Posted by Lee Russ That's simply another example of your incredible certainty as to what indefinite language means. The 10th amendment is very unclear as to which powers have "not been delegated" by the constititution, and NOWHERE does it give any indication of negating the general welfare clause. Ordinary rules of construction lead to the opposite conclusion, but it most definitely is not CLEAR. A simple rule of construction, universally recognized, is that language should generally not be given a meaning which the drafters could easily have expressly stated but chose not to. Which means that your interpretation of the amendment as supeceding the general welfare clause is wrong--all they had to say to produce that result is "This Amendment supersedes the General Welfare clause" (or any other clause they wanted to supersede.) In fact, the Constitution clearly does delegate federal power to act for the general public welfare. The same thing with your conclusion that "if there is a doubt concerning whether a particular power belongs to the federal government, the states, or the people, that doubt redounds to the favor of the states." The people who drafted the 10th amendment merely had to say that if that was their intent. The fact that they said no such thing is damn good evidence that they did not intend that Amendment to mean what you thnk they so "clearly" intended. You can write that some people have trouble seeing clarity all you want, it changes nothing. Just like the 10th amendment, it is very unclear WHO has trouble with clarity and who has trouble with ambiguity. I'm happy to let my record speak for itself, and to let your record hear speak for itself.
on 9/4/2007, 8:43 am, in reply to "Re: Individualism"
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On 8/31 you said: In effect, what the Tenth Amendment says is that, if there is a doubt concerning whether a particular power belongs to the federal government, the states, or the people, that doubt redounds to the favor of the states and the people, NOT to the federal government.
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