Quote:robkelk wrote:
Do the municipalities have any legal standing that are not derived from the states' legal standing?
No. A state may choose not to take the power to override a municipality's laws, but I'm not aware of any that do so.
Quote:Do municipalities have any powers that are not devolved to them by the states? (I know the states have powers that are not devolved to them by your federal government, thus the states have some rights and responsibilities of their own.)
No. This relationship is a remnant of the early years after the Revolutionary War when the US was a confederation of sovereign states.
Quote:Does any level of government have a legal mechanism that allows them to sidestep Constitutional rights? (It's a serious question; I'm aware of one democratic first-world nation where the answer to this question is "yes".)
Sort of. There's a mechanism in the Constitution to amend it, and this has been done to infringe on people's rights before--this was the mechanism through which alcohol prohibition was enacted (and later repealed). That was pretty much the last gasp of relevance for the Constitution, though.
The US Supreme Court has given itself the power to "interpret" the Constitution, which in practice means making excuses for ignoring it completely. It's not actually legal according to the Constitution--rather, it's replaced the Constitution with authoritarianism. The government basically says, "it's legal to sidestep Constitutional rights because we say its legal."
Quote:Has anyone ever successfully argued that a minimum wage is required for the inherent right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
What do you mean by "successfully argued?" Nobody would use it in a legal arguement, because the Declaration of Independence isn't part of US law. I don't recall ever hearing a modern US politician use those words in a political speech, and in fact modern politicians don't seem too interested in reminding people of what it says. Not surprising, since the modern US government is vastly more oppressive than King George III ever dreamed of being.
Minimum wage laws originally came into being by people making pretty much the opposite arguement, though. The idea was that they would lead to unemployment among people who were considered undesirable, such as black people, and unemployed people would then reproduce less than employed (and white) people. This was during the days of the Eugenics movement, which was widespread in the US 100 years ago and is better known today for forced sterilization of minorities and poor people.
Quote:Does the wording in Amendment XIX include transgender rights?
No, it doesn't actually have anything to do with them. Here's the full text of the amendment:
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
It was passed to give women the right to vote throughout the country.
Quote:And why does anyone outside of the plastics industry care whether a particular municipality does or does not ban plastic bags? Isn't this like a particular municipality banning or not banning spray cans with CFC propellants - a statement of principles, but not particularly important to the environment one way or the other?
There are plenty of people living in those municipalities who don't like being inconvenienced by someone else imposing their religious beliefs at the point of a gun. In theory religious laws are supposed to be prohibited by the US Constitution, but in practice they're ubiquitous--see also the "War on Drugs."