Posted on 04/21/2008 1:04:18 PM PDT by M203M4
What would change if the US Constitution consisted of ONLY:
Article I, Section 8, clause 18 (the necessary and proper clause)
And:
Article I, Section 8, c 1-3 (the commerce clause)
The "Bill of Rights" could be replaced by The "Bill of Recommendations (subject to the whims of the Executive, Congress, and the Judiciary)".
The First Amendment is already just taken as a basic recommendation, to be modified when convenient; same goes for the Second Amendment. The Ninth is toilet paper. The Tenth is a complete fiction, it may as well not even be there.
So, what would change? I'm not talking conceptually, I'm talking about concrete physical changes in the day-to-day operation of the government.
"As long as 'enough' elected and unelected officials think something is a good idea, it is acceptable" - abridged version
The document cannot function as a system of government based on two sentences.
Your question is preposterous.
Such a document would not explain what a state was or what the Congress is. It would have no executive or judiciary to enforce or interpret any law that this mysterious, unexplained "Congress" made. It would not provide for any elections, or any division of Houses.
And, most of all, it would not be performative.
Well said. The judiciary, for the most part, no longer looks to the constitution for instruction and guidance. Politicians only care about the constitutionality of legislation when it helps them meet some political end.
Our government is lost...
It’s not even a “Bill of Recommendations”, it’s a “List of Recommendations”; like the shopping list I take to the grocery store (or forgot on a recent trip).
I think you know exactly what I mean (at least I hope you do).
What you apparently mean is to claim that the US Constitution is no longer operative.
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