OK, I'm totally not clear on the threat here: How would the UN Programme Against Small Arms be enacted and implemented here, and how would it be able to bypass Congress as this implies? [Read]
I'd like to see the proponents of this line of thought flesh out the mechanism for imposing the Programme's wishlist as enforceable requirements here while leaving our legislature out of the loop.
Executive Orders & Treaties: The Reid Court (U.S. Supreme Court) held in their Opinion that, "... No agreement with a foreign nation can confer power on the Congress, or any other branch of government, which is free from the restraints of the Constitution. Article VI, the Supremacy clause of the Constitution declares, "This Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all the Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land...' "There is nothing in this language which intimates that treaties and laws enacted pursuant to them do not have to comply with the provisions of the Constitution nor is there anything in the debates which accompanied the drafting and ratification which even suggest such a result... "It would be manifestly contrary to the objectives of those who created the Constitution, as well as those who were responsible for the Bill of Rights - let alone alien to our entire constitutional history and tradition - to construe Article VI as permitting the United States to exercise power UNDER an international agreement, without observing constitutional prohibitions. (See: Elliot's Debates 1836 ed. pgs 500-519). "In effect, such construction would permit amendment of that document in a manner not sanctioned by Article V. The prohibitions of the Constitution were designed to apply to all branches of the National Government and they cannot be nullified by the Executive or by the Executive and Senate combined."
ReplyDeleteNothing is unconstitutional until and unless a majority of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States SAYS IT IS!!!!! Whether or not the Founders INTENDED things to work that way, that is how it works today. Bottom line is, if Dear Leader gets to replace EVEN ONE of the 4 nominally conservative Justices, then nothing he does will be unconstitutional and no treaty once signed by Dear Leader - no matter how ratified or even if NOT ratified - will be unconstitutional!
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