*** What about the rights of the American Citizens in Seattle (particularly in the occupied territory), who have a business and are being extorted or looted? Do they not have rights that should be enforced by the Fed if necessary? ***
That’s an interesting debate and oe that we should have. I think the Originalists would say that this is a (Washington) state matter. The Federal interest is I regulating interstate trade. The Civil War and the constitutional ammendments that followed change the equation a bit. The Civil Rights laws of the ‘60s changed it further still.
Was segregation a State issue in Alabama when Federal Troops were sent in to maintain the peace, because the State refused to do it? Who has the authority to enforce Civil Rights when the State refuses to do it? If the State does not protect its citizen’s Civil Rights; does the Federal Government not have the responsibility to intervene? What is the purpose of the Federal Government? Is it not to protect its citizens from enemies both Foreign and Domestic?