Federal Forfeiture Laws and the Constitution

This article was inspired by an article posted at http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/11/08/do-federal-forfeiture-laws-violate-tenth-amendment/.  If you’ve never read anything on the Tenth Amendment Centers website, I strongly suggest you check it out.  They have some great articles there, and you’ll learn a lot about one of the most abused articles of the Bill of Rights.  States rights are trampled left and right, so learn about it and recognize when it’s happening.

Here’s the basics.  There’s a man who owns a hotel.  He owns it outright, no outstanding liens, debts, mortgages, etc. are attached.  The property is in a small town, and valued at roughly $1,000,000.  The man is charged with no crime.  Why, then, are the Feds trying to seize his property?

Well, they claim that they have the right to take this property because it has been used for criminal activity.  Not by the owner, mind you, but by guests of the hotel.  I can’ t think of any way an owner could prevent guests from selling drugs in their hotel rooms without violating the privacy laws that are on the books, but apparently if you don’t prevent these things from happening, you may stand to lose your property.

The owner of this little hotel is fighting back, basis his argument on the tenth amendment.  He and his lawyers are alleging that the Federal Government, by enticing local law enforcement to cooperate with them in property seizure cases (which is likely how this property came to the attention of the Feds in the first place) is usurping the rights of the state government to run their own property seizure program.  An interesting defense.  To be perfectly honest, if we’re going to take a defense on Constitutional grounds, I’d like to know where in the Constitution it authorizes the Federal Government to seize property for people who break the law.  While we’re at it, perhaps they can show us the article where it says the Federal Government has the authority to make it illegal for people to smoke, snort, shoot, drink, whatever their drug of choice. 

Big fat hint.  Neither of those things are within the scope of the Federal Government, as defined by the Constitution.  These, and countless other things that are “managed” by the Feds on a regular basis are, in fact, 100% illegal.  What’s more, they know it.

The worst part?  The States and the Citizens of this nation are either too afraid or too ignorant to do anything about it.

Dollars and Cents doesn’t make sense

Ever stopped to consider how much money was wasted in the process of making money?  I know that sounds a little strange, but I’m sure most people have heard the little anecdotes about how it costs more to make a penny than it’s worth, etc., etc., etc.  Have you ever stopped to seriously consider that, or look up the actual numbers?

Well, if you haven’t and you’re interested, I just happened to take a few moments to look them up today.  This information is from http://news.coinupdate.com/cost-to-make-penny-nickel-0619/ and is comprised of data sent direct from the US Mint.  Quick tip, Seigniorage is the difference in cost of manufacturing the coin (cost of the process + cost of the raw materials used) from the actual value of the minted coin. So a negative number is a loss.

Historical Cost of Producing and Distributing the Penny

Fiscal Year        US Mint Cost        Seigniorage

2010                        0.0179                        -$ 27,400,000

2009                        0.0162                        -$ 19,800,000

2008                        0.0142                        -$ 22,200,000

2007                        0.0167                        -$ 40,100,000

2006                        0.0121                        -$ 18,300,000

2005                        0.0097                         $ 2,000,000

2004                        0.0093                         $ 4,600,000

2003                        0.0098                         $ 1,000,000

2002                        0.0089                         $ 8,800,000

2001                        0.0080                         $ 24,600,000

Historical Cost of Producing and Distributing the Nickel

Fiscal Year        US Mint Cost        Seigniorage
2010                        0.0922                        -$ 15,200,000

2009                        0.0603                        -$ 2,200,000

2008                        0.0883                        -$ 24,800,000

2007                        0.0953                        -$ 58,500,000

2006                        0.0597                        -$ 14,600,000

2005                        0.0484                         $ 2,400,000

2004                        0.0456                         $ 6,100,000

2003                        0.0378                         $ 8,900,000

2002                        0.0332                         $ 21,900,000

2001                        0.0331                         $ 28,200,000

Looking at the numbers, it’s very plain that in the last decade, it has gotten exponentially more expensive to mint coins in such small denominations.  Compared to the quarter, which costs only $0.10 to make, and the dime, small as it is, that costs roughly $0.04.  Anyone with a brain stem that’s partially functional can see this is a huge waste of money, but nobody seems to think twice.  Of course, we need these coins, right?

Wrong.  Why do we need pennies or nickels either one?  The only reason we need them now is because all of our prices are printed in 1/100 of a dollar (that’s a penny, for all you non-math wizards out there).  Why don’t we cut the BS, and save some money here.  Stop making pennies, nickels, quarters and dollar bills.  Dimes would be our new smallest coin.  So all prices would be $1.9 instead of $1.89 or $1.99.  Most things you buy would go up a penny, or possibly a nickel, to account for the new rounding.  Big deal.  So would your paycheck.  So we would have dimes for the small change, then fifty cent pieces, followed by dollar coins, and maybe even a two dollar coin like Canada is so fond of.  If not a two dollar coin, then maybe we’d add something between the dime and fifty cent piece.  Like a thirty cent coin.  We could even kill off the five dollar bill and replace that with a coin. 

Why get rid of quarters and dollar bills?  Well, for one, quarters are worth 25 cents, and if we’re going to rounding to tents, that extra five cents would get in the way.  for dollar bills, I’d kill them off because they have to be replaced about 100 times for every time a dollar coin needs to be replaced.  Same reasoning for the five dollar bill, if we wanted to do that.

The end result would be a US Mint that actually produced money for less than face value of the money, saving millions of dollars a year in production and replacement costs for our dollars and cents, and that just makes sense.

The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Thomas Jefferson.  Even the intentional dumbing down of educational standards in public schools can’t have taken away every historical fact.  I’m sure most of you are even aware that he wrote a few things, specifically large parts of the Declaration of Independence.  He was also the third President of the United States, and served as VP to John Adams, our second President.

Now I know some of you are lost already, but stick with me and you’ll likely learn something.  The ones who aren’t lost yet, congrats.  You’re the head of the class for sure.  Thomas Jefferson was a lawyer, a statesman, and beyond all else, a deep thinker who was concerned with liberty.  He authored many different papers mostly focusing on differing aspects of the law of our newly formed land. 

One such document, which he started working on when he was Vice President, was The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.  If you’re so inclined, you can read the summary version on Wikipedia.  He was inspired to write this after Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.  This was because he strongly disagreed with Congress thinking they had the power to deport any alien who was not yet a citizen based on the Feds believing they were “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States”.  Rightly so, Jefferson was worried that this could lead to a dangerous abuse of power, and take away individual liberties that were supposed to have been secured by the Constitution.

In a nutshell, The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 proclaim states rights over federal rights, which allows states the ability nullify a federal law, or refuse to enforce it.  The Constitution of the United States is a document that specifically sets forth to limit the powers of the United States Government.  This is by design.  However, the only mechanism set forth in the Constitution to decide on those issues is the Supreme Court.  Enter Thomas Jefferson.

According the the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, it is up to the States, both individually and collectively, to police the actions of the Federal Government.  The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 put to law that states had the right to declare a federal law unconstitutional, allowing states to help police the federal power-grabs.  In 1799, there was another Resolution adopted that clarified in such an even, the proper resolution was nullification by the collective states.  Although we’ve never actually seen nullification take place in such a manner, the states can, with 2/3 majority, call a constitutional convention, where they can propose amendments, void other amendments, etc.  The states have a great deal of power, in this and other way, that they rarely or never exercise. 

At the same time that Thomas Jefferson was drafting his Kentucky Resolutions, James Madison was drafting a very similar set of Resolutions for Virginia.  These documents are but a small example of a great deal of history that points to the States having all the power, and the Federal government being beholden to the decisions made at the state level.  Although, the Feds would never admit that, and certainly don’t act like it.  Perhaps it’s time for the States to rise up and gather the reigns to themselves once again, and let the corruption in DC be put on notice.

Military Detainee Regulations

If you haven’t been paying attention recently, there’s a bill being debated in the Senate right now that has some rather far reaching impacts.  By right now, I mean it’s 8pm in DC as I’m typing this, and the Senate is in session discussing this bill.

It’s really a rather simple bill.  It is an authorization for our military.  What this bill would authorize is absolutely terrifying, though.  If you take a casual glance at the bill, and don’t pay attention to the specific wording, you’ll think it’s not problem.  It authorizes the military to detain terrorists indefinitely.  Where’s the problem in that?  They should be detaining any they catch, and they can keep them as long as they want.

What you missed by not paying close enough attention to the wording of this bill is that it actually authorizes US Military forces to detain indefinitely any person suspected of working with or supporting the Taliban or Al Qaeda, regardless of citizenship or location.  So, US citizens, who are protected from such things by the constitution, and specifically cannot be detained without due process, could now be detained without ANY process by any military official who believes they are in any way working or supporting terrorism.  Even better, it won’t matter if you’re in the US, or any other country.  If our military can get to you, you can be detained.  Indefinitely.  With no charges filed, and no trial. 

If you’re still fuzzy on where the problem lies, I’ll lay it all out for you.  There is no burden of proof, so it doesn’t matter if this happens to someone who is actually supporting terror, or if it’s just someone who happens to have pissed off the wrong person.  This bill gives unfettered power to the Executive Branch of the US Government, and the military, to take ANY PERSON into custody ANY WHERE in or out of this nation for ANY REASON or for no reason.

Now, the debate currently under way in the Senate is not on whether this bill should be enacted, but is specifically regarding the wording of such bill.  I, and others like me, are hoping that the folks who think liberty is important will prevail in this argument and force there to be some due process.  Obviously, if someone is shooting at our armed forces, all bets are off, return fire.  However, I don’t want to live in a nation where they can send troops to your home any time they like to take you away for as long as they’d like without having to answer to anyone about why, where, or for how long.  That’s not liberty, that’s despotism, with unlimited government and extremely limited personal freedoms.  Iraq in the 90’s had a very similar government.  Not my cup of tea.

Strangely enough, I finally have something that I agree with the Occutards on.  This bill is pure evil, police state, martial law crap, and should absolutely be killed, at least in it’s present form.  I’m all for fighting terror, but do not take away freedom, liberty, individualism, hope, and life to do so.  I fear my government by far more than I fear any member of the Taliban, and they have done far more to harm me and mine than any group of terrorists ever could.

I suggest you keep a close eye on Senate Bill 1867.  Information can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.1867:.

To read more about this bill from people of greatly varying perspectives from mine, click a few links below.

http://www.naturalnews.com/034291_SB_1867_war_on_terror.html

http://libertynews.com/2011/11/30/senate-bill-1867-will-seal-the-fate-of-our-country/

And yes, even an Occutard post.  I can’t believe there’s something happening in this nation that leaves me agreeing 100% with this group of nit-wits. 

http://occupywallst.org/forum/sb-1867-worldwide-indefinite-detention-and-the-sen/