’s speech; Swedish journalist Martin Adler, who was killed in June, 2006, during an Islamist demonstration in Mogadishu, and a prominent Somali peace activist, Abdulkadir Yahya Ali, who was murdered by Islamists a month later; BBC journalist Kate Peyton was shot dead in Somalia on February 9, 2005 – author’s comment: these actions are to stifle dissent against Islam – do you see the pattern.
10. Paul J. Hill, after serving as a Presbyterian minister for seven years, killed an abortion doctor. He said he did not know why more people were not killing abortion doctors as he had done. A group of same thinking Christians held a candle light vigil for him every night outside the prison for the two week period prior to his execution. On March 11, 1993, Michael F. Griffin was the first to kill an abortion doctor. He waited to ambush Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, Florida. On October 23, 1998, James Kopp murdered Dr. Barnett Slepian, an abortion doctor, by shots fired through a window from a wooded area behind his home. Eric Rudolph is serving a life sentence for his confessed murder of a security guard by bombing an Atlanta abortion clinic on January 16, 1997. The Bible followers called the Army of God have a John Salvi III website at http://www.armyofgod.com/JohnSalviIII.html - last visited on 9-22-06 - that reports: on December 30, 1994 Salvi walked into the Planned Parenthood Clinic of Greater Boston, MA and killed Shannon Lowney and wounding three others. He then went down the street to Pre-term Health Services and killed Lee Ann Nichols and wounding two other volunteers. An expert on extremist groups, Paul deArmond, Public Good Research Director, says: “the number of those who commit murder is relatively small but the support network is enormous.”
11. Rita Swan, CHILD, INC., http://www.childrenshealthcare.org/victims.htm; Hermanson v State, 604 So. 2d 775 (Fla 1992) for court refusal to hold anyone accountable for the death of a child that could have been easily cured by a trip to the doctor.
12. Wisconsin v Yoder, 406 U. S. 205 (1972).
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
On this 25th day of September, 2006, the undersigned certifies that a copy of the above Request to make an Oral Presentation in Support of the Opposition of Scott and jefound.org to the Application of the Association of Biblical Higher Education Application for Renewal and Expansion was sent by email to: Francesca.Paris-Albertson@ed.gov and the original hardcopy was by first class mail, postage prepaid to: Ms. Francesca.Paris-Albertson at U. S. Department of Education, Room 7110, MS 8509, 1990 K Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006 and a copy by the same methods to: renlow@abhe.org and to: Dr. Ralph E. Enlow, Jr., Interim Executive Director, The Association for Biblical Higher Education, 5575 S. Semoran Blvd., Suite 26, Orlando, FL 32822.
/s/ William S. Scott
William Sumner Scott, J.D.
Executive Director
Judicial Equality Foundation, Inc.
P. O. Box 380341
Miami, FL 33238
email: wss@jefound.org
website: http://jefound.org
Fri 22 Sep 2006
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Washington, DC 20585
In the Matter of:
The Petition for Renewal of Recognition
by the ABA Section of Legal
Education and Admissions to the Bar
to Accredit Law Schools
National Advisory Committee on
Institutional Quality and Integrity
meeting December 4-6, 2006
Federal Reg Notice Vol 71 No. 165
August 25, 2006 – Page 50404, 2nd column
Item 2, American Bar Association
SCOTT AND JEFOUND REQUEST TO MAKE AN ORAL PRESENTATION IN SUPPORT OF THEIR OPPOSITION TO RENEWAL OF THE ABA RIGHT TO ACCREDIT LAW SCHOOLS
1. Presenter
William Sumner Scott, J.D. (“Scott”) P. O. Box 380341, Miami, FL 33238, wss@jefound.org, presents the following request:
2. Organization Represented
Scott represents himself and Judicial Equality Found, Inc., a 501(c)(3) qualified, Florida non-profit corporation, dedicated to the use of the judicial system to maintain civilized order. See http://jefound.org for statements of its history, purpose and other activities.
3. A. Introduction, Jurisdiction and Relief Requested
The American Bar Association (the “ABA”) is operated to provide benefits to its members. This primary duty is in direct conflict with the law schools’ duty to educate law students to make critical examinations that could lead to administration of justice reforms that could be detrimental to ABA members. In spite of this obvious deficiency, the Federal, 50 state and the Territories’ judicial branches (the “Judicial Branches”) have delegated the accreditation of law schools to the ABA.
The primary reason for this delegation is that law school accreditation by the ABA costs less to provide than if each Judicial Branch did the work. In addition, the ABA justifies its methods by the assertion on its website that without its accreditation system, legal education would become fragmented and inconsistent. As explained in our Opposition and this presentation, these benefits are achieved at the sacrifice of a judicial system that serves the public needs.
Through the accreditation process, the ABA prescribes law school admission criteria and the courses taught. The ABA also has influence over the lawyer professional license exam (the “Bar Exam”) questions. By these points of contact, the ABA has total control of the Judicial Branches’ quality of legal education. There has been little or no objection to this control by the legal profession because of the ABA’s power to recommend judicial candidates and the vested interest of all lawyers in a high hourly rate for their services.
The Higher Education Act of 1985, 79 Stat. 1212, as amended, 20 U.S. C. A. § 1070, granted the Department of Education the right to determine who will accredit law schools. Our Opposition urges this Committee to recommend to the Secretary that she exercise that right to deny the ABA renewal application to accredit law schools and that she further conduct hearings how to best accomplish that task for the benefit of the public.
B. ABA Imposed Anti-competitive Conditions
The ABA has imposed artificial barriers to restrict entry to the legal education business. Law schools are required to own their buildings, employ a specified percentage of full time faculty, and have an expansive law library. Building ownership is totally irrelevant to the quality of education. Often, part-time faculty members know the subject better because they practice the area of the law taught. Law schools must be free to employ the best instructors available without regard to how many hours they teach. The ABA limits the number of hours a student may work. The number of hours of outside employment by law students is also irrelevant. Many student employment opportunities provide training that benefits the study of law, such as bank trust officers, law enforcement officers, social workers, teachers, paralegals, and court reporters. Work outside the classroom exposes students to the public they will serve and permits students from low net worth situations to attend law school.
The ABA has caused its approved law schools to adopt the Law School Admission Test (the “LSAT”). The LSAT tests the ability to read and intelligence, but little else. The results are published as an average test score of the incoming freshman law class for each school. This publication creates the impression that the students in the high average score law schools are the best educated. There is no proven merit to this ABA condoned belief.
The Judicial Branches have agreed that the graduates from ABA-accredited law schools are qualified to take the license test while law graduates from out-of-state, non-ABA-accredited law schools either are denied admission or face additional hurdles to take the test.
The Bar exams are under the supervision of the Judicial Branches. The Judicial Branches have permitted the ABA to provide questions. The questions cover 10 or more law subjects. No exemption to take a specialized Bar exam with less than all subjects is granted. The knowledge of those who intend to limit their practice to a particular field of law is not tested to sufficient depth. Undergraduate law courses in particular specialties must be tested before they are granted the right to serve the public. Specific undergraduate courses in judgeship with internships to identify those who are qualified must be developed. Under the present system, the knowledge level for the law school graduate is too superficial to provide public service. Yet, they are permitted to immediately take the Bar exam and, upon achieving a passing score, they are granted the unlimited right to practice law in any field they chose.
C. Crises Conditions Exist
Law schools under ABA supervision are prevented from the exercise of the creativity necessary to keep Americans safe from harm. Specifically:
(1) The Judicial Branches have interpreted their authorization documents to force them to wait for problems to come to them rather than affirmatively search for opportunities to provide justice. They are slavishly attached to the past, including their past mistakes. This mindset prevented the elimination of slavery for 74 years and women from voting for 122 years. It is also why religious violence[1] and injustice to Native Americans continues.[2] The ABA imposed Bar Exams stifle law school study of how to use the judicial system to search for justice.
(2) To respond to public needs requires in-depth knowledge of related subject matter prior to admission to law school classes. The ABA, through its control of Bar exams forces all law students to take the same law school courses. This is a waste of law school and student time. Different legal specialties require different training. And, law schools should respond to provide that specialized training. As examples:
(i) Require law schools to establish undergraduate pre-law courses as a condition precedent to the admission to law school classes. Law students admitted to: (A) constitutional law classes must have taken undergraduate history; (B) corporations classes must be limited to students who have taken finance or accounting; and, (C) domestic relations students must have taken psychology. Course prerequisites will force the law professor to take the law school course to an achievement level one would expect of a professional education; and
(ii) Prescribe courses in religious history, content of holy books, and comparative religion.
(3) Students must be required to declare their intent to go to law school in undergrad and to take courses that are specific to the area of the law they elect to study. This will identify students who can plan ahead and have a genuine desire to be lawyers. Once the undergraduate declares his or her intention to go to law school, the undergraduate school will have an incentive to focus on the quality of education provided and the performance of the declared pre-law student to be certain the undergraduate school’s reputation is preserved with law school admission departments.
(4) The legal system refuses to study and solve the problems of the underclass. Rather, it reduces crime by the imposition of the highest incarceration rate of the 205 independent countries of the world.[3] In 1981, 0.9% of the United States population was in prison. In 1992, it was 1.9% of the population. In 2003, it was 2.4%. The percent of people in the population who grow up unsocialized and who, given the opportunity, will commit crimes, has increased. The solution imposed by the legal system has been to increase the time served for the offense charged. The number and severity of punishment for the crimes reported in 2003 at 1981 sentencing rates corresponds to a 2003 prison population of 490,000. The actual prison population in 2003 was 2,086,000, a difference of 1.6 million. Imagine the crime rate tomorrow, if today, 1.6 million inmates were released from United States prisons.[4] And, when they are released, their criminal records will be made public to interfere with their ability to assimilate into society.
(5) The ABA, to protect its membership’s role in a society controlled by organized religions, promotes no law school courses to clearly define how free people can protect themselves from those who preach that non-believers must die. Believers proclaim that only they are right and everyone else is wrong.[5]
(i) The world has been under siege by organized religion both before and after the United States was founded.[6] The Torah, Bible and Qur’an all teach the same intolerant verses such as those found in Deuteronomy 13:6-9 and the Qur’an Sura 9:29.[7] Unless the sources of religious violence are identified and eliminated, Americans are at risk of annihilation by use of weapons of mass destruction by those who seek to impose their religion on others.
(ii) On September 12, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a statement made by Byzantine Orthodox Christian Emperor Manuel II Paleologus while he was under house arrest by Islamists during the period between 1394 and 1402 A.D.: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” The Emperor and the Pope conveniently overlooked the history of Christian violence to spread their beliefs. From 325 A.D. until when they were separated from government, Roman and Orthodox Christianity were spread by the sword.[8] It is true that Islamists can be distinguished today because they continue to use violence to force submission to their religion.[9]
(iii) A relatively new development is the practice of religious moderates to ignore the violent passages in their religious texts. Because those texts continue to be used, none of the moderates can identify who in their midst will commit the next violent act. In the name of their God, apparent moderates commit murder[10]; the Church of Christ, Scientist, teaches its followers to refuse medical treatment, which leads to death[11]; and the Amish deny their children an education beyond the eighth grade.[12] All are positive their actions are condoned by God and will be rewarded in heaven.
(iv) The use of violence to foster religious beliefs is evidenced by the high percentage of European populations that are Christian and Middle Eastern populations that are Islamist. An organized religion can achieve 90% adherence to the faith only by the use of government sponsored or condoned force.
(v) All organized religious people, without proof of accuracy of their claims, are permitted to indoctrinate their children to believe that their religion is the only valid religion in existence.
(vi) The United States has claimed victory in the Middle East without the requirement that Islam be separated from the Afghanistan and Iraqi Constitutions.
(6) From the 1974 guilty plea of John W. Dean, President Richard Nixon’s White House Counsel, to the 2005 discovery of $90,000 in the freezer of Congressman William Jefferson, too many lawyers have demonstrated no regard for ethical conduct. Ethics training must begin in grade school. The judicial system must make that happen.
(7) Because ABA members get paid to judge and represent parties in divorce and criminal matters, they have a conflict of interest in evaluating how to eliminate those social ills. Divorce rates continue at the same rate as prior years.[13] During 2004, the rate of births to unmarried women climbed four percent, to 1,470,189, the highest number ever recorded in the more than six decades for which comparable national statistics are available.[14] The ABA promotes no courses to teach how to reduce these abhorrent conditions.
(8) The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (TANF), commonly called welfare reform, transferred the obligation to support children from the government to the men who fathered the children. For men who earn below the poverty level, the effect has been to criminalize their poverty if they cannot pay the “child support” the legal system decides must be paid. There are few poor men who can support one household, much less two. Jail or detachment from organized society is the choice that faces men who cannot meet their court ordered child support.[15] Lawyers must lead the way to educate the poor on the importance of marriage, how to pick a mate, abstinence from sex, and use of birth control to avoid the imposition of child support they cannot pay.
(9) Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)[16] evidence has been accepted to prove that over 120 convictions in capital punishment cases were wrong. To date, no reform of procedures has been made to increase the chance of correct decisions; and, no one has been held accountable for these wrongful convictions.[17] Only with funding from the European Union was the ABA able to conduct a study of the conditions in the State Death Penalty Systems.[18] The legal profession claims that all of the other convictions were correct and that the 120 proved wrong is a negligible percentage of the total. There is no justification for that claim. Consider that the best and brightest prosecutors and defense attorneys are assigned to capital punishment cases. The presumption should be that for every wrongful death penalty conviction, there are 10,000 wrongful convictions for minor offenses handled by the less skilled. The number of wrongful death penalty cases is low because the prosecutors and judges resist finding that the convicted person is innocent. If the system were designed to provide justice without resistance, the number of wrongfully convicted findings would be significantly higher.
D. Conclusion.
Civilization’s first line of defense against tyranny is its formally educated.[19] For reasons stated in our written Opposition, as supported by this presentation, the present legal system must be reformed to produce lawyers trained to eliminate tyranny and make Americans safe by non-violent means.
Under most situations, reform of the existing accreditation agency would eliminate objections. Not so with the ABA. The ABA must be removed from the accreditation of law schools if law students are to be trained to search for reforms that may be detrimental to the best interests of judges and lawyers. Once the ABA is removed from the accreditation process, Judicial Branches will be forced to seek adequate funding and law schools will be free to compete to provide law graduates with the skills and mindset necessary to meet public needs.
JUDICIAL EQUALITY FOUNDATION, INC.
/s/ William S. Scott
By: William Sumner Scott, J.D.
Executive Director
Judicial Equality Foundation, Inc.
/s/ William S. Scott
William Sumner Scott, J. D.
1. Marci A. Hamilton, God v The Gavel, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 2005; Sam Harris, End of Faith, W. W. Norton, New York, 2005; 9/11 Commission Report, July 22, 2004, US Gov Printing Office; Kenneth R. Timmerman, Preachers of Hate, Crown Forum, NY, NY, 2003.
2. Cobell v Norton, 392 F3d 461 (D.C. Cir 2004); currently styled Cobell, et al vs Kempthorne, (originally filed as Cobell v Babbitt on June 10, 1996).
3. Roy Walmsley, World Prison Population List (fourth edition), www.prisonstudies.org
4. Charles Murray, The Hallmark of the Underclass, Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2005.
5. Dave Anderson, The Infidels, Authorhouse, Bloomington, In, 2005, page 3.
6. Adam Zamoyski, Holy Madness, Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, NY 1999.
7. Deuteronomy 13:6-9: “If your very own brother, or your son, or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the people around , whether near or far, from the one end of the land to the other) do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death.” The New International Version, The Holy Bible, Zondervan Corporation, 1988, 13:6-11, page 185. Qur’an Sura 9:29 “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Las Day, nor hold forbidden which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, not acknowledge the Religion of Truth (sic Islam), from among people of the Book (sic Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah (sic poll tax) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” The Qur’an, Al Arqam Dawa Center, Brooklyn, NY, 2005.
8. The edict that the Nicene Creed was to be the only recognized religion by Constantine I in 325 A. D. and the outlaw of Arianism by Theodosius I in 379 A.D and use of the sword to carry out those edicts.
9. The Legacy of Jihad, edited by Andrew G. Bostom, MD, Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2005; the May 2006, indictment and threat of the death to Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan for conversion from Islam to Christianity; the February 14, 1989, sentence of death by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the then Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, upon British author, Salman Rushdie, for having insulted Islam in his novel “The Satanic Verses”; the murder of Theo van Gogh on November 2, 2004, because he produced the movie “Submission” to depict violence upon Islamic woman; the murder on May 17, 2006, of Turkish Judge Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin in retribution for his ruling against the Islamist head scarf; the violence that resulted in multiple deaths in response to twelve Danish cartoons of Muhammad published on September 30, 2005; the murder in Somalia of Sister Leonella and her bodyguard by two Islamists on September 17, 2006, in to protest the Pope’s speech; Swedish journalist Martin Adler, who was killed in June, 2006, during an Islamist demonstration in Mogadishu, and a prominent Somali peace activist, Abdulkadir Yahya Ali, who was murdered by Islamists a month later; BBC journalist Kate Peyton was shot dead in Somalia on February 9, 2005 – author’s comment: these actions are to stifle dissent – do you see the pattern.
10. On July 29, 1994, Paul Hill murdered Dr. John Bayard Britton, an abortion doctor and his escort. An expert on extremist groups, Paul deArmond, says it’s hard to estimate how many people actually favor using deadly violence against clinics that offer abortions. “The number actually acting is small,” deArmond said, “but the support network (sic in the United States) is enormous.” On July 28, 2006, Naveed Afzal Haq, opened fire on Jewish volunteers, killing Pamela Waechter. At the time of the shooting, it was reported by witnesses that Haq announced, “I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel.” Seattle Post – Intelligencer, July 29, 2006.
11. Rita Swan, CHILD, INC., http://www.childrenshealthcare.org/victims.htm; Hermanson v State, 604 So. 2d 775 (Fla 1992) for court refusal to hold anyone accountable for the death of a child from infant diabetes that could have been easily cured by a trip to the doctor.
12. Wisconsin v Yoder, 406 U. S. 205 (1972).
13. National Vital Statistics Report, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_20.pdf
14. National Center for Health Statistics, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/finalbirths04/finalbirths04.htm
15. David R. Usher, Is Welfare Reform Really a Success?, http://www.newswithviews.com/Usher/david31.htm
16. DNA is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic make-up of a person. Its use provides identification of persons because it is accepted that no person’s DNA is the same.
17. The ABA released a 459 page report on September 17, 2006, to recommend suspension of the death penalty in Florida for systematic failure to provide fair and accurate procedures. ABA Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems, Executive Summary, page iii. http://www.aclufl.org/issues/death_penalty/ABADeathPenaltyReport.pdf - last viewed 9-19-06
18. Id., acknowledgements face-page.
19. Wilhelm Niemoller, Struggle and Testimony of a Confessing Church, Bielefeld L Bechauf, 1948, p 526, citing Albert Einstein’s first look to the formally educated in a Democratic Germany to stop Adolph Hitler.
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
On this 22nd day of September, 2006, the undersigned certifies that a copy of the above Presentation request was sent by email to: Francesca Paris-Albertson@ed.gov and the original was filed by first class mail, postage prepaid, to: Ms. Francesca Paris-Albertson at U. S. Department of Education, Room 7110, MS 8509, 1990 K Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006 and a copy to: John Sebert, Consultant to the ABA on Legal Education, American Bar Association, 321 N. Clark Street, 21st Floor, Chicago, IL 60610.
/s/ William S. Scott
William Sumner Scott, J.D.
Executive Director
Judicial Equality Foundation, Inc.
P. O. Box 380341
Miami, FL 33238
email: wss@jefound.org
website: http://jefound.org