cross-posted from the Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center

Matt Peterson at the blog of the Competetive Enterprise Institutewrites,

Article 1, Sec. 8, the infamous “Commerce Clause” grants the federal government the power to “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” And ever since it was written, this seemingly open-ended phrase has been used to justify the federal government’s ever-expanding scope and power.

Conservatives are in a dreadful bind. They want a strict reading of the Constitution to prevent the government from intruding on personal liberties, but what if a strict reading of that document doesgrant the government the power to encroach on those liberties? At least one conservative judge thinks that it does.

Until now, many had hoped that the courts and the Constitution would save us from Obamacare. Anyone have a Plan B?

Read the rest, here.  I left this in the comments,

“…what if a strict reading of that document does grant the government the power to encroach on those liberties? At least one conservative judge thinks that it does.”

It doesn’t, and I don’t care how many conservative or liberal judges think otherwise. I am fully capable of understanding those words (Aricle 1, section 8.) for myself, and it’s clear what they say. Wickard v. Filburn claimed that those words give Congress the power to regulate an activity, although that activity is not commerce and it is not interstate. It’s an absurdity. (http://goo.gl/H6VXC.) Neither the Supreme Court, nor anyone else, can tell me that those words mean the opposite of what they mean.

“Anyone have a Plan B?”

Plan B is Jefferson’s plan A, and it should be ours too. The Federal Government cannot grant itself powers which have not been delegated, as it has attempted to do in Wickard v. Filburn. In the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Jefferson wrote, “where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy”. That’s plan A. I’m not particularly interested in the Court’s opinion on the matter. The answer lies in our state capitals, not in Washington, DC.

Steve Palmer

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