It's time to follow intent of Constitution

Letter to the Editor

When the United States Constitution was ratified, the intent of the Founding Fathers was to hold the federal government in check by the “states and the people.” The federal government was allowed only certain intended enumerated powers that are stated in the U.S. Constitution, and reinforced the Ninth and 10th Amendments in the Bill of Rights. The 10th Amendment 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.”

The powers of the federal government to manage lands with these enumerated powers are subject to no limitations, but are restricted to only the enumerated powers for such lands used for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock yards and other needful buildings —  and over such district (not exceeding 10 miles square) for the seat of the government of the United States. The Constitution has enumerated all the powers and use of land intended for the federal government.

The people of the states empower the Congress to pass any law which shall be “necessary and proper” to carry out the enumerated powers designated above, or to carry out any other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the U.S. or in any department or offices. Common sense would dictate that the enumerated powers in the U.S. Constitution were meant to be just that, and nothing more was granted.

The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and any statute to be valid must be in agreement. An unconstitutional law, in legal terms, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed and is therefore void.

At the present time, the federal government’s control and power over the states and the people would certainly have been alarming to the Founding Fathers, and should be alarming to we the people also. Can’t we see that the federal government is currently occupying millions of acres within states without the concurrence of those states?

It is time to restore America back to a solid foundation by following the intent of the U.S. Constitution. So help us God.

— Tony Kimberlin, Libby