The Crisis of the Day - States' Sovreignty upheld by the Supreme Court

 The Crisis of the Day

This Item was posted on the Sheriff Mack.com website prior to December 2, 2013. (I’ve made spacing adjustments and added italics.)
Sheriff Mack quotes Justice Scalia of the Supreme Court as he teaches about states rights and limited federal power. Sheriff Mack also opens a window to the use of disasters and crises to strip our freedoms.
Consider this a warning, and remember: to be warned is to be forearmed!

 When I sued the Clinton administration in 1994, I never imagined that Justice Scalia - the author of the ruling for the majority - would be so profound and powerful with his defense of the Tenth Amendment. Not only did Scalia say that the "States are not subject to federal direction" and that the US Congress only had "discreet and enumerated powers" and that federal impotency was "rendered express" by the Tenth Amendment, he also proclaimed that the States "retained an inviolable sovereignty."

You would think that these statements alone would be monumental enough and would provide sufficient ammunition for all state and local officials to stand against any governmental tyranny without any hesitation. Nevertheless, Scalia went even further in this landmark decision, one in which two small-town sheriffs headed the Feds "off at the pass" and sent them on their way. Scalia, in his infinite obligation to the Constitution, took this entire ruling to the tenth power when he said, "The Constitution protects us from our own best intentions...so that we may resist the temptation to concentrate power in one location as an expedient solution to the crisis of the day."
The "crisis of the day?" Was Scalia clairvoyant? He rendered this opinion in June of 1997. Now we are dealing with the Obama administration and others (Rham Emanuel) whose mantra is "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

Horrible examples of "crisis intervention" were seen during the aftermath of a bombing in Boston, a hurricane in New Orleans and a shooting in Connecticut. We see them whenever any other "emergency" arises. The police and Federal agents grant themselves power to suspend the Constitution, suspend American ideals and principles, and suspend their oaths of office to "make us all safer." The police in Boston went door to door drawing down on numerous citizens inside their own homes! During the chaos after Katrina ravaged New Orleans the police went door to door confiscating guns from law abiding citizens. After the Sandy Hook shootings legislators in Washington, Colorado, New York and Connecticut all tripped over themselves to create schemes of gun control laws aimed again at law abiding citizens!

It's during crises that the Constitution is really put to the test. It's then that those who have sworn to protect and defend it are given a chance to show their true character and dedication to principles of American liberty. If all that is needed is a "crisis" or "emergency" to justify the destruction of our Constitution and the individual liberties of our citizens, then our enemies need only to create "crises" and "emergencies." The result is a tremendous blow to freedom and the destruction of our Constitution, and thus the foundation of America.

I pray that our nation's sheriffs and police will stand and be counted regardless of the pressures and temptations to violate our oaths as an "expedient solution to the crisis of the day." Crises will happen and emergencies will come and go, but precious liberty, once lost, will be next to impossible to regain.

Sheriff Richard Mack (Ret)