The Question of Lawmaking II

Article V Blog ^ | March 19th 2018 | Rodney Dodsworth

[Jacquerie]

Subtitle: Outsourcing the Law. Imagine turning off the news media. Imagine not just turning it off but isolating yourself from it for a month. A fishing and hunting trip without any electronic devices would do the trick. Upon your return, you find out that congress had charged, tried, and found guilty all the higher echelon Obama administration officials who abused their offices to overthrow candidate and President Trump. You are told that because the executive and judicial branches wouldn’t do their jobs, congress decided to step in and punish Obama, Rice, Lynch, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Priestap and Page.

Of course, while you admire the outcome of visiting punishment on these high criminals, you are outraged at the usurpation of the law of the land, our beloved Constitution. We the People did not grant law enforcement powers to congress and purposely denied it the power to attaint and punish anyone, no matter their crimes. Tyranny, said James Madison, is nothing more than comingling the three great functions of any government in the hands of the one, the few or the many.

Instead of vacationing for a month and finding that congress had conducted felony trials, imagine doing a Rip Van Winkle for the entire 20th century. Awakening, you find that congress had assigned much of its Article I § 1 lawmaking powers to the executive and judicial branches. Additionally, the few laws passed by congress and the multitude of regulations are made without regard to the enumeration of legislative power in Article I § 8.

Article I § 1 is the essence of the America republic. Extra-congressional lawmaking is a pox on our sovereignty; if allowed to fester and grow it is the certain end of free government. It is the tyranny that President Trump promised to stop . . .