If the Constitution can be obscured behind a bewildering array of administrative laws and regulations, then the few can impose their oppressive, manipulative doctrines on the many. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is just the most prominent of recent 2,000-page laws that attack our Bill of Rights. It does so by confiscating speech and religious freedoms without legal recourse and Ninth Amendment freedoms guaranteed but not enumerated by our Constitution. Politicians offered enchanting material security, while obscuring subservience to rules, vastly increasing their power.
Alexander Hamilton explained how to read the Constitution in the Federalist Papers. The essence of our Constitution embodies positively allowed actions. Intentionally, the multitude of actions not allowed by each government branch remains unexpressed. Therefore, Hamilton in Federalist No. 78 uses the term “manifest tenor” meaning clearly visible direction of thought, and in Federalist No. 81, rejects a popularly acclaimed “spirit,” which accommodates tortured, backward-engineered homilies needed for grievous schemes. With Hamilton’s guidance, a document proclaiming limited government and hemmed in by a Preamble exalting human freedom and a Bill of Rights demanding human freedom may be inconvenient, but not that difficult to understand.
Eugene, Ore.
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
