Bill of Rights 101

Many of the founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, argued for the addition of a specific Bill “providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land.” Most of that – which Jefferson called for in a letter he wrote to Madison after the Constitutional Convention – indeed ended up in the Bill of Rights. 2014/05/27 User:Tharrisn

Our Constitution is basically the policy manual for our governance. Its preamble, shown below, is basically a mission statement:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. See Constitution

Many of the founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, argued for the addition of a specific Bill “providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land.” Most of that – which Jefferson called for in a letter he wrote to Madison after the Constitutional Convention – indeed ended up in the Bill of Rights. These first ten amendments restrict what the government can do. See Bill of Rights

The primary government issues today are in the purview of these five amendments:

1. Freedom of religion, speech, the press, assemble, and to petition the government

2. Keep and bear arms

4. Privacy

9. Liberty

10. 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.

Growth of the federal government in recent decades seems to have made the 10th Amendment (“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”), obsolete, but it isn’t. When government programs violate the Bill of Rights, the voters can turn to the Bill of Rights for guidance and return important powers to the states and the people, if enough of us exercise our power.

The 10^th amendment has the most overall impact on our lives today. The founders recognized that the values and lifestyles vary greatly from state to state, so they formed a federal government. People in the different states could optimize their governments to meet the needs of their citizens. It provides power to the people to protect themselves from government overreach in the areas of the first nine amendments. Over the years, the federal government’s power has increased and the power of the states and the people have decreased to the point that it has become a major – and very controversial – issue.

Perhaps One of the Largest Infringements On Our Liberty Is Taxing the People To Pay For Things That Are Unneeded and Unwanted By the People

A significant portion of tax revenues is spent in order for incumbents to get reelected. Each year, Sen. Tom Coburn writes his waste book to help you understand some of the things you are taxed to pay for. Here are some excerpts:

“Had Congress, in particular, been focused on doing its job of setting priorities and cutting the kind of wasteful spending outlined in this report, we could have avoided both a government shutdown and a flawed budget deal that was designed to avert a shutdown. The nearly $30 billion in questionable and lower-priority spending in Wastebook 2013 is a small fraction of the more than $200 billion we throw away every year through fraud, waste, duplication and mismanagement.

“This report speaks volumes about why confidence in government is at an all-time low. The hard truth is we’d much rather borrow than cut. The American people are right to expect more.” Source–Read More…

To give you better understanding of the problem, here is an excerpt from Sen. Coburn’s 2012 waste book.

“The inability of Congress to get things done has resulted in the lowest public approval in the nearly four decades the rating has been measured by Gallup. A stunning 83 percent disapprove of “the way Congress is doing its job.” The poor ratings given Congress are consistent across the political spectrum with approval from only nine percent of Democrats, 11 percent of Independents, and 10 percent of Republicans. During these contentious times, Americans find so much to disagree about, yet almost everyone agrees Congress is failing to do its job.

“With the House and Senate controlled by opposite parties, partisans point fingers of blame at the party in control of the other chamber. But, the stalemate is not simply the product of split-party control between the two chambers. The Senate has cast fewer votes in 2012 thus far than any year in decades. More than 20 of the 100 senators — on both sides of the aisle — have not had a single amendment considered on the Senate floor in 2012. And after blocking senators from offering fixes to bills throughout the year, the Majority Leader of what once was the world’s greatest deliberative body publicly announced from the Senate floor, “I will say this so it will save a lot of trouble for anybody…Amendment days are over.

“A number of important committees within both the House and the Senate are failing to do the important work for which they are responsible.” Source–Read More…

Dissatisfaction With the Federal Government Has Become a Major Problem

“When it comes to excellence in education, red states rule—at least according to a panel of experts assembled by Tina Brown’s Newsweek …Using a set of indicators ranging from graduation rate to college admissions and SAT scores, the panel reviewed data from high schools all over the country to find the best public schools in the country…The results make depressing reading for the teacher unions: The very best public high schools in the country are heavily concentrated in red states.” Source–Read More…

Of the 16 states with tax burdens of 9% or less – 15 are red states. Source–Read More…

The Larger the Government, the More Overreach and the More Infringement on the Bill of Rights

Sometimes the infringement is in the rights of the states, sometimes in the rights of the people, and sometimes even by local governments. Here is an example that provides insight into how self-servin- interests, even at the local government level, have major– even tragic – impact on the people it is supposed to be serving.

“ONE WOULD hope that any citizen would cross the street to help a dying man. So when those whose very job is to protect the public turn their backs, it is especially horrifying. That is what seems to have happened when D.C firefighters rebuffed appeals for help for a 77-year-old man stricken by a heart attack outside their station.

“When it’s a cardiac case, seconds matter, and they didn’t help my dad,” said Marie Mills as she tearfully recounted to WTTG-TV (Fox 5) the agonizing minutes it took to get emergency help for her father, who collapsed Saturday across the street from a Northeast Washington fire station. Passersby went to the station, and Ms. Mills screamed for assistance, but the firefighters’ response was that they couldn’t act unless someone called 911.

“An ambulance eventually was dispatched from another station. Medric Cecil Mills Jr., a veteran of more than 40 years of city government died at Washington Hospital Center.

“Officials voiced their outrage. Fire Chief Kenneth B. Ellerbe ordered an immediate investigation.

“Bolder action might be needed in a department with a change-resistant culture. Fire Chief Ellerbe has had smart reform ideas, but he has been ineffective in getting support for them from the firefighters union or the D.C. Council. Unfortunately, he is not the first fire chief whose tenure has been roiled by infighting and controversy… He wants to retool the department so that shifts are shorter but more frequent, which would save on personnel costs, and so that apparatus is deployed based on peak needs. The union has called for more hires, resources and training.

This is a clear example of special-interests political impact on even local government – much to the detriment of the people. The larger the government the more power exerted by special interests and the greater the negative impact on the people.

Examples of Government Overreach At All Levels

Federal overreach through state governments

A Tennessee farmer who kills a chicken snake encroaching upon his henhouse would be subject to a class B misdemeanor with a fine range of up to $500 + court costs and/or six months in jail." This would be true in other states also, since it was adopted as mandated by federal regulations. Source–Read More…

State government overreach

In Louisiana there are more than 280 offenses relating to hunting, fishing and wildlife that could get a person locked up for a long time. If a shrimper in the state picks up another person’s broken crab trap and throws it away on land, he or she could be sent to prison for two months. If it happens more than once, there is a mandatory prison stay.

In Alabama, getting rid of scrap tires in an “unauthorized” manner is considered a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Source–Read More…

Federal overreach into local government:

To what degree should the federal government be deciding what should be done in your local school? A lawsuit against a Tennessee school board has been filed in federal court for their practice of, among other things, prayer over the loudspeaker; the display of a cross on a classroom wall; graduation and other school events being held at churches; and the opening of school board meetings with prayer – a practice that occurs before all congressional sessions and at the presidential inauguration. Source–Read More…

Federal overreach into state government

Does the state have the right to define marriage for that state, or is that a right of the federal government? A Federal Judge recently struck down Kentucky's ban on recognizing valid same-sex marriages performed in other states. Source–Read More…

Local government overreach

In New York City, a limit was placed on soft drink size and types. It was to have taken place on March 12, 2013. Those plans fell through due to the invalidation of the law by New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling. Source–Read More…

Officials at a Talbot County, Maryland, Elementary School suspended two 6-year-old boys from their school after making gun gestures during a harmless game of pretend – they were playing a game of cops and robbers. This left the parents outraged. It was the second such incident in the state in recent weeks. Source–Read More…

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