US Constitution Article I § 9

My Constitution Project has been dormant for several months. Here is some new life. Hopefully I'll be able to complete it in 2007.

Section 9 of the US Constitution places explicit restrictions on Congress. You may remember in my previous post, Section 8 told Congress exactly what it can do (although today's Congress is a far cry from what it was intended to be).

Clause 1: The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
Congress cannot prohibit the slave trade until 1808 but may tax $10 per slave. Obviously this clause does not apply to us anymore.

Clause 2: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
Habeas Corpus is a fundamental right. Basically it means that you cannot be held in detention indefinitely without being charged with a crime. It was suspended during the Civil War by Abraham Lincoln. George W. Bush has ignored it several times and used questionable legal means to delay it being applied to certain individuals accused of terrorism. I consider any president, including Lincoln, that suspends this right to be an enemy of true liberty.

Clause 3: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
Bills of attainder are laws that take away rights from one person or group of persons without a trial. An ex post facto law declares something illegal and retroactively punishes people who have broken it before it was passed.

Clause 4: No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
Unfortunately the 16th Amendment "clarified" this. I will handle this subject later on.

Clause 5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.
Interstate commerce cannot be taxed. It still isn't, at least by the federal government. States cannot charge a "sales tax" either for interstate sales, but commonly charge a "use tax" which is a tax paid to use an item in the state. Using basically means owning. These laws are largely unenforced, though my home state of Virginia asks you to fill out on your tax return the value of items you bought online. These use taxes are almost completely unenforceable. In order to know that I bought something, not only would they have to scan my credit card and bank statements for online or phone orders, but they would have to prove that those items were in fact mailed to me and not sent to someone as a gift.

Clause 6: No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.
No states can be favored more than others. Very hard to enforce this clause unless under severe circumstances.

Clause 7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
Congress can only spend money after it passes a law to spend that money, which it does much too often.

Clause 8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
This statement was almost codified into a law in which someone would be stripped of citizenship if they accepted a title of nobility. Having freed ourselves from Britain, we were tired of the knights, kings, queens, dukes, and all of that nonsense.

Tacos, Jesus, and Christmas Trees

There's absolutely nothing interesting going on this week. Maybe the news outlets are tired after the donkey raped the elephant in the midterm elections? Maybe they've written the word Iraq too many times. Consider this post to be a mishmash of many of my thoughts over the past couple of days.

The big story on CNN and others now is that they think lettuce poisoned some people at Taco Bell. Why is it always the Mexican themed restaurants that have issues? Chi-Chis went out of business due to hepatitis A in one store near Pittsburgh. Who knows what Taco Bell's fate will be. In the great movie Demolition Man it was the last remaining restaurant after the "franchise wars." Time will only tell. One thing I can tell you, I'd still take a bet that Taco Bell's Mexican food is much safer than Mexican food in Mexico.

My favorite interest group to hate, Big Labor, AKA unions, have new ads attacking Walmart, using the slogan "would Jesus shop at Walmart." Some background. Unions hate Walmart because they are known for busting any unions that try to organize their stores. They have gone so far as to close entire stores down when the threat was imminent. If only GM had the balls to do that, Cadillac might actually compete with BMW.

Well, Jesus not only shops at WalMart, I think someone by that name is a greeter at the one near me... but I digress...I think Jesus, being a carpenter, would prefer Home Depot or Lowe's, but what's there not to like about Walmart. Everything they sell there is dirt cheap, and the whole shopping experience is the closest most of us will get to feeling like refugees waiting in a breadline. It's almost an adventure.

SEATAC took down a Christmas tree after being on the receiving end of a lawsuit by a rabbi. He said it wasn't his intention to remove the tree, he just wanted a huge menorah. The tree is back up, the menorah is not. My solution is to have a big tree with some dreidels hanging from it. To incorporate more religions, we can add a manger scene. We can honor Hindus by putting a cow under the tree, and honor Muslims by replacing Baby Jesus with Baby Mohammad in the manger scene.

And you thought those Danish Cartoons were a riot!