By: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
I just caught the Richmond – Times Dispatch article entitled “Give States a Tool to Check Federal Power.” The gist of which is to create another amendment to the Constitution. My immediate reaction… all this “Independent Conservative” and follower of Jeffersonian principles can say is amen. But after further thought I recaled the power already exists to curtail federal government expansion of power. It is known as the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The tenth amendment reads as follows; “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.”
As one can readily see any powers not specifically delineated to the Federal Government by the Constitution rests with each state respectively.
In other words if the federal government is overstepping it’s authority, which it has done regularly the states have to power and authority to resist and declare the action of the federal government null and void.
We do not need another amendment to the Constitution. We only need the veracity and tenacity to use the power already given us by The Bill of Rights. The people of this nation, and sovereign States only need to wake up and use the power granted us by our founding documents, in this specific issue the Tenth Amendment.
Cross posted to Rational Nation USA.
Via: Memeorandum
9.19.2010
The Power of the Tenth Amendment
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2 comments:
Spot on.
For a great resource for what the 10th is all about check out the Tenth Amendment Center.
The problem with the 10th amendment is that no agency exists to enforce it authoritatively. The people certainly have the right to declare that things are outside of the powers of the federal government, but there is a broad range of opinions among the people about the Constitutionality of any issue. The courts are also a notoriously bad check on federal power, and when they do curb its use, they do it in sporadic and unpredictable ways.
Anyway, I think you're missing the boat on the real thrust of the post- but the Silly Season nails it: http://thesillyseason.blogspot.com/2010/09/protect-state-interests.html
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