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To: djsherin
So how did the Supreme Court broaden its jurisdiction and, in effect, re-write the Constitution? The answer to that question lies in the concept of stare decisis (Latin for “to stand by the things decided”), which is the legal doctrine of precedent. Black’s Law Dictionary defines it as when it is “necessary for a court to follow earlier judicial decisions when the same points arise again in litigation.” Once the concept of judicial review was established, it led to a series of cases where the court began to rely on earlier cases as sources for decisions instead of the Constitution itself.

Indeed.

Document 10

Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin

13 Oct. 1802Works 9:398--99

You know my doubts, or rather convictions, about the unconstitutionality of the act for building piers in the Delaware, and the fears that it will lead to a bottomless expense, & to the greatest abuses. There is, however, one intention of which the act is susceptible, & which will bring it within the Constitution; and we ought always to presume that the real intention which is alone consistent with the Constitution. Altho' the power to regulate commerce does not give a power to build piers, wharves, open ports, clear the beds of rivers, dig canals, build warehouses, build manufacturing machines, set up manufactories, cultivate the earth, to all of which the power would go if it went to the first, yet a power to provide and maintain a navy, is a power to provide receptacles for it, and places to cover & preserve it. In choosing the places where this money should be laid out, I should be much disposed, as far as contracts will permit, to confine it to such place or places as the ships of war may lie at, and be protected from ice; & I should be for stating this in a message to Congress, in order to prevent the effect of the present example. This act has been built on the exercise of the power of building light houses, as a regulation of commerce. But I well remember the opposition, on this very ground, to the first act for building a light house. The utility of the thing has sanctioned the infraction. But if on that infraction we build a 2d, on that 2d a 3d, &c., any one of the powers in the Constitution may be made to comprehend every power of government.

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_3_commerces10.html

9 posted on 05/12/2009 7:58:48 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: tacticalogic

I would also suggest a reading of the Federalist Papers.

They may be read at the following http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

They explain in detail what the Founding Fathers were trying to accomplish and what the background was for the different amendments.


10 posted on 05/12/2009 8:08:21 PM PDT by pcpa
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