The Constitution: Art I, Sec. 9, Clause 1. Class in session

Posted on: April 17, 2017 at 09:13:15 CT

The Constitution is a dead document. That means that it the words and phrases are to be read as they were understood to mean when the document was written and ratified, and not by contemporary meanings (that would make it a living document, subject to change daily).

Also, the Constitution contains very specific and limited powers granted to the federal government by the states. If a matter is not in the Constitution, then the fed gvmt has no constitutional authority over that matter.

For example, immigration. Immigration is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. Therefore the federal gvmt has no constitutional authority to control, restrict, prohibit, or legislate immigration matters.

Some have said that Article I Section 9 clause 1 applies. It doesn't. Let's take a look:

"The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person."

This clause is solely about the slave trade, and it was debated at the conventions. We only have to look to the historical record to see what the intent and meaning of this clause is. The Constitution is, after all, a dead document.

"But the inclusion of the term “migration” was not meant to imply a general federal power to restrict migration, but was a euphemism intended to bolster the pretense that the Constitution did not endorse slavery. As John Jay – the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and coauthor of the Federalist Papers – pointed out in an 1819 letter discussing the Clause:

It will, I presume, be admitted that slaves were the persons intended. The word slaves was avoided, probably on account of the existing toleration of slavery and of its discordance with the principles of the Revolution, and from a consciousness of its being repugnant to the following positions in the Declaration of Independence, viz.: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/04/19/why-the-migration-or-importation-clause-of-the-constitution-does-not-imply-any-general-federal-power-to-limit-immigration/?utm_term=.cb1e9bc0d18d


http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/tocs/a1_9_1.html

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/print_documents/a1_9_1s15.html

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_9_1s15.html