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To: 54-46 Was My Number
"Do words mean anything at all if not what an author intends them to mean?"

Perhaps you can then define for me "speech", "arms", "unreasonable search", a "speedy" trial, "excessive" bail, .... you get the point yet?

"among the several states", "regulate", "commerce"?

The original intent of the Founding Fathers in giving Congress the power to regulate comerce was to remove the trade barriers between the states, a major problem with commerce at the time. Was that the sole intent in writing the commerce clause?

If that were the sole intent, the Founding Fathers could have simply restricted the states from doing so by placing this restriction in Article I, Section 10 (No State shall...), along with all the other state restrictions.

Thomas Jefferson, as President, along with his Secretary of State, James Madison (who drafted the Constitution, and the commerce clause) used the Commerce Clause as their authority to restrict trade with Europe (''Jefferson's Embargo'' of 1807-1808). Starting in 1842, Congress used the Commerce Clause to prohibit all kinds of foreign commerce.

In 1884, the exportation or shipment in interstate commerce of livestock having any infectious disease was forbidden. A statute passed in 1905 forbade the transportation in foreign and interstate commerce and the mails of certain varieties of moths, plant lice, and other insect pests injurious to plant crops, trees, and other vegetation.

You're saying that Congress doesn't have this power over interstate commerce? That since the "original intent" was to remove trade barriers, that is, therefore, the only thing Congress may do?

The original intent of the claw hammer was to drive and remove nails. You say I'm not allowed to use it for any other purpose?

159 posted on 02/24/2005 10:02:36 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: robertpaulsen
Thomas Jefferson, as President, along with his Secretary of State, James Madison (who drafted the Constitution, and the commerce clause) used the Commerce Clause as their authority to restrict trade with Europe

LOL! Obviously, that fell under the "foreign Nations" part of the Commerce Clause, and is irrelevant to the "among the several States" part.

You're reaching so far you make Mister Fantastic look like a marble statue.

209 posted on 02/24/2005 11:58:12 AM PST by steve-b (A desire not to butt into other people's business is eighty percent of all human wisdom)
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