NO. 10.  Convoluted Constitutional Law - Or Disinformation At Its Best 
[Courtesy: John A. Fleming] 
March 24, 2000 (all rights reserved)  
After reading the following quote, one big question in my mind never went away. 
What are "they" teaching our law students, much less our grades one through 
twelve and college students? Here is the material that concerns me. It is from 
Gilbert Law Summaries on Constitutional Law 27th edition 1994-1995. I will quote 
Sec 203: 
    b. Foreign affairs-exclusive federal power: However, powers over foreign 
    affairs, such as the power to declare war, conclude peace, make treaties, 
    and maintain diplomatic relations with other nations, were never possessed 
    by the individual states, but passed directly to the federal government from 
    the sovereign nation of Great Britain. Thus, these powers are held 
    exclusively by the federal government. [United States vs Curtis-Wright 
    Export Corp, supra]. 
This was a 1939 case; 299 US 304. 
The real issue here is that this law book and the Supreme Court of the United 
States are telling us that, upon the capitulation of Great Britain at Yorktown 
Virginia to the forces of General Washington, the British powers of sovereignty 
were magically and directly passed on to the "federal government" of the United 
States, rather than being passed to the respective individual States that 
constituted the American forces that opposed them in this war. 
This is an outrageous fiction and just another federal effort to rewrite history 
in a way that gives more power to the federal government at the expense of the 
several States. 
In order to find out if the above quote and citation to the Curtis-Wright case 
is worthy of being considered the "law of the land," we need to consider our 
documented past history, such as the following. The Declaration of Independence, 
July 4, 1776 (a portion of the last paragraph is quoted): 
    "in the name and by authority of the good People of these Colonies solemnly 
    publish and declare That these United Colonies are and of Right ought to be 
    FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to 
    the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the 
    State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as 
    Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude 
    Peace, contract Alliances, establish commerce, and do all other Acts and 
    Things which Independent States may of right do." 
The Articles of Confederation, 1777: Article II, is quoted: 
    "Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every 
    power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly 
    delegated to the United States, in congress assembled." 
Articles of Capitulation-Yorktown (1781)- ending hostilities between Great 
Britain and the American colonies. The prelude is partially quoted: 
    "Settled between his Excellency General Washington, Commander-in-Chief of 
    the combined Forces of America and France; his Excellency the Count de 
    Rochambeau, Lieutenant-General of the Armies of the King of France, Great 
    Cross of the royal and military Order of St. Louis, commanding the auxiliary 
    Troops of his Most Christian Majesty in America; and his Excellency the 
    Count de Grasse, Lieutenant-General of the Naval Armies of his Most 
    Christian Majesty, Commander of the Order of St. Louis, Commander-in Chief 
    of the Naval Army of France in the Chesapeake, on the one part; and the 
    Right Honorable Earl Cornwallis, Lieutenant-General of his Majesty's Forces, 
    Commanding the Garrisons of York and Gloucester; and Thomas Symonds, 
    Esquire, commanding his Britannic Majesty's Naval Forces in York River in 
    Virginia, on the other part." 
Amendment X (1791) of the US Constitution is quoted: 
    "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." 
Several quotes from volume one of the JR Tucker text on Constitutional Law, THE 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, ISBN 0-8377-1206-8(set)… current 
publisher-W.S. Hein, I-800-4571986.The quotes are identified by page number. 
    Page 245: "It is therefore clear that each State retained its sovereignty, 
    freedom and independence intact and undivided, and every power, jurisdiction 
    and right by original title, which was not expressly delegated to Congress, 
    and those so expressly delegated to Congress were not inherent in Congress, 
    but only belonged to Congress by derivation from the States." 
    Page 237: "In Martin vs Waddell (16 Pet. 410 ), Chief Justice Taney 
    delivered the opinion of the court, in which Judge Story concurred. He said: 
    "For when the Revolution took place, the people of each State became 
    themselves sovereign, and in that character held the absolute right to all 
    their navigable waters and the soil under them for their own common use, 
    subject only to the rights since surrendered by the Constitution to the 
    general government." 
    Page 66: "All acts of every department of government, within the 
    constitutional bounds of power, are valid; all beyond bounds are irritum et 
    inane-null and void. Government, therefore, has no inherent authority, but 
    only such as is delegated to it by its sovereign principal. Government may 
    transcend the limits of its authority, but its act is none the less void. It 
    cannot, by usurpation, jurally enlarge its powers, nor by construction 
    stretch them beyond the prescribed limits. The idea that usurpation or 
    necessity or a supposed extension as the consequence of custom or progress 
    of society can make jural any power not constitutionally conferred is 
    contrary to American political science, fatal to the liberties of the 
    people, and is only a wicked pretext for the violation of sworn 
    obligations." 
After reading the above, perhaps one wonders, how could this kind of government 
hood winking take place? Alexis de Tocqueville's book DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA (ISBN 
0-06-091522-6), discussed our situation as he viewed it in the 1830's and '40s. 
Out of the hundreds of pages discussing our characteristics, one simple sentence 
sums it up on page 611, and I quote: "Habitual inattention must be reckoned the 
great vice of the democratic spirit". It is still very true today. One needs to 
read this book by Tocqueville. It will give you real insight as to our problems 
then and today. 
Without question the Gilbert Law Summary initially quoted above, and their use 
of US vs Curtis-Wright dicta (it certainly was not law) to support that section, 
is not only flawed but constitutes evidence that our federal government has once 
again acted outside the bounds of the Constitution. This tells us that the 
several States continue not to effectively conduct oversight on the general 
(federal) government that their Body-politics directed them to establish. It 
tells us that our States and their citizens have paid little attention to the 
federal Indian programs over the last fifty to seventy years. It tells us our 
education system has lost sight of our nations founding documents, documented 
history and fact, and given in to what ever seemed to be politically correct and 
any given time, to the greatest pressure… no matter the pressure be valid or 
invalid, constitutional or unconstitutional. Without question all of this deals 
directly with the American Indian Dilemma. 



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