Showing once again that they are able to ignore the text of the Constitution at will in order to expand federal power:
Today the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law that allows indefinite civil commitment of federal prisoners who have completed their sentences but are deemed “sexually dangerous.” The Court, which in 1997 rejected a challenge to a similar Kansas law based on the Double Jeopardy, Due Process, and Ex Post Facto Clauses, did not deal with the usual constitutional objections in this case. Instead it addressed the question of whether the federal government, as opposed to the states, is authorized to detain people based on sex crimes they might commit in the future. The seven-justice majority concluded that it is, finding that civil commitment of “sexually dangerous” prisoners is a “necessary and proper” means of “carrying into execution” the federal government’s enumerated powers. Yet the majority opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer never identifies the powers that provide the authority for this law. The omission is telling, especially since all nine justices agree that the Necessary and Proper Clause does not give Congress any independent powers.
Instead of citing specific powers, Breyer says the civil commitment law is justified by whatever enumerated powers underlie the federal criminal statutes that sexually dangerous prisoners are convicted of violating.
via Pre-Crime Detention Based on Enumerated Yet Curiously Unspecified Powers – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine, via Les Jones.
The only Constitutionally-specified federal crimes are: counterfeiting, treason, piracies and felonies committed on the high seas or against the laws of nations. All other crimes and punishments are left to the states.
As Justice Clarence Thomas said in his dissent, “The Constitution does not vest in Congress the authority to protect society from every bad act that might befall it.”
We can only hope that a wise and prudent Executive will simply refuse to enforce any unconstitutional laws enacted by Congress or previous Executives.
As your Illegitimate President, I will be that Executive.
