In a functioning constitutional republic we would not first be asking what Amendments prohibit government power, but rather by what constitutionally-delegated p

In a functioning constitutional republic we would not first be asking what Amendments prohibit government power, but rather by what constitutionally-delegated power does the government assert its authority to act. Alas we've spent the better part of two centuries carving out an ever-widening reading of Federal power. There are those who are perfectly willing to read into the Interstate Commerce Clause the power to mandate individuals purchase health insurance. There are those who are perfectly willing to read into the Interstate Commerce Clause the power to forbid purely intrastate sale of otherwise legal drugs. How sadly humorous that these two groups, likely opposed in most political issues, can agree on near-limitless Federal power, and in so doing they have left us with only "penumbras and emanations" as defense.