The Necessary and Proper clause is, perhaps, the most ignored and abused portion of the Constitution. Perhaps the worst part of its abuse began with McCullough vs. Maryland, when it was ruled that Federal laws could be necessary without being absolutely necessary. Thats a bit of a stretch, given the limitations on government which the Constitution sought to impose. When you consider how much more abused this clause has become, when paired with the Commerce Clause, you can see why we are in the horrendous state of affairs that currently exist in Washington, DC. The original justification of the presumption of constitutionality [by courts in the U.S. of legislation] rested, in part, on the belief that legislatures would consider carefully, accurately, and in good faith the constitutional protections of liberty before infringing it. This belief assumed that legislatures really do assess the necessity and propriety of laws before enacting them. In recent decades, however, we have remembered the problem of faction that (at least some of) the framers never forgot. We now understand much better (or are more willing to admit) than our post-New Deal predecessors on the left and on the right that both minorities and majorities can successfully assert their interests in the legislative process to gain enactments that serve their own interests rather than being necessary and proper. We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of the Government are limited, and that its limits are not to be transcended.~Chief Justice Marshall
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:56:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015