During the middle of the last century it had come to colloquially mean “everything you think is bad that you can name and think the federal government should get involved with fixing.” This practice continues to this day.
Example: “It’s too hot outside and my ice cream cone has melted! That’s unconstitutional! The government should do something about it!”
Example: “I want to kill my baby but the government is stopping me! That’s unconstitutional!”
Example: “Someone makes more than I do and I don’t get paid enough! That’s unconstitutional!”
Example: “I saw someone in a public place praying! That’s unconstitutional!”
Example: “I fell down and broke my weewee and now can’t afford my medical bills! That’s unconstitutional!”
Another part of the problem is the premise that the federal government of the country are the rulers above us and the States are just some lowly sub division below them. This is largely the problem since the times of Lincoln and the “Civil War” where the country was forced together again by lots of nice men with guns engaging in massive and unnecessary wholesale slaughter and destruction.
So, if you actually read the Constitution plus the first twelve amendments, and this is very easy to do, you would realize that the “Supreme Federal Government Model” of the country is very clearly wrong.
The very brief explanation of this is that there were, once upon a time, thirteen colonies. They created a mutual protection agreement in order to win their independence from Great Britain, called the Articles of Confederation. After Washington kicked their asses the colonies were granted their independence (The Treaty of Paris) individually. At that point the colonies became thirteen individual States. States that were united. Get it? Thirteen sovereign states, united under a mutual protection agreement.
It is important to understand that at that point these States were, for all intents and purposes, really different countries. They had different customs. Different morals. Different laws. Different armies. Different trade agreements. They even had different money. They could all pretty much do whatever they wanted to, right up until they were attacked. At that point the agreement was that they would unite their resources and fight to defend each other. They were very defensive about their independence and liberty. They were very defensive about having people over there decide what they should be doing over here.
I’ll say it again. They were different countries, also known as States, united to defend each other.
That’s it.
The problems they were having stemmed from other countries, and our own people, tended to view them then as we view the European Union today. Rather insignificant. So they decided to write a document which would unite them just a little bit more. This document is the Constitution.
The Constitution formed the federal government.
The Constitution was written by the States.
Thus it was the States who formed the federal government. And they did so with a very fierce defensiveness about their independence and liberty.
The important point being that all federal power comes from the States. Not the other way around.
So the federal government, as defined by the body of the text of the Constitution, is only an agency created by the States to serve them in doing only the things that all of the States at the time mutually needed and agreed upon. The federal government serves the States. Not the other way around.
In this, the United States is not one country. It is fifty different countries inside of a strong mutual protection and international relations agreement.
That agency known as the federal government, assembled by the States, is granted only the powers they need to accomplish the specific tasks named within the Constitution, and very emphatically not to rule over them.
Included in the Constitution are a bunch of things defining the form of the federal government, a few limitations on the States, how representatives, presidents and justices are to be elected or appointed, some things that they are not allowed to do and a rather specific list of things they are allowed to do and expected to do.
The most important parts of this are two sentences: 1) Article One, Section Eight, and 2) the Tenth Amendment.
Article One, Section Eight is the list of things they are allowed and expected to do.
In short they are allowed to tax, pay the debts, provide for defense, borrow money, regulate commerce, establish rule of naturalization, make laws on bankruptcies, coin money and regulate the value of it and of foreign coin, fix the standard of weights and measures, provide punishment of counterfeiting, establish post offices and roads, copyright laws, constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court, write laws to punish pirates, declare war, authorize civilian ships to capture enemy ships during war, raise and support Armies, provide and maintain a navy, make rules for the land and naval Forces, provide for calling forth the militia, provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia and its officers and training, do some stuff about the national capital, necessary government buildings, forts, arsenals, etc..
The last of these powers I am going to separate out and paste in exactly, and emphasize it, because it’s kind of important to the point I’m trying to make. “And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
I call your attention to these words, “foregoing Powers.” This is a limiting factor to the powers of the federal government. It doesn’t say “any powers you frickin’ want, just because you think it’s a good idea for some supposed ‘general welfare.’” It says “foregoing powers.”
The Tenth Amendment, in layman’s terms, says that the federal government is not allowed to do anything else. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Everything the federal government is doing that has anything to do with the list of powers in Article One, Section Eight, is constitutional.
Everything else the federal government is doing that doesn’t have anything to do with the list of powers in Article One, Section Eight, is unconstitutional for the federal government.
On the list=constitutional for the federal government.
Not on the list=unconstitutional for the federal government.
Do you want to know what is constitutional for the federal government? Look at the list. Not there? That means it’s unconstitutional for the federal government to engage in it at all.
One of the things that is not on the list is any authority for the Senate to amend the Constitution to give themselves additional powers. Article Five (which specifies the process for amendment) notwithstanding, any amendment to the Constitution which gives more power to congress is unconstitutional.
Now that last sentence, I realize, is a new thought to a lot of you, but the Constitution cannot legally be amended to just give the federal government any power they want. Why do I say this? The Tenth Amendment forbids it!
As of the passage of the Tenth Amendment, until it is repealed, no more power can be legally granted to the federal government. They shouldn’t even be allowed to debate the idea.
As extreme as it may sound to say it, most of the amendments from the Thirteenth on are unconstitutional for the federal government.
Fifty States can, and certainly should, write laws to ban slavery but legally the federal government can’t. Fifty States can, and certainly should, write laws for women and people of different races to vote but legally the federal government can’t.
The federal government was not established to define what our rights are. It was established to provide fifty States with national relations, international relations and mutual protection. That’s it.
It is the States, if anybody, who should decide who is and isn’t free. It is the States, if anybody, who should decide privileges and immunities. It is the States, if anybody, who should decide who can vote. It is the States, if anybody, who should decide how to educate our children. It is the States, if anybody, who should decide if wealth distribution is appropriate. It is the States, if anybody, who should decide if Social Security is appropriate. It is the States, if anybody, who should decide if Medicaid or Medicare is appropriate. It is the States, if anybody, who should decide…well…every single thing that you can or can’t think of that isn’t specifically designated as a power of the federal government.
The federal government wasn’t created to lead us, rule over us, interact with us on an individual basis at all or dictate to us what the terms of our lives should be. Everything along those lines is none of their business.
What do you say we remember who we are, man up and tell them so?
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