Re: Bandwidth, government

[John McDermott <jjm -at- JKINTL -dot- COM>]

David B says:
>Hi all;

>Marguerite sugests...

>>Congress is currently considering gutting the Fourth Amendment

..
>Or to put it another way, Congress does not have the power to `gut' the
>Fourth Amendment.  In fact, not even the Suprement Court can do that.
>The only way to `gut' any portion of the Constitution is to pass
>another amendment.

Yes, but no: good theory, not true in practice.  Witness the US Dept of
Education.  Their very existance seems to be clearly in violation of the
tenth ammendment.  Congress can (and often does) do things in violation of
the Constitution.  Until such things are brought before the Court, the Court
can do nothing.

It takes citizen action to mount the challenges to these things.  Now that
the DOEd has been around a long time, the chances of the supremes saying,
"No, sorry, shut it down." are slim indeed.

What I think is needed is a citizen advocay group which polices laws for
constitutional violations and has the funds to challenge the laws.  I'd
contribute.


>There are many things wrong with our government.  But I feel like we
>must understand how the government currently works before we seek to
>change it.

This is true.  Congress has passed laws which are racist (e.g. Davis-Bacon)
and any number of other things.  Until we (We, the People, that is) are
willing to ask them to account for what they do, we cannot expect a change.


BTW, how does this discussion relate to technical writing?

>David (The Man) Blyth (dsb -at- thomsoft -dot- com)
>Technical Writer
>Thomson Software Products

--john                              -----------------

-------------------------------------
Name: John McDermott
E-mail: jjm -at- jkintl -dot- com (John McDermott)
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