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A suit brought by 18 states challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare was dismissed in the US Supreme Court by a vote of 7-2. The decision was written by Justice Stephen Breyer who decreed that “these states lack standing to challenge this law.” Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Clarence Thomas concurred. Justices Samuel Alito and Paul Gorsuch dissented. The states had argued that since the tax penalty for not purchasing Obamacare was repealed during the Trump Administration the basis for the prior Supreme Court decision upholding the law was eliminated. Breyer rejected this...

Our 18th century Framers were precise grammarians. They spent months debating in the stuffy Philadelphia state house to thrash out every concept, idea, detail, clause and yes, punctuation, that ended up in our beloved Constitution. From James Madison’s notes, there is no question that every detail had to first pass a committee composed of a few members, and then survive withering examination by a committee of all state delegates. Article I § 8 elaborates the declaration of limited legislative powers in Section 1: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall...

An important point that is seldom made in modern political discourse is the uncreative nature of government. By this I mean that government, as an entity, does not and cannot create—it can only regulate. The governing documents of this country—the Constitution and the Bill of Rights—limit “government more than governments had ever been limited in any nation” prior. And for the first half of its 224-year existence, Leonard Read notes that: No citizen turned to government for help and for two reasons: (1) it had nothing on hand to give, and (2) it had not the power to take from...

General Welfare Fraud: Roberts creates a tax loophole by Daniel Clark It’s fitting that the Supreme Court handed down its Obamacare ruling the same week that it threw out the “stolen valor” law against falsely claiming military decorations, because it has now enabled unconstitutional federal power grabs to go around masquerading as “General Welfare,” without any legal consequence. Chief Justice John Roberts, in his single-minded determination to save the Democrats’ health care law from its own terminal defects, ruled it constitutional by recasting the individual mandate penalty as a tax. Justice Antonin Scalia spent a considerable part of his dissent...

General Welfare Fraud: Roberts creates a tax loophole by Daniel Clark It’s fitting that the Supreme Court handed down its Obamacare ruling the same week that it threw out the “stolen valor” law against falsely claiming military decorations, because it has now enabled unconstitutional federal power grabs to go around masquerading as “General Welfare,” without any legal consequence. Chief Justice John Roberts, in his single-minded determination to save the Democrats’ health care law from its own terminal defects, ruled it constitutional by recasting the individual mandate penalty as a tax. Justice Antonin Scalia spent a considerable part of his dissent...

How's this for a doctrine of applying the General Welfare clause in justifying any control or money being spent by the Federal government ? If the effort in question can be done at the local or State level, then it must be done at the local or State level - and must NOT be done at all by the Federal government. Basically, if localities or States are doing it then the Federal government need not - and must not - do it. Quite simply because the fact that localities or States are doing something proves that they can. For roads,...

"Q: So in your view those things fall outside of general welfare. But what falls inside of it? What did the Founders mean by 'general welfare'? "A: I don't know if I'm going to sit here and parse down to what the Founding Fathers thought general welfare meant. "Q: But you just said what you thought they didn't mean by general welfare. So isn't it fair to ask what they did mean? It's in the Constitution. "A: [Silence.] "Q: OK. Moving on.... "

Speaker of the House Henry Clay and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman John C. Calhoun pushed legislation known as the Bonus Bill through the House of Representatives. On December 23, 1816 Calhoun introduced the bill to set apart funds for "internal improvements," spending money on roads, canals, or what today would be commonly referred to as infrastructure. The bill had set apart and pledged federal funds "for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several States, and to render more easy and less expensive...

There is a difference between these two statements, one of which may be familiar to some forumites hereabout.... The power to tax must be adequate to address the Powers to appropriate. Taxes can never accomplish the objects for which they were collected unless the power to appropriate is as broad as the power to tax. The former may be considered a summation of the explanation of the language in A1:S8:C1 given by Madison and others to the several States before the ratification of the Constitution. This view holds that the terms "common Defence" or "general Welfare" are described by the...

(CNSNews.com) -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said the “good and welfare clause” gives Congress the authority to require individuals to buy health insurance as mandated in the health care bill. However, there is no “good and welfare clause” in the U.S. Constitution. During an interview Capitol Hill Friday, CNSNews.com asked Rep. Conyers, “The individual mandate in the bill requires individuals to purchase health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said that never before in the history of the United States has the federal government required any one to purchase any good or service. What part...

If there really is a 'general Welfare' clause then why doesn't the language of the 10th Amendment mirror that of the 9th to read: 'The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain Powers, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others deemed necessary to provide for the common Defence and promote the general Welfare of the United States of America.'? ... but instead reads: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." I mean, since the 10th Amendment was in no...

Much fuss is made at this forum regarding the presumed haziness of the “common Defense and general Welfare” clause and the enumerated powers that follow in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. If you are not sure, or think this section is ambiguous, or actually does grant unlimited power to Congress you are in wide company. You are confused at best, but at least you have lots of company. Our 18th Century Framers were precise grammarians. It took months of often heated debate in the stuffy, hot, State House in Philly to thrash out every concept, idea, detail, clause...

Self-Evident Truths: Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it comes under the Commerce Clause. Rep. Steny Hoyer says it's mandated by the "general welfare" clause. Despite liberal wishes, health care is not a right. The "living Constitution" that Democrats and their court appointees have given us may be the death of our freedoms. Their constitution adapts to the times and serves the whims of the elitists. The Constitution is supposed to limit government powers. It does not allow government to do anything it feels like doing. Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the author of...

If Congress cannot use the power of appropriation to do things “not authorised in the Constitution, either expressly or by fair implication,” then where would one look to find a basic blueprint so this rule can be followed? Ironically, that would be a Federalist Essay written by James Madison. In Essay No. 45, he distinguished the external powers granted to the federal government from the domestic powers reserved to the States: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The...

There are very, very few things about the Constitution that I would just outright change. There are lots of very important areas where reasonable people can differ, with enormous consequence, and I would certainly like to see those clarified, but that's not what I mean here. Here I'm talking about things in the current Constitution, as amended, that are just plain wrong. The first and foremost among these is the 17th Amendment. If I could change one thing about the Constitution, it would be to clarify the meaning of "general welfare". If I could change two, though, the second would...

Anti-war presidential candidate Ron Paul says his campaign is about "restoring the vanishing American dream." And he is criticizing what he calls "the cartel controlling the banking and monetary system" in the United States. Fresh off his third-quarter fundraising surprise of $5 million, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says the libertarian "revolution" he has started is growing across America. Paul told conservative activists at the "Defending the American Dream Summit" in Washington, DC, that the conference would be more aptly called the "Defending the Vanishing American Dream Summit." The Texas congressman said his Republican rivals often talk about a "flat...

Starting this year, every educational institution receiving federal aid must teach about the U.S. Constitution on the September 17 anniversary of its signing (September 16 in 2005...) The requirement is ironic, given that it came from the Senate's leading Constitutional scholar, yet clearly conflicts with the Constitution, and on many grounds. Last year, Senator Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va.) inserted it into a spending bill packed with pork that was blatantly inconsistent with Americans' general welfare, which is the Constitution's rationale. There is nothing in the document that permits the federal government to tell local schools what they can and cannot teach....

Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri has vetoed a "medical marijuana" bill, saying it would encourage marijuana use and criminal activity. His veto comes as an anti-drug group has released dramatic video footage of a marijuana activist declaring that he uses dope for a health problem that he doesn't really have. The bottom line for this activist, Ed Rosenthal, is that "I like to get high. Marijuana is fun." The video has the potential of dealing a major blow to the "medical marijuana" movement, largely funded by billionaire George Soros. The video footage, posted at the website http://www.sorosmonitor.com, gives the...

  "General welfare"? There's that phrase again. I do not think it means what you think it means." —I. Montoya, noted political philosopher (paraphrased) Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution begins thus (emphasis added): The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States...Today, the conventional wisdom among the political elite is that this clause expands Congressional power to the point where it is essentially limitless—that this clause gives Congress a blank check for meddling in every...

I'm looking for a definitive Constitutional explanation about the "General Welfare" clause. I'm not referring to the words in the preamble, but to the first enumerated power. Article I, Section 8 The enumerated powers First paragraph: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; And then some quotes from the founders: Madison: "With respect to the two words "general welfare," I have always regarded...