This whole Federalism thing

States' rights is the reason the Trump Administration gave for rescinding the Obama directive on transgender bathrooms, and while I agree that the Federal government doesn't belong in the public's bathrooms, it doesn't belong in many other places, either. The framers of our Constitution didn't take government overreach lightly, and they wisely said that those powers not enumerated as the Federal government's in Article 1. section 8 of the Constitution were vested in the  states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved, respectively, to the people." The White House and its principal inhabitant are not 'the people' though they often act like it. The founders intended the doctrine of enumerated power to be our principal defense against a potentially overbearing and overreaching government, something the last Administration, unfortunately, proved itself to be.

This  not to say that the Obama Administration was the only administration that acted too big for its britches; many previous administrations have governed as if they possessed the reigns of legislative power and have imposed policies on citizens without legal justification or precedent. While we always have the courts to fall back on as a means of last resort to reverse or negate such overreach, the process takes an inordinate amount of time, and while this is happening the Federal bureaucracy is able to sink its roots deep into the fine print of implementing regulations. This makes it hard to undo unwarranted power grabs.

So, what should we do to stop such executive edicts? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California showed us, recently, just how with its temporary restraining order stopping the Trump Administration's immigrant moratorium on seven countries that have insufficient capabilities to properly vet their would-be emigrants or visitors to the United States. One can disagree with the court's ruling, but it is hard to ignore their power. And while they may have stayed this executive order, they will fail to stay the next one because the Administration has learned a valuable lesson; haste makes waste. A new order will exempt those foreigners who have already been issued visas to the U.S. and all Permanent Resident Card ('green card') holders.

The whole issue of the enumeration of powers goes to the heart of our Constitutional Republic and the right of the people to be free from unjustified intervention into the law-making of individual states. States must be free to enact their own laws that govern their own residents as long as those laws don't infringe on existing Constitutionally-sound Federal laws. There are several instances of U.S. Supreme Court rulings where reasonable people can disagree. The most egregious ruling, in my opinion, is the one concerning the right of the Federal government to force all Americans to purchase health insurance. This ruling is a landmark one in that it gives sweeping power to the Federal government, allowing it to require people to purchase something they, in some cases, do not want nor can afford. To add insult to injury, the Obama Administration had the temerity to even decide what the product should look like, requiring seniors, for example, to have contraceptive measures as part of their insurance plans.

If we were to take that example one step further and apply it to other mandatory purchases, how would gun control advocates feel if the new Administration were to require every household to own a firearm and to qualify at a firing range once a year and pay a Federally-set fee or pay a penalty? Abuse of power is the central issue here. When the Federal government goes off the reservation and enters our private sphere it is acting as a dictatorship. There is simply no other word to describe such actions. The coming years will test the Trump Administration's resolve and its ability to resist making the same mistakes that its predecessors have made. It is up to the people to remain vigilant and to call them out when and if they do exceed their power just as it is the people's responsibility to demand speedy adjudication of any Constitutionally questionable overreach. If we do not, we have only ourselves to blame for the consequences.

Stephan Helgesen is a retired U.S. diplomat, now author and political strategist. He has written over 600 articles and six books on politics, economics and social trends. He can be reached at stephan@stephanhelgesen.com