Praising the 10th on The 4th
Other Amendments get all the love, but for my money, the 10th is the best!
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of Great Amendments in The United States Constitution.
The document comes out swinging for the fences with the First Amendment.
Free Speech? BOOM, it’s yours!
Free Press? Hells to the Yeah!
Freedom of Religion? AMEN to that!
Who wants to Assemble? You Do and YES You can!
Wanna tell your government how much they are screwing up? GO FOR IT, They can’t stop ya!
Then after that flurry of jabs, the founders follow it up with a Haymaker! Those glorious bastards known as The Founding Fathers went all Oprah on us and said:
You Get a Gun…
and You Get a Gun…
and You Get a Gun!
ok, so maybe they didn’t say exactly that… but they did say your right to bear arms couldn’t be infringed upon… and that ain’t nothing!
Don’t want to be compelled by the government to incriminate yourself in a crime? The fifth has got your back!
Thirteenth abolished slavery! Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth allowed every adult to vote (well, you can still be prevented if you are a felon in some states).
Heck, there aren’t many duds. Eighteenth was the first boneheaded amendment, prohibiting alcohol. Luckily we unrung that bell a few amendments later (thank you, 21st Amendment).
And we are still await the repeal of the 16th amendment… That’s the one that allowed the federal government to tax your income. Fun Fact - My home state of Virginia never ratified that amendment… because it sucks. So don’t come whining to me on April 15th, I don’t wanna hear it!
But my favorite is not nearly as popular as some of these others. It’s the glue that holds the rest of it together. Number 10 is Numero UNO in my book!
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.
I know… sounds kinda lame. But it’s probably the most powerful of all the amendments because it establishes the concept of federalism. It is the limited federal government amendment.
This amendment prevents the United States Government from enacting any laws that aren’t specifically mentioned in The Constitution. Wanna make a law that isn’t mentioned in The Constitution? No problem, just get 2/3rds of the House of Representatives and Senate to approve it. Then when 3/4 of the states ratify it, you got yourself a new amendment. Super Easy! (also - 2/3rds of states could call for a constitutional convention and propose an amendment there… but we don’t seem to be close to having one of those any time soon)
Oh wait, that’s super hard. It is almost impossible to get nearly everyone to agree on something... Yup, and that’s the point! If you can’t a broad majority of the population across a variety of regions to agree to something… then it should be left to the people in those regions to decide how to handle these contentious topics. Self governance for the win!
So I personally have been heartened by recent Supreme Court decisions that have recognized this concept. If it isn’t in The Constitution the federal government has no say in the matter. If the federal government wants a say, then it MUST pass an amendment to The Constitution. PERIOD. And this amendment MUST be ratified by 3/4s of the states as it is fundamentally ceding those state’s rights to the federal government.
The Dobbs decision should be applauded, but not on the merits of abortion rights. Not so fun fact - The Dobbs decision allows for the legalization of abortion until the point of birth, provided a state decides to legislate in this manner. This wasn't even legal under Roe v. Wade OR Casey v. Planned Parenthood. Not that any state would do that…
Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of that argument, the decision is about something much more fundamental. Does the US Government have the ability to assert laws that are not explicitly mentioned in The Constitution? This decision in an affirmation of the 10th Amendment said they do not have that right. These are the exact types of highly contentious debates that need to happen at the state level. Maybe we as a society, at some point in the future, will reach a broad consensus on how to handle abortion. Great! At that point we may create a new amendment to the constitution enshrining this right. But we need to be able to have that conversation. The Constitution guarantees that we have the right to have that conversation. And that is a right that has been unjustly denied to the population for 50 years.
This is how I can be pro-life and yet vehemently against a pro-life federal law. Any pro-life legislation at the federal level would be unconstitutional (as would any “codifying Roe'“). Whether I agree with the legislation or not is a moot point. And no amount penumbras and emanations are gonna change that. And if you are asking yourself “what the F are penumbras and emanations?” then you get the point. The Supreme Court found a “right to privacy” in the “penumbras and emanations” of the constitution. And that “right to privacy” was used to justify the decision in Roe v. Wade. The “right to privacy” is completely made up. Not that I don’t want privacy, but it is most certainly NOT guaranteed to me in The Constitution!
If you think you have a right to privacy, the FBI and Patriot Act would like to have a talk with you!
But the decision, amongst several others this session moved us closer to the government the founding founders intended. A federal government with limited powers that left the most contentious issues to the states until a broad consensus was formed. The federal government that was guaranteed to us by the 10th Amendment. The era of legislation from the bench should end here and now. Good on the Supreme Court for having the bravery to cede these rights back where they belong!
The federal government isn’t working the way it was designed. It was designed to be difficult to change. That is a feature, not a bug! The founders clearly recognized the difficulties of gathering a consensus amongst people living in a variety of regions. Regions could manage those areas as they saw fit. If a broad enough consensus could be gathered across the country, then this topic could be ceded to the federal government.
It is a system that works. But sadly we’ve veered away from the federalist system envisioned by the founders. Because it was too hard to build a consensus amongst the entire country, we’ve turned to the courts and the executive branch to legislate. That is a one-way road to dictatorship. The Judicial Branch has the power, using the 10th Amendment, to force the other branches to move back into their lanes. While it may rely on them having less legislative power, it is the right thing to do!
Luckily for all of us, that appears just what it is poised to do.