The country has nine lawyers, on the Supreme Court, interpreting the meaning of the Constitution. To my knowledge not one is a linguist. Lawyers are adept at extracting words from a sentence, which had a particular meaning, and using those words (out of context) to create an entirely new meaning.
A group of words is merely a group of words, until it is formed into a sentence. Article 8, section 1, known as the "Welfare Clause" is a prime example of lawyers distorting the Constitution. It reads, including punctuation, -
"The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties Imports and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imports and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States."
The Congress and the Supreme Court have taken the words, "general welfare" out of context and used it as justification for a host of laws intruding into the lives of the people. While I am neither a Linguist nor a Lawyer, I believe anyone with an eighth grade education would understand, this is wrong. It is difficult to fathom that James Madison, the father of the U. S. Constitution and a strong advocate of States rights, could have intended those two words to authorize a national health care plan.
Joel
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The phrase "general welfare" appears twice in the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteIt first appears in the Preamble:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
The opening sentence in Section 8 is a shortened version of the Preamble. The key word in the Preamble is promote. Promote in my dictionary does not mean guarantee, entitle, provide or pay for.
Sand Box John
I would love to see a legal opinion of whether the preamble is a part of law or merely a mission statement. Would the court take the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to justify handouts?
ReplyDeleteJoe:
ReplyDeleteThose laws were passed by Congress, not by the Supreme Court.