In article <VSPb9.28985$Ic7.2102701 at news2.west.cox.net>,
John Knight <jwknight at polbox.com> wrote:
>>We've never signed a "Treaty of Malta".
My error -- it was the Treaty of Tripoli, signed on 4 November 1796 by
the Dey of ALgiers and Joel Barlow, U.S. Consul to ALgiers, ratified
by Congress on 10 June 1797.
Article XI of the treaty reads as follows:
As the government of the United States of America is not in
any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself
no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility
of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into
any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it
is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious
opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony
existing between the two countries.
(http://members.tripod.com/~candst/tripoli1.htm)
>And even if we had, that would not
>disband the US Constitution, which calls for "free exercise [of religion]",
>which to 264 million putative Christians in this putative Christian nation
>means: "free exercise [of religion]".
Article VI of the Constitution states,
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which
shall be made in Pursuance thereof; AND ALL TREATIES MADE, or
which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States,
shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every
State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or
Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. [Emph. added]
As a duly ratified treaty, the Treaty of Tripoli is the Supreme Law of
the Land.
Happily, the United States need not be a Christian Nation for
American Christians to be able to practise Christianity in America.
