In a June 2011 episode of a conspiracy mongering radio program, Aroostook Watchmen, Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore can be heard agreeing that all of the constitutional amendments after the 10th should be eliminated. For some point of reference, the 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 15th prohibited the government from denying citizens the right to vote based on that person’s “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” and the 19th extended the right to vote to women.
When one of the hosts remarked that he would like to see an amendment that would abolish all of the amendments after 10, Moore agreed. “That would eliminate many problems. You know people don’t understand how some of these amendments have completely tried to wreck the form of government that our forefathers intended,” he replied.
Moore took particular umbrage with the 14th and 17th amendments, which outlaws unreasonable searches and seizures and allows for the direct election of senators by voters as opposed to state legislatures, respectively. The 14th amendment, which was passed during the Civil War Reconstruction period, guaranteed citizenship, equal rights, and protection to former slaves.
“Yeah, it had very serious problems with its approval by the states,” Moore replied. “The danger in the 14th Amendment, which was to restrict, it has been a restriction on the states using the first Ten Amendments by and through the 14th Amendment. To restrict the states from doing something that the federal government was restricted from doing and allowing the federal government to do something which the first Ten Amendments prevented them from doing. If you understand the incorporation doctrine used by the courts and what it meant. You’d understand what I’m talking about.”
In an earlier episode of the Aroostook Watchmen in May of 2011, Moore questioned the legitimacy of the 9/11 attacks and that the investigation should be revisited to find out “what really happened.” Moore has been accused of sexual assault or preying on over a half dozen of then-teenage girls when he was in his 30s. You can listen to his interview below.
(Via CNN)