Scott Austin: Presumed Ignorant II
I want to put a very fine point on something I don’t think I properly hammered home in the post below. Scott Austin begins his commentary by suggesting that federalism, as the Framers knew it, died in the Reconstruction with the adoption of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Presumably, his argument goes from there, the national government (Todd) has therefore been empowered to regulate marriage since the end of the 19th century. (Perhaps on some construction of the equal protection clause? Enlighten us, Scott!)
Yet the rest of the article is given over to examples of Congressional intrusion into marriage law that were grounded on constitutional powers set forth in Article IV of the original document. In other words, powers given to Congress under federalism “as the founders of this country understood it.”
Not only that, but he condemns (I think–clarity is lacking) these uses of constitutional power.
This is all rather foolish. I was not sure I had made that irrefutably clear.
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