ABSTRACT
Senator John Kerry added that “the only proper and legal way to protect school prayer is to amend the Constitution, not to build an artificial, extra constitutional shield.” Of course, neither senator said he would vote for an amendment to protect school prayer if proposed and, indeed, neither did. The Happy Convention, of course, depends on ever increasing spending to secure re-election whether the money to spend comes from taxes or borrowing is irrelevant. Some opponents were true believers—they thought the Happy Convention was the US Constitution. Constitutional change has to come—the Happy Convention grants a monopoly on the shape it takes to the Imperial Court. The Senate, playing its Happy Convention role has, for practical purposes, removed the amendment process from the Constitution. Between 1990 and 2005, two thousand constitutional amendments were introduced in the Senate, one hundred were reported out by the Judiciary Committee, and none received the required two-thirds vote.
