Blake Carpenter: Keep federal government out of states’ business

“All of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government.”

— Ronald Reagan

The Sedgwick County Commission is thinking of ways it can use the old Judge Riddel Boys Ranch property. The Commission accepted $7,122.50 from the federal government to build a bathroom over 50 years ago, and it reduces their options for the property due to the strings attached to the money. A property that Sedgwick County taxpayers own has restricted use because of the federal government gave a minimal amount of money? There is a bill in Washington D.C. that was introduced to remove the strings on this land. Why are congressman and senators from other states going to vote on a bill that gives the property back to the people who it already belongs to and is not a federal issue?

The 10th Amendment is mostly ignored in modern America. It says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

Some will make the argument that Congress is tasked with providing for the general welfare of the U.S. as written in the Constitution. The father of the Constitution, James Madison, said about the general welfare clause: “With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs not contemplated by its creators.” Madison said on many occasions “general welfare” was copied from the Articles of Confederation.

Others will say that the supremacy clause allows Congress to pass legislation and it is the law of the land. The supremacy clause says, “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; ... shall be the supreme law of the land.... ” In Federalist No. 33, Alexander Hamilton writes, “But it will not follow from this doctrine that acts of the large society which are not pursuant to its constitutional powers, but which are invasions of the residuary authorities of the smaller societies, will become the supreme law of the land. These will be merely acts of usurpation, and will deserve to be treated as such.” The supremacy clause applies to the specific items in the Constitution, not to all legislation that is passed by Congress.

Lawyers, legal scholars, and politicians have twisted the meaning of the Constitution for decades. The powers not delegated to Congress are left to the legislatures and the people of the several states. A government closer to the people is a government that is more responsive to the people. The Kansas Legislature needs to start the process of bringing power back to the state and closer to the people. The legislature needs to begin passing bills that declare specific federal acts and regulations unconstitutional when they have overstepped their delegated and enumerated powers. The property issue at Lake Afton is one of those issues that is unconstitutional, and Kansas needs to step in and start protecting its citizens from the federal government.

This story was originally published November 12, 2017 at 5:42 AM with the headline "Blake Carpenter: Keep federal government out of states’ business."