Matt K makes a good observation in his Esse Quam Videri blog:

First Amendment, Second Amendment, maybe even Fourth and Twenty-First Amendments, are all of the Bill of Rights that most people hear and care about. But does anybody remember the Tenth Amendment? It’s been basically a dead letter since Reconstruction, but it goes a little something like this:

“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.”

One of the best (or worst) recent examples of a complete disregard for the 10th Amendment’s limitations on federal powers was from none other than “magic bullet” Arlen Specter.

For some time, he’s been wasting time, and your tax dollars investigating something that the feds have no authority over whatsoever -  professional football.

Recently, he made an announcement that he’d stop pushing for more hearings on this so-called “NFL spygate” case, which appeared to be good news.

But, as Daniel Matthews points out, the good news wasn’t good at all – instead, it turned out to be much worse

I was much more interested in something hidden in the bottom of the release…check it out here. He says that he is now going to look in to public financing of stadiums.

You read it right.  Instead of wasting money on investigating the pro football, he’s now going to take your money under the threat of imprisonment, and use it to build stadiums.

The outrage from Daniel Matthews is quite understandable:

Well, there is this little thing called the tenth amendment in the constitution.  It essentially says that any power not expressly given to the federal government should be retained by the states.  So, I re-read the Constitution…turns out that the power to control financing of stadiums isn’t in the Constitution.  Funny, I always thought it was.

Daniel, you’re absolutely right.  There’s not a word about football in the Constitution.

Or NFL, or stadiums, or sports.

Either Arlen hasn’t read the Constitution – or more likely – he’s hoping that most of us haven’t read it.

But, sadly, this is the way Washington works.  They count on the reality that people don’t know that the Constitution was written as a limit on federal power – not as a way to promote favored businesses.

Daniel explains this pretty well:

You see the Constitution wasn’t written by politicians to protect the government from people…It was written by level headed guys with names like Ben and Thomas, and a John or two.  They wrote it and offered it to the people for approval…It is the people’s document…not the government’s.  It was written to protect the people from the government.  It gives the people power…not Washington.

Ben, Thomas, and the Johns would be up in arms if they were alive these days.

Hope still shines, though.  It’s good to see that a few people like Daniel and Matt still understand the purpose of, and the need for, the 10th Amendment.

There’s been quite an uproar over recent comments on Habeas Corpus by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported:

“The Constitution doesn’t say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas,” Gonzales told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 17.

Gonzales acknowledged that the Constitution declares “habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless … in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.” But he insisted that “there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution.”

Specter was incredulous, asking how the Constitution could bar the suspension of a right that didn’t exist — a right, he noted, that was first recognized in medieval England as a shield against the king’s power to dispatch troublesome subjects to royal dungeons.

Although you might wonder why this issue qualifies as a concern of the Tenth Amendment, it’s these statements by both Gonzales and Specter that warrant special attention. Their position, if formally adopted by the government, would change the entire structure and basis of the Constitution; from one which created a government of specifically limited powers to one that gives the government all powers not prohibited.

First, more from the Chronicle:

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said this week that Gonzales stood by his remarks but was asserting only that the text of the Constitution does not guarantee habeas corpus.

Aboslutely Correct!

The Constitution, contrary to what many people believe, does not give people rights to free speech, trial by jury, to be armed, or even habeas corpus. In fact, the Constitution does not give people any rights, whatsoever!

Instead of giving us rights, the Constitution simply acknowledges that our rights are natural and inherent, and seeks to prevent that enemy of the ages which has always sought to take away our rights: The Government.

Simply put, the Constitution is a limit on government power. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The founders knew what was so obvious from history, and what remains true today – that the greatest threats to our liberty always comes from our own government.

As the 10th Amendment states so clearly, if the Constitution doesn’t give a power to the federal government, it can’t do it. Period.

Much of what the federal government engages in on a day-to-day basis is in a direct violation of the Tenth Amendment. The statements by Gonzales, Specter, and Roehrkasse are all examples of how the feds have destroyed not only the Tenth Amendment, but the meaning and intent of the Constitution as a whole.

No, Mr. Gonzales, the Constitution does NOT say that every individual is guaranteed the right of habeas corpus! No, Mr. Specter, rights DO exist even if they’re not listed in the Constitution. No, Mr. Roehrkasse, the text of the Constitution does NOT guarantee habeas corpus – the text of the Constitution guarantees that YOU and your accomplices in the federal government cannot take that right away!

What the feds can do in regards to habeas corpus was written quite plainly in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution,

“The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Nowhere else is Habeas Corpus even mentioned. Thus, since the federal government was not given the power to suspend habeas in any other situation, it can’t do it.

The Tenth Amendment has been repeatedly ignored and directly violated almost continuously since FDR and the New Deal showed it utter disregard in the Great Depression. When the Federal government takes on functions not specifically given to it in the Constitution, in direct violation of the Tenth Amendment, it’s only a matter of time before it starts taking away other rights.

Without a strict adherence to the Tenth Amendment, it’s only a matter of time before the government starts spying on us, opening our mail, creating “free speech zones”, telling us we can’t have guns, and more. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

It’s high-time for “We The People” to start demanding that the Feds start obeying this fundamental law. We are getting alarmingly close to having no rights at all – other than what the government, in its divine mercy, decides to grant us. This landslide must be stopped quickly, and the 10th Amendment is the rule to follow, or we’ll soon find ourselves in an overt dictatorship.