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| Federal Magistrate Says Commerce Clause Fantasy Trumps 10th Amendment |
| 2010-09-03 |
| States seeking freedom from federal gun laws within their borders suffered a setback on Wednesday when federal magistrate Jeremiah Lynch recommended dismissal of a lawsuit that argues Congress has overstepped its constitutional authority with gun and ammunition control and gun owner information efforts. The magistrate sided with the U.S. Department of Just Us, which says courts have already decided that Congress can control the States through its power to regulate interstate commerce. His opinion now goes to the federal judge in Missoula hearing the case. The issue was launched last year with "Firearm Freedoms Act" laws in Montana and led to a lawsuit filed by gun advocates with the backing of Montana, Utah, Alabama, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming and West Virginia. The states argue they should decide which rules would control the sale and purchase of guns and paraphernalia made within their borders. They say the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that the federal government only has those powers that are specifically given to it by the U.S. Constitution. "Because federal firearms laws are a valid exercise of Congress' power under the Commerce Clause as applied to the intrastate activities contemplated by the act, there is no 10th Amendment violation in this case," Lynch wrote. "We expected an adverse ruling in district court, which is fine, because it will give us control of the appeals process. We need to get in front of the Supreme Court," said a representative of the Montana Shooting Sports Association. "Truly we need to overturn a half century of Commerce Clause precedent and only the Supreme Court can do that." In the United States federal courts, magistrate judges are appointed to assist United States district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges are appointed by a majority vote of the federal district judges of a particular district, and serve a limited term of office. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #3 Amendments modify the origanal text, not the other way around. Anyway, the real solution is to repeal the Commerce Clause and replace it with a Free Trade Amoung the States Amendment. That's all the Commerce Clause was supposed to be anyway. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2010-09-03 11:29 |
| #2 ..ah, yes. Next point you can throw in is the imperial judiciary, the district and above offices, which sits for life and are not accountable to the people. It's composed of self selecting body of lawyers and law professors who determine who gets into the caste and who doesn't. I can't find anywhere in the writings or early history of the republic where one third of the government was suppose to the composed of such a cabal or have the powers they now invoke. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-09-03 11:11 |
| #1 Why don't we just get rid of states entirely except as federal administrative districts. That si in effect what this putz is saying. |
| Posted by: Solomon Unuger2035 2010-09-03 10:59 |