Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian249x
We are not disagreeing at all. In fact we are in agreement that the Federal Government cannot be counted on to maintain our basic freedoms.
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One of the interesting questions is "Who did the Founders think were supposed to maintain our freedoms?"
Remember -- the Bill of Rights is in fact an "afterthought" to the Constitution. EG, they wrote the Constitution, and then realized they'd established a Government with all sorts of powers, but no real limits.
So, you then get the Bill of Rights.
But the thing that they never specified is what remedy there is for a Federal Government that violates these rights. That the Supreme Court may enjoin the Federal government based on their reading of the Constitution is, itself, not in the Constitution-- though its long established by
Marbury v. Madison.
The awkward truth is that, contrary to Tea Party cranks who walk around with pocket Constitutions -- of which they appear to have read only a portion of the 2nd and 10th Amendments-- the Constitution is anything but complete, and doesn't go much further than broad principles which must be interpreted by judges or supplemented in law to have practical application to the modern world.
So, other than impeachment, the Founders simply didn't say what's supposed to happen when the Government does bad things . . .