Constitution
We have a dual jurisdiction – State and Federal. The government may do only what we the people have authorized it to do; if it does more, it is guilty of usurpation. The people have reserved to themselves orto their State governments every right and power theyhave not delegated to the Federal government, which must always look to the Constitution and itsAmendments to find its rights, for it has none other. This system puts the great bulk of our daily life activities in the hands of our own neighbors who know us and our surroundings, and not in the hands of a bureaucrat in a far-away national capitol, who, to all intents and purposes, is an alien to us and our affairs. This plan gives us the largest possible measure of local self-government. Liberty will never depart from while we have local self-government controlling and directing matter pertaining to our personal liberties and to the security of our private property; it will not abide with us if shall lose this local self-government.
-J. Reuben Clark Jr.
3 years ago
However, when one takes an expansive view of the Constitution and Amendments, almost anything can be considered under the Federal umbrella. This is how Roe v. Wade and other cases have been decided. One of my least favorite Constutional law cases in law school was Wickard v. Filburn. I think the case was sometime in the 1940's. A man grew wheat on his own property solely for his own use and yet the Supreme Court decided that his actions affected interstate commerce (and thus could use the commerce clause to tell him not to grow wheat) because, the court reasoned, if a lot of people grew their own wheat and were not buying it on the market, that could affect wheat prices and thus interstate commerce. I haven't read the case in a while but that is the gist of it. Isn't that ridiculous?
ReplyDeleteMorris
I have heard of the case. Commerce clause covers everything now. Congress can cite it for any action they want to take. It's crazy. It must be corrected.
ReplyDelete