Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the reason breaking a law has consequences, is because a law without teeth is a mere suggestion. What would happen if a bank robber who was caught… only had to give back the money that they hadn’t already spent? Everyone would rob banks. It would be stupid not to. The same holds true of constitutions and constitutional law. There are no consequences for violating our Constitution, in the most vile of ways, so our elites violate it all day in every way. The worse that could happen is the power they usurped, and are using now, will have to be given back. I propose a better paradigm. Give our Constitution’s teeth. Write in a few consequences for violating it. Let’s make violating our Constitution at least as punishable as growing one hundred acres of wheat.
If a constitution is a contract, where only one party is held to it, while the other is given free reign, it’s not a contract, it’s slave papers. In a contract both parties give something and get something. Moreover, it’s an established precedent that any ambiguity, goes against the party who wrote the contract. In the case of our Constitutions, the elite write them, enforce them and violate them at will, because the elite don’t punish themselves. When was the last time you turned yourself in for speeding? Even as the elite interpret any ambiguity as giving them more power. That’s how they expanded the Commerce Clause to give the administrative state unlimited power to regulate. Because a farmer grew too much wheat on his land. That ambiguity led to Wickard v Filburn and the exponential growth of the bureaucracy.
Laws without punishment have no effect, just as constitutions without teeth are useless, and have proven themselves worthless for multiple centuries. Take the Magna Carta, when King John was forced to sign it, the elite thought they had done a great thing, and had slashed the power of the king. That was far from the truth. Even today in the British commonwealth, a “constitution” is a slave document, instead of a charter of basic human rights. How do we know this? As in Canada, the people have no rights, only those the elite randomly grant. Take for example the rounding up and prosecuting of the truckers in Canada… or the arrest and prosecution of people engaging in silent prayer, facebook wrongspeak and for carrying chefs knives to work, in Britain. Not the actions of limited governments.
What sort of teeth should we add to our constitutions? Criminal law has something to say here. Fines, jail, and even capital punishment are in line for violating our Constitutions. Fines for first time “minor” violations, jail for habitual offenders, all the way up to the death penalty for those actively engaged in a conspiracy to overthrow the Constitution. Obviously, politicking to change the Constitution within the parameters set forth in the Constitution, would not only be okay, but protected by the Constitution. Just as trying to change a law by writing op eds, running for office and creating special interest groups is legal. Only violating Constitutional limits would be punishable. Every government official, under this system, that called social media to censor Americans, would be fined, and some might go to jail.
History has proven that sooner or later, the elite will ignore any limits in their constitution, and usurp power. It’s human nature. Moreover, not one elite has ever been punished criminally, for violating a constitution. Especially the US Constitution. Instead, they’re rewarded with usurped power to wield, increased political favor, and everything that comes with the first two. All of our Constitutions have become slave papers instead of contracts. The elite have made it so. They do as they please, while we’re limited by unconstitutional regulations, monitored, and taxed to pay for it. It’s past time to add teeth to all our Constitutions. Put in large fines for minor violations and jail time for greater violations, even execution. Then enforce them, as zealously as they enforce their arbitrary edicts, on us.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
