States fight back

It seems there are a few states in this great country that have rediscovered the tenth amendment of our Constitution. It states: "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." which basically means that if the power wasn't specifically provided to the federal government, then it lies with the states and the people and the federal government can't do it. Boy how this has been ignored over the years.

Nonetheless, two cases have now arisen that indicate some states have rediscovered the meaning of this most important amendment. The first case comes out of Utah and is about eminent domain. Over time, the federal government has nationalized large swaths, nearly 70 percent, of Utah through the power of eminent domain and Utah wants it back. The Constitution states the power of the federal government in these kinds of cases is that it can take land under eminent domain only if it has the consent of Congress AND of the state legislature. Utah is now pressing for return of that land under eminent domain because of two issues. Eminent domain is supposed to serve some sort of greater purpose, but the federal government has taken the land and done nothing with it, at all. They've simply nationalized it to prevent Utah from exploiting natural resources. Secondly, Utah is claiming that they've never given consent for the taking of the land and therefore the land grabs are unconstitutional. This will be an interesting case to watch.

The second case being brought has now been joined by a total of 12 states. It is declaring that the new health care legislation is unconstitutional because it violates states rights and because the federal government is assuming powers for itself prohibited to it by the tenth amendment. This also will be interesting to watch and is perhaps even more important than the Utah case. The argument is that the federal government doesn't have any constitutional authority to regulate health care and especially does not have the authority to declare that all citizens MUST have insurance as this legislation does. While the states have made such sweeping claims on their own, the tenth amendment clearly says the states have ALL the powers not already given to the federal government, so that is not the constitutional issue but rather whether the federal government has that power. My reading of the constitutional says it does not and, so far, 12 states (Texas, South Carolina, Nebraska, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota, Louisiana,
Idaho, Washington and Colorado) agree and are bringing suit. What interesting times we live in. As for my opinion on this, go Utah and go tenth amendment and get the fed out of business of meddling in things it has no business being involved with.