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Comment by Dennis Treybil
Entered on:

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.

There is an interesting exchange between Ernest and Chuck between 32:00 & 34:00.  At 32:30, Chuck mentions the Supremacy Clause, cited above.

One comment I feel the need to make is that Chuck said, "the federal government is not the sole interpreter of the Constitution."  Another is that he used the term "laws passed by the federal government" to refer to "laws of the United States".  Of course, "laws passed by the United States" are laws passed by the US Congress, seated in Washington, D.C, which is all to often referred to as "the federal government".  And rather than saying "laws passed by the federal government", how I wish Chuck had said "laws passed by the central body of the federal government".

The "federal government" includes 5 bodies:

central body (1, Thank the creator, nature, nature's god, the supreme judge of the world, and [the origin of] divine providence!)

state bodies (50)

county/parish bodies (3,000+ according to Sheriff Mac during a recent DYI show)

municipal bodies (I ain't even gonna' guess)

human bodies.  (300,000,000 or so)

At one point, Chuck says the hope is with States and Sheriffs.  It is up to these guys to recognize an unconstitutional law and to refuse to enforce it.  But what about the deputies, and the auxiliary deputies?  And what of the local citizenry?  Can the sheriff function without their support?  And how can they support the sheriff in such an action unless they too recognize an unconstitutional law?  And how can any of them recognize an unconstitutional law unless they are familiar with the Constitution?

At one point, Chuck says very few people have even read it.  I fear he is right.

At another, Chuck says that the sorry state of affairs in which we currently find ourselves came to be because the people allowed it to come to be.

Ernest mentioned the need of "thuh guvahmint" to appear legitimate.  The Constitution can be used to attack that veil of legitimacy.  But for the Constitution to be a useful tool toward that end, the people must be familiar with it.

Chuck mentioned Marbury v Madison.  In that, Justice Marshall call the constitution paramount law.  The Constitution, as I read his opinion, trumps legislation and treaties.  If the central body of the federal government cannot infringe on the rights of the people to keep and bear arms under the Constitution, they cannot get around that by treaty.  It's true that the "in pursuance thereof" phase seems to apply to legislation only, but if the Constitution is indeed to be viewed as paramount law, I believe this argument holds.  (BTW, that treaty did not come up in the show.

Judges are bound by the Constitution in the language of the supremacy clause.  This includes respecting the Constitution's guarantee of a republican form of government, a form of government in which the people hold sovereign power and express their will through the legislative organs in the various bodies of the federal government mentioned above.  This means judges ain't supposed to legislate.  Court rulings are not included on the list of things under the umbrella of the supremacy clause.  Only the Constitution, legislation and treaties are supreme.

Nor should court rulings be observed as supreme law absent supporting legislation.

Legislation created Obama Care.

Obama Care was "blessed" by the SCOTUS.

That doesn't matter.  Obama Care can still be repealed by legislation.

(BTW, Obama Care was not mentioned in the show - just so you don't listen again thinking you missed it.  I'm just using it as an example.)

Strictly speaking, regulations are not the supreme law of the land either.  Nor should they be given the force of law.  These regulations and regulatory agencies were made "necessary" only when the central body of the federal government began to greatly exceed the powers vested in it by the Constitution.

Oh, well, ramble mode off.

DC Treybil


Comment by PureTrust
Entered on:

Great points, DCT. I especially like the part about treaties. Treaties might be binding on Americans in other countries. They might conceivably be binding on Americas on international waters. But they are not binding on Americans inside America, unless they are already binding before the treaties were made.

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