This is a neatly arranged little commentary that explains why we’re in the mess we’re in, government-wise (is that even a word?)
The Constitution established a limited federal government. What else could its principal author, James Madison, have meant when he wrote in Federalist 45 that the powers of the new government would be “few and defined”? The Civil War amendments perfected the design by affording federal remedies against state violations of individual rights. And there things stood until the Progressive Era, when the political activists of the day sought to bring us better living through bigger government, mostly at the state level. An active judiciary, in the name of law, stood rightly athwart that effort, for the most part. With the New Deal, however, political activists shifted their focus to the federal government ? only to be thwarted again by a judiciary actively enforcing the limits the Constitution placed on political power.
Strict constructionism bay-bee! Except for Jeffersonian strict constructionism…I think Jefferson was a tool.