The United States Constitution was created with the specific intent of limiting the power of the new Federal government to those things that could only be done competently at that level of government, such national defense. But, over time the power grabbers in Washington D.C have eroded the Constitution into irrelevance. The first and primary power grab tactic has been the use of Constitution case law. This is accomplished by passing an unconstitutional law, and then having it affirmed by corrupt judges who hate the Constitution as much as the politicians who made the new law. Once it has been affirmed by a court, or even left in place for a time without court affirmation, it becomes precedent, and will be used to turn further unconstitutional and/or illegal behavior into a never ending train of tyrannies.
The case law method of undermining restrictions on power are difficult, and do require a process. However, those is power now have a fashionable way of overcoming such restrictions, and it could be more devastating to freedom than the case law method. Executive orders are the soup du jour of power grabbers. Such orders have been used by probably every President from the very beginning, and the President should have the authority to act in good faith on things that require an immediate response. However, the President does not have the authority to act on things that require legislation or input from the people’s representatives.
While the use of executive orders has run amok in Washington D.C., guess who has been watching? Yes, that’s right, the State’s governors. They have seen the precedent set by our Presidents, and said, why can’t we abuse our powers the same way? And now they have been running roughshod over their citizens with unconstitutional Wu flu rules, and overriding their Legislatures as in this last election in which some governors illegally changed voting laws. The illegal and unconstitutional use of executive orders has changed Presidents and Governors from a cog of the Constitutionally mandated legislative process, into little dictators. Freedom cannot stand when any corrupt politician is allowed to abuse powers by this or any other means. The American people not only need to continue to make their voices heard loud and clear in resistance to these tyrannies, as they have with the Wu Flu dictates, but must be louder and clearer against any illegal dictates.