U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) introduced a bill which would require all persons in the United States (“U.S.”) seeking to be employed to obtain a government-issued biometric National Identification card.(FN1) Not so surprisingly, this measure has come in the name of “protecting America” against illegal immigrants working in the U.S. unlawfully. Thus, “[t]o ensure that only people legally in the U.S. can work here, the bill will propose a biometric I.D. for EVERY AMERICAN before anybody can get a job.” (FN2) This is yet another method by which the federal government continually institutes practices and principles contrary to what a Free Confederated Republic should be and contrary to principles of limited government, self-government, natural rights, and true constitutional intent and meaning. Judge Andrew Napolitano rightfully calls this legislation a “monstrosity” and predicts that this bill will not pass.(FN3) Perhaps Judge Napolitano is correct, but we should consider what the people of the U.S. once rejected but now embrace.
The New Deal
After Abraham Lincoln set the stage for federal government forceful takeover of the people and states’ rights, power and jurisdiction, Franklin D. Roosevelt capitalized on the people’s economic straits in the 1930s by introducing “The New Deal,” which in part socialized the economic, commercial and industrial fabric of the United States. Federal government control, regulation and power: that was the name of the game and still is.
From this era of federal government expansion and encroachment, we see U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), ruling that Congress has the power to regulate the most local of activities, such as an individual, non-commercial farmer’s production of crops for private use, and has the power to penalize and punish any violation of the same.
Prior to 1930, it would have been inconceivable that the people of the states and the state governments themselves would have consented to such a violation of the constitution and such an open encroachment into the lives of individuals, families, businesses and states. Yet, as soon as the circumstance presented itself, the New Deal was substantially adopted and accepted into society and government (or at least by the politicians). We are living with its effect today, almost 100 years later.
