Timothy N. Baldwin, JD.
March 19, 2010
U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) introduced a bill which would require all persons in the United States (“U.S.”) seeking to be employed to obtain a government-issued biometric National Identification card. Not so surprisingly, this measure has come in the name of “protecting America” against illegal immigrants working in the U.S. unlawfully. Thus, “[t]o ensure that only people legally in the U.S. can work here, the bill will propose a biometric I.D. for EVERY AMERICAN before anybody can get a job.” This is yet another method by which the federal government continually institutes practices and principles contrary to what a Free Confederated Republic should be and contrary to principles of limited government, self-government, natural rights, and true constitutional intent and meaning. Judge Andrew Napolitano rightfully calls this legislation a “monstrosity” and predicts that this bill will not pass. Perhaps Judge Napolitano is correct, but we should consider what the people of the U.S. once rejected but now embrace.
The New Deal
After Abraham Lincoln set the stage for federal government forceful takeover of the people and states’ rights, power and jurisdiction, Franklin D. Roosevelt capitalized on the people’s economic straits in the 1930s by introducing “The New Deal,” which in part socialized the economic, commercial and industrial fabric of the United States. Federal government control, regulation and power: that was the name of the game and still is.
From this era of federal government expansion and encroachment, we see U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), ruling that Congress has the power to regulate the most local of activities, such as an individual, non-commercial farmer’s production of crops for private use, and has the power to penalize and punish any violation of the same.
Prior to 1930, it would have been inconceivable that the people of the states and the state governments themselves would have consented to such a violation of the constitution and such an open encroachment into the lives of individuals, families, businesses and states. Yet, as soon as the circumstance presented itself, the New Deal was substantially adopted and accepted into society and government (or at least by the politicians). We are living with its effect today, almost 100 years later.
The Great Society
Continuing its managerial presence over individuals, families, businesses and states, the federal government expanded its power and usurpations into their lives and into their retained powers by creating, among other things, governmental welfare programs in the 1960s for those who “needed” help. This was a “War on Poverty!”
This era federal government expansion not only instituted socialistic and communistic principles and philosophy, taking from the “haves” and giving to the “have-nots,” but also created an unlawful entanglement of the federal government into the state and local public education system. Both of these matters were traditionally and largely held to be purely local matters, and would have never been deemed a legitimate federal power.
Have these federal government programs been terminated? Not hardly. Instead, they have been expanded and increased with fervor, intensity and passion. In contrast, there was a time in the U.S. when this political philosophy and these federal programs would have been rejected immediately and without discussion. Yet, we are living with their effect today.
One of the fundamental principles that shaped American and English jurisprudence for hundreds of years was the necessary protection of life, including the unborn life. Most (and I dare say, all) of the states in the union criminally or civilly punished the willful abortion of an unborn baby by the mother, or anyone else for that matter. If a congressman were to introduce a bill making it illegal for the states to make such restrictions against abortion, that congressman would have been told to take a long hike off a short bridge.
Yet, since 1973, over 1 million babies have consistently been aborted every year in the U.S., and when someone attempts to question the constitutionality or even the morality of the act of abortion, most federal politicians shirk their shoulders and say, “Well, it’s the supreme law of the land,” because the U.S. Supreme Court has determined it to be so. (How ignorant, disgusting and cowardly are these people!) And the ones who say they are opposed to it do very little (if not nothing) to encourage the states to resist this draconian federal usurpation. Supposedly, our only hope is in Washington, D.C., forty years afterwards. The contrast is blaring.
National Health Care
Today, the federal government is continuing to travel down the road of socialism and communism, contrary to every principle of truth held sacred by our founding generations, by their forefathers before them and by generations following them. This time, the federal government takes the matter of healthcare and determines that, first, they actually have the constitutional authority to regulate this matter; and that, second, they are going to do the U.S. a favor by creating yet another federal bureaucracy to regulate the healthcare profession and industry.
While there may be opposition to the healthcare proposals, most of them are not based upon the constitutionality of the bill, but on the pragmatism of it. The opposition is really not based upon principles of constitutional correctness or principles of freedom, but based upon the circumstances and mentality of the people in their district or other political expediencies--a purely democratic standpoint, not a republic standpoint. However, there undoubtedly will come a time in these states where the (vast?) majority of people will find it pragmatic for the federal government to regulate healthcare, just as the people did during the administration of F. D. R. and following.
Would the people in 1776 have agreed to such a federal power? What about 1787? What about 1830? What about 1860? What about 1913? In truth, the people of the U.S. have become so dis-informed, mis-informed and frankly put, ignorant on the proper limitations and constitutional ambits of the federal government. The results are obvious and apparent.
While Judge Napolitano believes that this National ID bill will not pass, our own history proves that the people of the U.S. will eventually accept this type of federal government expansion and intrusion, especially if the people continue in their ignorance as they have since the early 1900s. This begs the question: what are freedom-loving people going to do when the federal government does in fact (or at the least, attempts to) takeover our rights, powers and jurisdictions over ourselves, our families and our states?
Allow me to answer by making a dogmatic statement, without going into the supporting details and arguments at this time:
The STATES in the union must choose to live in freedom by resisting the federal government’s unnatural and unlawful actions or choose to live in submission to slavery by giving up their rightful powers and jurisdictions and by allowing the federal government to run rough-shod over the supposed constitutionally-secured liberties and freedom of the people within their borders.
Please do not misunderstand me. By resisting, I do not mean helping to get a Republic elected into a federal position. I do not mean simply sending out some email to their constituents to inform them of their position on the matter. I do not mean, encouraging people to “go out and vote.” I do not mean sending a letter of correspondence form a state house representative to the U.S. President.
By resisting, I mean the state representatives passing laws, the governor entering orders and the courts rendering judgments, preventing the federal government from attempting to tax their people for that federal power and from implementing their procedures upon the people of that state. I mean actually and physically resisting the federal government from occupying the state’s territory to execute those unlawful actions. I mean publically calling to its defense the other states in the union who stand firm upon the same fundamental principles of self-government, federalism, constitutional government and freedom to resist these ghastly attempts to reduce the people to despotism. I mean county sheriff’s arresting federal agents who are attempting to execute and enforce unlawful and unconstitutional procedures and laws upon the citizens of their counties. I mean actively and meaningfully using the sovereign powers retained under the tenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution and under the Laws of Nations.
If you think that the federal government is going to be stopped by voting into office the next batch of corruptors and encroachers, you are dead wrong. This belief has been proven fruitless at least since the early 1900s. The fact that people in the U.S. still believe that this method is the only effectual and available method of preserving freedom confounds me.
For societal and political freedom to exist in the states of America, the people within their individual bodies-politics (i.e. states) must re-study, re-learn, re-calculate and re-apply the formulas and maxims of truth from the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God, just as our forefathers did, to secure these God-given rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
We can no longer look to the decayed system currently propagated to secure freedom or even to reclaim freedom. We can no longer wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to come to our rescue. We can no longer wait for a “conservative” President to be elected to restore freedom and to change over 100 years of federal usurpations. Can we even expect that three-fourths of the states in the union will insist on freedom’s principles? We certainly cannot hold onto the enslaving notion that “union equals freedom.” We can no longer hope for freedom by simply voting.
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The question is not a matter of how far will the federal government go. They have already crossed the line of good faith, virtue and decency. They have already rejected those principles of truth and worldview expressed by our European and American forefathers, which framed the constitutions in America to begin with. They have shamed the honorable sacrifices made by generations before us--made by the enlightenment of their minds, the purity of their hearts and the blood from their veins. We know where they are going. We see where they are. We know their philosophy and intent--their design to reduce us to despotism! So, the question is, who will resist them?
Go to www.libertydefenseleague.com for articles, speeches and interviews of Timothy Baldwin.
Laura Meckler, ID
Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan, The Wall Street
Journal, (March 8, 2010)
2- Roger Hedgecock, Graham Pushes National I.D. Card, Human Events, (March 12, 2010)
3- National Biometric Card Is An Invasion To Our Privacy Says Judge Andrew Napolitano, The Economy Collapse (March 12, 2010)
© 2010 Timothy N. Baldwin, JD - All Rights Reserved
Timothy Baldwin is an attorney from Pensacola, FL, who received his bachelor of arts degree at the University of West Florida and who graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, AL. After having received his Juris Doctorate degree from Cumberland School of Law, Baldwin became a Felony Prosecutor in the 1st District of Florida. In 2006, he started his own law practice, where he created specialized legal services entirely for property management companies.
Like his father, Chuck Baldwin, Timothy Baldwin is an astute writer of cutting-edge political articles, which he posts on his website, www.libertydefenseleague.com. Baldwin is also the author of the soon-to-be-released book entitled, Freedom For A Change, in which Baldwin expounds the fundamental principles of freedom believed by America’s forefathers and gives inspiring and intelligent application of those principles to our current political and cultural standing.
Baldwin is involved in important state sovereignty movement issues, including being co-counsel in the federal litigation in Montana involving the Firearms Freedom Act, the likes of which is undoubtedly a pivotal and essential ingredient to restoring freedom and federalism in the states of America. Baldwin is also a member of freedom organizations, such as The Oath-Keepers, and believes that the times require all freedom-loving Americans to educate, invigorate and activate the principles of freedom within the States of America for ourselves and our posterity.
Web site: LibertyDefenseLeague