And that includes marijuana, whether for recreational use or for medical purposes
Thursday on PACOVILLA Corrections blog, ‘Eric’ responded to my post ‘The Washington and Colorado Pot Legalization Dilemma’ (PACOVILLA Corrections blog, 12-3-12 and BarkGrowlBite, 12-4-12) by saying:
__“they did so in violation of the United States Constitution”
__You should read it some time, as you obviously haven’t. What is it with this collectivist control freak thing people have? Leave people alone.
__I’ll leave you with a platitude: “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner”
It so happens that I have read the U.S. Constitution several times over my lifetime. According to the Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2), federal law does supersede state and local law, and that makes state laws legalizing marijuana unconstitutional, whether for recreational use or for medical purposes.
From Wikipedia:
“Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S. Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. Treaties as 'the supreme law of the land.' The text decrees these to be the highest form of law in the U.S. legal system, and mandates that all state judges must follow federal law when a conflict arises between federal law and either the state constitution or state law of any state. (Note that the word 'shall' is used, which makes it a necessity, a compulsion.)
The 'supremacy clause' is the most important guarantor of national union. It assures that the Constitution and federal laws and treaties take precedence over state law and binds all judges to adhere to that principle in their courts. – United States Senate.
The Supremacy Clause only applies if Congress is acting in pursuit of its constitutionally authorized powers. Federal laws are valid and are supreme, so long as those laws were adopted in pursuance of—that is, consistent with—the Constitution. Nullification, is the legal theory that a state has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional or exceeds Congresses’ constitutionally authorized powers. The courts have found that under Article III of the Constitution, the final power to declare federal laws unconstitutional has been delegated to the federal courts and that the states therefore do not have the power to nullify federal law.”
Since Congress enacted the laws prohibiting the use, possession, manufacture and distribution of marijuana and other controlled substances while ‘acting in pursuit of its constitutionally authorized powers,’ Eric, you can take your platitude and shove it!
2 comments:
The US Constitution is the supreme law of this land. ALL laws must be "in pursuance" of it - that means that if a law is not constitutional to begin with, it does not matter if it is a federal or state law, it is null and void - illegal.
Clause 2 of Article VI of the ORIGINAL Constitution: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
"Under the American Constitution a new structure of government was established on a much higher plane than either the parliamentary system or the confederation of states. It was a people’s constitutional republic, where a certain amount of power was delegated to the states and a certain amount was delegated to the national government. There was a small dimension of power which they shared jointly. All other power was retained by the people. It is the delegation by the people of certain powers to the states and certain powers to the national government which we call ‘dual federalism.’" W. Cleon Skousen, "The Making of America"
"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." Thomas Jefferson
”We, the people, are the rightful masters of both congress and the courts - not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution” Abe Lincoln
“A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either.” Thomas Paine
Just because a person is temporarily (actually especially if is) a US President or in congress does not mean that the law they write is legal - constitutional.
"The way to have good and safe government, is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to.
Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, law, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations ...
What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body." Thomas Jefferson
You see, the government does not have the power over the people, they only have the power to stop harm.
“No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.” Thomas Jefferson
Make sense now?
Uh....no.
_________
Centurion
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