Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Alberta's Child

There’s a couple of things I don’t think you understand about the federal government and the states. Comes under the heading of how to learn and understand the Constitution which created a very limited United States Government by understanding it presumptions, structure, text, and perversions by the Supreme Court since around 1900.

1) The ONLY source of the federal government’s existence and authority is the Constitution. The Constitution via the states and the people delegated certain limited, enumerated powers to the federal government. If it is not a power specifically enumerated to the feds in the Constitution then it is not a valid federal power. Simply put, if it isn’t a power provided to the feds by the Constitution it isn’t a valid federal power. Outside of the Constitution, the feds have NO legitimate power (Art.VI, Cl. 2).

2) The states and the people on the other hand are presumed to have pre-existing rights based on the persuasive authority of the Declaration of Independence, the foundation and presumption of the Constitution. If it isn’t a power that has been delegated to the feds in the Constitution, then it is a state power. Simply put, if it’s not in the Constitution, it is a state power. Outside of the Constitution, states are sovereign.

This is confirmed and laid out in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. READ those amendments - maybe a few times.

NOTHING in the Constitution gives the feds your extra-constitutional power over new states. That is a Mr. Child invention, not a constitutional provision.


103 posted on 07/25/2020 6:47:11 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 102 | View Replies ]


To: Jim W N
I have a simple question for you: Can Congress establish conditions for a state to be admitted to the United States?

The answer to that questions goes a long way to addressing some of the more ridiculous implications of the approach you're taking.

For example ...

The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that the Federal government has the authority to own and retain land in the various states. The reasons for this are obvious when you consider the details of the Federal court cases that resulted in these decisions. Two of the biggest factors here are:

1. The Federal government signed treaties with native tribes in these western states that pre-dated the existence of the states. These treaties were signed when the Federal government was in a role of managing a territorial government, and in many of these cases the current state borders do not match the original territorial boundaries. This last point was the basis of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2019 -- where it held that a member of the Crow tribe who lived in Montana still retained hunting rights in Wyoming under the terms of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The notion that the establishment of statehood renders any previous legal agreements null and void would seem to be preposterous on its face -- especially for anyone who recognizes the importance of clear land titles in maintaining the rule of law in any jurisdiction.

2. In western states, the original motivation of the Federal government in holding title to land (aside from military considerations) was to protect watersheds and minimize conflicts between states and territories over water rights for agricultural uses. Folks like me who were born and raised on the East Coast take these sorts of things for granted because water has never been a problem here. Rainfall is abundant and supports every agricultural use we've had here in the last several centuries, but for western states that's a whole different story. There are hardly any natural rivers that flow within a single state, and the availability of water for ranching and mining activities was a major bone of contention in so many land disputes in the 19th century -- involving both settlers and Indians alike.

105 posted on 07/25/2020 9:08:59 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("We're human beings ... we're not f#%&ing animals." -- Dennis Rodman, 6/1/2020)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 103 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson