The 10th Amendment of the United States

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Never in history have words of such power been written down. 28 simple words that state that the government is to be limited and restricted in its powers.

Of course the political class despises this amendment and has essentially ignored it for decades. Since the Roosevelt Administration, (Theodore), the Federal Government along with the judicial branch have been working to usurp powers not allowed them by the constitution.

The 10^th Amendment has had it’s abuses as well. Screams of “States Rights” started the American Civil War, and led to the ratification of the 14^th Amendment which, among other things, made sure that former slaves had the full rights of American citizenship.

The problem arises with the use of the Commerce Clause. The Commerce Clause was originally meant to be used to prevent the individual states from putting tariffs on goods from other states. It has now been expanded all out of its original intent, to the point where the 10^th Amendment as, for all intents and purposes, been repealed.

This power grab by the Federal Government started under the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration. FDR’s utter contempt for the people and his belief in ruling rather then governing the United States led to him becoming “President for life.”

Roosevelt came into office after the Crash of ’29 began the Great Depression. His plan was basically to centralize control of the economy in the hands of the educated ruling elite who would guide the ignorant masses in how they conducted their affairs.

FDR and the Democrats then passed one law after the other restricting free enterprise, banking and farming. Eventually all aspects of the American economy were controlled by federal and also state bureaucrats.

Of course there were many challenges to the new deal in the courts. The courts ruled a large portion of the New Deal unconstitutional. Roosevelt attempted to pack the court,¹ (increase the number of justices), so he could appoint people who would rule in his favor. The attempt to pack the court failed, but the “Fear of FDR” was thrown into the justices and they basically began ruling in his favor, to the detriment of the Constitution and the Republic.

The case that opened the floodgates to Federal Tyranny regulation, was the Wickard vs. Filburn² case. Basically, FDR had started regulating farms and what they could produce. A farmer, Roscoe Filburn, was growing wheat to feed his chickens. The U.S. government had imposed limits on wheat production based on acreage owned by a farmer, in order to drive up wheat prices during the Great Depression, and Filburn was growing more than the limits permitted. Filburn was ordered to destroy his crops and pay a fine, even though he was producing the excess wheat for his own use and had no intention of selling it.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Congress could regulate wheat production on a family farm that was intended for use strictly on that farm, such as for personal consumption or animal fodder. The Court’s reasoning was this: Congress mandated production quotas on wheat farmers to regulate the price and keep it steady. It did this under authority of the Commerce Clause which gave it permission to regulate interstate authority. Of course, a lot of wheat crosses state lines. If an individual would produce a substantial amount of wheat on his own farm and use it for himself, he would not be buying wheat on the market for his own use, or selling the wheat he grew on the market. Both of these things would affect the price of wheat on the market, and therefore, Congress had the authority to regulate it.³

DING DING DING DING DING! We have a Winner!

Unfortunately it wasn’t the American People or the Constitution. That tremor that was felt was the founders of this country spinning in their graves. With that one “decision” the floodgates were opened to institute a virtual totalitarian control of the United States.

Under FDR the federal government exploded in size. One agency after another was created and the traditional American way of life was turned on its head. Within a few short years there wasn’t one thing that wasn’t regulated from Washington.

Of course, since the Political Class believed in top down solutions, they started pushing mandates down to the state and local levels. Things that had never been regulated now had the boot heel of Washington slammed down. Things that were traditionally the realm of the states was taken over by Washington.

What has been the results?

An out of control and bankrupt nation. People were being told they couldn’t buy incandescent light bulbs or toilets that would flush properly. Education was taken from the state and local level and put more and more under the dead hand of Washington bureaucrats.

The final straw in most people’s mind was the recently passed Health Care act which mandated that people HAD to buy insurance whether they wanted to or not. Failure to do so would mean large fines and possibly jail terms.

The new law was and is opposed by a large majority of the citizens of the United States and that opposition is only getting larger. The political class flat out doesn’t care. As fare as they are concerned the people should just be quiet, pay the ever increasing levels of taxation and shut up and obey their masters and overlords.

Well a funny thing happened on the way to the plantation, the states and people get fed up. The incredible power grabs by Obama, Congress, the EPA and other agencies finally awoke the comatose giant.

Aside from Obamacare and its mandates and destruction of the medical system in this country, it was the nationalization of two of the three automakers, (GM and Chrysler), the bailouts of Wall Street investment houses and banks and the bogus “Stimulus” bills that massively increased the nations debt. And then there was the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and blowout.

As we all know, British Petroleum screwed the pooch and the Gulf of Mexico suffered a massive oil blowout. Since the rig went down in deep water, this was definitely a case for the Federal government to handle. Only they didn’t. The various agencies and departments played turf games and engaged in CYA⁴ rather then work to mitigate the disaster and keep the oil from washing ashore.

The governors of the affected states, led by Governor Bobby Jindal, started asking for equipment and manpower to build berms and oil booms. They also asked for oil skimmer boats to go out and clean the oil out of the ocean. Not only did the Federal Government not provide the equipment, they actively prevented the states from implementing their own solutions.

Then there was the Arizona law dealing with illegal immigration. Rather then work with the states to solve the problem, the Obama administration decided to sue the state to prevent them from implementing it. They found one of their pet judges who thinks the Federal Government has the right to impose its rules on the states, and that the states have no rights, to rule that the law is unconstitutional.

This was one of the sloppiest decisions, until the recent decision declaring the change to California’s constitution declaring marriage to be between a man and woman, unconstitutional.⁵

The people have had enough with the overreaching of Government at all levels and are looking to take back their rights. The political class, (Primarily Progressive Democrats), and their pet judges are going to fight this tooth and nail. They are delusional in their thinking that this is just a temporary phenomena and that the people are just “uneducated” with regards to all the wonderful things their benevolent overlords are doing for them.

Yeah, right. Allow me to try and explain it to these Marxist scum. The old saw about “Taking the guns out of the closet?” I have some bad new for you. The guns are already out, the ammo is being counted and the people are trying desperately to get those statest morons to understand they have gone way to far.

No one wants to push “The Second Amendment Reset Button” but a lot of people think it may be to late. Their one last hope is the elections in November. If the Progressives somehow manage to sleaze their way back into office, I think the shooting will start by mid 2011. I hope and pray I’m wrong, as does a large number of people predicting and armed rebellion.

Personally, I think we may start to see state governments refusing the diktats from Washington and when some moronic judge issues a blatantly unconstitutional decision they will tell him to go pound sand. This will set up a constitutional crisis. You will see the political class threatening to withhold funds and the states going all in and telling people and businesses not to send tax payments to the treasury.

Then you may see states start ignoring all the rules and regulations sent down by bureaucracies like the EPA. Texas has already fired a shot across the EPA’s bow⁶ with regards to rules that will, for all intents and purposes, close down the oil industry.  If that should happen, other states would follow suit very quickly.

Of course, the political class can not allow that to stand, and that is the point where things get worrying. Here we will have states start reasserting their 10^thAmendment rights and a massive, overbearing federal government trying to impose their will. At this point things start getting scary.

None of this needed to happen. All it will take is a few judges and justices willing to restore the rights that belong to the states and the individual. Unfortunately, judicial types like that are few and far between. To many believe that the Federal Government has the absolute power to do as it wishes. Just look at that loudmouth Pete Stark telling people that he is the king and that his constituents are nothing.

So, what can you do? Simple really. Vote the scum out of power and hold the new sum’s feet to the fire. Vote, call, right and basically show that you will not go quietly into the night. The political class believes in slavery and thinks that the average American should be in the fields chopping cotton and supporting their way of life.

They need to be removed from office and a new group, willing and ready to to return to our constitutional foundations, sent into office.

This is literally the moment of truth on whether the United States will remain a great nation or sink into third world status.

The ball is in your court people. It’s time to swing for the bleachers!

~The Angry Webmaster~

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1. Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 [↩]
2. WICKARD v. FILBURN, 317 U.S. 111 (1942 [↩]
3. Revolutionary War and Beyond, The 10th Amendment [↩]
4. Cover Your Ass [↩]
5. Prop. 8: Judge Walker’s bias will be overruled [↩]
6. Texas to the EPA: We Will Not Comply! [↩]