10th Amendment

A heads up regarding a future fronts: 10th Amendment. I wonder if the ACLU will step in to help.

From a Glenn Beck interview (I excerpted to reduce size):

...MARBUT: Well, the theory is to challenge [the use of, I think he means] the commerce clause power of Congress with a Tenth Amendment spin. What the bill says — there's now a law in Montana — is that any firearms, ammunition and firearms accessories made and retained in Montana are simply not subject to any federal jurisdiction under the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the states.

BECK: OK. Joel, you put this in. You're a state rep. You put it in. The governor signed it. It's now law. It goes into effect October 1st?

REP. JOEL BONIEK, MONTANA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Correct ...(political hummmmmm)

MARBUT: Once this begins to bear fruit, that's correct. We plan to litigate this through the courts. ...We want to set our own standards and we should be allowed to have guns and we don't want the federal standards. We're not the same as New Jersey or California or somewhere else.

And if we want to put restrictions on who can possess firearms, they should be our restrictions and should fit our culture and our people.

BECK: ... Kevin, you're smiling like this and it doesn't have a shot in hell of working.

KEVIN GUTZMAN, AUTHOR, "POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO THE CONSTITUTION": Well, there are two levels to approach this question. One is on the theoretical level. On the theoretical level, the gentlemen are exactly right. The federal government is grabbing power to regulate these things and anything else that comes to mind that it's not supposed to have. And so I applaud them.

And trying to figure out a way to confront the federal government and get it to rein itself in is a good idea. On the other hand, practically, the first time this matter comes into a federal court, it's tossed.

BECK: Judge?

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST: Well, I think the more states that do it, the more pressure there will be on the Congress to realize that the states are serious about preventing the Congress from taking power away from it...

BECK: Leo, let me go to you, because you are a representative in the state of Texas. With Texas — you guys get it. And no offense, Montana, but Texans are going to come up and kick your butts. You guys are also — are you going to be taking Gary's amendment? Is that what you are trying to do? What are you doing in Texas?

REP. LEO BERMAN, TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: We've already filed his bill in Texas. But he'll have the court case in Montana. But Glenn, I'm a 9/12er. I served 22 years in the military because I love this country, just like you do. And we say that we fought against fascism, communism.

We watched socialist countries throughout the world just languish while we prospered based on free enterprise and individual freedoms. We see this president and this administration taking us not to the far-left, but beyond that to socialism. We don't want to go there.

So Rep. Brandon Creighton and I filed two bills in Texas. The bills don't really need to pass because 30 other states did essentially the same thing. But what these bills do is reassert our sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.

And we tell the federal government that if they mandate anything on us which is not fully authorized by the U.S. Constitution, we're going to challenge it and not do it. That's the only thing we can possibly do right now.

We don't want to become a socialist state. We want to challenge the federal government and I think we can do it. If we get all the state governors together to pull their resources, and anytime the federal government comes out with a mandate that's not authorized by the Constitution, we take it right into federal court, all of us at the same time....

Gutzman hit the nail. Sure it is right, but if you bring the matter to federal court you will not even get to a trial, like the claim that Mr. Obama is not eligible to be president, a valid concern which no court will hear. A trial is supposed to determine the facts, not a judge wanting to avoid the issue. This is where the seeds of revolution are sown - there is no longer a check on government.

The commerce clause has long been the wedge into your life. It started as a tool to force greasy spoon operators into letting blacks sit at the lunch counter. It was a twisted construct to find a desired end. See where ends' analysis leads.