The Preamble to our Constitution reads: We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, to ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Sequestration clearly violates most clauses of that Preamble, and is therefore unconstitutional!
Taking it one clause at a time: Sequestration interferes with the administration of justice, as our Attorney General has already pointed out; lack of funds has led to the release of some held in jail awaiting judicial review, and will undoubtedly hinder the functioning of our system of courts and prisons. Sequestration reduces the ability of our many police, fire, and emergency management departments, all of which receive substantial direct or indirect federal funds, to insure our domestic tranquility. Sequestration interferes with our common defense against enemies foreign and domestic, as our new Secretary of Defense has made clear by stating that our nation is now considerably less safe as a result of defense and military funding cutbacks. Sequestration damages the general welfare in a host of ways, ranging from cuts in desperately-needed unemployment benefits to reductions in child welfare, education, medical, and many other federal programs. Sequestration even reduces our liberty -- as that liberty requires fully-functioning governments at all levels; as it is often stated: Freedom Is Not Free!
And all of those violations relate primarily to just the Constitution's Preamble -- were one to go through our basic national document article by article, and amendment by amendment, the profound Constitutional violations caused by the present Sequestration would greatly compound. While nothing done by the recent Congresses is really surprising -- one reason our Congressional approval rating is under ten percent -- our President, once a professor of Constitutional Law, should surely know better. Of course, there is plenty of blame to place for this atrocious Sequestration -- the despicable actions of both the House and Senate, leaving their duties in Washington while there was still time to avert this calamity, stand out as a total abdication of their Congressional responsibilities. Still, why did our President sign the Sequestration legislation? His very Oath of Office -- as does the Oaths of all Members of Congress -- requires that the Constitution will be honored and enforced, to the very best of the ability of each Oath-taker.
1
1
1
