Written By : Warner Todd Huston

Sometimes standing up for the Constitution seems a bit annoying, especially in the case of violent felon Mrs. Carol Bond. Fortunately, standing for the Constitution here doesn’t necessarily release a horrible woman into freedom, but it does help to spotlight some unconstitutional federal overreach. In this case, it also centers on the Tenth Amendment, or the reserved powers clause.

The violent felon in question, Mrs. Bond, was found guilty of using various chemicals to perpetrate an acid attack on her husband’s girlfriend. She was convicted of mixing several noxious chemicals and throwing them on her rival causing minor burns. Instead of just charging her on state charges of assault and battery or other such things, the federal government decided to step in and prosecute her for violating a treaty governing chemicals signed with foreign governments.

Mrs. Bond’s lawyers have brought this case before the Supreme Court of the United States claiming that due to the Tenth Amendment she cannot be tried for violating foreign treaties because the incident happened inside the borders of an American state and, therefore, her home state has jurisdiction and the federal government does not.

Whether one is comfortable siding with a woman who would throw acid on her husband’s mistress or not, the woman’s legal team is right. If the federal government can begin to cruise through the states trying and convicting people based on foreign treaties we would necessarily be eliminating all rights of the states to prosecute domestic criminals.

Phyllis Schlafly had a commentary on this on the 22nd that is interesting to hear. Schlafly sums up the case as that of federal overreach.

The federal law applied against Mrs. Bond is based on an arms-control treaty never intended to justify prosecution for the misuse of chemicals in a domestic dispute. Since the Supreme Court took this case, it creates the possibility of strengthening the limits on federal power.

The Tenth Amendment, of course, has to do with delineating what powers are reserved to the federal government and what is in the sphere of the states.

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.

The Tenth specifically relegates only those powers actually mentioned in the Constitution as those allotted to the federal government and has increasingly been cited by states decrying illicit federal powergrabs. The Tenth has formed as the chief basis for repealing Obamacare.

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