The urgent and vital work of the Convention of States Action movement, striving to rally the thirty-four states mandated by the Constitution to pass Resolutions calling for a Convention of States, is crucial. They aim to propose three new topics to the Constitution, one of which would curb federal jurisdictional overreach.
Congress’s powers are delineated in Section 8 of Articles I and III of the Constitution.
The powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8, are as follows:
Ø Impose taxes and spend the money collected to pay debts: Department of Treasury
Ø Regulate currency: Department of the Treasury
Ø Provide for the “general Welfare:” Department of Treasury
Ø Provide for the “common Defense”:” Department of Defense
Ø Regulate commerce: Department of Commerce
Ø Promote the “Progress of Science and useful Arts” by giving authors and inventors
“exclusive rights” to their writings and discoveries (i.e., copyright and patent
protections): U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: Department of Commerce
Ø Establish laws respecting naturalization and bankruptcy: Department of Justice
Ø Establish a judicial system: Department of Justice
Ø Establish post offices: United States Postal Service
Ø Establish roads: Department of Transportation
Article III grants the Supreme Court jurisdiction over “all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority.”
The Tenth Amendment clarifies, "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 reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.
So, according to the Constitution, the responsibilities provided to the federal government are all covered by six departments within the federal government—no more, no less!
Unfortunately, according to the Federal Register, our Constitutional Republic has over 430 departments, agencies, and sub-agencies.” If you subtract the six departments authorized by the Constitution, that leaves over 424 Departments, agencies, and sub-agencies performing functions the Constitution explicitly does not allow and delegates those functions to the States if they choose to provide those functions within their State.
This is a federal government on hyper-steroids of unconstitutional functions, functions that need to be returned to the States. This can only be accomplished by adding an Amendment restricting the federal government to only those Constitution-authorized functions. Such an amendment can only be accomplished by convening a Convention of States. We must accept that we will never get all those functions returned to the States.
It's crucial to remember that we, the citizens of North Carolina, can bring about this change. We can actively participate in this important process by taking a few minutes out of our busy schedules to contact our State Senator and strongly encourage them to support the passage of HJR 235 during this session.
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