By Publius
Huldah
1. With the
U.S. Constitution, We The People created
the federal government. It is our “creature”, and has no
powers other than those We delegated to it in Our
Constitution.
Webster’s
American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), says re “constitution”:
“…In free
states, the constitution is paramount
to the statutes or laws enacted by the legislature, limiting and controlling
its power; and in the United States, the legislature is created,
and its powers designated, by the constitution.”
If you,
dear Reader, will study this paper and read the Constitution, you will know
more about it than most State & federal judges, most law professors &
lawyers, those who spout off on TV & radio, just about anybody in Congress,
and the self-educated who fixate on their own idiotic theories. And you
will certainly know more than anyone currently occupying any
office in the executive branch of the federal government.
2. The federal
government 1 has
three branches: Article I of the Constitution creates the Legislative
Branch (Congress) & lists its powers; Article II creates the Executive
Branch & lists its powers (President); and Article III creates the Judicial
Branch (federal courts) & lists its powers.
In this paper,
we will consider only the enumerated powers of Congress. But the powers
of the other two branches are likewise strictly limited and enumerated.
3. Congress is NOT authorized to pass any law on
any subject just because a majority in Congress think the law is a good
idea! Instead, the areas in which Congress is authorized to act are strictly
limited and defined (“enumerated”).
WE delegated to Congress the
following Enumerated Powers over the Country at Large:
Article I, § 8, clauses 1-16 delegate to Congress the powers:
(1) To lay
certain taxes;
(2) To pay the
debts of the United States;
(3) To declare
war and make rules of warfare, to raise and support armies and a navy and to
make rules governing the military forces; to call forth the militia for certain
purposes, and to make rules governing the militia;
(4) To regulate
commerce with foreign Nations, and among the States, and with the Indian
Tribes;
(5) To
establish uniform Rules of Naturalization;
(6) To
establish uniform Laws on Bankruptcies;
(7) To coin
money and regulate the value thereof;
(8) To fix the
standard of Weights and Measures;
(9) To provide
for the punishment of counterfeiting;
(10) To
establish post offices and post roads;
(11) To issue
patents and copyrights;
(12) To create
courts inferior to the supreme court; and
(13) To define
and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses
against the Laws of Nations.
Other provisions of Our Constitution delegate to Congress powers over the
Country at Large to make laws regarding:
(14) An
enumeration of the population for purposes of apportionment of Representatives
and direct taxes (Art. I, § 2, cl. 3);
(15) Elections
of Senators & Representatives (Art. I, §4, cl. 1) and their pay (Art. I, §
6);
(16) After
1808, to prohibit importation of slaves (Art. I, § 9, cl. 1); 2
(17) After
1808, to restrict migration (immigration) to these United States (Art. I, §9,
cl. 1);
(18) A
restricted power to suspend Writs of Habeas Corpus (Art. I, §9, cl. 2);
(19) To revise
and control imposts or duties on imports or exports which may be laid by States
(Art. I, § 10, cl. 2 &3)
(20) A
restricted power to declare the punishment of Treason (Art. III, §3, cl. 2);
(21)
Implementation of the Full Faith and Credit clause (Art. IV, §1); and,
(22) Procedures
for amendments to The Constitution (Art. V).
The 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, & 26th Amendments delegated additional powers to
Congress over the Country at Large respecting certain civil rights &
certain voting rights, the public debt [lawfully incurred], income tax,
successions to vacated offices, dates of assembly, and appointment of
representatives from the D.C.
So! In a
nutshell, the powers WE delegated to Congress over the Country at Large fall
into four categories:
♠ International
relations, commerce and war;
♠ Control
immigration by restricting who may come to these United States, and establish a
uniform rule of naturalization of new citizens;
♠ Domestically,
to establish a uniform commercial system: weights & measures, patents &
copyrights, a monetary system based on gold & silver, bankruptcy law, a
[limited] power over interstate commerce, and mail delivery.
♠And in some of
the Amendments, to protect certain civil and certain voting rights.
That’s it! All other powers are retained by the States or the
People.
Federal Enclaves &
Territories:
4. Two provisions
of Our Constitution grant to Congress broad legislative powers over these two
categories of specifically defined geographical areas:
a) Federal Enclaves: Article I, §8,
next to last clause, grants to Congress “exclusive Legislation” over the
following geographically tiny areas: the seat of the government of the
United States (not to exceed 10 square miles), forts, arsenals,
dock-yards, and the like. As James Madison said in Federalist No. 43 at 2., it is necessary for the
government of the United States to have “complete authority” at the seat of
government, and over forts, magazines, etc. established by the federal
government.
b) Territories: Article IV, §3, cl. 2
grants to Congress power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and
Regulations respecting the Territory or other property belonging to the United
States (as opposed to property belonging to individual states). As these
territories became States, Congress’ powers under this Article were terminated.
Congress may not lawfully
exercise ANY other powers!
5. Thus,
Congress has NO LAWFUL AUTHORITY to bail out financial institutions,
businesses, and homeowners who don’t pay their mortgages; NO LAWFUL
AUTHORITY to take control of our health care; NO LAWFUL AUTHORITY to
pass laws denying secret ballots to employees who are solicited for membership
by labor unions; NO LAWFUL AUTHORITY to take away your IRA’s and other
retirement accounts, NO LAWFUL AUTHORITY to take your guns, NO LAWFUL
AUTHORITY to pass laws respecting energy consumption or “emissions”, education,
housing, etc., etc., etc.
Therefore, all laws which Congress has made on such topics are
unconstitutional as outside the scope of the legislative powers WE delegated to
Congress in OUR Constitution. WE THE PEOPLE did not give such powers to Congress when
we ordained and established the Constitution, created the Congress, and listed
its 22 enumerated powers over the Country at large. And WE did not delegate
those powers to Congress in any of the Amendments.
6. You ask, “How
can Congress make all these laws if they are unconstitutional?
Congress gets
away with it because WE are ignorant of what our Constitution says; and We have
been indoctrinated into believing that Congress can do whatever they want!
Consider
Prohibition: Up to 1919, everyone still understood that The Constitution
did not give Congress authority to simply “pass a law” banning alcoholic
beverages! So the Constitution was amended to prohibit alcoholic
beverages, and to authorize Congress to make laws to enforce the prohibition
(18th Amdt.).
But after the Progressives took over the
federal government during the early 1900s, the federal government was
transformed from one of limited & enumerated powers only to
the Frankensteinian monster it is today. The Progressives are the ones who
imposed the regulatory welfare state where the federal government regulates
business and commerce, natural resources, human resources, and benefits some
people [e.g., welfare parasites, labor unions & obama donors] at the
expense of others.
The
Progressives claimed the power to determine what is in the “public interest”
and have the federal government implement their notions of what advances
the “public interest”.
Under the Progressives, the federal government was no longer limited by
the enumerated powers delegated in the Constitution; but would follow the “will
of the people” as expressed by their representatives in the federal
government. In other words, the Progressives gave the federal
government a blank check to fill out anyway they want.
During the
regime of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), all three branches of the federal
government abandoned the Constitution: FDR proposed “New Deal” programs;
Congress passed them. At first, the Supreme Court ruled (generally 5 to 4) that
these programs were unconstitutional as outside the legislative powers delegated
to Congress. But when FDR threatened to “pack the court” by adding judges who
would do his bidding, one judge flipped to the liberal/progressive side, and
the Court started approving FDR’s programs (5 to 4).
7. Since then, law schools don’t teach the Constitution.
Instead, they teach decisions of the FDR-dominated supreme Court which purport
to explain why Congress has the power to regulate anything it pleases. The law schools thus produced generations of
constitutionally illiterate lawyers and judges who have been wrongly
taught that three clauses, the “general welfare” clause, the “interstate
commerce” clause and the “necessary & proper” clause, permit Congress to do
whatever it wants!
8. “Well”, you
ask, “what about ‘the general welfare clause’? Doesn’t that
give Congress power to pass any law on any subject as long as it is for the
‘general Welfare of the United States’ “? NO, IT DOES NOT!
First, you must
learn what “welfare” meant when the Constitution was ratified: “Welfare”
as used in the Preamble & in Art. 1, §8, cl. 1, U.S. Constitution, meant
“Exemption from any unusual evil or calamity; the enjoyment of peace and
prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil government” (Webster’s, 1828).
But The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1969), added a new
meaning: “Public relief – on welfare. Dependent on public relief”.
Do you see how our Constitution is perverted when new meanings are substituted
for original meanings?
Second, James Madison
addresses this precise issue in Federalist No. 41 (last 4 paras): Madison points
out that the first paragraph of Art. I, §8 employs “general terms” which are
“immediately” followed by the “enumeration of particular powers” which “explain
and qualify”, by a “recital of particulars”, the general terms. So,
yes! The powers of Congress really are restricted to those listed herein
above.
OUR FOUNDERS
UNDERSTOOD that the “general Welfare”, i.e., the enjoyment of peace &
prosperity, and the enjoyment of the ordinary blessings of society & civil
government, was possible only with a civil government which was strictly
limited & restricted in what it was given power to do!
9. “OK”, you say,
“but what about ‘the commerce clause’ (Art. I, §8, cl.
3)? Doesn’t that give Congress power to pass laws on any subject
which ‘affects’ ‘interstate commerce’ “? NO, IT DOES NOT! In Federalist No. 22 (4th para) and Federalist No. 42 (11th &12th paras), Alexander
Hamilton & James Madison explain the purpose of the “interstate commerce”
clause: It is to prohibit the States from imposing tolls and tariffs on
articles of import and export – merchandize – as they are transported through
the States for purposes of buying and selling. That’s what it does, Folks; and
until the mid-1930’s and FDR’s “New Deal”, this was widely understood. 3
10. “Well, then”,
you say, “doesn’t the ‘necessary &
proper’ clause’ ["elastic clause" or "sweeping
clause" ] (Art. I, §8, last clause) allow Congress to make any laws
which the people in Congress think are ‘necessary & proper’?” NO, IT DOES NOT! Alexander
Hamilton says the clause merely gives to Congress a power to pass all laws
necessary & proper to execute its declared powers (Federalist No. 29, 4th para); a power to do something
must be a power to pass all laws necessary & proper for the execution
of that power (Federalist No. 33, 4th para); “the constitutional
operation of the intended government would be precisely the same if [this
clause] were entirely obliterated as if [it] were repeated in every article” (Federalist No. 33, 2nd para); and thus the clause is
“perfectly harmless”, a tautology or redundancy. (Federalist No. 33, 4th para). James Madison agrees
with Hamilton’s explanation. (Federalist No. 44, 10th-17th paras). In other words, the
clause simply permits the execution of powers already declared and
granted. Hamilton & Madison are clear that no additional substantive powers
are granted by this clause.
11. The 10th
Amendment states:
“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.”
So! If a
power is not delegated by Our Constitution to the federal government; and if
the States are not prohibited (as by Art. I, § 10) from exercising that power; then that power is retained by the States or by The
People. And WE are “The
People”!
12. Our Framers
insisted repeatedly that Congress is restricted to its enumerated powers.
James Madison says in Federalist No. 45 (9th para):
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal
government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are
numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace,
negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation
will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several
States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs,
concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people…” [emphasis mine]
“…the proposed
government cannot be deemed a national one; since its jurisdiction extends to
certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several States a residuary
and inviolable sovereignity over all other objects.”
“…the general
[federal] government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and
administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated
objects…” [emphasis mine]
13. In all its
recent legislation, Congress ratchets up its concerted pattern of lawless
usurpations. The executive branch and the federal courts approve
it. Such is the essence of tyranny. They are “ruling” without our
consent, and hence the federal government is now illegitimate. PH
Endnotes:
1 “Federal” refers to the form of government:
An alliance of States associated in a “federation” with a national government to which is
delegated supremacy over the States in specifically
defined areas ONLY.
2 Some object that our Constitution endorsed slavery.
During the 18th century, slavery was universal. But Article I, § 9, clause
1, is our Proclamation to the World that WE would abolish the slave
trade! James Madison wanted the “barbarism” & “unnatural traffic” of
the slave trade abolished immediately (Federalist Paper No.
42, 6th para).
3 See Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in United States v. Lopez (1995). Justice
Thomas’ opinion shows why those disposed to usurp attack him so
virulently.
Revised July 1,
2009; Sep 8, 2009; Oct. 17, 2010; Jan 3, 2013; Feb. 4, 2013
Source: http://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/congress-enumerated-powers/
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