But not on anything you would expect from a government adhering to the Constitution. Healthcare, financial markets, petroleum exploration and extraction, economic activity, immigration, national ID cards, cap and trade, smoking, transfats & salt, CAFE; gun control, taxes, price controls on labor, electricity, and banking. The list goes on.
No matter how well intentioned, there are two things to point out about this. The first is that none of it fits in the 17 enumerated powers of Congress. The second is that even if it were, there is no way that body of men and women could ever hope to efficiently run all those areas of our lives. The breadth of control required dooms it from the start. They could not possible know everything to know about the extremely large, complex, and fast moving America we live in today. Every attempt to do so only gives us a legacy of bloated bureaucracies that are expensive to maintain, and expensive for us to comply with and respond to.
Don’t expect an overnight change. Things are this way because of elected officials that we elected. The power to inhibit liberty has reached a critical mass, and the only way to turn the tide is to move the power somewhere else, and disperse it.
That’s where the 10th amendment comes in. In language as clear today as it was in the 18th century, the 10th amendment ensures that states are under no obligation to bend to the whim of the central government. When states across the nation begin to push back, as we are now seeing with the Health Care law with nullification, power is naturally devolved away from where it has pooled. No one group or individual can have a lot of power when every group has some.
What’s the action plan? Talk to STATE elected officials, watch their voting record, ask them of their plans for nullification of federal laws. Hold them to their word, and remember. Remember what they said and what they did when they come up for reelection. Find the candidate who most closely matches your values, not the political party that most closely (or least distant) matches them.
This will put them on edge. When they feel safe in their official capacity, they vote with their party or their ego. When they feel the heat from back home, and have a healthy fear for their job their priorities will be our priorities.
Our priority must be liberty. Without it, there can be nothing else.
cross-posted from the South Carolina Tenth Amendment Center
Surprise: Law Professor Misinterprets Supremacy Clause
Have you ever read an article that you were not sure what stance the author takes on the subject but presents both sides of the argument at once? I had the distinguished experience recently when I was reading the article titled “Sheriffs, State Lawmakers Push Back on Gun Control” on the Newsmax website (see: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Gun-Control-Pushback/2013/01/17/id/471825). It was a little confusing until I got about half way through it and read a quote by Sam Kamin.
Sam is a constitutional law professor at the University of Denver. One would think that if someone was a law professor that they would actually know and understand the law. Or in this case, a constitutional law professor – who should then know and understand the constitution. It is highly unfortunate when people like Sam misspeak about a subject. Their title gives them some credibility so people think what they say is true because they are supposedly an “expert”. But, when they make a mistake it is still a mistake.
The Supremacy Clause of Article VI, Clause 2 reads:
Sam makes the comment that state legislatures can pass any laws they want but that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution makes such actions unconstitutional. He further states that when there is a conflict between state and federal law, the federal government is supreme. Nothing could be farther from the truth. His blanket statement implies that the state laws are not necessary and state governments are not necessary because the federal government and its laws are supreme. Continue Reading →