There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. – Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau gets it, rather than hacking at the branches of evil that have all but destroyed federalism, we need to strike at the root; the Incorporation Doctrine. The Incorporation Doctrine is a corrupt legal theory that forces the Bill of Rights upon the State via judicial fiat from the Supreme Court. Much of what has gone wrong with government has been done via the Court, and the Incorporation Doctrine is no different.

Here are the facts. First, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by the States in 1868 (by unconstitutional means by the way). For roughly 50 years, there was no such thing as the Incorporation Doctrine until magically, it appeared in the landmark Supreme Court case Gitlow v. New York in 1925. Think about that, for roughly fifty years, no other Court “saw” the Incorporation Doctrine, but voila!, it magically appeared.

Secondly, a simple reading of the preamble to the Bill of Rights makes clear who the Bill of Rights was written to; hint, it wasn’t the States. Read the Preamble below and see if you can find anywhere the theory that the Bill of Rights were to be applied to the State. In all actuality, it is 100% the exact opposite.

The Preamble to The Bill of Rights

 

Congress of the United States

 

 

begun and held at the City of New-York, on

 

 

Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

 

 

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

 

 

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

 

 

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

After reading the Preamble, is there any question who the Bill of Rights was intended to restrict? It obviously was not the States and because of the insidiousness of the Supreme Courts overreach, the concept of federalism is all but been destroyed.

The video below, by Professor Tom Woods will go into much greater detail about the travesty of the Incorporation Doctrine, our hope is, after viewing it, you will take one more step towards Thinking Big and Acting Big.

 

 “Most bad government has grown out of too much government.”— Thomas Jefferson

This article originally appeared on Get Off My State.com