Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10) today addressed a crowd of activists and journalists in front of the U.S. Supreme Court urging the federal courts to do better when it comes to protecting religious liberty.

Joined by Reps. Istook (R-OK), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Joseph Pitts (R-PA) and William Murray of the Religious Freedom Coalition, Congressman McHenry challenged the Supreme Court and federal courts to drop their secular agenda and begin protecting religious liberty. The conference comes after Supreme Court decisions over the last week declaring that the Ten Commandments could not be posted in courthouses, and another that paved the way toward land seizures of churches for development purposes.

“Today marked the opening of the movie War of the Worlds,” said Congressman McHenry, “but what we’re seeing here in America is a war by the secular left-wing ACLU against people with traditional moral values.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court’s McCreary County, Ky., v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky decision ruled unconstitutional a Ten Commandments display on government property, and forbid framed copies on the walls of two rural Kentucky courthouses. Last Thursday, in Kelo v. City of New London the court ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses – even against their will – for private economic development if the result is increased property taxes.

Churches, which do not generate revenue, are unprotected by the decision, paving the way for developers to go to court to seize churches and lay down shopping centers or office parks, which generate local tax revenue.

“What few realize is that if we use tax revenues as a benchmark,” said Congressman McHenry, “there is nothing to keep a shopping center from going to court to knock down a church. After all, a shopping center will create sales taxes and property taxes, and churches don’t pay taxes.”

Congressman McHenry, along with Congressman John Culberson of Texas, is sponsoring a Constitutional Amendment to term-limit federal district court judges, as a way to provide an additional check on the increased power of the federal judiciary.