The Importance of Understanding Original Intent of the U.S. Constitution

"The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it." --James Wilson, Of the Study of Law in the United States, 1790

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. -- Thomas Jefferson

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind." --Thomas Jefferson (1790)

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The United States Constitution is not just a piece of paper, and it is not a living and breathing document. The Constitution is the law of the land created for the purpose of establishing a federal government tasked with the purpose of protecting, preserving, and promoting the union of the united States in America (united lower case on purpose - The United States are, not is).  Fears of a strong central system encouraged the founders to place in the Constitution constraints designed to ensure the new federal government only acted upon federal issues, leaving the local issues to the States. The States originally held all powers, and granted to the federal government only the authorities they felt the new government would need to function in the role prescribed to it.

When reading the various writings from that time period by the Founding Fathers that supported a limited government, one concludes that the original intent of the Constitution was to enumerate the authorities granted to the federal government, which are few, while reserving all other authorities to the States.

As the Law of the Land, the original intent is very important. Laws are expected to be carried out as originally intended. If various people can simply redefine law to mean whatever they want based on what they feel is necessary based on a changing society, then it is hardly a set law at all. To allow the Constitution to bend like a reed in the wind through "interpretation" is to compromise the set standards put into place for the purpose of protecting our society against a potentially tyrannical central system.

To understand the Constitution is to understand State Sovereignty.  The States have original jurisdiction over all authorities. The federal government was created to handle only what is enumerated in the Constitution, all other powers are reserved to the States as indicated by the Tenth Amendment.

This means that the federal government has no authority to intrude upon State issues, no authority to overturn State laws that fall within the exclusive authority of the States, no authority to intrude upon the health care industry, no authority to take over the auto industry or banking industry, no authority to dictate to a State if it enforces immigration law within its borders, no authority to dictate to a State whether or not it can require identification at the ballot box, no authority to dictate to a State whether or not it has to make abortion illegal or legal, no authority to mandate that a State allow gay marriage, no authority to impose environmental conservation mandates against a State, no authority to dictate to a State whether or not it can drill for oil, no authority to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms (which means that all federal gun laws are unconstitutional - it is a State issue), no authority to dictate to a State speed limits or the drinking age, no authority to use highway funding to extort the States (because highways are a State responsibility), and no authority to shut down Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in a State like California who made these facilities legal within the State (there is no constitutional authority for federal drug laws - State responsibility).

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary