John Shadegg introduces the “Enumerated Powers Act” to provide a constitutionality check on all future legislation

  According to this article, Arizona congressman John Shadegg has introduced a bill called the “Enumerated Powers Act” which would require every bill introduced in the Congress to  include a statement that explained where the constitutional authority came from for the proposed bill.

  Article 1 Section 8 of the constitution lays out the specific, enumerated powers of the Congress, and this bill would require all future bills to include which of these enumerated powers grants the federal government the power to implement the newly introduced bill before it can become law. 

  My first thought upon hearing of this bill was that this was just another election year ploy designed to gain support with the Tea Party and other groups who feel that the government has grown much too big and bloated. But it turns out that John Shadegg has introduced this bill every year since 1994–he truly believes in this bill and has worked for over twenty years to get it passed. This is more than just an election year ploy by Shadegg, this is something that he truly believes in.

  I have to give him credit for tenacity, you would think that after all of these failed attempts he would have just given up but when you believe in something deeply you fight for it, and that is what he has done and continues to do.

  The fact that this bill has never gained any traction over the last twenty years is a demonstration of exactly how far the federal government has drifted away from the constitution and their unwillingness to give up the power that they have already usurped.

  This bill has no chance of passing–at least not yet–even in an environment where more people are waking up and questioning the constitutional authority of the federal government–because the Congress is enjoying the almost unlimited power they currently have. However if there ever was a time for this bill to succeed the time would be now. There hasn’t been this much awareness about the constitutional transgressions of the federal government in years, so there hasn’t been much outcry from the people, and as a result the Congress felt no pressure to pass such a bill. That may be changing, but the fact remains that until we change the Congress we will continue to get more of the same. We need to take back the Congress and then maybe–just maybe–a bill like this would have a chance of passage.

  But for the sake of argument let us pretend that the impossible happened and the “Enumerated Powers Act” was signed into law. We would still be faced with a major problem that would have to be addressed for this bill to have any teeth.

   In those 18 enumerated powers found in Article 1 Section 8 lies the commerce clause and the general welfare clause; both of these clauses have been used as a justification for many of the constitutional usurpations that have occurred over the years, and I fail to see how this bill would stop the federal government from continuing to abuse both of these clauses. Naturally all newly introduced bills would include a statement that either of these clauses gives the Congress the right to pass the bill in question.

  This bill would have to be coupled with an effort to reign in the use–abuse–of these two clauses for the bill to have any usefulness. An effort would have to be undertaken to strengthen and more rigidly define the term “general welfare” and to limit the uses of the commerce clause through more strict, well defined wording, and that would take a constitutional amendment.

  This bill by itself would not be the answer to all of our constitutional problems, but it would be a great beginning in the effort for the people of this country to reign in the out of control federal government. But as you can see, this is going to be a long process. It has taken years of usurpations to reach the point we are at currently, and it has taken even longer for the people of the United States to realize what has happened. But as people wake up the movement will gain momentum.

  We must begin this process by electing people who are sympathetic with John Shadegg and the notion of providing a “constitutional test” for all future legislation. Only when we have more people like John Shadegg in the Congress will we be able to hope that a bill like the “Enumerated Powers Act” actually has a chance at passage. After we have achieved that goal we will need to look at possibly amending the constitution in the manner I described above.

  Still, it is good to know that someone is out there fighting for the constitution and has been for quite awhile. We just have to keep working until there are more like-minded people in the Congress. It will not be easy, but it must be done–the future of our Republic is riding on it.

  One aspect that I haven’t touched on to this point is the Supreme Court. In the end, they hold all of the cards in this effort. Through a grassroots, from the bottom up movement we can achieve the goal of ensuring that we have a Supreme Court that is favorable to the original intent of the constitution as a document that limits the government. As we begin to hire politicians that support efforts such as the “Enumerated Powers Act” the problem with the Supreme Court will take care of itself because we can assume that these same politicians will confirm justices who are originalists. But it will take time, we must stay vigilant and we must not despair.

  I am glad that we have people like John Shadegg representing us–we just need more like him.

  The link that I provided above has a video of John Shadegg explaining the “Enumerated Powers Act” and his views on the overreaching federal government, unfortunately I can not prove a direct link but please check out the video. It is just over two minutes long and is well worth the time.