Plaw Chpt. 11 notes

Page 1

Opening section:

The general answer is that Americans lost sight of the spirit of our Constitution. stitution. We have forgotten or ignored the Biblical basis upon which our Constitutional structure is founded. That Biblical basis relied on a common core of beliefs built upon religion, morality, and faith in God. Our Founders warned us that the strength of our Constitution was dependent upon that Biblical lical basis. "Those Biblical principles warned Americans of the dangers inherent in unbridled government and the need to keep its most numerous powers at the lower levels, where it would be more accountable to the people. ple. Indeed, our first President referred to religion and morality as "indispensable supports" to our government structure.4 Religion and morality ity based on Biblical principles provided government with much needed limits and controls and helped keep it within its proper role. Once those supports ports began to crumble, so did its original structure of limited government under the control of enumerated Constitutional powers. There were numerous ways in which the federal government broke free from its Constitutional restraints, but all entailed a misapplication of Constitutional tutional language. The misapplications of the following four provisions caused the most damage: (1) the "general welfare" clause, (2) the commerce clause, (3) the "necessary and proper" clause, and (4) the incorporation doctrine trine of the 14`h amendment. Each of these will be examined separately below: ----

Misapplication of the "General Welfare" Clause:

The "general welfare" clause of the Constitution is found in Article I, Section 8, which deals with the specific powers of the legislative branch. According cording to the views of Madison and most other Founders, it was intended as a limitation upon the power of Congress to tax and spend in furtherance of the enumerated powers listed immediately following. In other words, the spending that occurred in the exercise of an enumerated power had to be for the generral welfare and not for specific persons, groups of persons, or regions gions of the country.5 The words of James Madison are instructive to those who argue for a broader interpretation: If Congress can apply money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may take into their own hands the education tion of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may undertake the regulation of all roads, other than post roads. In short, everything from the highest object of State legislation, down to the most minute object of policy, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object I have mentioned would admit the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare.`

Alexander Hamilton ton believed that there was an "independent power to tax and spend for the general welfare,"'

But as South Carolina's William Drayton observed on the floor of the House in 1828, Hamilton's view would make a mockery of the doctrine of enumerated powers, the centerpiece of the Constitution, rendering the enumeration of Congress's other powers superfluous: whenever Congress wanted to do something it was barred from doing by the absence of a power to do it, it could simply declare the act to be serving the "general welfare" and get out from under the limits imposed by enumeration.'

When the federal government gets involved, we lose both aspects of the Biblical principle of charity because cause the monetary assistance is from coerced tax money, and it is distributed by government workers who, more times than not, are not motivated vated by the love of God, but are just doing their job. Even assuming that many government workers administrating these programs genuinely care for the people they are assisting, the current misapplied doctrine on separating the church and state precludes the demonstration of God's love to the people being assisted.

Misapplication of the Commerce Clause: