Thursday, April 01, 2004
Bush and the federalization of criminal law
"President Bush (news - web sites) on Thursday signed into law an act that would make it a separate federal crime to harm a pregnant woman's fetus, in a move likely to bolster his support with conservatives in an election-year." Reuters: Bush Signs Law Against Harming Fetus
This is a bad law and should be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
No, it's not unconstitutional because there's a fetus involved. It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution that there's a right to abortion.
What the Constitution does contain are explicit limitations on the power of the federal government, and here we have the federal government creating a criminal law in an area that has been strictly left to the States ever since the Constitution was written. Congress's justification for being able to pass any law it desires is that all of its laws involve the regulation of interstate commerce. Well, I can't for the life of me see how a battery against a fetus has anything to do with interstate commerce.
It's unfortunate indeed that President Bush is mostly interested in pandering to the anti-abortion Christians, and not the least bit interested in standing up for the principles for which I had thought that Republicans stood for, which is a limited role for the federal government.
