States' Rights

Amendment X

Texas Gov. Rick Perry talks about secession from the United States, and Gil Smart slams the "states' rights" fanatics on the right. Like the Southern Dixiecrats that defended Jim Crow laws ...

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Some 2,000 Cases

First Amendment

Comment by Nate Segal:

The Supreme Court of the United States just opened its new term (on Monday, October 5, 2009). According to the New York Times:

In ... some 2,000 ... cases that accumulated during the court's summer break, the court let stand rulings from lower courts without comment.
They refused to hear appeals concerning the Pledge of Allegiance, the Confederate flag and license plates bearing the words "Choose Life."

New York Times, Adam Liptak – Washington
"Justices Decline to Hear Some 2,000 Cases"
Tuesday, October 6, 2009, page A19

The Secretary of State of Illinois declined to offer some 60 specialty styles of plates including a style bearing the slogan "Choose Life." The state is not taking a stand on the abortion issue, so it can refuse to offer whatever styles it wishes to — including the other 60, or so.

In Florida, students must recite the Pledge of Allegiance unless they have written permission from their parents not to.

A Tennessee high school is forbidding the display of the Confederate flag "because of the disruptive potential of the flag in a school where racial tension is high and serious racially motivated incidents, such as physical altercations or threats of violence, have occurred" (case Barr v. Lafon, No. 08-1325).

Amendment IX

Liberties that we enjoy:

Some say these are unhealthy, but we're still at liberty to enjoy.

True, tobacco and alcohol are heavily taxed, but that's another issue.

I recommend moderation, especially smoking. (But who asked my opinion?)

Photo Credit: Istockphoto

Amendment IX

Liberties that we enjoy:

We imbibe as we wish, although it's illegal to drive under the influence. This liberty is limited only for the safety of others.

There's a lesson to learn from the fiasco of constitutionally prohibited liquor.

Photo Credit: Istockphoto

Amendment IX

Liberties that we enjoy:

We're free to travel across state lines and secure passports easily.

Photo Credit: Istockphoto

Amendment IX

Liberties that we enjoy:

No one tells us what to eat.

Photo Credit: Istockphoto

Amendment X

"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."

Comments by Nate Segal

The Tenth Amendment has become known as the "reserved powers clause" of the Constitution.

Although the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, it establishes a government of limited rule and power. This Amendment balances the wording of Article VI:

"This Constitution ... shall be the supreme Law of the Land."

These words from Article VI are called the "supremacy clause."

The Framers intended that our country have a federal system. They disagreed over how strong the federal government should be. The Tenth Amendment prevents the federal government from grabbing too much power from the states.

Some Americans today argue that the federal government has become too strong. They may be right in principle. Nonetheless, many of us have benefitted from the federal programs of healthcare for the elderly and indigent — Medicare and Medicaid. Often, these "entitlements" place burdens on states that seem unfair. So I see merit in the argument that the federal government has been growing at the expense of the states.

(In the case of Medicare, for example, the federal government has entered what some would say is the arena of businesses. I'm not addressing this issue here with the Tenth Amendment.)

Many of us have benefitted from civil rights legislation which is arguably but deliberately intrusive into the purview of the states. Keep in mind, though, that the earliest civil rights legislation dates back to the administration of President Abraham Lincoln. So the issue of states' rights has been vexing our nation since the time of log cabins and mules pulling plows.