[marsh2]

The original U.S. Senate was comprised of appointees from the state legislatures. Treaties were made with their advice and consent. This made sense because the U.S. Congress could only implement a treaty through its limited powers as delegated and enumerated in the U.S. Constitution. The bulk of modern treaty provisions would have to be implemented by the states through their powers. As the Senate represented the states, this worked out.

When the system was changed to reflect a modern "democratic" popular vote for the Senators, it left a barrier to implementation of treaty provisions. In early 20 th century environmental cases, SCOTUS ruled that because a treaty existed, then national power beyond that enumerated in the Constitution had to exist in order to implement the treaty. In effect, the treaties were used to enlarge federal power and create a centralized hierarchial pre-emptive government, rather than the compound republic intended by the founders.

[Eastbound]

Excellent summary of how we lost our Republic. Thanks. Treaty provisions have become the supreme law of the land, superseding the Bill of Rights and Constitution.

Check out, "The Coming Collision - Global Law vs. U.S. Liberties", by James L. Hirsen, Ph.D. (ISBN 1-56384-157-6) for a more detailed summary of the history of how treaties were introduced as a method to deliberately circumvent the Constitution.

I would also recommend browsing through Larry BeCraft's website which details the legalistic shenanigans on how the federal government has used treaties to steal municipal power.