U.S. Constitution & Congress: Where’s their power to get involved in Schiavo case?

U.S. Constitution via House of Representatives website ^ | 3/21/05

[Wolfstar]

United States Constitution

Article I. Section. 8.

Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;

Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And

Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Florida law does not recognize common law marriages.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"I live in a country that owes its very existence to a bunch of people who overthrew their government just because they thought the f#%&ing taxes were too high, so this high-minded, sanctimonous crap about the "rule of law" and the "legal system" doesn't mean a damn thing to me in."

The very essence of liberal mentality.

I want what I want, screw the law.

Al Gore won in your book, didn't he?

[Alberta's Child]

The very essence of liberal mentality.

That attitude is the foundation of this country's existence, so I don't know what your point is.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Let's take YOUR attitude here, shall we?

You're pissed off that a Court overturned duly enacted law in the case of "anal sex" and acted on how they "felt" about the law, and you're pissed that this Court has adjudicated in accordance to the duly enacted laws of the State of Florida, in spite on how he may "feel" about the laws.

In other words...you're pissed off at Courts that reach decisions based on anything other than how YOU feel about the law.

Liberal to the core.

[Alberta's Child]

I do not argue these issues from a legal standpoint, but from rational principles as they apply to the legal matters at hand

If the "due process clause" of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constutution does not protect the life of a person who is being starved to death despite no clear indication that this would have been her wishes, then the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution doesn't mean a damn thing.

Quite frankly, this pretty much seals in my mind the notion that the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't mean a damn thing, either.

From the movie Last of the Mohicans:

British Officer (attempting to recruit a militia from a frontier village, to help the British fight the French): "You call yourself a patriot, and loyal subject to the crown?"

Nathaniel (a.k.a. Hawkeye) (taking sides with those colonials who don't want to leave their families unprotected on their frontier farms): "I don't call myself subject to much at all."

[Luis Gonzalez]

"I do not argue these issues from a legal standpoint."

And you don't want the Courts to do so either.

[Alberta's Child]

Of course I do. If the state of Texas had passed a law codifying protection for acts of sodomy instead of criminalizing it, I would have been very consistent in stating that the U.S. Supreme Court had no business in hell overturning it.

The Terri Schiavo case is a matter of life and death, not a matter of tax policy, public morals, etc. As such, it is a case involving a "first principle" that is the underlying foundation of everything this nation stands for.

[tame]

f.y.i.

[tame]

f.y.i.