Reflections From a Murky Pond

Recently, the US Attorney General, Jeff Session declared that he and his DoJ would reverse course on the doctrine set forth under Obama and Holder and restart enforcement of federal drug laws as they pertain to marijuana. This, frankly, leaves me feeling ambivalent since one could say that I’m getting conflicting smoke signals… and neither of them have anything directly to do with either medical or recreational use of cannabis.

To me this is an example of federal overreach resulting in the Constitution being in conflict with itself at this time. I find that the entirety of the federal drug laws, except those that cover importation, exportation, or interstate trafficking, to be violations of the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution. However, the Take Care Clause (Section 3, Clause 5) of Article II of the Constitution requires that the Executive shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. In other words, the Constitution requires the Executive branch to enforce the laws set forth by the Legislative branch unless and until the Judicial branch declares said laws to be null and void.

That conflict is what’s making me ambivalent about this whole thing, not my personal opinions of either medical or recreational use of marijuana.

Tags: 10th Amendment | America | Crime | DOJ | Drug Laws | Drugs | Federal Law | Federalism | Law | Marijuana | Politics | Separation of Powers | Sessions | States Rights | The Constitution | Weed

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2018 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

It looks rather more likely than not that Arizona will geld Obama or, at least emasculate his ability to harm Arizona through his barely quasi-legal Executive Orders or directive from his DoJ. Last week on March 10, 2015 Arizona’s House of Representatives voted in favor of House Bill 2368 (HB 2368), which bans the use of AZ personnel or monies to enforce, administer, or cooperate with any of them.

So, politically speaking in Arizona, it looks probable that Obama’s testicles will be tied off, wither and rot, and fall off.

Obama supporters and Statists, have quickly put up the spurious and ignorant argument that HB 2368 violates the US Constitution’s, Article VI, Clause 2 (the “Supremacy Clause”):

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

But even a passing knowledge of SCOTUS jurisprudence and Constitutional Law shows that Arizona’s HB 2368 in no way violates the Supremacy Clause because, supremacy or not, the SCOTUS via the “Anti-Commandeering Doctrine” set forth in their 1842 Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 1981 Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Assn., Inc., 1992 New York v. United States, and 1997 Printz v. United States decisions has unequivocally stated that the federal government cannot legally commandeer legislative processes of the States by directly compelling them to enact and enforce a federal regulatory program by demanding that those States’ governments to undertake targeted, affirmative, coercive duties.

Oh please pay special attention to Prigg v. Pennsylvania, as it stated that the federal government could not force states to implement or carry out the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

In other, simpler words, the Federal government cannot legally compel any of the States to spend their resources in the furtherance of any federal mandate, regulation, or even law. The Supremacy Clause ensures that the States can’t contravene federal edicts but the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine requires that the federal government enforce those edicts with federal resources instead of compelling the States to use theirs to do so.

Hence, in point of legal fact, Arizona didn’t need to limit HB 2368 to merely those edicts spawned within the Executive. The bill would be equally valid on resting upon proven, sound legal grounds if it had include legitimate federal laws enacted by Congress as well.

Now it just remains to be seen how many other states shall go reaching for their gelding knives or similar tools…

Tags: America | Arizona | Constitutional Law | Executive Orders | Federalism | Gelding | Government | HB 2368 | Law | Neutering | Obama | Politics | Statism | Statists | Subsidiarity | The Constitution | Tyranny | US Supreme Court

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2015 at 11:41 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Obama, the boy who would be king, has always had a problem with authority that doesn’t stem from himself, his handlers and overseers, or his direct underlings in the Executive.

Nowhere is this more obvious than when he’s dealing with the several States and the governments demanding that he, to at least some extent, abide by the 10th Amendment.

Louisiana’s Governor, Bobby Jindal ran into this attitude recently.

“When we met with him as governors, I asked him, why don’t you give the states more influence on accrediting higher education, to bring more competition in the marketplace?” Jindal said.

“Here’s the insulting thing: In a room full of Democratic and Republican governors, basically, in so many words he said, ‘We can’t trust states. We can’t trust governors to protect their own people.'”

Of course, to be fair, this goes a bit beyond and outside of Obama’s authoritarian streak. It’s also a cultural disconnect. The question of giving the states more influence on accrediting higher education smacks of States’ Rights; Obama is – by his choice – a Black; and Blacks have been inculcated to believe that States’ Rights is just a code phrase for racism.

Really! Expecting Obama to behave differently or better would be culturally insensitive and would be ignoring the weight of over 150 years of Blacks being taught to be against the several states having any level of authority or autonomy. 😉

Tags: America | Blacks | Federalism | Jindal | Obama | Politics | States Rights | Subsidiarity | Tyranny

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2014 at 11:43 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Liberals and their Lamestream Media have denounced the 113th Congress as The Do-Nothing Congress and they’ve erroneously declared it The Least Productive Congress in History. Predictably, they declaim that this is wrong and evil and, equally predictably, they blame the GOP and only the GOP for this situation which they so deplore.

The Do-Nothing Congress

To America’s domestic enemies the simply fact that the 113th Congress has passed just 58 laws to be sent to Obama’s desk so that his little robot can sign them into law so far is a major failing. This is simply because Liberals and Progressives measure the worth of Congress by the sheer quantity of public laws enacted. To them that is governance.

Leftists are ideologically unable to comprehend, much less understand, the simple truth that sometimes less is more and this is certainly true of the enactment of additional laws.

The Elephant’s Child sums it up well:

The Do-Nothing Congress has been good for America, and if they pass few new laws, we can breathe slightly more easily.  Congress passed just 70 laws, which may be too many. But Obama and Congressional Democrats planned an array of Big Government initiatives — gun control, immigration reform, a higher minimum wage, more job creation, infrastructure (again!), climate change, and education, to name only a few. Congress ended the year with none of those initiatives signed into law. And we are far better for it. No major tax hike, and the probability of a major tax hike in the next year has fallen.

NOTE: We have a minor discrepancy. The Elephant’s Child says 70 laws and my figures show 58. It’s not really here nor there but worth noting.

But then, this is the difference between Americans and the statists of the Left. Americans know that governing is not measured, at least positively measured, by the number of laws that are enacted.

Tags: America | Congress | Federalism | Freedom | GOP | Government | Law | Leftists | Liberals | Liberty | Progressives | Statism | Statists

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 28th, 2013 at 8:11 pm and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Starting in 2008 and increasingly over the intervening five years we Americans have repeatedly heard how the Republican Party was dying and how the GOP was doomed. Given their showing in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections and also their inability to retake control of the Senate in the 2010 elections from our domestic enemies, this opinion is easy to arrive at and very seductive to the Left.

This, however, is a false assumption. It’s mere hopeful wishing on the part of the Liberals and Progressives and a tool being used by the Establishment GOP to try to maintain control of a party who has left them in favor of returning to America’s roots and core values. It has little or no basis in fact.

To start with, the GOP took control of the House of Representatives and has held that control to this date, with little thought that this will change in the 2014 elections. More important and telling is the Republican Party has been emphatically shown to the the States’ party of choice.

• 30 states now have Republican governors vs. 20 with Democrat governors
• 25 states now have GOP control of both the Executive and Legislature vs. 14 where DEMs control both the Executive and Legislature

Does sound or look like the GOP is moribund or does, especially when combined with the GOP’s lasting control of the House, show that the majority of Americans choose and vote Republican?

It’s a simple case of the wisdom of subsidiarity. The closer the position is to the People the more often the People chose Republicans because the closer the position is to the People the less they favor the goals and agenda of the Democrats and the less the election is skewed by the bias and prejudices of the minority voters.

This is why the Democrats and their operatives focus so heavily upon federal control of- and influence over any and matters, most of which are meant to left to the several States. They know that they’ve built their whole platform on catering the needs and desires of those minority of staunchly Liberal states to the exclusion of needs and desires of the majority of Americans. It’s also why those blue states will remain blue. The Democrats’ policies are tailored to them and do a decent job of fulfilling their wishes.

No, the Republican Party isn’t dying. It’s growing from the ground up stronger than before because it’s the States’ party.

Tags: 10th Amendment | 2008 Elections | 2010 Elections | 2012 Elections | America | Democrats | Federalism | GOP | Liberals | Politics | Progressives | Republicans | Subsidiarity

This entry was posted on Friday, August 30th, 2013 at 9:57 am and is filed under 2008 Election, 2010 Election, 2012 Election, 2014 Election, Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.