Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - Constitution Study Group Part 2

Video Subtitles:

learn about the Constitution
specifically about the hello internet
happy Thursday or Wednesday sorry my
days contain all mixed up over here
today we are going to be doing the
Constitution study group so if that's
something that interests you please
stick around really look forward to to
seeing you here and talking specifically
we're going to be looking at the
hierarchy of power between the federal
the state and the individual because
last week when I started this program
that's that's what we came that's what
we came to the conclusion of where the
room for interpretation in the room for
debate about how are the rights
specifically around what we're dealing
with right now as a society with yeah
the pandemic about how each state should
be dealing with the pandemic and what
are our rights as individuals to decide
if if the the state does have the right
to make those decisions for us or if if
we have the right to make the decisions
for ourselves again this platform that
I'm doing here is a non-political
platform so I am not trying to advocate
for one side or another this is strictly
a co learning experience I have not read
or interacted with or even thought about
the Constitution in years since I was in
high school and you know to be honest I
really took that for granted and I
really took you know my engagement with
with the government for granted and so
this is my chance to make up for my own
lost time of not engaging civically and
not politically it's not about politics
at all this is just about understanding
about our country and our rights and and
basically the same playing field that we
are all playing on regardless of our
politics and regardless of our
viewpoints of course I understand that
these discussions
could become political and could become
but that's good you know that's not what
I'm afraid of either so if you have a
viewpoint or perspective that you want
to be heard during these discussions
please bring it up I'm not trying to
discourage that I really am working my
hardest to make sure that I'm not
letting my bias and really to be honest
I don't have so much of a bias involved
in and this I'm really trying to learn
myself and and learn my own path of
what's going on because again I haven't
read the Constitution since high school
so here we are so I figured last week I
wouldn't over just a brief history of
the Constitution when was written who
wrote it what was it written for and
then I went over the Articles that talk
about the power and the jurisdiction of
power of the federal and the states and
then we looked at the Bill of Rights
which are the first ten amendments of
the Constitution today what I wanted to
do is first start out with kind of
updating you with a little bit of
research that was done by a really good
friend of mine a mentor of mine who
studied international governments you
know in grad school and so has a lot of
experience with this and was able to
help digest a lot of of my questions
that I had so I first want to go over
that which is mostly related to the
Tenth Amendment and then let's see I'm
just making sure I'm not hi Allison good
to see you thanks for coming and then
after that I want to go over the first
three articles so we kind of skipped
around and and reading it and I've heard
from my friends that do these types of
constitution study groups that it is
good to skip around and create a flow
that fits within you know and usually in
most cases would be a
Rick Elam of sorts I don't have a
curriculum we can't work kind of
co-learning here so yeah there's there's
really no but it's good to skip around
and so you know last week we had
somebody that was to me that was helping
kind of guide the conversation towards
understanding the rights of the
government particularly in involving the
pandemic right now because it's
something that we're all dealing with we
may or may not be experiencing pain from
it but it is on top of our minds and
it's good that people are resorting to
our constitutional rights when we're
making you know arguments or you know
ideas around this so that's why I wanted
to start doing this I'm gonna start
making some tea first I'm actually not
gonna drink tea today I'm gonna drink
some herbs some blended herbs this is
from our buddy
Joe in South Dakota his company sage and
cedar he usually would join these news
live streams but he's working again
which is good anybody that's working out
there it's a blessing I am grateful that
you're working I'm grateful that you're
finding dignity and purpose in your life
so yeah this is a blend of lemon balm
oat straw chamomile peppermint and
fennel and it is called relax call me
and Cooley tummy tonic but just good
yeah I could use a tummy Tomic right now
I had just eaten a lunch before I came
on here nothing too extravagant but I
did you know I was hungry I've been
hungry past few days pretty pretty
hungry so I'm just brewing the tea and
my guy won
so yeah last week I was talking about
the Bill of Rights and you know the
first nine amendments are very much
associated with independent rights as
individuals as people
what rights do we have in the legal
system what rights do we have and how we
conduct our lives even bearing arms so
that's where all that comes from in
those first 10 amendments but on the
10th amendment that is the only one
within the Bill of Rights that talks
about the rights of the federal and the
rights of the state but there was
something confusing in there that and
the way that I was I was reading it and
I will continue to read the Constitution
as we move forward with the series is
isre trying to read it literal and
trying to break down each word within
you know each text to really understand
what is meant there and so there's
there's a line at the end of the 10th
amendment that says or to the people
which confused me because it was talking
about how you know the federal can you
know make decisions about how the
overall system works that ultimately is
going to give the right to the states to
you know make the ultimate rules
respectfully respectively and to the
people and that that last you know three
words they are really confused me and I
reached out to my my friend and mentor
Tavia Campbell who is one of the owners
of walls 360 which is an incredible
print company they actually print these
decals that are behind me these decals
are like rista Keable amazing you know
they come on off you probably if you've
come here to tea let we usually have
coloring power to use and we give out
stickers to everybody here through that
so yes she she gave me actually a pretty
detailed write-up and it's actually
quite entertaining so I figured rather
than trying to like digest this and you
know deliver it to you I would just read
it directly you know from her voice
she's a very smart very serious person
but at the same time she does have quite
the sense of humor so I'm just gonna go
ahead and read that and her explanation
does apply directly to the Tenth
Amendment
but a lot of what she's saying here is
stuff that we can take forward into the
rest of the the Constitution and I'm
really grateful for her for putting this
together for me and for us as well as
she did give me permission to to give
her credit for that you know for helping
us and in navigating this process here
so here it goes
she says the Tenth Amendment does not
exist in a vacuum
you have to remember how the
Constitution and Bill of Rights came to
be because this will help and how the
Constitution is typically interpreted
not just by academics but by our
judicial system and lawmakers so you're
gonna have to bear with me a bit because
this isn't one or two-sentence answer to
your question all right so let's get
into it more than just one or two
sentences it's the kind of thing if I
said hey why is this he so much tastier
that grows over here but not over there
I love how she relates it to tea makes
it very appropriate for our conversation
here and and if if you were to say well
do you know what terrazas or something
like that and if I was to say no I want
you to explain it on a molecular level
why this tastes good I don't care about
the dirt the craft agriculture blah blah
I don't know if it's that apt of an
example because I really don't know
anything about tea this is Divya this is
but what tastes good to me may not taste
good to your palate and those two things
are kind of key here so kind of rounding
it back out to that concept of
perspective you know and how that
applies here which is why I was trying
to break down the reading of the
Constitution word-for-word and trying to
take it quite literally and getting
everybody on the same page about
understanding the words there so she
goes on to say it depends upon who is
interpreting it of which is why context
matters in this case some believe that
we should interpret the Constitution
strictly within the context of the
framers intent at the time others
believe it is a living breathing
document that provides an ongoing
framework and as time change its
interpretation changes with it kind of
like how some people take the literal
word of the Bible and some no same with
the Constitution and yep that's the
purpose for doing these study groups so
that we we all can understand each
other's perspectives here so if you guys
have comments or questions if you want
to jump into this conversation with me
there's the link up there bit ly / Tila
Tea Party you can come join this
conversation and let me know directly
how you're thinking or interpreting
what's being talked about 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 right so
that's the 10th amendment that I was
speaking on the Bill of Rights are the
amendments to the US Constitution to
address the concerns by the
anti-federalists aka the states rights
people which were typically the smaller
states who thought that the larger
states were gonna run all over them and
so we need to first jump back and give a
brief and very simplistic history
refresher to give context to this before
there was the Constitution we had the
Declaration of Independence and before
that we had the Articles of
Confederation the states were a
confederation of individual states where
the powers came from the local level of
the state and created a weak central
government some time pass in the States
discovered that Oh looky there this
government is so weak that it can't do
anything states were having problems
with trade slave rebellions and states
were banded together to fight for
independence but the central government
couldn't require member states to
contribute to pay for their army then
there was
oh dear I just gotta find out sorry
about that
so now you see how there's a lot more to
this than just then than just you know
reading the words directly it's it's
important to understand the context of
the history and you know even the
politics that existed back then which
you know it's over 200 years ago but I
think the politics are very similar even
now and that's that's something
interesting and we're meant to interpret
the this document as a living thing when
ultimately it's it's all the same thing
it's kind of like when I go to Burning
Man yeah I often go to Burning Man tea
is a very important part of the culture
at Burning Man there so I feel very
welcomed and that place there and it's
such like a a wild extreme experience if
you've ever gone or you have a friend
that has gone and talked to you about it
you know they're gonna tell you these
wild stories and you know how I deal in
utopia it is there and for the first
couple years I believed that I believed
it was really something special I still
believe that not to downplay the
importance of that community and that
experience but over the years came to
realize that like all the stuff that
like we go to Burning Man to try to
escape from and in this world and this
default world as they call exists in
this utopia world as well the politics
the the disparities and and in power
dynamics between different people in
different sexes and different status
symbols and life they still exists there
so you know really hammers it in that's
a lot of the issues that we experience
as cultures or as communities are things
that ultimately we could see in other
places too in at the core these themes
that we deal with are things that like
people all over the world deal with
regardless if we speak a different
language eat different food or have
different behaviors in our
life you know a lot of the same concepts
remain the same so the documents back up
and I will continue reading and there
was problems of every state that had
their own money in trade deals with
foreign countries the central government
had their own money and some states were
allowed to trade with Great Britain some
weren't and everything was kind of mad
everyone was kind of mad at everyone
because the central government couldn't
do anything
and if Great Britain or foreign power
wanted to get up and you know make some
trouble in America they could because
there was no central power one state
could side with and against and and and
tell everybody you know they're on their
own so yeah it was a very like dispersed
fragmented power dynamic between the
different states this is again this is
the context the political context in
which the Constitution was written in
over 200 years ago just so we can
understand why things are written the
way they're written so some conventions
were called in our young country tried
to figure it out
and and this was called the
Constitutional Convention aka the
Philadelphia Convention and this is
where of course the the convention or
the Constitution was drafted at this
convention the original intent was to
create a system of government under the
Articles of Confederation because well
see the above paragraph what we were
talking about but some of those founders
were sneaky and what they wanted was a
new government and just to fix the
article of confederation so we have the
claim General George Washington was a
popular guy in leading the Continental
Army during the Revolutionary War he
wanted a strong effective national
government because his friend Alexander
Hamilton whispered in his ear and
General Washington became president of
the convention politics as usual sounds
very familiar right - you know recent
times and - other times in his
Jews love Hamilton and his friends James
Madison and John Jay got together in
both Federalist Papers under soon innum
and these papers were a collection that
presented the arguments for the
ratification of the Constitution and
eventually the passage of the Bill of
Rights yes other founding fathers wrote
the Anti Federalist Papers but we don't
talk about those a lot because well they
lost and these articles weren't compiled
into a collection until 200 years later
so there was contention there wasn't
like a hundred percent agreement about
how this system would work and yeah
that's because different people had
different values and and you know end
goals in this so you may be wondering
what does any of this have to do with
the Bill of Rights and the Constitution
and why I can or can't tell my state
that it can't control me so the federal
the Federalist Papers are commonly used
to interpret the intent of the drafters
of the Constitution so sensitivity has
told me this I've decided you know in
future series I will be looking at the
Federalist Papers just you know for
educational purposes just to see the
original intent of the Constitution and
this is the place that we should look to
begin to ask the question if the people
do have the right to say that the state
can't tell them how to respond to this
pandemic because of course that's what
we're doing with right now so we have an
industry out of the way and now we can
apply the Tenth Amendment to all this
and the Tenth Amendment doesn't apply to
this because it has nothing to do with
individual rights versus state rights
so I'll repeats the Tenth Amendment
again 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 right so that's that that
was that or to the people thing that's
the whole source of all of this
confusion and why Tavia helped us with
this document so from the above you see
how we have it here
so 13 states ban together some larger
than others some smaller some richer
some poor so in order to create this
overarching national governments you
need to define the division of power
between the federal and state
governments and that is exactly what the
Tenth Amendment does states don't want
the federal government to trample over
them it is saying the federal
government's Lane is defined by the
Constitution and the states get all the
other lanes now you might get hung up on
or to the people don't do that think of
it this way the federal government's
authority comes from the states that
ratified the Constitution it is the
states that granted what authority the
federal government has now where does
the state's authority come from well the
people and that's what it means in this
context the people choose the delegates
to act upon their behalf so the states
defined not only the division of power
but also the separation of it and she
then goes on to say that this is a very
political science viewpoint on this so I
think that sums it all up is that or the
people or to the people at the end of
the 10th amendment means the power that
the people have in this context and you
know delegating the powers between the
federal and the states is that the
people have the right to vote for who is
in power in making those decisions
within the state and also within the
federal as well so kind of cool there to
get that the break down and to see that
whatever we end up reading in the
Constitution which after I finish this I
will go on to articles 1 2 & 3 which
describe the three different branches of
the government that pretty much lays out
like what powers the federal has the
federal is national level it's that
centralized power that was formed due to
the Constitution because the context of
when this document was written is that
we had all of this distributed power
between these different states and that
power was very imbalanced some states
had more power
less power very common to what's going
on right now and we we behave in our
government acts and exactly the same way
and so on how the pandemic was done our
presidents you know our executive you
know the top decision maker and the top
authority within the federal you know
announced the state of emergency and
then gave the powers to the states so
how to respond to a pandemic is not
written in the Constitution we don't
have like a word by word gameplay which
you know the federal has power and in
drafting those documents and guidances
but ultimately the states are going to
have the power to decide what they're
going to do I think a good example of
that that that we can wrap our heads
around outside of the pandemic is
cannabis the cannabis industry
so the the federal government although
it hasn't you know federally legalized
it if they were to do that they could
also give the power to the states to
make their own decisions on it and vice
versa so the federal government has not
legalized it on the federal level so
it's allowing states to legalize it if
they choose so and the states are
choosing this based off of the delegates
that were voted for by the people and in
many cases when the states have
initiatives on their ballots it's
actually giving the people a say in in a
vote in how the the state does decide to
enforce its power for these things so I
know when I lived in in California and I
believe Hawaii also had this as well as
Nevada I was living in all three of
those states at the time when cannabis
was legalized and that was all through
you know initiatives on the ballot so
that explains that whole confusion from
last week and you know I hope that gives
you guys a lot of
insight into how that works as well that
okay so then there's another argument
too and she goes into this about you
know if if the states do make decisions
that are out of unnecessary use of their
power do individuals have the right to
stand up and in the car especially in
the context of this pandemic so she does
go on to to say this and I think is
interesting okay so now that we're on to
the fourteenth amendment this mostly
houses of the fourteenth she jumps to
the 14th amendment to give some context
about this argument we must have to they
mostly have to do what the federal
government does have the authority over
the state when it comes to individual
rights but it's not really all that
relevant for your question unless you
want to relate it back to the
Constitution quick refresher if it's
been a while the 14th amendment was the
one that granted citizenship and laid
the groundwork for civil and legal
rights to emancipated slaves after the
Civil War it is the amendment that gave
the federal government to the power over
States so that states could not deprive
those within a state's jurisdiction from
equal protection under the law and due
process so this is one area of the
Constitution that gives power over for
the federal government over the state's
power and it reads all persons born or
naturalized in the United States and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof are
citizens of the United States and of the
state within neighbor side no State
shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United
States nor shall any state deprive any
person of life liberty or property
without due process of law nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws so that's
it that's the the literal writing of the
Fourteenth Amendment so here's the
problem
constitutionally the state can't make a
law that would violate the Bill of
Rights the Bill of Rights does not
address issues regarding a pandemic or
public safety
the state does indeed have the right to
declare during a national or state
emergency certain limits on one's
liberty and property you could make the
argument that you don't have to comply
and wear a mask because it deprives you
of your privileges as a US citizen to
your Liberty and now we have another
problem with this argument okay so we do
have the right to say I don't need to
wear a mask
all right based off of that but the
difference is a public health emergency
that protects the health and safety of
all citizens for the public good versus
an individual right to possibly infect
others two instances that you can look
at if you want to ascertain the validity
of this argument are seatbelt laws and
drunk driving the Constitution does not
guarantee citizens rights to not comply
with public safety initiatives yeah so
it is kind of a murky area the
Constitution does not say in one way or
the other each state has their own
Constitution so let's say I'll take a
look at the Nevada's Constitution now as
a matter of free speech you have every
right to say you can't make you can't
you can't make me wear a mask but you do
not have the right to endanger the
public good in normal times and during a
global pandemic at the state were to
order under an emergency order that
everyone must wear a mask to ensure the
protection safety and benefit of the
people for the public good then you
don't have a constitutional argument for
not wearing a mask
okay so then she goes on to make a funny
joke to say now if the government wants
to mandate you to wear a polkadot dress
in your polkadot mask in your house why
because you'd have a right to say that
you don't do that because that has
nothing to do with ensuring the safety
of the people or ensuring the public
good so you know that's the other side
of the argument that when it's not just
involving you it's not just a violation
of
your own rights when it involves other
people or the safety of the other of
other people especially public you know
I I could imagine this this this issue
being a lot stickier if it was just for
the the protection of like a select few
people within the public but when you're
talking about the general public
perhaps yeah it's it's pretty it's
pretty pretty well explained that we
don't have a right to defy state orders
when it when it involves Public Safety
it's like drunk driving or seatbelts
maybe I don't see toes that's a tricky
one because it's like if you don't wear
two seatbelts you're not endangering
someone else's life you're endangering
your own life but very understandable
with drunk driving if you're if you're a
drunk driving not only are you
endangering your own life but you're
definitely endangering the lives of
others in the public so I think that
would be a much you know a stronger
example so if you ever find yourself
getting involved in these conversations
hopefully these are not conversations
happening on Facebook or social media I
don't advise on that and think that
that's kind of a loss of good energy to
be putting your energy into that but you
know if if you're you know meeting with
some friends and this comes up which
these conversations have come up with my
family with friends and so ya know it's
good to have this understanding of if
someone's gonna bring up constitutional
right of Liberty and the state doesn't
have any right to tell me what to do
so she finishes out her write up by
explaining those rights and and also
about the public safety thing with I
don't know what section this is but this
is about an innate and an alien
alienable rights
all men are by nature free and equal and
have certain innate right honorable
right it's quite right boy quiet boy
sorry landscapers coming by so among
which are are those of enjoying and
defending life and liberty acquiring and
possessing and protecting property in
pursuing and obtaining safety and
happiness so this obtaining safety is
part of our rights of protecting the
public safety as individuals and as a
community - and also gives the right to
the states to make decisions on what
what are the orders or what are the
activities required to obtain Ian's
safety Public Safety and I suppose with
all this written of what TV has brought
brought out here the federal does have
the right if they find that the states
are not effectively handling the
situation and not effectively obtaining
public safety then the federal would
have the right to step up and and make
those decisions - so I guess the the
argument could remain particularly in
regards to masks because that that seems
to be a big point of contention if
information was to be revealed that
masks are not effective of obtaining
public safety then then we could be
having this argument because the all of
this is based on the assumption that
masks obtain public safety and as far as
as I know from the research that's out
and you know it'd be awesome if the
government like that that could be
something cool that the federal
government was doing for us was invested
in that research and not only investing
in the
search but outreaching that information
to the states and most importantly to
the individuals you know I thought then
that'd be so incredible that was
happening right now I don't I don't
think that's happening right now so yeah
I mean I think the CDC is is doing a lot
of that work just real quick I want to
like see your the CDC is under
it's under the federal government in the
United States formed in 1969 teen 46 so
I mean this this that's so funny because
like so many people that are hi good to
see so many people that are focused on
this argument and trying to get to the
bottom of it all so don't trust the CDC
in the intentions of the CDC but as far
as the Constitution is concerned and as
far as the government is concerned the
CDC is under the jurisdiction of the
federal government and their goal would
be to educate us on what are the tools
and resources and practices that will
best protect public safety so yeah
yesterday they put an announcement out
about crazy rats in New York City I'm
gonna believe that and I'm gonna make an
order on my own rights to not go to New
York City until those rats go away I
don't like rats there's one thing in the
world that I am irrationally afraid of
it is rats like well they're saying that
they're cannibalistic and crazy because
they don't have any trash or food to eat
from the restaurants oh my can't imagine
any way off topic so the purpose of
governments Paramount's allegiance to
united states all political power is
inherent in the people government is
instituted for the protection security
and benefit of the people and they have
the right to alter or reform the same
whenever the public good may require it
this is from the Constitution it's
definitely from the Constitution again
I'm gonna read that again because it's
very important government is instituted
for the protection security and benefit
of the people and they have the right to
alter or reform the same whenever the
public good may require it so the power
that the people have which the people
have power and that's people as a me you
your neighbor your aunt you know your
cousins everybody we all have the right
to keep our government in check and
that's through voting and guess what's
coming up we got boat we got a we got an
election coming up so that's like our
main activity that we can do to stand up
for our rights of course but even
outside the voting we have a voice right
the First Amendment says that we have
the right to speak freely so we can also
do that too so please do that but please
do that understanding the information
that's present for us and in this
particular argument we're talking about
masks and whether the government has
that right or not we do have the freedom
and the right to speak about anything in
regards to that but we also have to
understand that the states or the
federal government if the federal
government does decide to step up and
start making decisions we say they have
the right to do in that last statement I
just said but it all has to be for the
goal of Public Safety and so you know if
you're gonna make this argument like we
shouldn't be talking about
constitutional rights we should be
talking about this public safety and and
you know asking the government okay give
us more data give us more information
let us know more about you know how
these orders are protecting our public
safety so that's that we can move on now
thank you for being with me there that
was that was a fun one thank you TV is
so much for sharing that with us again
if you guys have questions feel free to
to type them in I'd be happy to
try to process them for you okay so real
quick before I in this session I'll
Polly Dion for like another half hour so
I'm gonna go over the first three
articles of the Constitution so these
are written
immediately after the preamble so
they're the very beginning of it and
they highlight the three different
branches of the federal government so
now we're talking about federal
government we're no longer talking about
rights or individual alright we're just
talking about how the government is
structured so a little dry but we need
to get through it so article 1 section 1
all legislative powers herein granted
shall be vested in a Congress of the
United States which shall consist of a
Senate and a House of Representatives ok
so we're talking legislative now section
2 the House of Representatives shall be
composed Bitcoin quiet boy sorry
everybody
the House of Representatives shall be
composed of the members chosen every
second year by the people of the several
states and the electors in each state
shall have the qualifications requisite
for electors of the most numerous branch
of the state legislature no person shall
be a representative who shall not have
attained to the age of 25 years and been
seven years a citizen of the United
States and who shall not want elected be
an inhabitant of the state in which he
shall be chosen technicalities
representatives and Direct Taxes shall
be apportioned among the several states
which may be included within the Union
according to their respective numbers
which shall be determined by adding to
the whole number of free persons
including those bound to service for a
term of years and excluding Indians not
taxed 3/5 of all persons that's
interesting that term is still in there
I wonder when we're going to get the
amendment that's going to modify the use
of the word Indian they're excluding
Indians not taxed
the actual enumeration shall be made
within three years and after the first
year meeting of the Congress of the
United States and within every
subsequent term of ten years in such
manner as they shall by law direct the
number of Representatives shall not
exceed one for every thirty thousand but
each state shall have at least one
representative and until such
enumeration shall be made the state of
New Hampshire shall be entitled to
choose three Massachusetts eight Rhode
Island and Providence Plantations one
Connecticut five New York six New Jersey
for Pennsylvania eight Delaware one
Maryland six Virginia ten North Carolina
five South Carolina five and Georgia
three so yeah those were the original
states there and I guess the the those
numbers there represents the dynamic of
power the balance of power between those
different states when this document was
written I you know I'm sure that this is
all obsolete information now but this
interesting to to read when vacancies
happen in the representation from any
state the executive authority thereof
shall write writs of election to fill
such vacancies the House of
Representatives shall choose their
speaker and other officers and shall
have the sole power of impeachment so we
saw that recently with their current
presidents how the first trial went
through the Congress and then the second
went through the Senate so the the
represented have some representatives
makes the initial choice if we're going
to go through with the impeachment
process or not section three the Senate
of the United States shall be composed
of two senators from each state chosen
by the legislature thereof for six years
in each senators shall have one vote
immediately after they shall be
assembled and consequence of the first
election they shall be divided as
equally as may be into three classes the
seats of the Senators of the first class
shall be vacated at the
expiration of the second year of the
second class at the expiration of the
fourth year and the third class at the
expiration of the sixth year so that
one-third may be chosen every second
year and if vacancies happen by
resignation or otherwise during the
recess of the legislature of any state
the executive thereof may make temporary
appointments until the next meeting of
the legislature which shall then fill
such vacancies
again more technicalities but a
president president has some power there
no person shall be a senator who shall
not have attained the age of thirty
years and then nine years a citizen of
the United States and it shall not when
elected be an inhabitant of the state
for which he shall be chose the vice
president of the United States shall be
the president of the Senate but shall
have no vote unless be equally divided
the Senate shall choose their other
officers and also a president pro
tempore and the absence of the vice
president or when he shall exercise the
opposite of the president of the United
States again more technicalities the
Senate shall have the sole power to try
all impeachments when when sitting for
the purpose they shall be an oath or
affirmation and when the president of
the united states has tried the Chief
Justice shall preside and no person
shall be convicted without the
concurrence of two-thirds of the members
present judgments in cases of
impeachment shall not extend further
than the removal from office and
disqualification to hold and enjoy any
office of Honor trust or profit under
the United States but the party
convicted shall nevertheless be liable
and subject to indictment trial judgment
and punishment according to law section
four we're almost done with kind of the
times place and manner of holding
elections for Senators and
Representatives shall be prescribed in
each state by the legislature thereof
but the Congress may at any time by law
or alters such regulations
except as to the places of choosing
senators accept it
the Congress shall assemble at least
once and every year and such meaning
shall be the first Monday in December
unless they shall by law appoint a
different day I didn't know that section
5 each house shall be the judge of the
elections returns and qualifications of
its own members and a majority of each
shall constitute a quorum to do business
but a smaller number may adjourn from
day to day and may be authorized to
compel the attendance of absent members
in such manner and under such penalties
as each house may provide each house may
determine the rules of its proceedings
punish its members for disorderly
behavior I wonder what that is and with
the concurrence of two thirds expel a
member I'm gonna have to look that up
after we finish out what is disorderly
behavior for senators please excuse the
ice-cream shop you're trying to taunt us
with ice cream each house shall keep a
journal of its proceedings and from time
to time publish the same except such
parts as may in their judgment require
secrecy in the yeas and nays of the
members of either house on any question
shell at the zyre of one fifth of those
present be entered on the journal
neither house during the session of
Congress shall with without the consent
of the other adjourn for more than three
days or to any play other place than
that in which the two houses shall be
sit sitting so that's interesting the
ice cream truck is playing a Christmas
holiday music hi Paul I mean I've seen
it's Paul good to see you oh this is our
Wednesday Constitution Study Group we do
it every Wednesday starting at 2:00
Pacific in the afternoon and we just
read different parts of the Constitution
and talk about how that applies to
you know modern issues and things that
were thinking about on a day-to-day so
feel free you know I know that this is a
the the United States Constitution and
doesn't apply to everybody we have such
an international crowd but there is
relevance because the United States
Constitution is the longest-running
living documents of its of its sort it
was the first one written in the way it
was written with you know centralized
and distributed powers and now has
become the inspiration and you know kind
of foundation for a lot of other
constitutional governments around the
world so you know I think there's
importance of understanding the
Constitution in which the United States
works within because there is a lot of
influence and other places around the
world oh man there's still a lot more to
this one I'll finish it maybe I won't go
to the other ones I'll just I'll just
stay within article one's article one is
strictly about representation of the
house in Congress our Senate and
Congress are a section seven all bills
for raising revenue shall originate in
the House of Representatives but the
Senate may propose or concur with
amendment as on other bills every bill
which shall have passed to the House of
Representatives and the Senate shall
before it become a law be presented to
the President of the United States if he
approved he shall sign it but if not he
shall return it with his objections to
that house in which it shall have
originated who shall enter the
objections at large on their Journal and
proceed to reconsider it if after such
reconsideration two thirds of the house
shall agree to pass the bill it shall be
sent together with the objections to the
other house by which it shall likewise
be reconsidered and if approved by
two-thirds of the house it shall become
it shall become a law huh cool so that's
how we can get things going without the
President but in all such case cases the
votes of both house shall be determined
by yeas and nays
and the names of the persons voting for
it against the bill shall be entered on
the Journal of each house respectfully
if any bill shall not be returned by the
president within 10 days Sundays exclude
accepted after it shall have been
presented to him the same shall be in
law like in manner as if he had tried to
unless the Congress by their adjournment
prevent its return in which case it
shall not be a law
every order resolution and votes to
which the concurrence of the Senate and
House of Representatives may be
necessary except on a question of
adjournment shall be presented to the
President of the United States and
before the same shall take effect
shall be approved by him or be
disapproved by him shall be repast by
two-thirds of the Senate and House of
Representatives according to the rules
and limitations prescribed in the case
of a bill so yeah that's how bills get
passed that's how laws get passed so all
laws that we have in at the federal
level which include laws that are
regulated by bureaucracies have to be
implemented through a bill and so that
bori process that was just described in
such a lengthy fashion there talks about
how a bill comes to be now a lot of
times the bills you know you think about
representatives that have spent their
lifetimes to achieve those positions and
politics it's very likely that they're
not going to be like area or industry
experts on the laws that are being
passed and so that's why they have to
rely on the people so officially they
rely on the people so a good politician
will they be out in the community will
be out in the industry directly
themselves and asking the people which
include people within organizations and
so that's how you know I view how
organizations corporations and business
engage with politics
it should be even the people within
those or organizations that get a say
into explaining you know as a
stakeholder of you know some issue that
is under review how a law should be
framed and then the politician will drop
that and present that for vote you know
like these politicians are not like
writing these bills inside of a vacuum
you know with their on with their own
knowledge and expertise of a certain
issue but how it really works out is we
have something called lobbyists that
help frame the wording and you know the
motivations and these lobbyists are like
on it they are constantly engaged with
these politicians and constantly engaged
with industry and they're not engaged
with industry has like a third party you
know like researcher that's just like
curious about what's going on and want
to honestly and transparently lays on
between industry and governments they're
paid for by the industry by the
corporations and and so then that's how
laws come into place so that's something
else as people that if we want to be
more engaged in practice more of our
rights our constitutional rights not
only can we votes but we can be engaged
with this process of communicating with
our representatives about the laws that
either we want them to vote on you know
so these laws are like you can go online
and they're all the laws that are
currently under review or in the voting
process are available for are viewed on
the internet we can find all of them and
so you can read through them and you can
find out actually this law is pretty
great I want to like contact my
representative and tell them that they
should vote for this because it
represents you know what what I want so
that's that
that's civic engagement that's beautiful
civic engagement there but to take it a
step further would would be to even be
proactive on this like helping with the
law writing process and because right
now it's pretty much controlled by the
lobbyists who are funded and motivated
by the corporate interests that have
hired them
you know an individual you know wouldn't
have the resources to hire that but
individuals have a lot of power you know
and so that's something that personally
specifically with my interest in the
hospitality industry so on Mondays I do
a similar type of educational talk where
it's a discussion about how to build a
dignified future for hospitality and
governments policy changes is an
important part of that a very important
part of that so we would need bills to
go into this election process and to get
approved and to you know get enforced
and yeah so I'm like researching that
whole process how do we create a
collective voice and how do we give that
collective voice power to be reached by
politicians that can work with them to
find these laws that that can you know
help with the problems of the actual
stakeholders so in in the hospitality
frame in that in that context there is a
coalition of restaurant owners chefs and
restaurant owners that are lobbying for
there's two main asks that they're
asking of the government right now one
of them is to extend the payroll
protection an additional month so that
you know they can get more funding to
pay their workers for an additional
month that's just for restaurants
because restaurants you know they they
were forced to be closed out in the
state you know hammered down and said
for public safety restaurants have to be
closed and then the second house they
have is for additional funding like bail
well funding essentially and so
they as a collective these people have
come together they've created a united
ask and work now working with the
politicians to get a bill under review
which you know would make these fundings
available but you know the policy change
the the changes that I think are going
to be needed are a lot different than
just a financial bailout they're deeper
and involving more stakeholders so more
of a discussion that's needed but I look
forward to that learning process and
it's cool to read and section 7 of
article 1 the exact you know rules of
the the bill passing process so Allison
I'm gonna read your comment now you say
unfortunately due to other commitments
oh well thank you Allison yeah that's
what this is for this is totally for
like I know it's like kind of vulnerable
of me like sitting here by myself just
kind of like reading such dry stuff but
you know I'm trying to make it relatable
and every week you know I'm gonna try to
to make this better and better and you
know once we read through the whole
thing you know maybe in a few more weeks
we'll be done with reading through the
whole thing then we'll have time to you
know talk about some of these these
issues and ideas within different
contexts to increase our perspectives
so that we can come become better so
yeah I'll see you didn't miss much last
week last week was really just looking
at the history of the Constitution who
wrote it what was the context I believe
the history that I gave earlier today is
deeper than even history I gave last
week last week was very like technical
history was written in this year by this
person but today you know talked about
you know really painting a picture of
what the context of what the context of
the time you know the culture and the
politics of that time and so at that
time they were struggling with the
state's distributed power within the
states and so this is an attempt to
create a centralized power it's a kind
of police though is not police that's
the wrong
to govern those distributed powers
uneven unbalanced powers between the
different states which we're still
dealing with today you know some states
are much bigger and have much different
issues to deal with in other states but
ultimately we're all working under the
same context and under the same
protections so that's nice
you know that's that's really cool this
is really cool I'm really proud of our
government and I think it's taken for
granted a lot especially right now of
what we're dealing with it's just so
like stressful and painful and a lot of
people are feeling that the government
is not behaving correctly and definitely
individuals within the government are
not behaving correctly but I think
perhaps in doing these types of
activities we can better know our own
powers as individuals about how to make
that right and so I mean the gist of
what I want to get across here again
it's not a political message at all is
that like fighting over our you know
individual rights are constitutional
individual rights to you know respond as
individuals to this pandemic the way
that we want to in that the state making
the choice of how we need to respond to
this being incorrect and that our rights
are more important than the the states
decisions that's not the right argument
not to say that the sentiment is not
right and that we shouldn't question
things hell yeah we need to question
things but you know resolving to that is
not the solution we need to ask more
questions and you know as I've been
reading today I've been realizing there
is a lot of power and our voting and
there's a lot of power and our
communications with our representatives
on having them vote for the things we
want them to vote for and and ultimately
having them write the bills that we want
them to vote for so
yeah that could be fun I'm looking
forward to see like where we're in this
goes and you know like this is really
like my first attempt at civic
engagement and I've worked for
officially I've worked for the
government before I worked for the State
Department when I was a Peace Corps
volunteer but that was hardly any you
know any kind of political involvement
or government involvement so yeah this
is this is all really new for me so
there's just a few more sections of this
first article dealing three more
sections and I'll just do this quickly
and then I think we'll finish for the
day I've been going for section eight
but Congress shall have power to lay and
collect taxes duties imposts and excises
to pay the debts and provide for a
common defense and general welfare of
the United States but all duties and
posts and excises shall be uniform
throughout the United States to borrow
money on the credit of the United States
to regulate commerce with foreign
nations and among several states and
with the Indian tribes there it is again
to establish a uniform rule of
naturalization and uniform laws of the
subject of bankruptcies throughout the
United States to coin money regulate the
value thereof in a foreign coin and fix
the standard of weights and measures to
provide the punishment of counterfeiting
the securities and current coin of the
United States to establish post office
and post roads to promote the progress
of science and useful arts by securing
for limited times of authors and
inventors the exclusive right to their
respective writings and discoveries so
again just to recap all of these things
that I'm saying right now are all things
under the jurisdiction of the Congress
to constitute tribunals inferior to the
Supreme Court to define and punish
piracies and felonies committed on the
high seas and a
is against the laws of Nations see I
mean we have something in here about
pirates and we couldn't have something
in here about pandemics I mean the world
has already had at this point when this
document was written the world had
already experienced several pandemics
historical and memorable plagues and
pandemic big quiet quiet quiet boy so
where could the Constitution have
addressed
you know pandemics specifically but they
address pirates that's good because
pirates pirates are a big issue I mean I
don't mean to devalue the threat of
pirates I know it's a legitimate threat
but the threat of a pandemic is I mean
we're facing it right now and yeah that
wasn't written in the Constitution so
that has left a little bit of
negotiation room for for arguments about
our rights and how to respond to
pandemic anyway to declare war grant
letters of marque and reprisal and make
rules concerning captures on land and
water to raise and support armies but no
appropriation of money to that to use
Shelby for a longer term than two years
huh I'm going to look into that one
later I'm not gonna look into it now but
I'm gonna get to later because it looks
interesting to raise and support armies
but no appropriation of money to that
use Shelby or longer term than two years
so does that mean that we're like the
Congress has to like reissue its monies
every two years for the armies that's
interesting to provide and maintain a
navy to make rules for the government
and regulation of the land and naval
forces to provide for calling forth the
militia to execute the laws of the Union
suppress insurrections and repel in mage
to provide for organizing armies and
disciplining the militia for governing
such part of them as may be employed in
the service of the United States
resorting to the states respectfully
respectively the appointment of the
officers and the authority of training
the militia according to the discipline
described by Congress to exercise
exclusive legislation in all cases
whatsoever over such district not
exceeding ten miles square as may by
concession of particular states and the
acceptance of Congress become the seat
of the government of the United States
and to exercise like authority over all
places purchased by the consent of the
legislature of the state in which the
same shall be for the erection of forts
magazines Arsenal's stockyards and other
needful buildings now we were very
defense oriented back then to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper
for carrying into execution the
foregoing powers and all other powers
vested by this constitution and the
government of the United States or in
any department or office officer thereof
okay so those are the powers of the
Congress so the last two sections and
all the biggest ones are done we're
almost done section 9 the migration and
importation of such persons as any of
the states now existing shelfing
property admits shall not be prohibited
by the Congress prior to the year 1808
by a tax or Duty may be imposed on such
importation not exceeding ten dollars
for each person well okay so that is
completely not applicable to today
that's so interesting the privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus shall not be
suspended unless winning cases of
rebellion or invasion the public safety
may require it no bill of attainder or
ex post facto law shall be passed no
capitalization of the or other direct
tax shall be laid unless
in proportion to the census or
enumeration herein before directed to be
taken no tax or Duty shall be laid on
articles exported from any state no
preference shall be given by any
regulation of Commerce or revenue to the
ports of one state over those of another
nor shall vessels bound to or from one
state be obliged to enter clear or pay
duties in another okay interesting and
that still holds true now like we don't
pay taxes you know for exporting and not
you know a state is not allowed to
charge a duty for importing a product
into its state no money shall be drawn
from the Treasury but in consequence of
appropriations made by law and a regular
statement and account of the receipts
and expenditures of all public money
shall be published from time to time no
title of nobility shall be granted by
the United States and no person holding
any office of profit or trust under them
shell without the consent of the
Congress except of any present and
moment
office or title of any kind whatever
from any King prince or Foreman state
okay so we're all we're all equal
alright one last section 10 this is a
short one no shape no no state shall
enter into any treaty alliance or
Confederation grant letters of marque or
reprisal coin money and that bills a
credit make anything but gold and silver
coin a tender and payment of debts pass
any bill of attainder ex passed o facto
law or law pared the obligation of
contracts or verrat any title of
nobility no state states shall within
the consent of the Congress lay any
impost
or duties on imports or exports except
what may be I'll be absolutely necessary
for executing its inspection laws and
the net produce of all duties and impost
laid by any state or imports on imports
or exports shall be for the use of the
Treasury of the United States and all
such laws shall be subject to the
revision and control of the Congress
no State shall without the consent of
Congress lay any duty of tonnage keep
troops or ships of war and time of peace
enter into any agreement or compact with
another state or with a foreign power or
engage in war unless actually invaded or
in such imminent danger as will not
admit of delay okay so yeah that's all
that's all pretty clear lays out the
power and structure of our legislation
legislature and you know the last two
sections there of course highlighting
the limitations of power for those so
all very useful information so yeah the
next time I will do articles two and
three which will highlight the executive
which is the president and the judicial
branch so yeah I think today we've we've
covered a lot of bases on this again if
you guys want to put any last-minute
questions in before I tune out and this
was fun
I feel like personally I've made a lot
of growth from this and understanding
you know especially like you know
outside of this being like an education
resource like this this is for you this
is for me this is for everybody and the
backstory on why I even started these
constitution study groups was because I
wanted to offer this oh thank you
Allison
thank you I wanted to offer this as a
service to active duty military because
these are folks that take a pledge to
protect this document that's the only
pledge that they take when you join the
military you know you're not making a
pledge to you know protect people or you
know to you make a pledge to protect
this dog
payments and this document protects the
people and protects their rights and
protects the state's rights and and
protects the government's rights but as
a military your job is to protect this
documents and I read an article very
intelligent well-written article about
this dilemma the active-duty military
deals with that you make this oath and
then when you're in the thick of things
there is no talk of the Constitution
there is no relation or no engagement
with this documents that very heavy
decisions are made and heavy orders are
given to you that it's your duty to
question those orders if it's not in
alignment with that oath of protecting
these documents and so yeah this this
guy had commented that the military
doesn't provide these types of study
groups they don't talk about the
Constitution in their classes that they
have and and not even pocket pocket
constitutions are given to military
members government officials politicians
a lot of times will have pocket
constitutions available in their office
my friend Ashanti who works for the
congresswoman Susie Lee's office here in
Las Vegas she had told me that their
office does provide pocket constitutions
so perhaps when I could bring this
experience in the study group experience
back into my tea room we can offer those
pocket constitutions along with the
event so yeah I wanted to I wanted to
start something for active duty of
course consensual and wanted it to be a
free experience for people that wanted
to engage with these types of activities
again no political affiliation no
political perspective on how we're
studying and interpreting these things
like really just an open forum where
everybody's appear opinions and precise
can be taken into consideration as we
interpret these things and then of
course the pandemic began and I had to
put that project on hold but the
pandemic also brought out from the
public not just from politicians are
from active duty military who their job
is to protect this documents but the
general public started to become
defenders of this documents and so I
thought okay I know this is really time
we really do need to hone in and develop
a relationship with this documents and
and the overall culture and etho set
this document is its presenting you know
even though it was written over 200
years ago it's still very relevant to
modern modern times and yeah so I'm
going to sign off soon I'm going to
leave you with the call of action to
vote if you don't know what voting means
for you right now what you can do is go
onto Google and you can put in your
county and and and vote they put Avenue
in your county and votes and I'm sure
the first pages that come up will tell
you what voting means for you right now
and that this is not just the general
election that's coming up the very
important general election that's coming
up in November which I will continue
until it will continue to engage people
to go vote we're not going to tell you
who to vote for what to vote for because
that's your business that's not my
business but it is my business to
empower all of us to embrace our our
civil duties and our civil rights you
know since we all have become so engaged
with this we all have become so
impatient with knowing our civil rights
and knowing when to speak up against our
governments who you know may or may not
be taking our rights from us yes I
encourage that and I love seeing that
and that's why I'm doing these sessions
now but as we've learned today and what
I've read
the two most powerful things that we can
do as individuals to engage with this
document and engage with this corrupt
political system that's trying to
oppress us is to votes and there are
local elections primary elections coming
up I know here in Las Vegas we have one
coming up in just a few weeks we have a
lot of judges that are that are up for
votes and and mail-in ballots are being
accepted I can't verify if your
jurisdiction is allowing for mail-in
ballots but when you google in your
county and vote all that information
will be there I guarantee you that all
that information will be there and so
you can just start from there and and
right now who do I have the right to
vote for right now because that's your
power you're about your power is voting
and the second power that we have and
this is a little bit more complicated
and you know I want to help
at least finding out with the
stakeholders that we deal with here
within the hospitality of tea and food
industry ways for us to approach
lawmaking and and how these laws can can
better the system for us you know we're
all talking about systemic problems this
is it you know not only can we vote for
the people that are gonna represent us
well but we engage with those people and
tell them I'm a stakeholder of this
issue it affects me these are the way
that affects me and this is what what
can be done to change the system so this
systemic changes or the systemic
problems don't affect me anymore
so yeah empowering you do have a lot of
rights and a lot of privilege here and I
think that we need to fully embrace them
you know all I know there's athos that
we've created here at tea let's and why
I think that you ear here is is to learn
how we can better the worlds and and
better connect and and and better
represent truth and perspective and
consideration for for everybody's
perspective so with that I am going to
leave you I appreciate your time thank
you so much for coming and joining me
for this experience I hope it's been
rewarding and enriching for you and I
look forward to continuing this
conversation next week have a beautiful
rest of your week Aloha