Don ClineU.S. Senate, defined by Art. I Sec. 3, no longer existsMon Jun 23 01:51:36 2003208.152.73.164 The U.S. Senate, defined by Art. I Sec. 3, no longer exists Don Cline ( frdmftr@cox.net ) http://www.friendsofliberty.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1040 June 8, 2003It has been a very long time since I have discussed this issue, but it came up recently in a debate on another list and I thought it about time people were made aware of it again. One of the biggest hindrances of our movement to restore constitutional government and the nation of liberty our founding fathers bequeathed to us has been the well-meaning people out there -- patriots, if you will, every one of them -- who, being honest and having a modicum of integrity, can't understand how our nation could possibly have become as -- well, feudal is a word that comes to mind. Being honest, they can't conceive of how evil works. They naturally assume that either someone secretly did it to us "legally", or we waived our rights inadvertently, by accepting this or that privilege or license or whatever from government. Examples often given are drivers' licenses, social security numbers, our willing use of fiat currency, our willingness to sign our financial privacy over to a bank or other third party institution. Sometimes the claim is advanced that Congress did it to us by passing some law 'way back when placing us under War Powers, or capitalizing this word or making that word lower case -- eventually I expect to hear someone claim the so-called "Shadow Government" held a Black Witch and Warlock Convention in a secret room under some sacred mountain somewhere and drew a pentagram on the floor and called forth various demons to give them powers over us... As a general rule of logic, the simplest answer is usually the correct answer. The simplest answer, and I believe the most correct answer, is that they didn't do it to us legally because they don't have any subject matter jurisdiction or authority to do it to us legally regardless of their mumbo-jumbo, and we aren't going to correct the situation by finding a legal argument that acts like a magic bullet and sets everything right again. But there is a situation, a flatly illegal situation, that the government pulled on us some ninety years ago, that -- again, illegally -- converted us from a Constitutional Republic in which the people were sovereign over the States and the States were sovereign over the U.S. Government, and in which the purpose of law was to protect the rights of the people and the States, to a federal republic not significantly different than any other nation on the planet and in which the purpose of law has been subverted to empower government over the people instead of protecting the people from government. The United States Constitution was an agreement, a compact if you will, a declaration of the authority of the people, through their delegates comprising the State governments, to create a limited national government for the nation as a whole. You have doubtless heard of the "tripartite" nature of government authority, i.e., the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, and the value of the checks and balances this system employs (or is supposed to employ). You may not have heard that the Constitution itself is "tripartite" in that the parties to it are the People, the States, and the U.S. Government. The People are to have representation in the House of Representatives (Art. I Sec. 2); the States -- as separate political entities from the people and usually with separate political interests -- are to have representation in the Senate (Art. I Sec. 3), and the House and the Senate are the component parts of the Congress (Art. I Sec. 1), which has the exclusive authority to legislate U.S. law. The U.S. Senate, defined by Art. I Sec. 3, no longer exists. By definition, then, Congress, defined by Art. I Sec. 1, no longer exists. Accordingly, then, no legislative authority is delegated to the United States Government by the Constitution of the United States. Why? Because the 17th Amendment, purporting to authorize the choosing of U.S. Senators by the people of the States rather than by the States, was never ratified. Ratification of any amendment depriving the States of their suffrage in the Senate is expressly prohibited by Art. 5 unless every State consents. Utah and Delaware withheld their consent by voting to reject the proposed 17th Amendment; eight other States withheld their consent by taking no action at all on the proposed 17th Amendment. Therefore the 17th Amendment was not ratified, and we haven't lawfully sent a U.S. Senator to Congress since. No Senate means no Congress. No Congress means no legislation at the federal level. No Senate means no ratification of treaties, no ratification of judges, no ratification of cabinet level appointments. No ratification of judges means no legitimate federal court rulings and no members of the Executive Branch have been sworn in. A so-called "U.S. Government" that does not derive its lawful authority and its lawful due process from the Constitution of the United States is by definition an Occupation Government, and no one is bound by law to obey it. If we are bound to obey it at all, it is not by law: It is only by the authority that emanates from the muzzles of government guns. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have endured a despotic, totalitarian occupation government for about ninety years now, and we will never overthrow it in any court. But there is a bright side: All it takes to correct this situation is for one State to tell the federal government to go stuff their funds and their unfunded mandates where the sun don't shine, and choose its Senators as required by the U.S. Constitution -- choose them by the State, not by the people. If those properly chosen U.S. Senators are prohibited by the federal government from taking their seats in the U.S. Senate, then that State has been excluded from the Union of the several States comprising the United States of America. In other words, that State wouldn't even have to secede. --------------------------------------- The Failure of the 17th Amendment ... Constitution: The Failure of the Seventeenth Amendment C. H. Hoebeke* [From HUMANITAS, Volume ... 31 May 1913, declaring the Seventeenth Amendment duly ratified and incorporated into the ... elected. As we shall see, even while the amendment was still being considered by the American ... http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/17.htm - 51 KB Repeal 17th Amendment ... Constitution. Repeal 17th Amendment At the present time, there ... Since the passing of the 17th Amendment in 1913, the Federal Government ... and People for the Repeal of the 17th Amendment Montana State University ... more hits from: http://www.articlev.com/repeal17.htm - 13 KB CNN.com - FindLaw Forum: Should the 17th Amendment be repealed? - September 17, 2002 ... FindLaw Forum: Should the 17th Amendment be repealed By John ... the Constitution by adopting the 17th Amendment. The amendment calls ... from 1789 until 1913, when the 17th amendment was adopted. As originally designed ... more hits from: http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/09/17/.../index.html - 39 KB Bill SJ10 to Repeal 17th Amendment ... Bill SJ10 to Repeal 17th Amendment ... state resolution to repeal the 17th Amendment. Legislators from several ... amendment for the repeal of the 17th Amendment is published on our web site ... Description: Montana Bill SJ10 to Repeal the 17th Amendment. Tell the Montana Legislature to initiate an historic effort to return Washiington to the States more hits from: http://www.liberty-ca.org/repeal17/.../montana_contacts.htm - 15 KB U.S. Constitution - Amendment XVII Amendment XVII The Senate of the United States ... the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect ... Next Amendment--Previous Amendment Table of Articles ... http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxvii.html - 1 KB Amendment XVII ... search U.S. Constitution Amendment XVII The Senate of the United States ... as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect ... Ratified April 8, 1913. See Table of Amendments. © 2002 Online Highways TM About ... http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h772.html - 3 KB SSC - TEKS and TAKS - TEKS Glossary - Amendment ... Glossary Amendment A ... 17th Amendments ... 17th Amendment ... http://socialstudies.tea.state.tx.us/teks_and_taas/.../glossamendment.htm - 46 KB The Volokh Conspiracy ... STUFF FROM US: Sources on the Second Amendment Testimony on the Second Amendment Shards: Poems from the War OTHERS ... tailor termination rights and provide for easy amendment of contractual terms. In short, contract ... more hits from: http://volokh.blogspot.com/2002_09_22_volokh_archive.html - 107 KBRepeal the 17th Amendment, by John MacMullin... 2002 BICENTENNIAL! Repeal the 17th Amendment by John MacMullin john.macmullin ... preemption lies in the passage of the 17th Amendment which abrogated the state legislatures ... best achieved by repealing the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution ...Description: The Libertarian Enterprise electronic magazine, Issue 200, November 25, 2002 - Repeal the 17th Amendment, by John MacMullin http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/libe200-20021125-10.html - 12 KB
It has been a very long time since I have discussed this issue, but it came up recently in a debate on another list and I thought it about time people were made aware of it again. One of the biggest hindrances of our movement to restore constitutional government and the nation of liberty our founding fathers bequeathed to us has been the well-meaning people out there -- patriots, if you will, every one of them -- who, being honest and having a modicum of integrity, can't understand how our nation could possibly have become as -- well, feudal is a word that comes to mind. Being honest, they can't conceive of how evil works. They naturally assume that either someone secretly did it to us "legally", or we waived our rights inadvertently, by accepting this or that privilege or license or whatever from government. Examples often given are drivers' licenses, social security numbers, our willing use of fiat currency, our willingness to sign our financial privacy over to a bank or other third party institution. Sometimes the claim is advanced that Congress did it to us by passing some law 'way back when placing us under War Powers, or capitalizing this word or making that word lower case -- eventually I expect to hear someone claim the so-called "Shadow Government" held a Black Witch and Warlock Convention in a secret room under some sacred mountain somewhere and drew a pentagram on the floor and called forth various demons to give them powers over us... As a general rule of logic, the simplest answer is usually the correct answer. The simplest answer, and I believe the most correct answer, is that they didn't do it to us legally because they don't have any subject matter jurisdiction or authority to do it to us legally regardless of their mumbo-jumbo, and we aren't going to correct the situation by finding a legal argument that acts like a magic bullet and sets everything right again. But there is a situation, a flatly illegal situation, that the government pulled on us some ninety years ago, that -- again, illegally -- converted us from a Constitutional Republic in which the people were sovereign over the States and the States were sovereign over the U.S. Government, and in which the purpose of law was to protect the rights of the people and the States, to a federal republic not significantly different than any other nation on the planet and in which the purpose of law has been subverted to empower government over the people instead of protecting the people from government. The United States Constitution was an agreement, a compact if you will, a declaration of the authority of the people, through their delegates comprising the State governments, to create a limited national government for the nation as a whole. You have doubtless heard of the "tripartite" nature of government authority, i.e., the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, and the value of the checks and balances this system employs (or is supposed to employ). You may not have heard that the Constitution itself is "tripartite" in that the parties to it are the People, the States, and the U.S. Government. The People are to have representation in the House of Representatives (Art. I Sec. 2); the States -- as separate political entities from the people and usually with separate political interests -- are to have representation in the Senate (Art. I Sec. 3), and the House and the Senate are the component parts of the Congress (Art. I Sec. 1), which has the exclusive authority to legislate U.S. law. The U.S. Senate, defined by Art. I Sec. 3, no longer exists. By definition, then, Congress, defined by Art. I Sec. 1, no longer exists. Accordingly, then, no legislative authority is delegated to the United States Government by the Constitution of the United States. Why? Because the 17th Amendment, purporting to authorize the choosing of U.S. Senators by the people of the States rather than by the States, was never ratified. Ratification of any amendment depriving the States of their suffrage in the Senate is expressly prohibited by Art. 5 unless every State consents. Utah and Delaware withheld their consent by voting to reject the proposed 17th Amendment; eight other States withheld their consent by taking no action at all on the proposed 17th Amendment. Therefore the 17th Amendment was not ratified, and we haven't lawfully sent a U.S. Senator to Congress since. No Senate means no Congress. No Congress means no legislation at the federal level. No Senate means no ratification of treaties, no ratification of judges, no ratification of cabinet level appointments. No ratification of judges means no legitimate federal court rulings and no members of the Executive Branch have been sworn in. A so-called "U.S. Government" that does not derive its lawful authority and its lawful due process from the Constitution of the United States is by definition an Occupation Government, and no one is bound by law to obey it. If we are bound to obey it at all, it is not by law: It is only by the authority that emanates from the muzzles of government guns. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have endured a despotic, totalitarian occupation government for about ninety years now, and we will never overthrow it in any court. But there is a bright side: All it takes to correct this situation is for one State to tell the federal government to go stuff their funds and their unfunded mandates where the sun don't shine, and choose its Senators as required by the U.S. Constitution -- choose them by the State, not by the people. If those properly chosen U.S. Senators are prohibited by the federal government from taking their seats in the U.S. Senate, then that State has been excluded from the Union of the several States comprising the United States of America. In other words, that State wouldn't even have to secede. --------------------------------------- The Failure of the 17th Amendment ... Constitution: The Failure of the Seventeenth Amendment C. H. Hoebeke* [From HUMANITAS, Volume ... 31 May 1913, declaring the Seventeenth Amendment duly ratified and incorporated into the ... elected. As we shall see, even while the amendment was still being considered by the American ... http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/17.htm - 51 KB Repeal 17th Amendment ... Constitution. Repeal 17th Amendment At the present time, there ... Since the passing of the 17th Amendment in 1913, the Federal Government ... and People for the Repeal of the 17th Amendment Montana State University ... more hits from: http://www.articlev.com/repeal17.htm - 13 KB CNN.com - FindLaw Forum: Should the 17th Amendment be repealed? - September 17, 2002 ... FindLaw Forum: Should the 17th Amendment be repealed By John ... the Constitution by adopting the 17th Amendment. The amendment calls ... from 1789 until 1913, when the 17th amendment was adopted. As originally designed ... more hits from: http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/09/17/.../index.html - 39 KB Bill SJ10 to Repeal 17th Amendment ... Bill SJ10 to Repeal 17th Amendment ... state resolution to repeal the 17th Amendment. Legislators from several ... amendment for the repeal of the 17th Amendment is published on our web site ... Description: Montana Bill SJ10 to Repeal the 17th Amendment. Tell the Montana Legislature to initiate an historic effort to return Washiington to the States more hits from: http://www.liberty-ca.org/repeal17/.../montana_contacts.htm - 15 KB U.S. Constitution - Amendment XVII Amendment XVII The Senate of the United States ... the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect ... Next Amendment--Previous Amendment Table of Articles ... http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxvii.html - 1 KB Amendment XVII ... search U.S. Constitution Amendment XVII The Senate of the United States ... as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect ... Ratified April 8, 1913. See Table of Amendments. © 2002 Online Highways TM About ... http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h772.html - 3 KB SSC - TEKS and TAKS - TEKS Glossary - Amendment ... Glossary Amendment A ... 17th Amendments ... 17th Amendment ... http://socialstudies.tea.state.tx.us/teks_and_taas/.../glossamendment.htm - 46 KB The Volokh Conspiracy ... STUFF FROM US: Sources on the Second Amendment Testimony on the Second Amendment Shards: Poems from the War OTHERS ... tailor termination rights and provide for easy amendment of contractual terms. In short, contract ... more hits from: http://volokh.blogspot.com/2002_09_22_volokh_archive.html - 107 KBRepeal the 17th Amendment, by John MacMullin... 2002 BICENTENNIAL! Repeal the 17th Amendment by John MacMullin john.macmullin ... preemption lies in the passage of the 17th Amendment which abrogated the state legislatures ... best achieved by repealing the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution ...Description: The Libertarian Enterprise electronic magazine, Issue 200, November 25, 2002 - Repeal the 17th Amendment, by John MacMullin http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/libe200-20021125-10.html - 12 KB
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