By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but…Nevada Senate Resolution No. 6, supported by all of our local representatives in Carson City, is a rather interesting document that tries to reclaim the sovereignty of the State of Nevada under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.
The Tenth 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.”
This amendment limits the scope of Federal power to those enumerated in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution. Article I Section 9 lists explicit powers denied to the Federal government. In contemplating this issue one must keep in mind whereas Article I, Section 8 is explicitly dealing with the role of the Federal government and the State, the Tenth Amendment deals with the relationship of the Federal government and the individual.
Senate Resolution 6 goes on to state that today the very government created by the States now treats those States as agents of the federal government. The created is now considered greater than the creator.
Our State legislators feel many Federal laws are in direct violation of Article I Section 8 of the Constitution and therefore they also violate the Tenth Amendment. Our Assemblymen and Senators stated in this joint resolution that the purpose of the Tenth Amendment is to insure that ‘we the people’ will always have rights the Federal government may not usurp.
This sent me to the Constitution and Article I to review the enumerated powers of the federal government. Section 8 very clearly spells out what power Congress has and Section 9 spells out various powers denied the federal government. I will save Section 9 for a later discussion.
The Tenth Amendment was designed to be sure those powers and limits were adhered to. Let me review Article I Section 8 for you and you can determine for yourself if the federal government has over-stepped its bounds. I have paraphrased the powers as listed but I do not believe I have changed their meaning and I have added some of my own reaction to a number of those powers. Keep in mind that the body of the Constitution is a contract between state governments and the federal government. No individual rights are dealt with until the first ten amendments.
1. The first stated power allows the federal government to set taxes, uniform duties, imposts and excises throughout the United States. This was to make it possible for the federal government to pay its debts, provide for the common defense, and the general welfare of the United States. This included the power to collect those taxes. This was specifically for the general welfare of the States, as a body politic, not the individuals in the States.
The Legislature and Supreme Court have misused the general welfare clause throughout the history of the United States. It has become a catch-all for anything the federal government wants to impose on the American people.
2. The federal government has the power to borrow money
3. The federal government can regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes. This is the interstate commerce clause that is being used to support the health care bill today. However, since the health care bill is really an insurance bill and insurance is not sold across state lines opponents are arguing that the federal government cannot enforce the law.
4. The power to establish uniform rules of naturalization is reserved for the Federal government. This is the provision that has caused the confusion in Arizona. It is not argued by the state that the federal government does not have the power to set the laws on naturalization. The problem is that the federal government has set the laws but refuses to enforce them.
5. Uniform laws of bankruptcies throughout the United States is to be set by the Federal government.
6. The federal government has the sole power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. Interestingly enough, the Federal government has turned the power to regulate money over to the Federal Reserve, which is not a governmental agency.
7. The federal government provides for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States.
8. The federal government establishes Post Offices and post roads. The Federal government has privatize the Post Office. How has that worked out?
9. The federal government has power to grant copyrights and patents.
10. Setting up a Federal court system to support the Supreme Court.
11. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations. Here is a power the Federal government has neglected as of late. This is its ticket to go all out against the pirates of Somalia. Where is Thomas Jefferson when we need him?
12. The power to declare war, grant Letters of Marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. Why are we fighting undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Only Congress can declare war and no such declaration has been made.
13. The power to raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years.
14. To provide and maintain a Navy.
15. To regulate the land and naval forces.
16. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.
17. To provide organization, arms, discipline and governing such part of the militia as may be employed in the service of the United States.
18. To govern Washington, D.C.
19. To exercise authority over all military establishments, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other Federal Buildings.
20. To make all laws necessary and proper for carrying out their powers.
These are the only powers allotted to the federal government. All federal legislation must fall in one of these categories or it is un-Constitutional.
Thought of the week…Under our form of Government, the legislature is not supreme…like other departments of Government, it can only exercise such powers as have been delegated to it.
– Billings v. Hall
