Posted on 03/18/2010 5:05:02 PM PDT by Xottamoppa
Yes and no. We have a Chief Justice and supreme court, but they’ve slept through most of the 20th century and appear to be sleeping soundly through the present nightmarish travesty on Capitol hill. The purpose of roping ol’ POTUS into the mix is to underline the antiquated concept of checks and balances, to emphasize that the Executive Branch has a co-equal responsibility to ensure the constitutionality of any legislation signed without passing the buck to the Court and, above all, to promote all the gridlock we can achieve to prevent any actual governance from occurring. Jefferson noted, “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government”. While I agree, I’ve always thought he was being redundant.
To answer your specific question, the president should “investigate, explore and validate” “all by himself”. It doesn’t take that long to read the Constitution-—the only place to look for constitutionality. The idea is to compel each branch to derive their just powers once more from the consent of the governed as enumerated in the document they refuse to otherwise consult.
If the President is too busy to verify the constitutionality of a bill before he signs it, he’s too busy. Passing bills too long to read, signing laws without bothering to check their legality and outsourcing responsibility to the snoozing Court has gotten us this far. Yes, it would (hopefully) wind up in the Supreme Court, as you say. Which is why it’s unnecessary to require that in the amendment. That achieves the aim of bringing all three branches face-to-face with the law of the land.
i was with you till that last two words; “strong leadership” is exactly what the Founders feared. The People were never meant to be led by government; only protected from foreign invaders.
Everybody is missing the point. You’re still talking about the 20th century paradigm where the people sit on their hands and wish government would follow the Constitution. I’m operating in the new paradigm where the People aren’t asking any more. We are telling them what they may and may not do.
They work for us, remember. Until every citizen is willing to demand his rights, it’s all academic. Our Founding Fathers didn’t ask for their liberty, they demanded it-—and took it when it was not granted.
Explicitly include that there be no appropriations bill in support of other than those functions defined in article 1 section 8 or in direct support of the functioning of congress, either.
I’m sick to death of my money getting taken, skimmed, and then used to bribe one constituency or another, ACLU, ACORN, etc.
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