The U.S. Constitution's most Basic Point

[regent]

The United States has federal schools,

 

[Wry Catcher]

The United States has federal schools,

Want to explain this ^^^?

 

[ScienceRocks]

The "United States." Think about that concept.

Unlike what most Americans think, a "State" is not a sub-division of a country. A State IS a country. This is why we speak of a "two-state solution" in the Holy Land - two separate, independent COUNTRIES.

When the colonies decided to consolidate, they still considered themselves separate STATES - that is, countries. Had they wanted to simply consolidate into one country, they would have chosen a new name like England or France or Norway. No, they wanted to retain their independent sovereignty, while turning over well-defined portions of that sovereignty to a central government.

The portions turned over are listed in Section 8 of Article I of the Constitution, and they are quite logical. These are governmental functions that make sense to be done on a consolidated basis. For example,

• To regulate commerce with foreign countries,
• To coin money,
• To establish a system of post offices, and "post roads" (to facilitate mail delivery),
• To establish a system for patents and copyrights,
• To raise armies, navies, and to declare war.

People who pay attention to such things have concluded that there are 17 specific functions that the STATES turned over to the central government, but the exact number is not important. What is important is that the powers granted to the central government are numbered, finite, and limited. And of course, the central government was authorized to collect taxes to pay for those functions, and to make any laws that were necessary to execute the powers that had been given to the central government.

THEN, they made sure that the central government did not expand its mission, by passing the Tenth Amendment, which states simply that the powers granted in the Constitution to the central government were exclusive, and EVERYTHING ELSE was reserved to the States or to the people.

And so, for example, the States retain exclusive jurisdiction over real estate laws, commercial laws, criminal laws (other than for crimes involving the areas assigned to the central government), family law, and so forth.

And this basic framework REMAINS "the law of the land."

As an example of Americans' serious ignorance about this basic framework, consider the relatively recent challenge to the Affordable Care Act, centering on the penalty that was assessed against those who did not buy health insurance. CLEARLY, the central government has no power to compel people to get health insurance. It is not among the powers granted to the federal government. So if this was actually a fine or penalty, it was unconstitutional.

But the Supreme Court has an implicit obligation to TRY to interpret the actions of Congress in a way that makes everything Constitutional, if possible. So they interpreted the penalty as a form of TAX, which Congress is [arguably] permitted to impose. They did this even though the Solicitor General, speaking for the Administration, specifically said that it was NOT a tax. So ACA survived to live another day.

Now with this basic structure for the federal government, one wonders how in the world there can exist a Federal Department called the "Department of Education." Under the Tenth Amendment, the central government has NO POWER to do anything in connection with education. It is ENTIRELY the province of the States and the private sector. They might as well have a Department of Real Estate Transfers. It is an absurdity.

I'm not intentionally picking on the Department of Education; it is merely an example of a "cornucopia" of such agencies and departments in Washington, the mere existence of which is clearly unconstitutional.

But MOST IMPORTANT in this discussion is the following point: Saying that something is "Unconstitutional" is NOT THE SAME as saying that it is bad or worthless or of no value. It may be a wonderful program, but unless it is authorized by the Constitution then it ought not to exist. And if the People decide that it should exist, then a Constitutional Amendment is required, to permit it.

Nothing but a wall of text. Why not end our drug war, first.

Well, because they realize that we're right about the constitution but they just don't want to pay to help people. They do because they want to ban abortion, ban gays, tell you were you should go to the bathroom and pretty much force jesus down your effin throat. But, hell, they'll fight a massive fucking war on drugs that end up having police kick your fucking door open and kill your dog.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Most conservatives that understand law want to pack the supreme court as our supreme court is one of the few in the world that has judicial review. They know they can make it far harder to help people when liberals get into power if they have their people on the court...If this wasn't so then what is so important about that body of government? They won't admit I am right as they hate anyone that isn't a extreme rightest but they sure fight for it hard. They damn well know that the constitution doesn't forbid the safetynet, infrastructure investment(hell, the founders did that!) and working to make sure the population is healthy. It is called a government..Not a defense pact.