The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic (28 page)

BOOK: The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic
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48
. Sarah Parnass, “Eliminating Charitable Deduction Would Help Budget, Hurt Charities,” ABC News, Dec. 6, 2012,
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/eliminating-charitable-deduction-budget-hurt-charities/story?id=17889183
(March 17, 2013).

49
. Joel Griffith, “Krugman: U.S. Needs Death Panels, Sales Taxes,” Breitbart, Feb. 5, 2013,
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/02/04/Krugman-Death-panels-and-sales-taxes-is-how-we-do-this
(March 17, 2013).

50
. “2012 Annual Report to Congress,” Internal Revenue Service, National Taxpayer Advocate, Dec. 31, 2012,
http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/userfiles/file/2012-Annual-Report-to-Congress-Executive-Summary.pdf
(March 17, 2013).

51
. James Bovard, “A Brief History of IRS Political Targeting,”
Wall Street Journal
, May 14, 2013,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324715704578482823301630836.html
(May 27, 2013).

52

National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
, 567 U.S. __ (2012), Slip Op., No. 11-393, June 28, 2012.

53
. Ibid. (Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, JJ. dissenting) (Slip Op., 24–25).

54

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Report, “Affordable Care Act: Planning Efforts for the Tax Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Appear Adequate; However, the Resource Estimation Process Needs Improvement,”
Ref. No. 2012-
43-064, June 24, 2012,
http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2012reports/201243064fr.pdf
.

55
. I do not object to “the Fair Tax,” which functions as a national sales tax and eliminates all forms of revenue-based taxation, should it be a preferred amendment by delegates to a state convention. See “The Fair Tax Plan,” Americans for Fair Taxation,
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=HowFairTaxWorks
(April 8, 2013).

6. An Amendment to Limit the Federal Bureaucracy

1
. U.S. Constitution, Art. I, Section 1.

2
. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay,
The Federalist Papers
(New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006), 276–77.

3
. Ibid., 275.

4
. James Madison, “Debate in Virginia Ratifying Convention,” in
The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution
, 2nd ed., Jonathan Elliot, ed., vol. 3 (U.S. Congress, 1836), 514.

5
. John Locke,
The Second Treatise of Government
, chap. 11, §141 (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004).

6
. Ibid.

7
. Ibid., §134.

8
. Ibid., §142.

9
. Charles de Montesquieu,
The Spirit of the Laws
, Anne M. Cohler, Basia C. Miller, and Harold S. Stone, eds., part 2, book 2, chapter 6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

10
. Madison,
The Federalist Papers
, 288.

11

Field v. Clark
, 143 U.S. 649, 692 (1892).

12
. Woodrow Wilson,
Constitutional Government in the United States
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1908), 56–57.

13

Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton R. Co.
, 295 U.S. 330 (1935).

14

Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
, 295 U.S. 495 (1935).

15

Carter v. Carter Coal Co.
, 298 U.S. 238 (1936).

16

Jones v. Laughlin Steel Corp.
, 301 U.S. 37 (1937).

17

Wickard v. Filburn
, 317 U.S. 111 (1942).

18
. James M. Landis,
The Administrative Process
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1938).

19

Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency
, 549 U.S. 497 (2007).

20
. Nicole v. Crain & W. Mark Crain, “The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms,” Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, September 2010,
http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/The%20Impact%20of%20Regulatory%20Costs%20on%20Small%20Firms%20(Full).pdf
(April 18, 2013).

21
. “Piling On: The Year in Regulation,” American Action Forum, Regulation, January 14, 2013,
http://americanactionforum.org/topic/piling-year-regulation
(April 18, 2013).

22
. Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State—2012 Edition,” Competitive Enterprise Institute,
http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Wayne%20Crews%20-%2010,000%20Commandments%202012_0.pdf
(April 18, 2013).

23
. Ibid.

24
. Brian Walsh, “Overcriminalization: An Explosion of Federal Criminal Law,” Heritage Foundation, April 27, 2011,
http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2011/04/overcriminalization-an-explosion-of-federal-criminal-law
(April 18, 2013).

25
. Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President in the State of the Union Address,” White House, Feb. 12, 2013,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/remarks-president-state-union-address
(April 18, 2013).

26
. See generally, Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. § 553 et. seq.)

27
. 5 U.S.C. §801–802.

28
. 5 U.S.C. §706.

29
. 5 U.S.C. §706.

30

Whitman v. American Trucking Associations Inc.
, 531 U.S. 457, 474 (2001).

31

Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
, 467 U.S. 837 (1984). The legal doctrine takes its name from this case because this was the first time this particular regulatory interpretation was applied.

32
. The Clean Air Act was officially enacted by Congress in 1963 as a research program. The 1970 amendments established the regulatory program pertaining to pollution thresholds.

33
. Clean Air Act (CAA) §165(a)(1), §169(2)(c).

34
. Clean Air Act (CAA) §169(1).

35
. 74 Fed. Reg. 55, 300-55, 303.

36
. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148,124 Stat. 119, to be codified as amended at scattered sections of the Internal Revenue Code and in 42 U.S.C. (2010).

37
. Peter Ferrara,
The Obamacare Disaster: An Appraisal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(Chicago: Heartland Institute, 2010), v.

38
. Curtis W. Copeland, “New Entities Created Pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” Congressional Research Service, July 8, 2010,
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R41586_20110113.pdf
(April 18, 2013).

39
. “Obamacare Burden Tracker,” House of Representatives Ways and
Means, Education and the Workforce, and Energy and Commerce Committees,
http://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/files/analysis/20120206ACATracker.pdf
(April 18, 2013).

40
. Charlie Spiering, “Photo: 828 pages of new Obamacare regulations in just one day,”
Washington Examiner
, March 12, 2013,
http://washingtonexaminer.com/photo-828-pages-of-new-obamacare-regulations-in-just-one-day/article/2524020
(April 18, 2013).

41
. “IRS aims to clarify investment income tax under healthcare law,” Reuters, Dec. 3, 2012,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/03/us-usa-tax-irs-idUSBRE8B21HA20121203
.

42
. Diane Cohen and Michael F. Cannon, “The Independent Payment Advisory Board, PPACA’s Anti-Constitutional and Authoritarian Super-Legislature,” Cato Institute, Policy Analysis, June 14, 2012,
http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/independent-payment-advisory-board-ppacas-anticonstitutional-authoritarian-superlegislature
(April 18, 2013).

43
. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub.L. 111-203, H.R. 4173.

44
. See 12 U.S.C. 5491 (2013).

45
. 12 U.S.C. 5491 et. seq. (2013).

46
. See Complaint,
Competitive Enterprise Institute et. al. v. Timothy Geithner et al
.,
http://cei.org/sites/default/files/SNB%20v%20Geithner%20-%20Complaint.PDF
(April 18, 2013).

7. An Amendment to Promote Free Enterprise

1
. U.S. Constitution, Art. I, Section 8.

2
. Raoul Berger, “Judicial Manipulation of the Commerce Clause,” 74
Texas Law Review
695, 702–703 (March, 1996) (internal citations omitted).

3
. Ibid., 704–705 (internal citations omitted).

4
. Randy E. Barnett, “The Original Meaning of the Commerce Clause,” 68
University of Chicago Law Review
101, 104 (Winter 2001) (emphasis in original).

5
. Ibid., 114–15.

6
. Ibid., 116.

7
. Ibid.

8
. Ibid., 124.

9
. Robert H. Bork and Daniel E. Troy, “Locating the Boundaries: The Scope of Congress’s Power to Regulate Commerce,” 25
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
849, 863–864 (Summer 2002).

10
. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay,
The Federalist Papers
(New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006), 235.

11
. Ibid., 259.

12
. According to the historian Andrew C. McLaughlin, “the cardinal principle of the Spanish colonial policy was monopoly and seclusion.” Andrew C. McLaughlin,
The Confederation and the Constitution 1783–1789
(New York: Collier Books, 1962), 71. The British, furthermore, prohibited the importation of American whale oil to promote British fishing and restricted American shipping from the British West Indies. Ibid., 60–61.

13
. Ibid., 86.

14
. As a result, the framers specifically prohibited the states from issuing bills of credit, or to “make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts” in Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution.

15
. Joseph Story,
A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States
, §163 (Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1986), 139–40.

16
. Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion in
United States v. Lopez
, 514 U.S. 549, 585–587 (1995), supports this understanding and
provides citations to the state ratification conventions. See, e.g.,
Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution
, Jonathan Elliot, ed., vol. 2 (Washington, DC: United States Congress, 1836), 57 (T. Dawes at Massachusetts convention); ibid., 336 (M. Smith at New York convention).

17
. See, e.g.,
Federalist
36: “Is the knowledge of local circumstances, as applied to taxation, a minute topographical acquaintance with all the mountains, rivers, streams, highways, and bypaths in each State; or is it a general acquaintance with its situation and resources . . . with the state of its
agriculture, commerce, manufactures
 . . . with the nature of its products and consumptions . . . with the different degrees and kinds of its wealth, property, and industry?”
The Federalist Papers
, 188 (emphasis added). Hamilton distinguished between agriculture and commerce in
Federalist
60: “The several States are in various degrees addicted to agriculture and commerce. In most, if not all of them, agriculture is predominant. In a few of them, however, commerce nearly divides its empire, and in most of them has a considerable share of influence.” Ibid., 334. For a comprehensive analysis of the original meaning of the Commerce Clause and its terminology, see Randy E. Barnett, “The Original Meaning of the Commerce Clause,” 68
University of Chicago Law Review
101 (Winter 2001).

18
. The report from the participants, including Hamilton and Madison, stated that “the power of regulating trade is of such comprehensive extent, and will enter so far into the general System of the federal government, that to give it efficacy, and to obviate questions and doubts concerning its precise nature and limits, may require a correspondent adjustment of other parts of the Federal System.” “Proceedings of Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal Government, Sep. 11, 1786,” in
The Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution
, 2nd ed., Jonathan Elliot, ed., vol. 1 (New York: Burt Franklin, 1888), 118.

19
. James Madison, “Vices of the Political System of the United States,” in
Writings
, Jack N. Rakove, ed. (New York: Library of America, 1999), 71.

20
. James Madison,
Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787
(Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), 14.

21
. Hamilton,
The Federalist Papers
, 63.

22

Gibbons v. Ogden
, 22 U.S. 1, 190 (1824).

23
. Ibid., 194–95 (emphasis added).

24

Railroad Retirement Bd. v. Alton R. Co.
, 295 U.S. 330, 374 (U.S. 1935).

25

A. L. A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
, 295 U.S. 495, 546 (1935).

26

Carter v. Carter Coal Co.
, 298 U.S. 238, 308 (1936).

27

NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
, 301 U.S. 1, 37 (1937).

28

Wickard v. Filburn
, 317 U.S. 111 (1942).

29
. Ibid., 128.

30
. Ibid., 125.

31

Maryland v. Wirtz
, 392 U.S. 183, 194 (1968).

32
. Ibid., 198.

33

Perez v. United States
, 402 U.S. 146, 154 (1971).

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