FREE ESSAY ON LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

Ryan Francom
ENGL 2010
Portfolio 2: Proposal
Final Draft
Judiciary - Our last hope
Our flags have been raised from half-staff to full-staff since the terrorist attacks in
the New York area and most of us Americans seem to be increasingly aware of our
protecting freedoms. In 1787, our founding fathers created the greatest contract or
agreement for freedom ever known to mankind. My "Brief American Pageant" history book
lists two fundamental principles that directed them to the establishment of our
Constitution. These guidelines were that, "the only legitimate government was one based
on the consent of the governed and that the powers of the government should be limited"
(117). Our Constitution clearly states that the power rests first in the people, then the
states, and lastly, the United States. That's why the preamble begins "We the People."
But do we fully understand our rights, powers, or freedoms: furthermore, does each state
know theirs? To put it quite frankly, we've slowly turned over our powers to the Federal
Government and they have been deceitfully abusing the powers vested unto them without a
fight on our part?
Now, let me reassure you, my readers, that America is great. It's not so because a bunch
of people in Washington have told us what to do, but because people have been free to do
great things on their own. However, we are now faced with a perpetuating greedy
government that is extolling their power (that has been handed to them on a temporary
basis) to satisfy their own carnal desires. The more power they have, the less power the
people have. This is the exact same principle upon which our union was brought together
by. You see, the first thirteen colonies knew that if they gave up all their power and
didn't remain sovereign - that they would be completely ruled by a one-world government.
Utah's former State Secretary Joseph Stumph understood this principle and explained it
quite well in his book "The Constitution Hanging by a Thread." "Once the Union was
formed, many of the Founders and many of the ratifying State Conventions were still
skeptical about the potential for abuse of power by The Federal Government. That's why
they, therefore, shortly afterward, adopted the first ten Amendments, The Bill of Rights,
to doubly insure that all parties understood the Central Government was to be very
limited in the powers the states had given up for the sake of the union" (4). That's why
the Tenth Amendment reads as follows, "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." But the fact still remains, our Federal Government has
become way to powerful and we're at the verge of loosing the few powers that are still
ours. 
My fellow citizens, I'm now going to show you where, how, and why some of our systems are
faltering. To start out, I'm going to use a prime example of how our Executive branch has
in short, abused their powers. Most recently, former President Clinton and the Marc Rich
case. Here our two-termed honorable President pardoned his friend, colleague, and finance
contributor in his last days in office. BBC News, in their attempt to cover this top
story, says that, "Marc Rich, the multi-millionaire fled to Switzerland 17 years ago
while facing more than 50 charges of tax evasion and illegal oil trading" (Author
unknown). President Clinton signed his "John Doe" to release all charges against this
traitor of justice. Ironically, this wasn't the only one; he signed for 141 of these
types of pleas. "This has caught criticism from both the Republicans and Democrats on
Capitol Hill" (Author unknown). And it should. If this is not abusing power - I don't
know what is.
Next, our Legislative branches continually infringe upon some of the laws that they
themselves legislate. Take for instance, the 1992 banking scandal in the House of
Representatives. In a three-year period, 355 members of Congress wrote 20,000 bad checks,
according to the General Accounting Office. This was all tax payers money - our money.
There are lots of people serving time in jails in this country for the same thing that
some members of Congress did with their House checking accounts. Neither you, me, or
anyone else could get away with half of the acts that our Legislative department gets
away with on a regular basis. Listed below, are some of the laws our Congress has
violated over the past few years; special thanks to Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa for
documenting them. In his book, "The Way Things Ought To Be," Rush Limbaugh used this list
to show us Americans how our imperial Congress has abused their powers. They include, but
are not limited to: "The Social Security Act of 1935, The National Labor Relations Act of
1935, The Equal Pay Act of 1963, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Freedom of Information
Act of 1966, The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, The Privacy Act of 1974, and
The Ethics in Government Act of 1978" (98).
And again, we hear the endless debate concerning our Federal Reserve System (what
reserve?), the fraud in our Social Security, and the illegal legislation that is never
fully and properly passed through the correct channels. Our trustworthy Congress never
makes an end in lying to us about our Social Security Trust Fund. "They claim that it has
hundreds of billions of dollars in it, when in fact, the money is going into the General
Fund of the United States Treasury, which is broke and running huge deficits" (Stumph
30). I'm part of that "next generation" that is being robbed, according to law, to the
social security dollars that I have paid my dues to. When my time comes, and perhaps
yours to, there isn't going to be that monthly check in the mailbox. And if any
corporation did what Congress has done to Social Security, its officers would be serving
long terms in prison. 
Now don't get me wrong, not all of Congress is corrupt; but for the most part, it is.
We've got to give full credit and respect to the few brave congressmen that have long
fought for an independent audit of our Federal Reserve System. "Since the Fed's
establishment in 1913, the American people, nor Congress knows how many billions of
dollars this private banking corporation may be keeping for itself each year" (Stumph
31-32). They have the rights to audit themselves internally. Let's ask ourselves this
question, why has the Fed resisted all efforts made by the People, and Congress to force
an independent outside audit? How many of the Dow Jones 30, or other large corporations,
are allowed by government or their stockholders to audit themselves? None to my
knowledge. Once again, here is just another example from the many, of how our government
has extolled the powers vested into them and have said, "the hell with the people."
In conclusion, what can we do as citizens of the United States to regain control of the
rights that are rightfully ours? The answer to this question is quite simple, by
utilizing the Judiciary branch of government. This is the only branch of government, the
only authority left, where "the People" still have a say in what they want. All of the
other branches have become corrupt by all the different Special Interest Groups,
lobbyists, etc. that control Washington. I only mean corrupt in that "special favors" are
being bought, and it doesn't matter anymore what the consensus of America wants. This is
a whole other argument itself, but it helps me well in illustrating my point of view. My
point of view is that the Judiciary system is - Our last hope.
A single state has the very means of containing and restricting our government's
egotistic power. It's as simple as hitting Washington with a lawsuit every time it
attempts to exercise unauthorized jurisdiction over State sovereignty. How can a strict
constructionist supreme court refuse to honor the Constitution, if one or more states ask
for, and insist on , its enforcement? The clearly legal and lawful way, with which no
credible person can find fault with, is found in Article III, Section 22, Paragraph 2 of
the Constitution which says: "In all cases…in which a state shall be party, the
supreme court shall have original jurisdiction." This is a powerful tool for the states,
as it eliminates time consuming and expensive appellate action.
I'm going to use the Federal Reserve System as my example of how to contain our gone-ho
government through using the Judiciary (more specifically, our Supreme Courts.) One state
could force an independent audit of The Federal Reserve System. A state's authority to
make such a challenge is clear from Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 6, of the
Constitution which reads: "No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence
of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and
expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time." The Supreme Court
must, therefore, honor the insistence of a state, or states, to uphold this very clear
part of the Constitution. And with such a strong statement, not only could a state force
an outside audit, it could perhaps abolish the FED. The superb wisdom and far-sightedness
of those great men who wrote our constitution is promising -- to our freedoms. 
Bibliography
Author unknown. "Clinton faces criminal inquiry." BBC News 15 Feb. 2001. 13 Nov. 
2001. . 
This web site contains great reports of what really goes on back in Washington. Many top
reports dealing with politics and the problems associated with them are found here. The
source is great if someone is wanting information that addresses the public with top
stories around our nation.
Stumph, Joseph. The Constitution Hanging by a Thread. Salt Lake City: Northwest
Publishing Inc., 1992.
This book addresses America and its people about how their government has abused their
powers and have ignored the constitution that the founding fathers created. This source
lists the problems that America faces with a corrupt government and what America can do
to restore its glory to how it once was.
Limbaugh, Rush. "The Way Things Ought To Be. New York: Pocket Books, 1993.
This book contains many helpful statistics from a conservative point of view. There are
many arguable conversations in this source dealing with politics. Rush Limbaugh, very
impudently lists many things that our government has done in the past that is wrong. This
source may be very helpful to the person that has a conservative point of view.
Kennedy M. David, Thomas A. Bailey, Mel Piehl. The Brief American Pageant. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Custom Publishing, 1999.
This great history book has many great facts dealing with history of America. This source
is anything but bias - as it just tells us like it was. This history book would be very
helpful to the person who is looking after the formation, establishment, and creation of
our government and nation.