Prof. Paul Moreno @ BigGovernment.com: "How Prostitution Killed the Constitution"

BigGovernment.com ^ | 9/15/10 | Prof. Paul Moreno

[hillsdale1]

This year marks the centennial of the Mann “White Slave Act,” when Congress made it a federal offence to transport a woman across state lines for “immoral purposes.” Though the act is still on the books (as former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer can tell you), and has been made gender-neutral, it is usually seen as a relic of nineteenth-century moralism. In fact, no act did more to overturn the nineteenth-century constitutional order. The Mann Act was boldly challenged the idea that the Constitution limited Congress’ power the ends enumerated in Article One, section eight. It established an all-purpose federal “police power” that now permits Congress to regulate just about everything.

[count-your-change]

The Civil War ended the Constitution when the principle was established that whoever had the greater force of arms would decide what the Constitution meant.

[PaleoBob]

There is a lot of truth in what you say. Also, I think even those of us DEVOTED to what the Constitution SAYS should at least consider the idea that it ultimately proved a failure—of at least enforcement but also of interpretation. We’d have to do better next time.