-- "The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature. … The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war." (James Madison, 1793)

-- "It is the exclusive province of congress to change a state of peace into a state of war." (William Patterson, 1806)

The Ninth and 10th amendments specify that the federal government may not do anything that isn't spelled out in the Constitution. That is why, after citing 200 pages of constitutional abuses and violations by our government, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano concludes in his book "Constitutional Chaos" that the whole government has run amuck constitutionally, and we must question and be leery of its future motivations and decisions:

"If the Constitution is enforced selectively, according to the contemporary wants and needs of the government, we will continue to see public trials in Detroit and secret trials in Newark; free speech suppressed on inexplicable whims; police targeting the weak and killing the innocent; government lying to its citizens, stealing their property, tricking them into criminal acts, bribing its witnesses against them, making a mockery of legal reasoning, and breaking down the laws in order to enforce them. A government that commits crime is not your friend."

Judge Roy Moore warns that even the U.S. Supreme Court needs to be suspect of constitutional abuses. He elaborated in a past column:

"The Constitution of the United States is our rule of law, not the opinions and ideas of justices of the Supreme Court. Justice Anthony Kennedy just this month told the American Bar Association, 'Our best security, our only security, is in the world of ideas.' Justice Kennedy's words are particularly alarming as he and his fellow justices actually promote world 'ideas' above the United States Constitution to which they are sworn."

We have reached a critical juncture in the life of our country. And we, the people, must hold our governing officials accountable. That is what our Founders expected and admonished. As Patrick Henry said, "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."