Last Thursday was Constitution Day -- The U.S. Constitution was signed in Philadelphia on Sept. 17, 1887 -- but most of us heard little about the significance of the day or joined in a celebration of the document which is the basis of our nation and its government. Some of us may have heard nothing of the day at all.
Once the Constitution was ratified by the states, it became the law which governs those who govern in the federal government, assigning specific powers to the federal government's three branches and limiting it from usurping other powers not specifically assigned to it. In fact, our founding fathers and their respective states felt so strongly about limiting the powers of federal government that 10 additional amendments -- the Bill of Rights -- were passed just a few years later to ensure the rights of the people and limit the powers of the new federal government.
While I could write at length about these Constitutional protections relating to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, I would like to focus attention in this piece on the last amendment in the Bill of Rights, the 10th Amendment.
The words are plain and clear: "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."
What does it mean? The federal government is limited to those powers specifically designated to it in the Constitution. It may not usurp powers the Constitution does prohibit to the states. And, the powers which are not assigned to the federal government or prohibited to the states by the Constitution "are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
When one reads this amendment, the law of the land, it is shocking to realize how far we have transgressed. And, why have we, the people, done little or nothing to stop the transgressions?
Read the Constitution, if we heeded our own law of the land, there would be no federal department of education, no environmental protection agency, no social security administration, no restricting federal gun laws such as those of 1934 and 1968, no federal healthcare plans, and the list would go on. If we heeded the Constitution, our troops would not be fighting in undeclared wars all over the globe, nor would we be giving financial aid from U.S. tax dollars to other nations and causes. We might even get the IRS to go away if we had not abandoned the Constitution.
How did it happen? Little by little. A president overstepped, another went a little further. Congress passed a law which established federal authority where it doesn't exist or authorized illegal expenditures, and future Congresses added to the transgression. Judges figured out they could make their opinions law and overthrow the laws of states, and the Supreme Court has become the legislating agency of the land for those who cannot achieve their goals through their elected representatives.
And now, of course, things are so out of hand that our presidents bypass Congress and legislate with executive orders, Congress doles out money to special interests and passes laws authorizing unconstitutional activities. Federal judges overthrow laws of states in areas where they have no jurisdiction and re-interpret the Constitution to protect lifestyles and practices which the Constitution does not protect.
Is there an answer? Some propose a Constitutional convention, but the problem is not with our Constitution; it's with our government officials who lie under oath when they swear to uphold the Constitution. Instead of protecting the rights of the people as our founding fathers did when they wrote and signed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, a Constitutional convention would likely mean a rewrite of the Constitution giving federal government legal authority for all the abuses they currently practice and more.
The first solution, of course, is using our voting rights to elect only men and women who will uphold the Constitution and refuse to compromise any of its protections or provisions. It does no good to compromise and elect the lesser of two evils. It's time to vote for what is right and to vote against anything and anyone willing to violate his or her Constitutional oath. This may require thinking outside the box and voting for candidates outside the two political parties which are largely responsible for the mess in which we find ourselves -- I vote for Constitution Party candidates whenever the status quo allows their names to appear on the ballot.
Another necessary answer, it seems, if the federal government is ever to be reined in and brought back to its proper role, is for the states and the people to refuse to comply with federal laws, executive orders and judicial decrees which exceed the limitations placed upon the federal government by the Constitution and to speak out against them. Is it civil disobedience? That depends. It comes down to a choice of obeying the Constitution and founding law of our land or obeying those who transgress its provisions. I choose to obey the Constitution when other laws and regulations contradict it.
States should stand their ground and refuse to comply with federal laws and regulations which are outside of Constitutional authority. The Constitution reserves them for the states or the people. It may mean forfeiting the dangling carrot of federal funds stolen from the people, but a free people and free states should know better than to enslave themselves to a tyrannical government for the sake of federal funds.
Perhaps I sound radical in suggesting nullification principles and in advocating a refusal to give consent to violations of our Constitution, but I'm an American, not a communist, socialist or fascist. I happen to love the rights the Constitution and Bill of Rights guarantee to me as a citizen of this nation and I'm not willing to just lie down and quietly become further enslaved by a federal government which is adopting, more and more, the principles of a tyranny rather than those of the Constitution upon which this nation was established.
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 09/23/2015