Some of you have probably noticed that I have added a new page to my website, the US constitution. I implore you to give it a long glance over. If you don’t read the constitution and get angry at the state of our country, then I must respectfully question your sanity.
I’ve decided to make a few notes on the so-called ‘necessary and proper’ clause found in Article I, Section 8 of the constitution, which states:
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into
Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this
Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or
Officer thereof.
This ‘necessary and proper’ clause only allows the congress to enact laws that are based on the powers granted to the federal government by the constitution, as shown by the emphasis. This means that congress cannot simply pass laws that are arguably ‘necessary and proper’; this clause actual defines what is ‘proper’, authorised by the constitution.
The tenth amendment further reinforces this:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people.
In other words, any federal law not authorised by the constitution is in violation of the constitution, making such law null and void in the United States.
