Bill of Federalism
I'm all for this: "A Bill of Federalism: A detailed proposal to redress the imbalance between state and federal power, by Randy E. Barnett"
via Forbes.com
Labels: constitutionalism, government, law, politics
posted by Becky @ Friday, May 22, 2009
5 Comments:
I agree! (Though I wonder what such a bill would look like, given the desire of the average person for the Federal Government to "fix" everything!)
The Forbes article contains the entire text of the bill.
OK, I've tried to boil it down, but I am not a lawyer:
[Restrictions on Tax Powers of Congress]
Eliminates various taxes, repeals 16th amendment
Article [of Amendment 2] -- [Limits of Commerce Power]
No power to regulate or prohibit any activity that is confined within a single state regardless of its effects outside the state
Article [of Amendment 3] -- [Unfunded Mandates and Conditions on Spending]
Can't make Federal funding conditional on states' compliance.
Article [of Amendment 4] -- [No Abuse of the Treaty Power]
No treaty or other international agreement may enlarge the legislative power of Congress granted by this Constitution, nor govern except by legislation any activity that is confined within the United States.
Article [of Amendment 5] -- [Freedom of Political Speech and Press]
The freedom of speech and press includes political contributions and extends equally to any medium.
Article [of Amendment 6] -- [Power of States to Check Federal Power]
States can rescind Federal laws
Article [of Amendment 7] -- [Term Limits for Congress]
Article [of Amendment 8] -- [Balanced Budget Line Item Veto]
Article [of Amendment 9] -- [The Rights Retained by the People]
Section 1. All persons are equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights which they retain when forming any government, amongst which are the enjoying, defending and preserving of their life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting real and personal property, making binding contracts of their choosing, and pursuing their happiness and safety.
Section 2. The due process of law shall be construed to provide the opportunity to introduce evidence or otherwise show that a law, regulation or order is an infringement of such rights of any citizen or legal resident of the United States, and the party defending the challenged law, regulation, or order shall have the burden of establishing the basis in law and fact of its conformity with this Constitution.
Article [of Amendment 10] -- [Neither Foreign Law nor American Judges May Alter the Meaning of Constitution]
This is great stuff and I agree with virtually all of it. (Which means, of course, that it will never see the light of day.)
Sometimes I wish the framers would have spelled out some of the articles a little more clearly (as this document attempts to to). For instance, they could have said, "This (Second) Amendment applies to an individual's right to keep and bear arms and is not limited to the 'militia' or other governmental entity."
I wish that, too, but hindsight is 20/20, and even the perfect document (ie, the Bible), doesn't prevent folks from being evil.
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