Peter James

Political Party: Republican
Current Position: Businessman, computer consultant
District: Four
Political Experience: Ron Paul Campaign activist

This is not original reporting. All information has been compiled from James's campaign web site and The Washington Post. Silver Chips Online posts this news summary to provide readers with a forum for discussion.

Peter James is one of five congressional candidates running in Maryland in support of Paul, meaning that he shares Paul's libertarian mindset and wants to draw attention to the Republican presidential candidate, according to The Washington Post. James admits that it will be hard to run as a Republican in Maryland's Fourth District, but he thinks Paul's message will remain strong regardless of whether Paul is elected or not.

James is a strong advocate for the protection of religious freedom as defined by the First Amendment, according to James's campaign web site. He opposes the Supreme Court's decision in Employment Division v. Smith, which says states may ignore a citizen's right to exercise his religion freely as long as they ignore these rights equally across all regions. Although Congress tried to amend this decision by enacting the Religious Freedom Act, the Supreme Court ruled that the act only applied to federal cases. James promises to create an exception to this decision by using Article III of the Constitution, which claims that Congress has the power to make exceptions to any Supreme Court ruling, according to James's campaign web site.

The Supreme Court isn't the only part of the government that's failing to do its job, according to Paul's views. The government structure is also not working because Congress lacks the courage to exercise its appointed powers and the government as a whole tries to infiltrate every aspect of people's lives, according to James. He claims that the government is now going so far as dictating what foods children are allowed to eat in school and brainwashing students by pretending to teach them values while hiding secret agendas, according to James's campaign web site. James suggests that parents teach their children proper values and that parent-teacher associations design school curricula. He believes that as education becomes more centrally controlled, the results become progressively worse.

Apart from being overly controlling, Congress also carelessly passes legislation based on their emotions of greed and fear, according to James. He claims that Congress has passed laws without carefully reviewing them and has taken away freedoms from the people. Greed and fear will not affect James because he states on his web site that, "the only thing worthy of our fear is God."