We, as individuals, can only delegate to government that which we have a right and power to do ourselves, such as defense of life and property. Our system of government is based on the principle that, governments are instituted to secure our rights. Rights are considered a possession inherent in us, [governments have no rights, only delegated powers] and the defense of our rights is surely something we can delegate to government. However, we cannot delegate that which is not ours in the first place.

Do we, as individuals, have a right to force someone to have an identifying number? If we don't have the right to do that, do you then see why we cannot delegate that kind of function to government?

Our Federal Constitution is the instrument in which the states and the people have delegated power to the Federal Government, and at the same time, it is also the means in which we have prohibited government from infringing on our rights.

Most of us understand that there are three branches of the Federal Government established by our Constitution - the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The Constitution not only divides government into these three branches, it also divides it into two other most important categories, that being Foreign and Domestic government.

Article 1. Section 8, of the Constitution, grants eighteen (18) powers to the Federal government; then Article lV Section 4, states, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government," and finally, the Tenth Amendment solidifies this separation by stating, "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 delegated to the Federal government have to deal with issues that are of a "foreign nature" to the States, including, the relationships between the States. National defense, of course, being one of the foreign powers we have delegated to the Federal government.

In the halls of Congress, in modern America, you will find that our Constitution is violated on a daily basis! The biggest violation being the assumption of power over domestic issues, which were reserved for state control. One can only conclude that such violations have to be tyrannies upon the people if Congress has no power to act. One of Congress' little tricks in assuming a "power to act" is to invoke the - Commerce clause - of the Constitution as their justification.

The Commerce clause grants Congress the power to regulate the "stream of commerce", but not that, which flows into, or out of, that stream of commerce; nor to act as the domestic government at the point of "final destination" of the products, which traveled that stream.

I was able to locate 11 full pages of quotes from Thomas Jefferson on this subject. Here is one of them; "Our citizens have wisely formed themselves into one nation as to others and several States as among themselves. To the united nation belong our external and mutual relations; to each State, severally, the care of our persons, our property, our reputations and religious freedom."

It is obvious to most readers of the Constitution that the States, do not have the power to deal in the area of Foreign Issues because that is spelled out for us; it is not so easy to realize that domestic issues do not belong in the hands of the Federal government but instead belong to the States. Because the language of the 10th Amendment says, "all powers not delegated are reserved to the states", this requires us to calculate, what powers are delegated, and then determine, what is reserved to the States.

Once we understand that each State in this Union has the full and independent power of government over it's own internal affairs - no different than the European States such as France, England, Germany - then we can comprehend a little better the tyranny of Congress over the states.

James Madison, one of the major authors of the Constitution, said this about this "assumption of power" by congress - when it was not granted - and Congress was about to vote on giving aid to 15,000 French refugees, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

So here is the touchstone, if congress does not have the power spelled out in the Constitution then it does NOT have that power!

Q: Is it spelled out in the Constitution that Congress has any authority over our Education System?

[Seems like a tyranny to me - how about you?]

Michael Benoit