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Words Used to Mean Things – Then Came Government
Human Events ^ | 7-6-15 | Seton Motley

Posted on 07/07/2015 3:11:14 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

We are a nation founded upon and (allegedly) governed by words. Beginning with – specifically, foundational-ly – the Constitution. Every syllable was by our Founding Fathers debated and carefully crafted. To ensure a limited, enumerated government, maximum freedom for We the People – and a document that clearly, concisely laid out these parameters.

The Constitution is a “living, breathing document” - but with the amendment process as its only respiratory system. If you don’t like it – amend it. Otherwise, it is what it is – it says what it says.

The Constitution established a system that also relies on precise language. The Legislative Branch writes legislation – that must be within government’s Constitutional parameters. Every syllable is debated and carefully crafted. And since we directly elect this Branch’s members, we get to have a direct say in the words meant to lord over us. We get to lobby Congress to redress our grievances – to help shape the words they write.

“We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it” is an unbelievably heinous dereliction of Congressional, Constitutional duty.

When passed, legislation is then sent for signature to the Executive Branch – a President we also elect. If the President signs, the panoply of departments, agencies, commissions and boards then implement it. Though these entities exist in the Executive – they are creations and creatures of the Legislative. They would not exist without law first creating them. They can not do anything unless and until the Legislative with law tells them to do it. And they are bound to adhere to the spirit and the letters of these laws – and to remain within their parameters. The words passed must be the words implemented – no more, no less.

As we’ve seen for decades – and on steroids during the Barack Obama Administration - the huge regulatory apparatus has made rocketing past its limits standard operating procedure. Overreaches, fiats, diktats – the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Health and Human Services (HHS), et cetera ad nauseum. Written words – ignored and eviscerated in favor of ideological impositions.

All of which is why there is a Judicial Branch. The Judicial is in the strict-Constitutional-limits-enforcement business. They are to ensure that the laws written – and the government they create – exist within Constitutional bounds. Justices and judges are unelected to avoid political influence – which only works if they remain unpolitical, within their Constitutional bounds. If they write legislative words rather than merely analyze them – reworking laws into new meanings and mandates – we have (yet more) problems.

In the Supreme Court’s King v Burwell decision, six of its nine Justices green-lit yet another huge Obama Administration overreach. By pretending – and allowing HHS to continue to pretend - that plain words don’t mean plain things.

In the face of clear (ObamaCare) statutory language indicating that federal subsidies are available only for insurance plans purchased through “an Exchange established by the State,” Justice Roberts — and five other justices — rewrote the law to enable tax credits for insurance purchased through federal exchanges as well.

Which is yet another foreboding outcome for any hope of ever reining in the federal Leviathan.

In February, Obama’s FCC willfully ignored the plain text of any law ever passed. In their ideological zeal to unilaterally impose Network Neutrality - they unilaterally superimposed onto the Internet law written in 1934 for landline telephones. Because obviously the Great Depression-era Congress when writing their Communications Act – had in mind the World Wide Web.

How do we know Obama’s FCC is ignoring all legislative text ever written? Because the last time Congress wrote communications law was the 1996 Telecommunications Act – in which the phrases “Network Neutrality” and/or “Net Neutrality” appear…exactly zero times. And because said Act clearly placed the Internet in an entirely different classification category than the one for landline telephones.

For the FCC to have Net Neutrality imposition authority – preceding Congressional action creating said authority is required. Twice previously the FCC has tried to impose Net Neutrality - and twice the D.C. Circuit Court unanimously rejected the attempts.

The Obama FCC’s “solution” to this isn’t to seek said legislation. It is to rewrite law and pretend a 1930s Congress writing for phones – really actually also meant the Internet. Which wouldn’t even exist for another sixty years.

The D.C. Circuit Court must do what it has twice previously done – acknowledge that there is under existing law no FCC Net Neutrality authority. And rule that there is certainly no authority for the Commission to by fiat reclassify the Internet as a 1930s landline telephone. The necessary words for any of this have never been written.

Hope for reining in the out-of-control Leviathan grows fainter – but remains.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: congress; constitution; fcc; netneuetrality; scotus

1 posted on 07/07/2015 3:11:14 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Last month in a series of Decisions the Supreme Court struck down the Constitution.


2 posted on 07/07/2015 3:15:35 AM PDT by arthurus (It's true!)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
I posted a vanity the other day along the same theme, although not so elegantly written.

What has happened to our society when a tiny minority of outspoken folks can mess with our language and redefine words at will? Furthermore, what will happen to the word of law?
1) First, there was the definition of "is”. Remember that? Depends upon what the meaning of is is. A convoluted excuse, if I ever heard one.

2) Even before that, there was the word “gay”, which (over a generation) morphed from a happy word with pleasant, cheerful connotations to one that means homosexual, with all the negatives associated. Gay used to be even used as a name for both girls and boys. (ref. the author Gay Talese and my female cousin who is about 50 yrs. old)

3) According to my Congressman this week, the word ”majority” actually means 10 votes over the majority, or it doesn’t count. He says that there is a little known “rule” in the Senate that allows only ONE VOTE PER YEAR to pass out of the Senate with only 51 votes. Where is that in the Constitution? So, a majority of 100 votes means 60 votes now – always.

4) SCOTUS is confused about the word “State”. According to them it now means “Federal”.

5) SCOTUS also did cartwheels defining the word “tax” in order to support Obama who doesn’t know what “natural born citizen” means.

6) And now “marriage” no longer is a union/contract between man and woman – despite thousands of years of custom.

Anyone who says this doesn’t matter isn’t foreseeing the ramifications. How can the legislative body of the US (or anywhere) possibly write laws when any vociferous minority group can change the meaning of the words at will. No wonder my Congressman (an attorney) looks stressed.
My words did not get much comment at the time, but I stand by my random thoughts.
3 posted on 07/07/2015 3:16:18 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Psychotic, treasonous "Judge" Roberts:
"Your Constitution is now DEAD because
words are now what I want them to be.
Now bow before us Blackrobes ... and your King."

4 posted on 07/07/2015 3:30:24 AM PDT by Diogenesis ("When a crime is unpunished, the world is unbalanced.")
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Similarly for the laws of economics.

Reality will triumph in the end, and reality bites.


5 posted on 07/07/2015 3:34:18 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Did it all begin with that little word...”is?”


6 posted on 07/07/2015 4:02:33 AM PDT by FES0844
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To: FES0844

It either began with “is”, or with “gay”. You could argue for “is” because that is the first time it was used by a lawyer to fight in a legal action (contempt). “Gay” has been floating around as slang longer, but “is” really slapped us in the face.


7 posted on 07/07/2015 7:34:56 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic; FES0844

There lie there and there lie we, under the spreading chestnut tree... where 2+2=5 and everybody knows what’s in room 101.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul9jbIP_93g


8 posted on 07/07/2015 9:57:10 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

And when words still mean things...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-07/china-bans-use-terms-%E2%80%9Cequity-disaster%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Crescue-market


9 posted on 07/07/2015 11:19:34 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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