If Alan Keyes does become the GOP challenger to Barack Obama for the Illinois Senate seat, I hope the press does a little more in covering him than endlessly replay his stage dive or describe him as A Black Man Who's Not Afraid To Question Liberalism. I hope somebody points out that Keyes believes it's OK for a U.S. state to have an official state church:

There might be states in which they require a religious test or oath of office. There might be states in which they have established churches, where subventions are given to schools, and so forth, to teach the Bible. There might be places where you and I might disagree with the religion some folks wanted to put in place over their communities. But guess what the Founders believed? They believed that people in their states and localities had the right to live under institutions they would put together to govern themselves according to their faith. [applause]

There is, I believe, going on right now a violation of the Constitution. There is, I believe, a lawless act against which we must stand. But it is the lawless act of the federal judges who seek now to wrest from us that liberty which is ours--not by right of the Constitution, but by grant and right of the Creator, God.

And don't talk to Keyes about the Fourteenth Amendment -- to him, it's irrelevant:

Now, some people over the years have tried to use the Fourteenth Amendment as a way of saying, "Well, the whole Bill of Rights applies to the states, and, therefore, establishment or religion is forbidden at the state level and the federal judges can address this issue." But that's a lie. What happened in the First Amendment is not that it forbids establishment. It forbids the federal government even to deal with the issue of establishment, and with the Tenth Amendment, it reserves that power to the states.

So if you take the Fourteenth Amendment and say, "Now we have applied the Bill of Rights to the states," what it means that state officials have an obligation not to surrender the right of the people at the state level to decide this issue.

That puts him at odds with more than half a century of Supreme Court rulings -- principally Everson v. Board of Education (1947) and Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971). Here's Justice Black, in Everson:

The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect "a wall of separation between church and State."

Amen.