I totally agree with Henry Todd ("Let states decide marriage," Readers' Forum, Aug. 9) wherein he stated, "The residents of the sovereign state of California are completely free to define marriage any way they wish." As Madison stated in Federalist Paper No. 45, "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; ... The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, ... concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."
Hamilton, in Federalist Paper No. 84, further cautioned us about the problems in a Bill of Rights, "They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and ... would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?"
The Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves as they see the feds instituting Obamacare, bailing out banks, the auto industry, housing, schools, firemen, policemen and overturning the definition of marriage.
Don Olson
Bountiful