The United States Congress has been running hog-wild for decades, creating laws that violate the U. S. Constitution, particularly the Bill Of Rights (Amendments 1 - 10).
As Henry Lamb reports, Michael Oberndorf, Legislative Chairman for Freedom 21, made a most interesting discovery on his recent visit to the Congress folks at Washington, D. C.
Michael Oberndorf was making the rounds of legislative offices, talking with elected officials and staff members. One of the discussion topics was Congressional Responsibility for ensuring that all bills and enacted laws are Constitutionally Compliant.
Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) has been trying for years to have Congress adopt the Enumerated Powers Act, HR 1207, that requires a simple statement of Constitutional Compliance to be inserted at the beginning of a bill's text. Essentially, the statement would say something such as 'The full content of this bill is authorized by Section 'X' of the United States Constitution.'
A bill that does not fully qualify as Constitutionally Compliant is a direct violation of the Constitutional Authority granted to Congress and ought not be under consideration at all. Additionally, a bill or law that violates Constitutional Authority renders everyone involved with that legislation in violation of the Oath Of Office and requires immediate and permanent dismissal of all those people from elected office, retroactive to the first such violation, even if that first violation occurred years or even decades ago. Removal could extend to involved members of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President.
Michael Oberndorf made a most important discovery while talking with a Congressional aide for Rep. David Price (D-NC). The aide said that the requirement for Constitutional Compliance already exists within the Rules of the House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, Rule XIII, Calendars and Committee Reports; Content of Reports, 3.(d)(1), which states,
"Each report of a committee on a public bill or public joint resolution shall contain the following: A statement citing the specific powers granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact the law proposed by the bill or joint resolution."
There also are other requirements for estimating and reporting the cost that the legislation would impose.
I looked up Rules of the House of Representatives (http://clerk.house.gov/legislative/rules111/111th.pdf) and found the RULE listed on Page 25. Because of my local computer setting, the material actually appeared on my monitor on Page 28.
So there it is! The U. S. House of Representatives already has a Rule that requires listing Constitutional Authority for a legislative item in the Committee Report on the bill concerning that item.
Now, we need to pressure Congress to follow its own rules and turn the Rule for the Committee into a Statute concerning all legislative bills and actions, forcing members of the House and Senate to state straightforwardly, at the start of the bill's text, by what Constitutional Authority the bill is written, or to admit straightforwardly that the bill violates the authority granted to Congress by the U. S. Constitution and violates the Oath Of Office of everyone connected with the bill.
William Jud
