Amid all the dismal news that we acquire daily about the state of the nation and the world, some dim but promising lights appear. For the first time since the reign of Roosevelt II, people are beginning to notice the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Much as liberals may laugh, that Article is still on the books. It establishes beyond any question that powers not granted to the U.S. government by the U.S. Constitution are specifically unlawful and need not be obeyed.
Note this from the Sixteenth American Jurisprudence, Second Edition, Section 177:
The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having formed in nature of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void and ineffective for any purpose, since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment and not merely from the date of decision so branding it. An unconstitutional law in legal contemplation is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted.
Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principles follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection and justifies no acts performed under it.
No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it.
~~ Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 2, No. 4
22 March 1994
Psalm 22:27-28: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he ruleth among the nations.”
3 comments:
I just finished a paper on the issue of state sovereignity for college. I did my intenship this year up at the state capitol and that was one of the issues we dealt with so I wrote my term paper about it. I felt rather conflicted after writing it and dealing with things during the legislative session. I love America but hate the direction she is heading. If only a few more people would cling harder to their Lord and God we might be in better shape and also keep a tight hold on our guns.
Thanks for the comment, Lucky - I'm glad to hear that you're considering the issues involved. I understand, too, the conflict you feel. It's important to remember that the individual, sovereign States ceded part of their authority - laid out in very specific terms - to a central government.
They rightly recognized that there must be a central authority to coordinate "the common defense", and to oversee disputes between the States regarding commerce (tariffs, taxes, and the like).
They also placed very strict guidelines upon the power of that "federal" government ... and therein lies the problem.
About 30 of our States have now begun to debate whether the continuing growth of the central government has so greatly exceeded its mandate that the authority must be taken back.
It's a healthy discourse, and I always applaud a reasoned debate. I fear, however, that the outcome may not be a pretty thing.
One of the things that concerns me the most is the worry of those who no longer consider that there is room for reasoned debate. I'm still very torn on the issue.In no way am I advocating rebellion or anything like that but I see the government that our founding fathers set up being taken apart piece by piece. Among my time up at the state capitol I can say out of all our state senators and representives I met about four statesmen the rest were politicians. There is a very marked diffrence between the to. I only fear this is worse in Washington where many of our legislators have adopted politics and forgot the noblity of character that comes with being a true statesmen and have rather become slightly worse that used car salesmen who sell leamons to unspecting buyers. BTW if you have the spare time here is the paper I wrote if you want to read it. This is the rough draft that I posted so there are still more than a few errors that I haven't fixed.
http://lucksrants.blogspot.com/2009/04/real-id-and-state-sovereignty.html
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