Constitutional Minute #26   What is “Federalism”?

I’ll explain it.

In short, it is the elevation of the State level of government over the authority of the federal government on most subjects.

“Federalism” was implemented beautifully by our Framers in our Constitution.

How many State governors understand and practice this??

To put it another way, when forming the central government, the States reserved to themselves the power to address ALL matters with the exception of those few matters exclusively given to the central government…and that was very few!!

Does the federal government have authority to regulate mortgage bailouts, medical care, pensions, family matters, education, housing, food stamps, tattoo removal, “community redevelopment”, light bulbs, minimum wage and the like??  NO!

How do we know?  Because these are not listed among the enumerated powers delegated to Congress in the Constitution (the one document every elected representative takes an Oath to support).

Does the federal government have authority to issue patents and copyrights? Yes!

How do we know?  Because Article I, Sec. 8, cl. 8 delegates this power to Congress.

The federal government isn’t supposed to have anything to do with our lives, liberties and properties except as follows:

• Other than those in military service, it has very little lawful criminal jurisdiction over us;
• It has no civil jurisdiction over us unless we file for bankruptcy; if we are inventors or writers, it secures for us the rights to patents and copyrights;
• It makes rules for naturalizing new citizens, and it delivers our mail!  (Art I, Sec 8 and Art III, Sec 3, U.S. Constitution).

That’s basically it, Folks!

Source here: https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/basic-concepts-of-government/

Bob Hilliard

wethepeoplehandbook@gmail.com