Legislative Branch Essays - Constitutional Law, Philosophy Of Law

Legislative Branch Ryan Francom ENGL 2010 Portfolio 2: Proposal Final Draft Judiciary Our last hope Our flags have been raised from half-staff to full-staff since the terrorist attacks in the New York area and most of us Americans seem to be increasingly aware of our protecting freedoms. In 1787, our founding fathers created the greatest contract or agreement for freedom ever known to mankind. My Brief American Pageant history book lists two fundamental principles that directed them to the establishment of our Constitution. These guidelines were that, the only legitimate government was one based on the consent of the governed and that the powers of the government should be limited (117). Our Constitution clearly states that the power rests first in the people, then the states, and lastly, the United States. Thats why the preamble begins We the People. But do we fully understand our rights, powers, or freedoms: furthermore, does each state know theirs? To put it quite frankly, weve slowly turned over our powers to the Federal Government and they have been deceitfully abusing the pow ers vested unto them without a fight on our part? Now, let me reassure you, my readers, that America is great. Its not so because a bunch of people in Washington have told us what to do, but because people have been free to do great things on their own. However, we are now faced with a perpetuating greedy government that is extolling their power (that has been handed to them on a temporary basis) to satisfy their own carnal desires. The more power they have, the less power the people have. This is the exact same principle upon which our union was brought together by. You see, the first thirteen colonies knew that if they gave up all their power and didnt remain sovereign that they would be completely ruled by a one-world government. Utahs former State Secretary Joseph Stumph understood this principle and explained it quite well in his book The Constitution Hanging by a Thread. Once the Union was formed, many of the Founders and many of the ratifying State Conventions were still skeptical about the potential for abuse of power by Th e Federal Government. Thats why they, therefore, shortly afterward, adopted the first ten Amendments, The Bill of Rights, to doubly insure that all parties understood the Central Government was to be very limited in the powers the states had given up for the sake of the union (4). Thats why the Tenth Amendment reads as follows, 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. But the fact still remains, our Federal Government has become way to powerful and were at the verge of loosing the few powers that are still ours. My fellow citizens, Im now going to show you where, how, and why some of our systems are faltering. To start out, Im going to use a prime example of how our Executive branch has in short, abused their powers. Most recently, former President Clinton and the Marc Rich case. Here our two-termed honorable President pardoned his friend, colleague, and finance contributor in his last days in office. BBC News, in their attempt to cover this top story, says that, Marc Rich, the multi-millionaire fled to Switzerland 17 years ago while facing more than 50 charges of tax evasion and illegal oil trading (Author unknown). President Clinton signed his John Doe to release all charges against this traitor of justice. Ironically, this wasnt the only one; he signed for 141 of these types of pleas. This has caught criticism from both the Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill (Author unknown). And it should. If this is not abusing power I dont know what is. Next, our Legislative branches continually infringe upon some of the laws that they themselves legislate. Take for instance, the 1992 banking scandal in the House of Representatives. In a three-year period, 355 members of Congress wrote 20,000 bad checks, according to the General Accounting Office. This was all tax payers money our money. There are lots of people serving time in jails in this country for the same