Amendment X

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The framers and authors of the Constitution of the United States of America were a bunch of bright guys. They created the most perfect government on earth. Probably not the most perfect in the perfect spiritual sense, or even in ways not yet known to man, but the most perfect government that the best humans on earth could come up with.

In spite of the perfectness, they forgot twelve things that they thought should have been written into the Constitution and introduced twelve amdendments under the title Bill of Rights. The first two amendments weren’t ratified at the time they were introduced. The Second Amendment that was introduced wasn’t ratified until 1992. The remaining ten are some of the most of the most hotly debated and confusing pieces of legislature written.

Amendment X

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.

What are the powers delegated to the United States by the Constitution? Article IV of The Constitution has four simple sections. Section 1 tells us that the public records of one state are to be recognized by other states as true acts. A marriage in one state is to be recognized by other states. A criminal record of someone in one state is not erased by moving to another. Simply put, it is your “permanent record.” Without it, you could be married separately in each state, or you would have to be re-married if you move across state lines. If that part weren’t in the Constitution, you would need to get married in your home state. Running off to Vegas is an option, no matter where you live.

Section 2 gives the citizens of the United States the same Constitutional Rights in every state–no state has different Constitutional Rights than any other. It also gives states the power to extradite persons charged with treason or felony from any other state.

Section 3 allows new states entry into the Union, and gives the rules by which new states may be created from existing states–all states involved and Congress must agree. It also states that the Congress is the head legislative unit of territories and possessions of the United States.

Section 4 guarantees each state a Republic form of government, and protection both from foreign and domestic attacks.

Article 1 of the Constitution gives us Section 8, which specifically lists the duties of Congress.

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;–And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

So. Roe v. Wade challenged the Texas law against abortion on Constitutional grounds. According to Roe, it was a violation of the Ninth Amendment, which says that if a right isn’t mentioned in the Constitution, the Constition has no bearing on it. According to the Tenth Amendment, there is nothing in the Constitution, so it it a a State’s Right. The Superior Court was wrong. It’s not a specific enumeration by the Constitution.

California’s Proposition 8 legislated marriage–the public records in California. Marriage is not in the Constitution, so it is a State’s Right. Sure, some dumbass is going to find some way of making this a Constitutional issue, and will find enough people to agree with him.

Drug Enforcement Laws. Anyone see them up there? Nope? State’s Rights. Medical Marijuana is a State’s Right.

Education? Guess what, it’s a State’s Right. Why is there a Secretary of Education? Jimmy Karter decided that the children should be under the surveillance or control of the Government and created the Department of Education. Since the Secretary of Education needs to be confirmed by Congress, it is a violation of the Constitution, not an enumerated right.

The Stimulus Package. Congress does have the right “to borrow money on the credit of the United States,” and boy does it borrow money. Attached in the stimulus package is the capping of executive salaries. Anything about salary caps in the Constitution? The 27th Amendment regulates the salaries of Congressmen and Senators, but nothing having to do with private sector. Not capping salaries, not minimum wages. State’s Right, not Congressional.

The Tenth Amendment guarantees to the states their sovereignity over their own laws, but our mostly elected “leaders” in Washington seem to have forgotten that over the years. Nine states have decided to remind Washington DC that the states have the tenth amendment to let them pass the laws that make them their own entities. The states are tied together under the Republic, but are separate Republics.

I have a feeling that either nothing will happen, or all hell will break loose. Either way, people will be yelling BLOW IT OUT YOUR PIE HOLE!

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