The Commerce Clause And Sovereign Indian Nations

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Article I, Section 8, granting Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes, why wouldn’t Congress just assert the exact same power and authority that they exert over the states if the Indian tribes decided to put new refineries up because they were on their reservations?  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Dave in Seattle is on the line.  Thank you for hanging on.  How are you?

Caller Dave:  I am fine, Mike.  I am a founding member of the IHM Club.  I hate Mondays, too.  I have to commute from Portland to Seattle at 3 a.m.  I’m hating Mondays.  Along with that, I really hate this increase in gas prices.  It comes out of my own pocket.  I see a lot of the tribes out here on the West Coast doing some interesting things like free enterprise economic zones to encourage business within their territorial boundaries.  I’m wondering why the North and South Dakota tribes don’t get together and say: this is a perfect opportunity for us to open a refinery.  Basically, very little federal meddling would be mandated because they are sovereign nations within our territory.  What do you think about that?

Mike:  Back in 2006, the Lakota Sioux seceded.  There is some debate as to whether or not all the Lakota Sioux seceded or if it was just the chief that made the YouTube video on it.  Regardless, the Lakota Sioux did state their sovereignty and stated they wanted nothing to do with the national legislature.  I say good luck with all that.  I also say that because war-thirsty, big government-promoting conservatives and their liberal counterparts — both of whom despise one another but are in cahoots in all this together — they basically have the same view of the general government or national legislature as it exists today.

Since they believe the national legislature ought to regulate the minutiae of all its citizens’ lives and they can do this under the Commerce Clause — part of the Commerce Clause allows Congress to regulate commerce with Indian nations.  Article I, Section 8, granting Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes, why wouldn’t Congress just assert the exact same power and authority that they exert over the states if the Indian tribes decided to put new refineries up because they were on their reservations?  I don’t know that it would matter that they were claiming they were sovereign nations, unless they did as the Lakota Sioux did and say: We’ve actually seceded.  We’re not part of your little government anymore.  The only regulation you can do is you can make trade regular twixt us and any of the other 50 states.

Caller Dave:  Interesting.

Mike:  That’s how I would answer that query.  I cannot imagine a scenario under which Congress surrenders that authority.

Caller Dave:  I’m going to make one prediction.  I think in the next years, John McCain is probably going to change to the Democrat side of the aisle.

Mike:  You think?

Caller Dave:  I think he’s just about lost any chance or hope of getting reelected as a Republican.  I strongly believe that he is going to switch sides of the aisle, maybe even run for a vice president seat or something.

Mike:  I doubt that.  I don’t know what he would have to gain from that.  Besides that, he ought to be at the end of his Senate career anyways.  He’s been elected five terms, I think.  The people of Arizona ought to be able to turn him.  Of course, then when you bring home that McCain claims to be against all the earmarks.  I don’t know.  AG, do you know when McCain is up for reelection.  He wasn’t in the 2008 cycle.

AG:  He ran in 2010.

Mike:  J.D. ran against him, didn’t he?

AG:  Yeah, J.D. almost primaried him, yeah.

Mike:  Our own J.D. Hayworth ran against McCain.  I don’t think McCain is up for reelection until 2016.  Thanks for the phone call.

End Mike Church Show Transcript