耶穌紀年的開始與上帝有關,美利堅合眾國的獨立作為一個事件,并不完全決定于人的意愿,但是,憲法——一國之政治架構——確是完全靠人的理性能力創(chuàng)造的,是各州在一個和平的會議中“一致同意”制定的?!?/DIV>
《聯(lián)邦黨人文集》第一篇寫到:“時常有人指出,下面這個重要問題似乎是留待這個國家的人民用他們的行為和范例來決定的:人類社會是否真正能夠通過深思熟慮和自由選擇來建立良好的政府,還是他們永遠注定要靠機遇和強力來決定他們的政治組織?!?0憲法制定者已經在這里選擇了他們的答案,而其后各州人民的批準,以及兩百多年來的多次增補修訂,無數(shù)的憲法訴訟,似乎都表明,人的深思熟慮和自由選擇和上帝的計劃一直在一起進行?!?/DIV>
【注釋】
*法學博士,北京大學法學院講師。電子郵件:zhaoxl at law.pku.edu.cn
1 Kathleen M. Sullivan & Gerald Gunther (ed.), Constitutional Law, 14th Edition, New York:Foundation Press, 2001.
2 "同時,’an establishment’這個短語看來保證了非歧視的宗教援助的合法性。假若憲法制定者禁止的是’the establishment of religion,’——這個短語強調的是屬類的’宗教’這個詞——那么認為他們想禁止的是所有對宗教優(yōu)于非宗教的官方待遇。但是通過選擇’an establishment’而不是’the establishment’,他們表明他們想禁止的只是那些會促進某個特定教派的利益的官方活動。”Michael J.Malbin, Religion and Politics: The Intention of the Authors of the First Amendment, p.14,Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1978.
3 "Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to exalt it by its influence on reason alone;...", Virginia Bill for Religious Liberty.
4原文為:“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
5漢密爾頓、杰伊、麥迪遜,《聯(lián)邦黨人文集》,頁430,程逢如、在漢、舒遜譯,北京:商務印書館,1995。
6原文為:“We the People of the United States,...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
7原文為:“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
8原文為:“Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth.”
9 George Anastaplo, The Constitution of 1787: A Commentary, p.221, Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1989.
10漢密爾頓、杰伊、麥迪遜,《聯(lián)邦黨人文集》,頁3,程逢如、在漢、舒遜譯,北京:商務印書館,1995
原載《中外法學》2003年第4期