By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… Does anyone in Washington, D.C. have even a vague idea that there is a ruling document for the American government called the Constitution? Has anyone in Washington read the document that they are required to swear to uphold?
Clause 3 of Article VI of the United States Constitution reads: “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;…”
The President of the United States does not officially take office until he has publicly sworn the following oath:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution contains an oath of office only for the President. For other officials, including members of Congress, the document specifies only that they “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this Constitution.”
In 1789, the First Congress reworked this requirement into a simple fourteen-word oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.” Today, the oath for Senators and Members of the House is as follows:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are required to take two oaths before they may execute the duties of their appointed office. The oath stated above, required by Article VI Clause 3 of the Constitution. The second oath is found in the Judiciary Act of 1789 and requires that before the justices of the Supreme Court proceed to execute their duties, they must swear or affirm the following:
“I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”
The Constitution is quite clear as to the role of each branch of the government. Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to create laws, The Supreme Court has the power to interrupt law, and the President is to execute the law. This was a government built on checks and balances to make sure that absolute power could not reside in any one branch to the determent of the American people.
One of the major facets of American history has been the ebb and flow of dominant power of one branch over the other at different times. During the formation of the country, the executive branch was the dominant power in the country. The President reserved the right to determine the Constitutionality of laws passed by Congress.
It was during this period that Chief Justice John Marshall established the right of Judicial Review for the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803). This un-Constitutional right of the Supreme Court did not really blossom until the 1960’s.
However, this is one of the most far-reaching violations of the Constitution that the American people have accepted. Nine people who are non-elected officials now determine the law of the land. While this was slow in developing, it has definitely help lead America away from Constitutional rule.
Until recently, the best examples of Americans giving up their Constitutional rights to the executive branch can be found during times of legally declared wars: The Civil War, World War I, and World War II.
Since the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, Americans have allowed their leaders to engage in unconstitutional military engagements in the name of safety or democracy or whatever. We now have young men dying and we are spending the country into bankruptcy in the name of overseas contingencies.
Folks, there is no Constitutional basis for an overseas contingency. Congress gave up its Constitutional power to declare war when it allowed the President to assume war powers without a declaration of war.
The executive branch is presently violating the Constitution each time it picks and chooses which law to enforce and which law to ignore. The latest of which is the President’s refusal to stop $1.5 billion dollars in aid to Egypt. Section 508 of the Foreign Assistance Act stipulates that “none of the funds appropriated … to finance directly any assistance to any country whose duly elected head of government is disposed by a military coup or degree.”
Rather than enforce the law, the President merely refuses to recognize the fact the Egyptian military took over the country.
The Supreme Court violates the Constitution each time it rules on the Constitutionality of law. While case law has established the Supreme Court as the ultimate ruler of the Constitutionality of a law there is nothing in the Constitution that gives it that right.
Like it or not, there is no Constitutional basis for requiring a person to buy Medical Insurance. For those who wish to equate that to mandatory auto insurance, I will gladly argue that that too is unconstitutional. The Chief Justice had to interpret the health care law as a tax to make it fit a constitutionally acceptable law. There is no Constitutional basis for any prohibitive gun law. There is no Constitutional basis for collecting personal data on Americans without probable cause and a warrant.
If the American people want to change the Constitution, there is a Constitutional process for this and it is not a revisionist court, an imperial president, or a dictatorial Congress.
Thought of the week… It is unfortunate that Americans are no longer aware of what the constitution says and what their rights are. Because of that, we are often very passive about what happens when the government violates those rights.
– James Bovard
