You can login if you already have an account or register by clicking the button below.
Registering is free and all you need is a username and password. We never ask you for your e-mail.
[+]Kromulent0 points5 points5 points
ago
(edited ago)
[–]Kromulent0 points
5 points
5 points
(+5|-0)
ago
(edited ago)
It hardly matters. You can write the law in the plainest text imaginable and the judges will read anything into it that they like.
If you think I'm kidding, have a close look at the tenth amendment:
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.
Like most 200 year old grammar it sounds odd to us now, but it's saying that the federal government does not have power over anything, except what the constitution says it has power over.
150 years later, the feds were telling us we couldn't grow food in our own back yards, for our own consumption, because it had an effect on interstate commerce, and control of interstate commerce was one of their delegated powers. I think this was also the rationale for the federal Assault Weapons Ban. Fucking interstate commerce.
So tomorrow the Feds can pass a law saying that you have to start each day with ten sit-ups, because, well, a healthy workforce is important to interstate commerce, and it would be entirely in line with everything they have done for the last century.
Not a bad idea at all, but it does reveal the root of the problem.
If most people agree on how things should be, then you don't need a constitutional amendment to assure it. The bill of rights is there to prevent the government from doing things that are both popular and inappropriate. If the constitution does not work without popular approval, then it's not a constitution anymore, and you just have exactly the sort of mob rule it was designed to prevent.
At its root, it's an unsolvable problem. The basic question of government is, Who Watches The Watchmen? There is no good answer, just several bad answers, and a near-infinite number of even worse ones. We can write all the rules we want, but we always have to remember how important it is to actually follow them
The best we can do is muddle through, tirelessly educating the younger folks, and challenging the older ones who ought to know better. Everything we know, every tradition, every institution, is always one generation away from being lost. It's an endless process with no sure result.
view the rest of the comments →
[–] Kromulent 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago (edited ago)
It hardly matters. You can write the law in the plainest text imaginable and the judges will read anything into it that they like.
If you think I'm kidding, have a close look at the tenth amendment:
Like most 200 year old grammar it sounds odd to us now, but it's saying that the federal government does not have power over anything, except what the constitution says it has power over.
150 years later, the feds were telling us we couldn't grow food in our own back yards, for our own consumption, because it had an effect on interstate commerce, and control of interstate commerce was one of their delegated powers. I think this was also the rationale for the federal Assault Weapons Ban. Fucking interstate commerce.
So tomorrow the Feds can pass a law saying that you have to start each day with ten sit-ups, because, well, a healthy workforce is important to interstate commerce, and it would be entirely in line with everything they have done for the last century.
[–] Owlchemy 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Well said! And correct.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
[–] Kromulent 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Not a bad idea at all, but it does reveal the root of the problem.
If most people agree on how things should be, then you don't need a constitutional amendment to assure it. The bill of rights is there to prevent the government from doing things that are both popular and inappropriate. If the constitution does not work without popular approval, then it's not a constitution anymore, and you just have exactly the sort of mob rule it was designed to prevent.
At its root, it's an unsolvable problem. The basic question of government is, Who Watches The Watchmen? There is no good answer, just several bad answers, and a near-infinite number of even worse ones. We can write all the rules we want, but we always have to remember how important it is to actually follow them
The best we can do is muddle through, tirelessly educating the younger folks, and challenging the older ones who ought to know better. Everything we know, every tradition, every institution, is always one generation away from being lost. It's an endless process with no sure result.
But yeah, it's the best we've got.