Only if you come from the mindset that the federal government was superior to the states, which it wasn't. Barron v Baltimore specifically stated the intent of the Framers. If we accept your view, then we must accept the 14th Amendment in and of itself changed the relationship between the federal government and the states, which it clearly (at least for over 30 years) did not.
“Only if you come from the mindset that the federal government was superior to the states, which it wasn't. Barron v Baltimore specifically stated the intent of the Framers. If we accept your view, then we must accept the 14th Amendment in and of itself changed the relationship between the federal government and the states, which it clearly (at least for over 30 years) did not.”
Barron v Baltimore from 1833? Are you saying that case law from almost 30 years BEFORE an Amendment to the Constitution trumps the Amendment?
It was not my view, it was the view of the drafters of the 14th Amendment that what they were doing changed that relationship, as did the Civil War.
This is Hoe Senator Luke Poland of Vermont put it:
“It is essentially declared in the Declaration of Independence and in all the provisions of the Constitution. Notwithstanding this we know that State laws exist, and some of them of very recent enactment, in direct violation of these principles. Congress has already shown its desire and intention to uproot and destroy all such partial State legislation in the passage of what is called the civil rights bill.... It certainly seems desirable that no doubt should be left existing as to the power of Congress to enforce principles lying at the foundation of all republican government if they be denied or violated by the States. “
I would consider that a pretty definitive description of how those who wrote and debated the Amendment thought.
As to your cite, it was made mute with the passage of the Amendment.