Pubdate: Fri, 03 Dec 2004
Source: News-Sentinel, The (Fort  Wayne, IN)
Copyright: 2004 The News-Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.fortwayne.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1077
Author: Tom Jaquish
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/federalism

A FEW STILL READ CONSTITUTION

In his editorial on medical marijuana, Leo Morris quotes Mark Souder
as saying that nobody is very consistent when it comes to federalism.
Not correct, Mark. A minority reads and understands the limitations on
government power written into the Constitution and amplified in the
Federalist Papers. Our present-day contempt for hard limitations on
the powers of the national government has not always been the case.
Consider that when the idea swept the nation in 1919 that the evils of
alcohol outweighed a citizen's right to pollute his or her own body,
the people had enough respect for our constitutional form of
government to record their prohibition of alcohol in an amendment
rather than a simple majority act of Congress or an executive order or
a "ruling" from the bench.

The Constitution is still on the books as the supreme law of the land,
and we will see its restoration to favor when we get bored with our
long dance with socialism, say, about the time the bill for Social
Security comes due.

Tom Jaquish
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin