Every instance of Federal intervention under the Amendment creates a situation similar to the above and widens that shadowy sphere where business operations may go on unmolested either by the Federal Government or by the State. Every appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States under the Amendment, even though the sought-for intervention is denied, is conducive for a period of two or three years to the same result. Such delay is, in effect, temporary Federal intervention. It gives an air of uncertainty to the State law involved. The people of the State must in each case wait until the Federal Supreme Court has rendered its decision.
There is another phase of the Twilight Zone which may not here be discussed at length. It is wider in its reach than that created by the Fourteenth Amendment, but its shadows are not so dark. It is caused by Federal intervention in the affairs of the State under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution. There is a well-defined theoretical difference between the two. Under the Amendment the Federal Government can only intervene; under the commerce clause the Federal Government can both intervene and correct. For example, if the Supreme Court restrains the enforcement of a State law on the ground that it places a burden on interstate commerce, other branches of the Federal Government have the power to remedy the situation by affirmative action. Congress has the power to dispel the shadows of the Twilight Zone under the commerce clause by reducing the matter to a state of certainty by remedial legislation. Practically, however, the state of affairs remains today almost as hopeless as under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Thus we see that the Fourteenth Amendment, although a humanitarian measure in origin and purpose, has been practically appropriated - by the corporations. It was aimed at restraining and checking the powers of wealth and privilege. It was to be a charter of liberty for human rights against property rights. The transformation has been rapid and complete. It operates to-day to protect the rights of property to the detriment of the rights of man. It has become the Magna Charta of accumulated and organized capital."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
