unconsitutional

When I was an impressionable young law student, one academic at the ANU Law School stood out heads and shoulders above the rest. It was my Constitutional law lecturer, George Williams. If ever I were inclined to worship the ground upon which a lawyer walks (and I am being purely hypothetical here), George would be the one.

George, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of The Constitution and his quirky facts and anecdotes about the various Justices of the High Court, actually made the study of Constitutional law fun and interesting (Imagine that…The Constitution is actually fun and interesting!).

Yesterday, I saw George being quoted in a Fairfax news article. And it made me smile. Now a Professor at UNSW, George brought me back to the law lecture theatre in 1998 and reminded me (and other readers) that there is a provision in the Constitution that expressly prevents the Commonwealth from making laws that prohibit “the free exercise of religion”. It is section 116 – and both Jacqui Lambie and Cory Bernardi ought to read it.