Tag Archives: States Rights

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So You Want to Understand the Constitution

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from Zero Hedge:

If You Want To Understand The Constitution, Don’t Ask A Lawyer

Most Americans say the Constitution is important. Most Americans say it’s crucial for the government to stay within its constitutional bounds. But what exactly are the constitutional limits on federal power? How do we know?

Well, whatever you do, don’t ask a lawyer. Most of them know very little about the Constitution.

I can already hear you protesting. Lawyers know a lot about the Constitution. They learn constitutional law, for goodness sake!

But read closely what I wrote. I didn’t say they don’t know a lot about constitutional law. I said they typically don’t know a lot about the Constitution. There’s a huge difference. read more

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Video Podcast – Trump May Legalize Pot

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by: Brent Smith at the Common Constitutionalist

President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s inclined to support a bipartisan effort in Congress to ease the U.S. ban on marijuana, a proposal that would dramatically reshape the nation’s legal landscape for pot users and businesses.

Of course we Constitutionalists, even the common ones, know that it isn’t the federal government’s job to make it illegal or legalize it in the first place. That’s the sole responsibility of the States.

In other words, president Trump would merely be setting right what should have been since the feds started medaling in the State’s business in the first place. read more

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So Who is Really in Charge of Immigration

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

Scroll Down for Audio Version

It’s obvious and has been demonstrated repeatedly as of late, that the Democrat Party cares less for American citizens than it does for foreign visitors and illegal immigrants.

The Party has also exhibited a willingness to flaunt or outright break the law in doing so.

Being that the Common Constitutionalist is not an actual Constitutional scholar, I cannot say for certain if President Trump’s temporary ban of people from seven foreign nations is or is not Constitutional – anymore than I can say Obama’s was. But I can read…and think.

However, the larger and longer lasting issue is that of illegal immigration, and States and cities refusal to follow federal law. However some would consider this a gray area.

If one were to look to the Constitution, which should always be first consulted, we would see that the word immigration doesn’t appear anywhere. What does is Article I, Section 8, clause 4, which states that, “Congress shall have the Power To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization…” read more

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My WND Weekly Exclusive – How state Republicans are wielding Trump power

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How state Republicans are wielding Trump power

In case you haven’t noticed, the left is in full panic mode. They are rapidly losing what was thought not long ago to be an iron grip on American politics and culture. But Heir Obama has squandered their historic pre-eminence, preferring to concentrate only on his legacy. I suppose we should thank him for this.

Americans have what seems to be a penchant for concentrating only on presidential elections. Maybe because it’s easy. We have two, maybe up to four choices for the office, and that’s it. It requires almost no effort on the part of the electorate to decide between two candidates. read more

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States are WINNING on Gun Rights

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

From 1791, when the Second Amendment was ratified (coincidentally my Twitter handle – @Ratifiedin1791) all the way through 1933, the federal government left us gun owners be.

But in 1934 it all began to change as progressive icon and bully, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed for and signed the first nationwide gun control legislation, the National Firearms Act. The law was an emotion-based knee-jerk reaction to attempt to halt the use of the “Tommy Gun” and sawed-off shotguns, etc. It levied a tax of $200 (over $2500 today) on the manufacture and sale of all guns. A national gun registry was also enacted.

Virtually every leftist president since then has tried to build on the success of Roosevelt, including Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton and of course, Barack Obama. A special shout out should go to the progressive republican president Nixon. The same waste of skin who took us off the gold standard also blessed us with the ATF in 1972.

If it hadn’t been for Reagan and George W. Bush at least slowing things down, guns might be outlawed by now.

States have been very concerned about Obama’s want to confiscate our guns since he was elected and his recent threats to further curb gun owners’ rights have prompted some of them to begin taking the bull by the horns and enacting their own pro-gun legislation. That darn Tenth Amendment. Someone should do something about that.

In June of last year Texas passed a state law giving teachers and students (21 and older with a concealed carry permit) the right to carry guns on campus, although the sweeping law was amended to allow Colleges Presidents to dictate which buildings could remain gun-free. Some pro-gun advocates actually called this positive break through a loss. Yes, it was a disappointment as the law was gutted to an extent, but the positive is that it even got this far. read more

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Unemployment Insurance – Another Good Crisis

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

Despite the lies predicated by the Obama administration regarding an improving economy, many experts are growing increasingly concerned that we may be headed for another recession.

Because of this, states may suffer mightily being that several already are carrying massive deficits in their unemployment insurance funds. “A mere 18 states have enough money in their unemployment insurance trust funds to get through a 12 month recession, according to the Department of Labor.”

The state trust funds are designed to provide 26 weeks of unemployment insurance to residents. “Strikingly, many of those state funds are actually in worse financial shape now than they were before the 2008 financial crisis.”

Not surprisingly California is in the worst shape. The state’s unemployment trust fund is presently indebted to the federal government for more than $6 billion. Yes, the federal government provides emergency loans to states that can’t cover the cost of their own unemployment insurance. It’s a huge disadvantage to states who aren’t allowed to print their own money – a problem the feds don’t have. read more

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Texas Is Bizarre – According to the Left

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

We all know that the hard-core left loathes the Constitution and the founders who wrote it. After all, virtually everything they think, say and do is unconstitutional.

When you boil it down, the left is for two things: a socialist utopia and a massive central government to manage it.

Leftists like those at ThinkProgress are as hard-core as it gets so I have to laugh when they attempt to use the Constitution to prove a point against the right.

Radical lefty Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress attempts to do just that, as he posted a piece entitled “A Texas Lawmakers Bizarre Plan to Secede from the Union One Law at a Time.”

Naturally the photo he posted accompanying the article was a Confederate battle flag because people have an immediate visceral hatred for it and what it represents, and of course Texas’s constant use of that particular flag – which was and is… never.

Millhiser’s article explains that “Under an unconstitutional proposal by Texas state representative Dan Flynn (R), just two people in the state of Texas – the state House Speaker and Lieut. Governor – would effectively have the power to suspend any federal law within Texas’s borders, at least temporarily.” read more

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Tenthers of the Left

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

For years we constitutional conservatives have been railing against federal encroachment on States Rights. And for that we’ve been called every name in the book.

There are 10th Amendment groups all over the country. They are derided by the both the left and right as being out of touch, unrealistic and just plain backwards. Most think these groups are simply comprised of gun-totin hard right hicks who just hate the thought of a federal government or societal progress.

The assemblage of reasonable folks at ThinkProgress calls them Tenthers. I’m sure it is a term of endearment.

Although these Tenthers have gotten a bad rap from pretty much everyone as being completely anti-federal government, they’re not. They, like the rest of us constitutional conservatives, only wish to live and be governed by the real rule of law – the Constitution of the United States.

Unfortunately we are living in a post-constitutional nation, ruled only by federal laws, most of which are unconstitutional.

In 2009 Sam Rohrer, a Pennsylvania republican, who ran unsuccessfully to unseat Senator Bob Casey in 2012 said: “Over time, over the last many generations, the federal government — seeking to grow, as most governments tend to grow — have become increasingly involved in activities that have been reserved to the states, being involved in such things as education, or health care, or for that matter even highways and roads. A great many things the federal government has increasingly passed laws, appropriated tax dollars which are yours and mine, and attempted to force the states to implement laws for which then the federal government essentially has control…”

For his stance on upholding constitutionally mandated States Rights, he was ridiculed. read more

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Statist Blowback of the Liberty Amendments

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by: the Common Constitutionalist 

I know I’m not supposed to think this and revenge is neither sweet, good nor charitable, but would it not be a wonderful spectacle to witness and be part of a movement that helps restore America and watch as all branches of the federal government can only sit by helplessly as their power begins to erode?

 

Recently, thanks in no small part to Mark Levin’s latest bestseller, The Liberty Amendments, there has been a resurgence of interest in the Constitution and states rights.

 

The states have it seems, all of a sudden, begun to reassert themselves. It’s as if we all forgot that the Constitution was written by and for the states and to protect the citizens from the very thing that afflicts us, and oppressive centralized authority.

 

I’ve written many times about how, I believe, the founders of this country were truly a gift from God, for their wisdom and prescience has not been repeated since.

 

Who else could have predicted the mess we currently find ourselves in?

 

Yet they foretold it. Why else would they have inserted Article V into the Constitution? read more

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Imagine a Free State

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

The major reason most states are in such financial difficulty, at least the ones that aren’t completely corrupt like California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey,  isn’t necessarily due to their own fiscal irresponsibility; it’s more due to federal involvement. Other than Vermont, all states have some sort of requirement to balance their budget.

Yet the allure of the all mighty dollar is all too often just too tempting for state governments to pass on. I hear it all the time, as I’m sure have you. The state of such and such has been awarded an education grant or highway grant or whatever grant from the federal government to the tune of $10 million. This will help needy children get condoms or something.

Well, where does the state receiving the largess think the money comes from; Obama’s stash? Yes it comes from the federal government who takes it from us, funnels it through the federal government labyrinth of worthless departments and returns a few scraps back to the states,  or it simply borrows or prints it. And of course they give it up as a good will gesture, with no strings attached. They wouldn’t be looking for anything in return? They wouldn’t be looking to bribe a congressman or senator into voting a certain way, would they?

They would never say that the state could have this pile of education money if they just introduce a federal program into the local school system, would they? Just give up a little more control to the feds and you get the cash behind door number 3. read more