[contemplator]

The bill of rights is intended to empower ‘the people’.

The rest of your post makes it clear you understand where power comes from so this statement must have been some left wing phrase that accidentally stuck :) As you know, the Bill of Rights is not intended to empower the people, power inherently belongs to the people as a birthright. The Bill of Rights was intended to clarify that relationship and make special protections just in case either the state or federal governments tried to overstep their bounds. The 10th amendment makes this crystal clear. The 10th Amendment is probably the least quoted of the amendments and yet is the most far reaching and powerful of them all.

[STE=Q]

You write:

“As you know, the Bill of Rights is not intended to empower the people, power inherently belongs to the people as a birthright.”

Well, yes, I make it clear that it delineates what the founders believed were inherent rights.

You further write:

“The Bill of Rights was intended to clarify that relationship and make special protections just in case either the state or federal governments tried to overstep their bounds.”

Any document intended to ‘clarify’ and make special ‘protections’ to our inherent rights — such as the bill of rights — is empowering in the sense that it confirms those inherent rights.

I also understand that these delineated rights do not preclude other rights of the people, as the 10th amendment makes clear:

‘The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.’

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am10

I agree with you when you say that ‘The 10th Amendment is probably the least quoted of the amendments and yet is the most far reaching and powerful of them all.’

You sound like someone with a great understanding of the constitution.

Thanks for the reply.

STE=Q