Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the traditional values ​​underlying property rights with a surprising unanimous vote when it blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of mud puddles.

Here’s the back story.

I used to think Woodrow Wilson was the worst president after Abraham Lincoln. By worst I mean the least loyal to the constitution and the most destructive of individual liberty. (Related: John Stossel: Politicians ignore time bombs)

With the exception of Lincoln’s dictatorship, the federal government used violence to undermine the natural right of states to withdraw from the treaty to which they voluntarily joined, instead resulting in the systematic destruction of 750,000 people — from the founding of the nation to its early days. Twentieth-century Americans enjoyed more or less the James Madison model of the federal government.

Under this model, the federal government could legislate, spend, and tax only in 16 separate areas of government mandated by the Constitution. All other areas of human behavior were left free to individual choice or state sovereignty.

Since Wilson’s presidency, the Madisonian model has given way to the Wilsonian model. Under this model, the federal government can legislate, spend, and tax in all areas of human behavior if there is national political will, except those areas expressly prohibited by the Constitution.

Gradually, the courts basically ruled out that Congress could make any law, regulate any action, expend any funds, tax any event, invade any relationship, unless it violates explicit constitutional prohibitions. now allow to

The Constitution itself, which Madison intended to both establish and limit the federal government, failed miserably as a means of limitation. Madison himself, he writes, can only rely on structures outside the Constitution to keep the federal government within its confines.

He was referring to states’ power to revoke federal actions they deem to be outside their constitutional authority. He also referred to the natural right of individuals and political branches to leave the government, known as ‘withdrawal’. Just as the 13 colonies seceded from England, individuals can reject government, smaller parcels can leave larger parcels, and states can leave the federal government, says Madison. argued Mr.

A person cannot be truly free if he cannot leave the government. This applies not only to the individual, but also to the political sector. The forced retention of people and geographic units under the exclusive jurisdiction of governments is totalitarian.

Without the threat of nullification and secession, there is no effective restraint on the federal government.

Now back to Wilson. His government’s sins, including World War I, the espionage laws, the federal income tax, universal suffrage for the U.S. Senate, the Federal Reserve, rampant racism, and his government by experts today known as the Executive State There were many.

This last insidious structure does not exist in any branch of constitutional government. Create, enforce, and interpret rules. As an example, the US tax code enacted by Congress spans his 2,600 pages. It’s an undecipherable monster. But the IRS’s own statutes, written by IRS officials, not by Congress, are 9,000 pages long. And the IRS’ own interpretation of the regulations is 70,000 pages long. This is the Wilson government by experts. (Related: Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: How an Irresponsible Federal Government Ignores the Constitution and Spies on Anyone)

According to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, this is an unconstitutional delegation of Congress’ legislative powers to a government agency that is not accountable to voters. The head of the Executive Branch is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. But the people who make, interpret and enforce the rules are the same permanent bureaucrats who are in the White House.

After Congress established the EPA, it gave it the power to regulate “the water of America.” Based on this five-word phrase, the EPA has determined that it has the authority to regulate any body of water in the United States. This theory is based on expert opinion that all bodies of water are ultimately connected to each other below the surface of the earth. , so the EPA can regulate all bodies of water, including wetlands and even mud puddles.

Among the regulations promulgated by the EPA included a ban on the construction of any structure that “could affect” the mud pool. Of course, the Constitution has no power to make such regulations. Many people who have not contested, or who have contested and lost, similar restrictions on the use of their land end up paying real estate taxes but using land that has no economically viable use. I ended up getting it.

The standards that “can influence” written, interpreted and enforced by bureaucrats are precisely the attacks on the underlying values ​​of private property ownership. However, the Court merely applied a common understanding of the English word by defining “the waters of the United States” only as bodies of water continuously superficially connected to established waters clearly owned by the United States. Instead, he expressed Madison’s respect for the United States. The will of property owners takes precedence over the will of the government.

Property arises from the application of labor to natural resources. Property is the building block of freedom. The essence of property is the right of the owner to use it, to sell, rent or mortgage it, to exclude from the owner whoever he wants, even the government.

It is more constitutionally unconstitutional for the government to enter private property without the owner’s consent, or for the government to forbid the owner from freely using that property, than the receipt, which requires the government to pay fair value. is. Rather, this is an attack on the basic moral principles of human interaction. In other words, the only ethical business dealings are truly voluntary.

When governments violate property rights, it is free will that crushes them. Courts may allow it.

Copyright 2023 Andrew P. Napolitano

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