the Constitution does not grant Congress any general legislative authority over land within the States. The federal government must obtain permission from the individual State and acquire the property before it can enter a State and exercise legislative jurisdiction. This raises another question. If the federal government does not have any legislative authority over land within a State unless it purchases the land and acquires legislative jurisdiction, then where does it get The constitutional authority to enter a State and enforce environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act on state and private land? The answer is: the federal government has been usurping power because Congress does not have the constitutional authority to evade or defeat the limitations enumerated in Clause 17. If the federal government is using other clauses in the Constitution like the Commerce Clause as the basis for environmental laws, and it is, this raises other constitutional issues because the federal government cannot use one provision of the Constitution to circumvent or destroy another. In other words, Congress cannot use a grant of power in one clause of the Constitution to get around a restraint or qualification of power in another clause.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:19:48 +0000
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