Things not in the Constitution
May 11, 2016 ❦
Here are a list of powers and so on that are not explicitly given to the Federal government in the Constitution, at least in how it was originally ratified:
- The power to establish a national flag
- The power to establish a set of laws dictating how to treat the national flag
- The power to establish a pledge of allegiance to a national flag
- The power to establish a national anthem
- The power to establish any coats of arms or seals for any portion of the government
- The power to grant trademarks
- The power to grant passports
- The power to establish embassies in foreign nations1
- The power to establish any government websites
- The power to publish the laws passed by the legislature in a public setting
- The power to establish a Department of Justice
- The power to represent itself in any suit brought against it by a private citizen
- The power not to be sued by a private citizen2
- The power to establish a signals intelligence organization, such as the NSA
- The power to establish an organization to combat currency counterfeiting, such as the Secret Service3
- The power to establish an organization to provide bodyguards to the President, such as the Secret Service
- The power to establish a Department of Defense4
- The power to establish an organization to aid in inter-state criminal investigations, such as the FBI
- The power to establish a foreign intelligence organization, such as the CIA
- The power to prevent private citizens from acquiring or detonating nuclear weapons
- The power to have an IT department
- The power to launch satellites
- The power to establish and regulate an air force5
- The power to write laws making corruption illegal6
- The power to compensate any employees of the Federal government aside from the President, Vice-President, judges, and members of Congress7
- The power to provide compensation of any sort other than salary to members of Congress et al. such as medical insurance, pensions, or vacation days
- The power to establish national holidays
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Just the power to appoint ambassadors ↩
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Called sovereign immunity ↩
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Just provide for the punishment of counterfeiters, but no provision for an agency to investigate or bring legal charges against counterfeiters ↩
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The Constitution refers to the “executive departments”, but provides no explicit mechanism for establishing them, nor what they should be ↩
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Just “land and naval forces” ↩
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Bribery is cause for impeachment of a “civil officer”, which is not explicitly defined ↩
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Officers of the United States are appointed, but no provision is given for what their roles are or how they are to be compensated; in fact, they are to be “established by Law”, without any explicit provision for the legislature to establish them ↩