IMO, the states voluntarily gave up their rights when they ratified the 17th Amendment back in 1913.
The Tenth Amendment declares, “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.” So what powers does the Constitution delegate to the feds?
Depending on how one counts the various delegated powers there are about 25 or 30 subjects upon which the federal government is authorized to exercise its authority. They are found primarily in Article One, Section Eight, with a few other powers scattered in other sections of the Constitution. Additionally, the Constitution gives the federal government the power to form and operate the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Period!
“Agriculture,” “Arbitration,” “Highways,” “Intoxicating Liquors,” “Labor,” “Mineral Lands and Mining,” “Railroads,” “Telephones, Telegraphs and Radio Telegraphs,” and “Transportation” are all Titles of U.S. Code that are not among the subjects upon which the federal government is authorized to exercise its authority.
Similarly, the powers assumed in Title 12, “Banks and Banking” are a far stretch from the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states.”. The Supreme Court has stated that regulating commerce among the states means between state lines and not within a state. And there certainly is no delegated power to charter a private monopolistic cartel of bankers like the “Federal Reserve System” to which we are indentured today.
“Education,” “Food and Drugs,” “Hospitals and Asylums,” and “The Public Health and Welfare” are Code titles which might be construed as authorized by the power to “provide for the ... general welfare.” But considering the extensive regulatory and entitlement programs these titles have spawned, do they bear any resemblance to the original intent of the nation’s founders?
Title 32 creates a “National Guard” in the absence of any such authority to do so, while the constitutionally mandated “organizing, arming and disciplining the militia” is wholly ignored.
“Public Lands” is a U. S. Code Title subject, yet the only lands the federal government can own under the authority of the Constitution are the District of Columbia, “forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards and other needful buildings.” Military installations are not “public lands.”
And then there are those laws which are not merely enacted without authority; they clearly violate the Constitution. The National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968 make a mockery of the Second Amendment’s mandate, “... shall not be infringed.” And the USA PATRIOT Act defies nearly every provision in the Bill of Rights.
As a judicial doctrine, interposition is interpreted as a right of the states. But it’s also a right of the people. Based on the Tenth Amendment, it is a power “... reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” There are many cases of the people conducting an interposition when necessity required it.
The American Revolution was another interposition. Again, an English tyrant imposed his will upon a remote part of his kingdom, the American colonies. After much petitioning and “remonstrance” from the colonists was ignored and their resolutions and legislation was vetoed by the King and his governors, the colonists “ proceeded ultimately to nullification, with forcible resistance.”
The people have the right of interposition under the Tenth Amendment which “may be peaceable,” but the Second Amendment affirms how an interposition can be applied when necessary “with forcible resistance.” Are the people brave enough to become free again?
The “people” is you. The state is not interested in interpositioning on your behalf. It has vested itself with the federal powers. And it’s very unlikely that your neighbor will stand up for your Rights. He probably doesn’t even know what his are. Get active. Be creative. Use your God-given intelligence and American ingenuity. Interposition is up to you. Interposition “may be peaceable, as by resolution, remonstrance or legislation, or may proceed ultimately to nullification, with forcible resistance”. Assume the interposition now!
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under the robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons’ cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
~C.S. Lewis
“IMO, the states voluntarily gave up their rights when they ratified the 17th Amendment back in 1913.”
Senators are still expected to serve the people of their state, no matter how they’;re elected. I’ll agree that the precipitous abandonment of states’ rights coincided with the change. Then again, the Civil War didn’t help. Also, the House was always popularly elected. Did we really expect the Senate to be our saviors? Would electing them through state legislatures really have distinguished them from the whole rest of the federal government, whatever branch be they from?