Tenth Amendment Center

by Ivan Eland

More memos recently have surfaced that were written early in the Bush administration by John C. Yoo from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — the man who gave us the administration’s horrifyingly narrow definition of torture. As difficult as it is to believe, the recently released memos are even scarier than the original torture memo.

Yoo boldly asserts that the president’s power during wartime is nearly unlimited. For example, he argues that Congress has no right to pass laws governing the interrogations of enemy combatants and the commander-in-chief can ignore such laws if passed, and can, without constraint, seize oceangoing ships. go on reading »

by Rep Ron Paul

The House passed two bills attempting to rehabilitate the housing and mortgage market this week.  There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of criticism and blame for the bad decisions, and rightly so.

Lenders and banks do share much of the blame for the overheated market.  Lending standards were relaxed, or even abandoned altogether, creating an exaggerated pool of homebuyers that led to ballooning home prices that many, especially real estate investors, expected to continue forever.  Now that the bubble has burst, the losses are staggering. go on reading »

Yes is the argument that Becky Akers makes in her recent LewRockwell.com article. go on reading »

by Rep Ron Paul

K.K. Forss does not claim medical marijuana solves all his problems.  His pain from a ruptured disc in his neck is debilitating.  He is unable to go to work or to the First Baptist Church  he used to attend because of the pain and muscle spasms.  Taxpayers through Medicare spend over $18,000 a year on his various medications.

Half of those drugs are strong narcotics.  The other half address the various side-effects brought on by the first half, such as nausea, heartburn, heart palpitations, difficulty sleeping, and muscle spasms. go on reading »

by Thomas Andrew Olson, LewRockwell.com

As of this writing, only a handful of states have formally resisted implementation of the draconian REAL-ID act, where the Feds create a de facto national ID card by hijacking the driver licensing agencies of all 50 states. Despite the chilling “papers, please!” overtones to this, some states are falling into line like so many obedient sheep, while the majority have resorted to sending the Department of Homeland Security a letter of intent to comply, which extends them another year or so of lead time before the mandate finally kicks in. Of course that path only legitimizes the law, as opposed to standing up to the Feds and declaring the law the unconstitutional usurpation that it is.

DHS head Michael “Skeletor” Chertoff has made it clear that starting next year the residents of Montana, Maine, et al. will find it impossible to board an aircraft or enter a Federal building unless their state legislatures and governors cave in to his demands.

There is a third way, however. It’s simple, doable, and one that is guaranteed to stop REAL-ID in its tracks. Every state can do it. Its only drawback is that state governments will have to give up certain entrenched powers that they have arrogated to themselves for decades. go on reading »

by Rep Ron Paul

Taxes were on the forefront of many Americans’ minds this week as they scrambled to meet the April 15th deadline to file their returns.  Tax policy in this country hurts taxpayers twice – once when they pay taxes, and then when the government spends the money.  Americans are sick and tired of the financial burden and the endless forms to fill out.

To add insult to injury, after collecting this money the government does some very detrimental things to the economy. go on reading »

This legislation, from Representative John Shadegg (R-AZ), would make Congress far more likely to follow the 9th and 10th Amendments: go on reading »

Reader commentary from A. Linder

When I write my congressman or senator and ask them to please stop sending money to foreign governments, they write back to me as though I do not know what I am talking about. They “know” what is best for this country and believe the foreign expenditures are justified.

Then, they “thank me for writing”. go on reading »

by Rep Ron Paul

Congress is poised to pass the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) authorizing up to $50 million in unconstitutional foreign aid.  The bill passed out of the Foreign Affairs Committee with a bipartisan agreement to nearly double the President’s requested amount.

It is always distressing to see officials in our government reach across the aisle to disregard Constitutional limitations. go on reading »

An open letter to Arnold Schwarzenegger

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

As a constituent who cares deeply about privacy and national security, I urge you to oppose implementation of the REAL ID Act and support its immediate repeal.

The creation of a national identification card is not a power delegated to Congress under Article I, section 8 of the United States Constitution, and violates the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution which states, “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.” go on reading »