Tenth Amendment

“ The Framers of the Bill of Rights, in turn, may well have sensed that Madison and Wilson were right about politics as the determinant of the federal balance within the broad limits of a power like commerce, for they formulated the Tenth Amendment without any provision comparable to the specific guarantees proposed for individual liberties. ”

“ What is absolutely clear, affirmed by the text of the 1789 Constitution, by the Tenth Amendment ratified in 1791, and by innumerable cases of ours in the 220 years since, is that there are structural limits upon federal power—upon what it can prescribe with respect to private conduct, and upon what it can impose upon the sovereign States. ”

“ But to the extent plaintiffs mean to argue that the Tenth Amendment contains its
own anti-commandeering principle applicable to individuals and to all of Congress's
enumerated powers, that is hard to square with the taxing power, which regularly
commandeers individuals—in equally coercive ways—to spend money on things they
may not need and to support policies they do not like. ”

“ It is contended that the statute as here applied violates the Tenth Amendment because it interferes with the authority of the states to prescribe the powers of corporations and the conditions under which their powers may be exercised. ”

“ For example, the power to provide a navy is not, in itself, the power to build a dry dock; but, as dry docks are necessary and proper means for providing a navy, congress shall have power to authorize the construction of them. But if [ *99 ] *the word "expressly" had been used in the tenth amendment, it would have created a very rational and strong doubt of this. There would have been, at least, an apparent repugnance between the two provisions of the Constitution; not a real one, I admit, but still sufficiently probable to give rise to embarrassing doubts and disputes. ”

“ For the election of Senators and Representatives in Congress is a federal function; whatever the states do in the matter they do under authority derived from the Constitution of the United States. The reservation contained in the Tenth Amendment cannot properly operate upon this subject in favor of the state governments; they could not reserve power over a matter that had no previous existence ”

“ The powers granted by the Constitution to the Federal Government are subtracted from the totality of sovereignty originally in the states and the people. Therefore, when objection is made that the exercise of a federal power infringes upon rights reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, the inquiry must be directed toward the granted power under which the action of the Union was taken. If granted power is found, necessarily the objection of invasion of those rights, reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, must fail. ”

“ II.⁠DISCUSSION A.⁠Qualified Immunity “The doctrine of qualified immunity protects government officials from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 231 (2009) (internal quotation marks omitted) . In the Fourth Amendment context, " [t] his inquiry turns on the objective legal reasonableness of the action, assessed in light of the legal rules that were clearly established at the time it was taken." ”

“ Defendants say that their acts were for the promotion of their political and philosophical views on taxation and, hence, were within the free speech protection of the First Amendment. It is difficult to relate the defendants' possession of simulated seizure warnings to the communication of ideas. Defendants' conduct was of the dirty-trick variety and was for the purpose of enraging its victims and annoying IRS.
If this non-speech activity had any idea-communication overtones, the First Amendment is no protection. The constitutional power to lay and collect taxes is broad and sweeping. ”

“ Defendants assert the Seventh Amendment provides the right to a jury because Plaintiff's complaint sought money damages.
Defendants would have been entitled to a jury at a trial on the merits of Plaintiff's legal claims. But the set-off hearing was not a trial on the merits of these claims. Instead the district court held the hearing following its entry of default for Defendants' willful discovery violations. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 37 (b) (2) . Defendants do not have a constitutional right to a jury trial following entry of default. ”

“ The Fourth Amendment permits an officer to use deadly force only if there is “probable cause to believe that there [is] a threat of serious physical harm to [the officer] or to others." Estate of Larsen, 511 F.3d at 1260 (internal quotation marks omitted) . "A reasonable officer need not await the glint of steel before taking self-protective action; by then, it is often too late to take safety precautions." Id. (ellipsis and internal quotation marks omitted) . The four factors noted by the district court are quite significant. ”

“ The Ninth Amendment obviously does not create federally enforceable rights. It merely says, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." ”

“ Aplt. App. at 25. Chief Judge Krieger permitted amendment of the complaint to address alleged jurisdictional defects in plaintiffs’ particular claims. That is precisely what plaintiffs attempted to do in their amended complaint. After the case was reassigned to Judge Moore, the government moved to dismiss it for lack of jurisdiction, thereby giving Ms. Hook sufficient notice that Judge Moore would be revisiting the issue and an opportunity to be heard on that issue. ”

“ If the Constitution is to command the kind of respect which shall make it the steadfast bulwark of our institutions, the guaranty of our union and our welfare, it must preserve the character that befits such an instrument. The Eighteenth Amendment, if it were not odious as a perversion of the power of the Constitution, would be contemptible as an offense against its dignity. ”