Zeno's Paradox
November 17, 2003 - Is the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Constitutional?

In his day job, Glenn Reynolds and some fellow writers discuss the constitutionality of the partial birth abortion ban as written and justified by the Commerce Clause.

Some choice exerpts:

... Such intellectual consistency is certainly absent from some of the most prominent advocates on the other side of the debate. Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois, one of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act's most vigorous supporters, was also co-sponsor of the Shadegg-Pombo "Enumerated Powers Act," which seeks to limit the federal government to its constitutionally defined role. Inconsistently, Rep. Hyde dismisses state authority arguments as "a debating point," ranking at two in importance on a scale of one to ten. "You gotta do what you gotta do," he added. And the Senate counterpart to the Shadegg bill, the "Tenth Amendment Enforcement Act of 1996" was co-sponsored by Robert Dole--famous for his constant invocation of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act on the Presidential campaign circuit, where he has also took to pulling the Tenth Amendment out of his shirt pocket (as if he were Justice Black, who carried the Constitution around in his front pocket at all times).

and

In Conan Doyle's famous story, it was the fact that the dog didn't bark that allowed Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery. The dog that hasn't barked in the debate over the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act is the limited power of the federal government to pass legislation based primarily on one group's moral views. What mystery does this silence solve? Alas, in our case it is no mystery at all. The dog has not barked because the political classes, on both the left and the right, have no interest in limiting the power of the federal government when limitations might constrain their own actions.

It's nice to know that there are some other people out there who value the distinction between federal and state power as written in the Constitution.

Posted by br284 at 09:13 PM

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