As I noted previously, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates these very limited powers of Congress: Raise taxes; borrow money; regulate international commerce and commerce among the states; establish a process for naturalizing citizens; coin money and punish counterfeiters; establish post offices; establish copyright and trademark laws; establish lower courts; regulate pirates; declare war; raise armies and a navy; provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; and create and maintain a small district that shall be the seat of government.
"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." That's the 10th Amendment, and it means no matter how well-meaning he is, Graham is also dead wrong because there is no power to regulate abortion delegated to the United States.
According to the senator, "Here's what Dobbs says: Elected officials can make the decision, state or federal. I'm not inconsistent ... To all the states' rights people: There's a lot of things been done in this country under the name of states' rights that was wrong." There are two problems here.
He's on record as repeatedly insisting, including quite recently, that this matter should be left to the states.
Here's what Dobbs really says: "The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives." Justice Samuel Alito's carefully written decision stresses that by overturning Roe, the court is returning the power to regulate abortion to the states, and to the state legislatures, and to the people of the states.
So Graham is dead wrong when he claims "There's nothing preventing abortion policy in Washington, D.C., based on constitutional principles or Dobbs." What prevents federal abortion policy is that Congress was never granted such a power by "We the people." And I dare Sen. Graham to point to one sentence of the Constitution that justifies his radical proposal.
Even Joe Biden, perhaps the greatest constitutional scofflaw since the Civil War, recognized the truth of the matter when he trolled Graham a few days after the senator proposed his bill: Biden tweeted on Sept. 16, "When a lawmaker goes from touting states' rights to touting a nationwide ban, it becomes clear that they're not concerned with the Constitution." Sad but true.
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