Friday, September 11, 2009

About the General Welfare Clause

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, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Many people point to the general welfare clause as constitutional authority for myriad federal programs designed to advance "the greater good." But does this clause really give Congress a blank check to assume any powers it deems fit to "promote the general Welfare?" It is important to consider what the Founding Fathers themselves wrote regarding this issue:
If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.
- James Madison, Letter to Edmund Pendleton, 1792
Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Albert Gallatin, 1798
With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.
- James Madison, Letter to James Robertson, 1831

Historically, the (pre-New Deal) Supreme Court has also been instructive on the matter at hand:
The plain import of the clause is, that congress shall have all the incidental and instrumental powers, necessary and proper to carry into execution all the express powers. It neither enlarges any power specifically granted; nor is it a grant of any new power to congress.
- Joseph Story (former SCOTUS justice), Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

It seems the Framers did not intend to empower Congress to act in whatever fashion it deems necessary for "promote the general Welfare."

1 comment:

  1. Nice post, Charlie! Sing it from the rooftops!

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