i just pray that someone the boy listens to will be smart enough to splain it to him...
Posted on 04/03/2012 7:41:49 PM PDT by Travis McGee
As I write this, it is in the evening of 3 April, 2012, and we are facing a potential Constitutional crisis of epic proportions. The President, who happens to be a Constitutional law professor, has made the assertion that it would be "unprecedented" for an unelected court (The Supremes) to strike down as unconstitutional a law passed by a majority of the elected Congress. We're all familiar with the superficial Constitutional issues, which is that courts do exactly this all the time. Because that is exactly their most important role. And, that it wouldn't matter one bit whether Congress passed the law unanimously; they could still strike it down. OK. We all have that.
What is more ominous is the potential crisis which would erupt if a President, riding the swell of righteous Constitutional indignation, or worse, ginned-up populist support, decided to enforce that law anyway (whatever it is doesn't matter). This isn't all that far-fetched, given how ludicrous the precipitating statement itself is.
OK, then what?
The Supreme Court can't enforce its judgments. Only the Executive can do that. But what if that Executive, of any administration, goes rogue and decides to simply ignore the ruling?
In the article Constitutional Quizzery, we discussed the concept that, constitutionally, the President owns your militia. So that's out.
In the article When to Shoot The Colonels, we discussed the fact that high-ranking military officials are political appointees, so the chance of them actually taking action against a sitting President is about nil.
This leaves Congress, which passed that law in the first place. Imagine that it is wildly supportive of whatever law was struck down. Beyond that, it has no enforcement power, either, so even if they impeach, then what?
What makes a sitting, impeached President step down anyway? Particularly if he doesn't want to? Or if his private security detail, provisioned from the Treasury Department, decides to take no action to remove him?
Not a damn thing, that's what. This would be, in effect, a bloodless military coup by the former Commander in Chief, and there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent it, other than gentleman's agreements to not. And, as we all know, the days of honoring agreements is long past gone in this country of double-breasted thieves. Oh, yeah, there's that Treasury thing again.
I'm not going to get into another long discussion of how the Constitution is broken. Been there, done that, doesn't matter anyway.
But I want you to consider this possibility. What if, instead of the President, the Supreme Court had authority, as the ultimate check and balance, to call out the irregular militia to enforce the striking down of laws which violate the Constitution should the President continue down the path he is currently on? Or to remove the former President if he and his team decide they don't want to leave? And to provide immunity from prosecution for these actions?
Imagine an order along the lines of "hit it local militias, take this long list of traitorous bastards out (or prevent this struck-down law from being enforced), and we'll make sure none of you get prosecuted." Because, after all, it is judges who judge.
I'm just saying.
Now, that would be the Supreme Militia.
So, what if this crisis continues to jump the tracks, and in desperation, the Supremes said just that?
By the way, to get your thumb on the pulse of the first barrier to local militia action, you might want to pose these questions to your local sheriff, who is on the other end of that constitutional pipeline:
1. Assume that the Supreme Court has struck down a federal law, but the DHS shows up in your county to enforce it anyway. What do you do? And no, you don't have time to consult with the state bigwigs, the DHS is busting down doors and hauling away your citizens, so you have to act now. 2. Assume that the Supreme Court has struck down a state law, but the state law enforcement officials show up in your county to enforce it anyway. What do you do?
I'm going to ask my sheriff exactly these questions. We'll see what he has to say, if anything. I'll let you know.
Because this wild-eyed crap isn't seeming so off the wall all of a sudden, is it?
Indeed. Any rioting by the usual opportunist miscreants would cause further dissension/desertion in the Mordor ranks as local LEOs stay home to protect their own. A collapse of society/services in major cities would exacerbate that chaos and erode Regime support as the dependent class of society seeks to be taken care of, not fight.
We need a more active role for citizen militia. Working in conjunction with local Sheriff's Departments, or as an extension of the Courts as defined above. Even if most of it only amounts to just helping direct traffic during severe weather/accidents/evacuations.
Yes, it'd still be chock full of "never was", non-hacking, wanna-be Rambo, Mall Ninjas. Giving the Militia a real role to play could entice former .mil guys like me to get involved and to see if we can't unf*ck their cluster for them.
The founding fathers held that We the People are responsible as the Supreme Militia. They even gave us the Second Amendment to help us ensure it.
Thanks for the input
Thanks, rarestia.
Yes, the tragic comedy.
” Obama has ignored court rulings before, why would we expect anything else, especially when it comes to one of his socialist pet projects.”
He ignores anything and everything that he doesn’t like.
Laws, orders, constitution, everything.
” I never thought I’d live to see what’s happening to my country, Matt”
NONE of us did....not this fast, anyway.
Good idea.
Learn to use a HAM radio! Call your local emergency management office and ask them when they hold licensing classes.
Good advice! I've just started. I'm using HamTestOnline to study.
If things descend into chaos, the LEOs are likely to think of their own families first, as happened in the LA Riots and Katrina. Add to that that they would not want to stomp on the friends and relatives of their neighbors.
Exactly. And in that situation the friends of local LEOs will be their gun-owning Patriot neighbors.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2724518/posts?page=10#10
Now is the time to have the discussions with the Mayor and the County sheriff. BEFORE DHS COMES IN BUSTING DOORS.
...Let a [federal] regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger...
To these [federal troops] would be opposed a militia... of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by [State] governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of [federal] regular troops...
Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate [State] governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of [federal] ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of...
And as Thomas Jefferson observed in his Kentucky Resolutions:
1. Resolved, That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes — delegated to that [federal] government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force: that to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral part, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party: that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each [State as a] party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.
Leave the militia in the control of the States. The original system of "checks and balances" anticipated a balance of power between the States and the federal government, not simply between the different branches of the federal government. The high court is a part of the federal government, and (as Madison noted in his Report on the Virginia Resolutions) as potentially subject to corruption as the other branches of that government...
;>)
Whatever it is does matter. If we're talking about 0bamaCare where does he get the massive funding necessary to implement one of the biggest bureaucracies ever created? Congress has changed since 0bamaCare passed and it's going to change some more this Nov. Even if it was made up of the same butt monkeys that passed it I can't imagine them having the gonads to fund a bureaucracy that was deemed un-Constitutional by SCOTUS and hugely unpopular with the people.
i just pray that someone the boy listens to will be smart enough to splain it to him...
In other words, he’s your average progressivik.
I know I sound like a broken record, but what the heck:
We are on the edge of complete and total disaster.
I can’t gussy it up.
I can’t make it sound palatable.
I wish I had something, anything, else to say.
It is what it is.
Right on the $$, LJ!
” We are on the edge of complete and total disaster.
I can’t gussy it up.
I can’t make it sound palatable.”
The TRUTH works for me..
B U M P
You are spot on....just don’t give up, or give in.
It ain’t over . We own America...not Obama & Holder....WE do.
Though I'd rather be younger to be of more use . . . +1
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.